Star Warrior

Star Warrior Quadrilogy Book 1

Isaac Hooke

Contents

BOOKS BY ISAAC HOOKE

Star Warrior

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Chapter 28

Chapter 29

Chapter 30

Chapter 31

Chapter 32

Chapter 33

Chapter 34

Tane Ganeth

Afterword

About the Author

Acknowledgments

Closing

BOOKS BY ISAAC HOOKE

Space Opera

Star Warrior Quadrilogy

Star Warrior

Bender of Worlds

He Who Crosses Death

Doom Wielder

Military Science Fiction

ATLAS Trilogy

(published by 47North)

ATLAS

ATLAS 2

ATLAS 3

Alien War Trilogy

Hoplite

Zeus

Titan

Argonauts

Bug Hunt

You Are Prey

Alien Empress

Quantum Predation

Robot Dust Bunnies

City of Phants

Rade’s Fury

Mechs vs. Dinosaurs

A Captain's Crucible

Flagship

Test of Mettle

Cradle of War

Planet Killer

Worlds at War

Science Fiction

The Forever Gate Series

The Dream

A Second Chance

The Mirror Breaks

They Have Wakened Death

I Have Seen Forever

Rebirth

Walls of Steel

The Pendulum Swings

The Last Stand

Thrillers

The Ethan Galaal Series

Clandestine

A Cold Day in Mosul

Terminal Phase

Visit IsaacHooke.com for more information.

Copyright © 2018 by Isaac Hooke

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

www.IsaacHooke.com

Star Warrior

In a galaxy where the fabric of reality can be bent and shaped by a privileged few, and almost any skill desired is a mere injection away, one young man is thrust into the fight of his life.

Tane, a hydroponics engineer with some mean crop gene-splicing skills, decides to get chipped. The operation gives him full control over his autonomic nervous and endocrine systems, plus the ability to install custom memories.

All seems well until a couple of days later aliens come knocking at his door. And they aren't the friendly type.

Soon Tane finds himself on a frenzied flight across the galaxy with a woman who can warp the very fabric of spacetime, her partner--who’d just as soon kill Tane than protect him--and a starship that calls him snarky pet names. He's on the run not simply from the aliens but the whole damn human space navy.

He only wished he knew why.

Unfortunately for Tane, the answer might just destroy him. Not to mention the entire known universe.

1

“So you’re basically going to cut open my skull and replace a portion of my cerebral cortex with microchips?” Tane said.

The grinning synthetic nodded. “While the procedure isn’t quite so invasive as that in most cases, you’re essentially correct. For a human, you’ve got all sorts of smarts.”

Tane frowned, but the dapper synthetic merely continued to smile.

“I could do without the snark,” Tane said. “You are a robot, you know.”

“Really?” the synthetic said. “I hadn’t noticed. And you started it. The snark, I mean.”

“Grr… so what’s the next step mister, er, what was your name again?” Tane checked its public profile as the words left his lips.

“Call me Ishmael,” the synthetic said. The name didn’t match the profile.

Wondering if he was missing something, Tane glanced at the query area provided by his augmented reality glasses, or ARs, where a small question mark overlaid the upper left of his vision. Other symbols resided in different quadrants of his vision, and altogether composed his heads up display, or HUD.

The query symbol enlarged when he focused on it and he was presented with a series of options. He focused on “explain last remark.”

“Call me Ishmael,” the pleasant female voice of Bitchin’ Betty intoned for Tane’s ears alone. He wasn’t sure exactly how it worked. Something about vibrations transmitting through the AR frame into his skull, directly to his inner ear. “Reference to ancient literature. Meaning in present context, unknown: potentially meant as a humorous remark. View detailed search results?”

Tane dismissed the query. Even more confused, he looked at the robot and said: “Your profile says your name is Headphone Jack.”

“Then call me Jack,” the synthetic replied.

Tane felt he was missing something, but resisted the urge to look up the full name on the Galnet. Instead he merely shook his head and said: “Robot humor, I just don’t get it.”

“All robots are like this,” Jenna said. Like him, she had grown up on a hydroponics farm. As had Greg. They all lived in the big city now. Well, mostly: Tane only stayed for a few weeks at a time, before going back to help out at the farm. “That’s what happens when you have all of human history and literature available at your fingertips. While we humans have to look up references like these, to a robot, they’re actual memories.”

“Your girlfriend is astute,” Jack said.

“She’s not my girlfriend,” Tane said.

“After I’ve chipped you,” the synthetic said. “You’ll be that much closer to robotkind. You too will have all pop culture references from the past millennia directly accessible like memories. Imagine how much fun you’ll be at parties.”

“Was that a note of sarcasm I detected in your voice?” Tane asked.

“Just a small one,” Jack admitted.

“We should go,” Jenna told him.

“Nope,” Tane said. “I’ve made up my mind. I’ve been saving up for this for the past two years. I’m not going to turn back now.” He spun on the robot. “So do you want my hard earned creds or not?”

“Why, yes,” the synthetic said. “I’ll never say no to credits.”

“Then let’s do this,” Tane said.

Greg chuckled beside him. “Your mom and dad are going to think you got drunk and ended up with a chip in your head when you woke up in the morning. In fact, I’m wondering myself if you aren’t inebriated.”

“I’m not drunk,” Tane told his friend. “I’m in complete control of my facilities.”

“Then why did you just use that word instead of faculties?” Greg said.

“Uh,” Tane said. He held out his wrist to the synthetic. “Charge me before I change my mind.”

Jack scanned his wrist. “I’ve made the request.”

On Tane’s HUD an alert appeared. Bitchin’ Betty read it aloud to him: “Ardent Microchipping Solutions wishes to withdraw two thousand credits from your account. Do you accept?”

That was nearly everything he had saved up over the past two years.

Tane was beginning to change his mind already, and he quickly focused on the “yes” option.

“Thank you,” Jack said. “I’ve transferred the necessary credits from your account. Follow me, please.” The synthetic glanced at Greg and Jenna. “Take a seat. Make yourselves comfortable. Order a tea. We’ll be a while.”

“How long, exactly?” Jenna asked.

“About two hours,” Jack said.

“Good thing I just bought a new AR game,” Greg said. “Don’t think I could take two hours with Jenna alone.”

“Ha,” Jenna said.

Tane followed the synthetic into a back room and in moments found himself strapped into a chair underneath a menacing looking robot with telescoping limbs. It looked like a big spider.

“Is that thing really going to cut open my skull?” Tane asked.

“No,” Jack said. “As I mentioned, the procedure is non-invasive. Usually. Once the nanotech and the necessary molecular building blocks are injected, the chip will be fabricated directly inside of your skull. Like building a ship in a bottle. Unless complications arise.”

“What sort of complications?” Tane asked.

“Nothing you need concern yourself with,” the synthetic replied. “I’ll have to do a rudimentary brain scan first, of course. But before we begin, please sign the mandatory waiver.”

Tane received a share request. When he accepted, pages of legalese overlaid his HUD. He skimmed over it, then quickly grew bored and scrolled to the bottom. Before entering his digital signature, he said: “Can you give me a quick summary?”

“Certainly,” Jack said. “You agree to indemnify and hold harmless Ardent Microchipping Solutions should anything untoward happen to you. It’s standard boilerplate stuff. I’m sure you’ve seen it before.”

“Mm. Okay.” Tane entered his digital signature.

“Thank you,” Jack said. “Your glasses, please.”

Tane removed his ARs and set them down on the provided tray. Without his HUD, the world seemed to take on a duller sheen.

Jack merely looked at the spider robot: on cue it jerked to life and moved over Tane’s face, resting a cold half-circle of metal against his forehead. And then he felt the telescoping digits press into his head on all sides.

Two small probes slid in front of his eyes, and then a white beam momentarily blinded him. As the circular afterimage faded, he spotted a red light flashing on a console nearby.

“Well that’s interesting…” Jack said.

“What?”

“Nothing,” the synthetic said.

“Anything I should be worried about?” Tane pressed.

“Nothing at all. I’ll now be administering the anesthetic.”

One of those telescoping limbs maneuvered in front of Tane. On the tip was a small anesthesia face mask.

“You said the procedure is non-invasive, right?” Tane asked.

The face mask slid firmly over Tane’s nose and mouth.

“That’s right,” Jack said. “Unless something goes wrong.”

Tane could feel the oxygen blowing against his nose and lips, but otherwise he didn’t smell anything. As he continued breathing, he was overcome by an incredible grogginess.

* * *

Tane blinked. He had a sudden throbbing headache. He didn’t remember falling unconscious. But he must have, because the spider had been moved to the far side of the room and Jack was shining a light into his eyes.

“There you are,” Jack said.

Overlaying the world was the usual augmented reality HUD. Tane realized he still wasn’t wearing his AR glasses, though.

“It’s like I’ve got a HUD tattooed onto the inside of my eyeball,” Tane said.

“In a way, you have,” the synthetic said. He then asked Tane a series of questions.

“What city are we in?”

“Kalindor,” Tane said.

“Planet?”

“Galtede Serpentis,” Tane said.

“System?”

“Verakech.”

“What day is it?”

“Tuesday.”

“Month?”

“March.”

“Year?”

“3134.”

“On a scale from zero to six, how bad is your headache?”

“Five.”

“Do you have neck pain?”

“No.”

“Nausea?”

“No.”

“Blurred vision?”

“No.”

“All right, I’d like to pose a thought question,” Jack said. “If Earth were the size of an atom, how big would the Universe be?”

“I don’t know?” Tane said.

Jack nodded. “Of course not. Maybe after you add fifty points to Intelligence you’ll be able to answer that. But until then, tell me: does my name have any new meaning to you?”

“Your name…”

“Yes,” Jack said. “Look at my nametag.”

Tane’s eyes fell to the nametag. Headphone Jack.

“Ah, I get it now,” Tane said. “Headphone Jack. In ancient times, humans once wore devices called headphones to listen to music. They’d plug those headphones into music players via something called a headphone jack. By choosing that name, you’re making a play on words, poking fun at the fact you’re a robot.”

“Very good,” Jack said. “Notice that you didn’t have to look that up. You just knew. Your mind is connected to the cloud. How does it feel to join the ranks of the civilized?”

“Very weird.” Tane studied the synthetic. “And there’s something else. Earlier, you told me to call you Ishmael. I’m guessing you said that because Ishmael was sent away by his father, forced to wander in the desert for years and years. By telling me to call you Ishmael, you were making a statement on the plight of robots.”

“Also good,” Jack said. “We’ll have you understanding synthetic humor yet. Now stand.”

Tane slid his feet off the chair and stood.

“Touch the tip of your nose five times.”

Tane did so.

“Remove your shoes and walk in a straight line.”

Tane kicked off his dirty loafers and placed one foot in front of the other until he reached the far wall.

“Return to me. Also in a straight line.”

Tane spun around and strode back to the synthetic.

Jack nodded. “Well, all seems to be good. This will help with your headache.” He applied a sonic injector to Tane’s neck. Instantly the painful throbbing Tane felt in his temples receded to a dim thumping.

Tane slid his shoes back on, then studied himself in a nearby mirror. His hair had been completely shaved off, and near the top of his head a bright red scar ran all around the perimeter of his skull.

“I thought the procedure was non-invasive,” Tane said, suddenly horrified.

“Something went wrong…” Jack said.

“Details, robot!” Tane said.

“I had problems getting the nanotech to take,” Jack said. “For some reason, the little machines didn’t want to recognize you as human.”

“Am I?” Tane said.

“Of course you are,” Jack said. “The nanotech had simply never encountered a human quite like you before.”

“Is that common?” Tane asked.

“Depends,” Jack said. “It’s more common in the Outrim than anywhere else. In any case, after opening up your skull I was able to complete the procedure. I manually installed the missing microchips, and that helped me override the nanotech, forcing them to recognize your DNA as human. Once that happened, our little microscopic builders completed the necessary interconnections between your brain cells. All of that extra work was done free of charge, of course, and you’ll be glad to hear that any future nanotech injections you receive will take instantly. Welcome to the Machine Age.”

Tane ran a finger along the scar.

“It will fade to pink with time,” Jack said. “And in a month, the scar won’t be visible at all. Your hair will cover it completely. Though if you prefer the shaven look, any cosmetic surgeon worth his salt can get rid of the scar for you.”

Tane turned around to look at the synthetic.

“So do you feel any different?” Jack asked.

“Other than my strange new ability to understand robot humor and ancient idioms like ‘worth one’s salt,’ no, not really,” Tane said. “That’s kind of surprising. I thought I’d be a new man.”

“You are. You just don’t know it yet.”

“So how do my new abilities work, exactly?” Tane asked. “What else can I do?”

There were some new symbols on his HUD. He tried one of them and was presented with a list of parameters and gauges representing the levels of various hormones throughout his body. Bitchin’ Betty’s voice narrated it all. Tane was surprised to hear her: Jack must have already transferred over the database and settings he had stored in his AR glasses. He promptly went in and disabled the voice, as it was a bit unsettling to hear it without AR goggles in place, and he confirmed that all his favorite digital folders were on hand.

“You’re in complete control of your body now,” the synthetic said. “You have access to your blood glucose levels, heart rate, blood pressure, breathing, everything. And you can regulate them manually, if you so choose. Or allow your autonomic nervous system to continue managing it for you. You’re also in complete control of your endocrine system.”

“How does that work?” Tane asked. “If I jack up testosterone, for example, will my muscle mass increase?”

“There is a manual available. Go to your My Stuff folder.”

“Oh, of course,” Tane said. “My Stuff. Silly me.”

“Though I’d advise against manually regulating your hormones,” Jack said, ignoring the sarcasm. “You shouldn’t jack up testosterone in an effort to boost muscle mass, unless you want to grow breasts in the process. It’s best to let the nanotech build your muscles.”

“That way I keep paying Ardent Microchipping Solutions to buy more of their nanotech, huh?” Tane said.

“Of course,” Jack said. “Though obviously I only get a small percentage of the profits. Most of the money goes to the official makers of nanotech in the Outrim, Reconstruct Systems.”

“What’s the half-life on the nanotech currently in my body?” Tane asked.

“Only minutes,” Jack said. “Once they’ve completed their task, the microscopic robots are designed to shut down. The harsh environment inside you isn’t conducive to keeping them alive: bodily juices are inherently corrosive, and phagocytes begin to swallow the nanotech as soon as it shows up in your body. As you go to the bathroom over the next few hours, you’ll piss them out.”

“Maybe I should bring a bottle with me to the toilet to catch them,” Tane said. “It’ll be the most expensive piss I’ve ever had, after all.”

“Maybe you should,” Jack said. “Though they’re useless once deactivated.”

Tane examined his arms and legs. He didn’t seem stronger. Didn’t feel faster in any way, or smarter. “I guess I was hoping for a base level of enhancement.”

“I only promised to chip you,” Jack said. “I never said you would be faster, stronger, or smarter. At least, not yet.”

“No, of course not,” Tane said. “That only happens when I continue to purchase nanotech packs. That’s why the initial purchase cost is essentially subsidized by Reconstruct Systems. They give us the control chips for free, but they charge us for the actual nanotech.”

“Now you’re starting to catch on,” Jack said. “You can use credits to purchase fresh nanotech packs at any time. With an injection of such a pack, you can enhance your Strength, Dexterity, Intelligence, anything. Permanently.”

“Dick size?” Tane asked.

“Of course,” the synthetic answered. “Though it’s not listed as an official ability. You can also replace it with a vagina if you prefer.”

“Think I’ll pass,” Tane said.

“I wasn’t offering, merely issuing a statement of fact,” Jack said. “In any case, you can examine your current statistics at any time by pulling up your status screen.”

Tane found the aforementioned screen.

Name: Tane Ganeth

Race: Human

Level: 2

Class: Hydroponics Engineer

Strength: 9

Intelligence: 9

Dexterity: 7

Endurance: 11

Charisma: 7

“So these stats, they’re based on what?” Tane asked. “It says my Strength is 9, for example.”

“These represent your starting, unaugmented attributes. What nature gave you, as it were. The assigned number is meant to give you an idea of how you compare to the rest of the human population. Average, galaxy-wide, for each attribute is 10.”

“Great,” Tane said. “Apparently I’m under average in everything except Endurance. And ugly as hell, if my Charisma is anything to go by.”

“Hey, that’s the great thing about being chipped,” Jack said. “At least you know your weaknesses, and what you need to improve. With the necessary nanotech packs, you can literally become a better man. The man you were meant to be.”

“But only if I pay for it,” Tane said.

The synthetic grinned widely and spread its arms. “Nothing worth having in this galaxy is free.”

“So I took a look at the pricing before I came, it costs about ten thousand credits per point?” Tane asked.

“When starting out, yes,” Jack replied. “Until each of your attributes reaches ten, anyway. Over that, the cost to update an attribute is based on the current value times one thousand. So let’s say your Dexterity is fifteen, and you wanted to add a point, the cost is fifteen thousand.”

“Why?” Tane said. “Other than the obvious money grab...”

“Each injection of micro machines builds upon the last, and requires successively more micro machines with each attribute point, and thus the cost is commensurately more. And yes, Reconstruct Systems and their retailers are greedy. But don’t worry, all of these attributes can still be improved naturally, of course. Though it takes time.”

“Yeah, how?”

“The usual ways,” Jack said. “Hit the gym for Strength. Play tennis for Dexterity. Take up jogging for Endurance. Read books and play memory games for Intelligence.”

“And what about Charisma?” Tane asked. “Plastic surgery is all nanotech…”

The synthetic shrugged. “Learn social skills. I should mention, because you’re chipped, your attributes will increase faster than they would if you were unchipped. It has to do with the modifications to your neural pathways, which send and receive feedback to and from your body all the faster.”

“I heard about that, yeah,” Tane said. “What’s this ‘level’ attribute stand for, by the way? Says I’m level two.”

“It’s essentially the combined total of all your skill and attribute levels, and is meant to give you an idea of how you would compare to someone else of your class.”

“You mean how well I’d do in a fight with them?” Tane asked.

“As I told you, it depends on your class,” Jack said. “A level 2 hydroponics engineer is likely little match for a level 2 Marine in hand-to-hand combat, taking into account the usual difference in skills. You’d want to compare yourself to other hydroponics engineers. A level 10 would out-engineer you any day, for example.”

“But what if I had hand-to-hand combat skills?” Tane said. “And I was a level 3 engineer. Could I beat a level 2 Marine in a fight?”

“Again, depends on what other skills and attributes the Marine had,” Jack said. “Though your chances would definitely be better.”

“How is class chosen?” Tane said. If he could get a high hand-to-hand combat skill level, and still keep his class, anyone who picked a fight with him would be in for a surprise.

“It’s based on your skills,” Jack said. “The higher levels are weighed more than the lower levels.”

“So if I keep my engineering skills high, but also have a lot of lower level fighting skills, I’ll still be classified as an engineer?”

“Most likely,” Jack said.

“Nice. All right, so I’ve seen my attributes, but where are these skills you mentioned? No wait, never mind.” Tane found his skill screen.

Crop Gene Splicing. Level 2.

Cycling. Level 2.

Electrical Engineering. Level 1.

Endurance Running. Level 1.

Learning. Level 1.

Mechanical Engineering. Level 2.

Mountain Climbing. Level 1.

Piano. Level 2.

Sharpshooting. Level 0.

Social Skills. Level 0.

Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Pilot (Small Craft). Level 1.

He couldn’t shake the sudden disappointment he felt. “Is this everything?”

“It lists the proficiency in all the skills you currently possess, yes,” Jack replied.

“Would it show if I had the ability to touch the Essence?” Tane asked. The Essence was the life-giving energy that flowed through the universe. It had been given many names throughout the ages. Chi. Aether. Flow. Humanity tapped into the Essence to power interstellar travel. And interstellar war.

“Your skill screen would show Siphoning as level zero if you had the ability, yes,” Jack said.

“I don’t see it,” Tane said.

“As I said, you don’t have the ability,” Jack told him.

“The one skill that can never be purchased,” Tane said. The only ability I ever dreamed about. And I don’t have it.

“That is correct,” Jack replied. “Either you’re born with it or you’re not. Try not to be too disheartened. I’ve had many come to me over the years for brain scans, hoping to discover the ability to Siphon. I’ve never found anyone who had it.”

Of course there would be many hopefuls. Having the ability to Siphon was one way off this backwater world. If you had the ability, during the scan a notification would automatically be sent to the Thorran Star Navy, or TSN, and a few days later a ship would arrive to pick you up, bringing you to your wonderful new life among the stars. If you were exceptionally powerful in the Essence, the TSN would ship you off for training with the Volur, and when you graduated, there was a chance you’d be assigned to a starship in the capacity of Adviser and Essence Master. The position was second only to captain in terms of power and respect.

Tane had avoided getting a scan done all these years, mostly to fend off the disappointment. But since a scan was required to get chipped, there was no escaping it.

“Oh well,” Tane said. “Back to hydroponics engineering, I guess, with playing piano in bars and clubs on the side. By the way, what are these level values based on?”

“The chip determines your experience from a baseline. Level one means very basic skills, just enough to get by. The proficiencies increase with each level thereafter.”

“I jog and cycle every day,” Tane said. “So why is my cycling higher than my endurance running?”

“It requires more mechanical efficiency to operate a cycle than it does to run.”

“I see,” Tane said. Though he didn’t, really. “And why are my sharpshooting and social skills so low? Level zero?”

“Am I correct in assuming that most of your day-to-day communications involve interactions with either your parents or hydroponics maintenance robots?” Jack asked.

“Um, no,” Tane replied. “I have friends.”

Jack simply shrugged.

“Fine, then what about sharpshooting?” Tane pressed. “I used to practice at least once a week, and when I lived on the farm full time I used a rifle to scare away Kayote scavengers a couple of times a year. Sure, maybe it’s been a couple of years since I shot, but…”

“Your proficiency level is accurate,” Jack said. “Tell me, in these practice sessions of yours you used to have, how often do you hit the ten ring of the bull’s eye at fifty yards?”

“Uh, once in a while,” Tane said. Probably never.

“Once in a while.” Jack smiled sadly. “Let me give you an idea of what it would take to reach level seven naturally. If you practiced shooting eight hours a day every day for the past ten years, and could hit the center ring eight times out of ten, you would be level seven in sharpshooting. Though now that you’re chipped, you could reach that level of proficiency in half the time, if you put your mind to it.”

“Oh.” Tane said. “Fine. But why bother, when we can buy the muscle memory we need? If I recall, it doesn’t cost too much to purchase new skills?”

“Depends on the skill,” Jack said. “And the level of proficiency desired. A brain dump for a level one in Jujitsu obviously costs less than a brain dump for a level seven. But don’t be so quick to dismiss learning skills on your own. Remember how I told you your attributes would increase faster thanks to the new neural pathways opened up? The same applies to skills. You’ll notice you have a Learning ability...”

“I see it,” Tane said.

“That comes free with your chip,” Jack said. “And is a representation of how well you are able to learn and acquire new skills on your own.”

“All right,” Tane said. “So… how much for Piano level three?”

“Do you have ten thousand credits available?” Jack asked.

“What? Oh, guess I wasn’t expecting it to be that much.”

“I told you, it depends on the skill you want to learn,” Jack said. “Might I interest you in Cooking instead? I can give you level one for a mere two thousand credits.”

“Think I’ll pass,” Tane said. “Considering I just paid the same amount for the chip.” Spending nearly all my savings in the process.

“And a good investment it was,” Jack said. “I’ll see you in a few months time, when you return to buy your next batch of skills.”

“We’ll see,” Tane said. “Maybe I’ll find another vendor.”

“I do offer a three percent discount to repeat customers,” Jack said.

“I’ll keep that in mind,” Tane said, making his way for the door.

Greg and Jenna stood when he returned to the reception area.

“Geez,” Greg said, staring at his head. “I thought the procedure was supposed to be non-invasive. You weren’t kidding when you told the synthetic he’d be cutting open your brain, were you?”

“Apparently he ran into a few unforeseen problems,” Tane said.

“I’m never getting chipped,” Jenna said.

2

Tane and his friends made their way out into the main concourse of the retail center and boarded a tram, which took the grav tubes over the metropolis. The interlocking steel and glass buildings sprawled to either horizon, the dull tips filling the skyline. Between the grav tubes, shiny flyers darted to and fro amid the designated sky lanes.

“So what’s different?” Greg said. “Can you Siphon?”

“No,” Tane said.

“Too bad.” Jenna sounded distracted. She was leaning back, her arms folded behind her head. Behind the translucent lenses of her AR goggles, her eyes were defocused, telling him she was probably checking messages on her social profile.

“Everything is mostly the same as with ARs,” Tane said. “Except I can control my autonomous nervous system. And see how my attributes and skills compare to the rest of society.”

“I’m guessing you didn’t buy any new skills?” Jenna asked.

“No,” Tane said. “Too expensive.”

“I could’ve told you that,” Greg said.

“I didn’t go into this expecting to get anything more than chipped,” Tane said.

“So you say,” Greg told him. “Though we all know you were hoping you’d find out you could Siphon. Everyone does.”

“Yeah, well, it doesn’t matter,” Tane said. “I’m happy.” Am I? “Eventually I’ll buy some other skills. Or maybe I’ll just learn them on my own. I can learn faster now, you know. So it was worth it just for that.”

“True,” Greg said. “I’m looking forward to laying eyes upon you in a year. You should see what Jeffry looks like.”

Jeffry was another friend from childhood. Lived with a more affluent family. He’d spent a ton on augmentation in the past year.

“I’ve seen his pics,” Tane commented.

“So have I,” Jenna said. “He’s gross. No one should have muscles that big. His biceps are the size of a normal person’s thighs. I hope you don’t ever do that, Tane.”

“I have no intention to,” Tane said. “Not that I could ever afford it.”

“You know, I still don’t truly trust that crap,” Greg said.

“You and I both.” Jenna removed her goggles and rubbed her eyes.

“What do you mean?” Tane asked them.

“What do you think?” Jenna said. “Didn’t you see what I just did? Took off my ARs. You can never do that. You’re chipped. Permanently.”

“I can turn off the HUD and disconnect from the Galnet whenever I want,” Tane said.

“Yeah but, it’s still in your head,” Jenna insisted.

“That’s right,” Greg said. “What if someone uses your chip to control you?”

“Impossible,” Tane said. “The chips have no connection to the neural processes involved with decisions, or motor control, so no one could ever force me to do something I didn’t want to.”

“Sure, you might not have those connections now,” Greg said. “But who’s to say that won’t change? Maybe the next time you purchase an upgrade, some of the nanotech will secretly connect the chip to your decision making center.”

“Reconstruct Systems has got a rigorous quality control process,” Tane said, spouting a memory the chip gave him. “Something like that would never slip in.”

“Well maybe they’re spying on you, then,” Greg said. “Transmitting everything you see and hear out onto the Galnet.”

“The same could be said about the ARs the two of you wear,” Tane told them. “People are always running packet traces on chips and ARs, making sure the devices don’t transmit any personal information, or that Reconstruct Systems doesn’t issue any nefarious commands. If they did either, there would be an uproar, and people would leave Reconstruct for the competitors. It’s just not good business to spy on your users.”

“So okay, they don’t have access to your decision centers or motor control,” Greg said. “But they do have access to muscle memory, and engrammic memory in general. One of these days, when you take a nanotech dose for a skill upgrade, they’re going to leave you with a stealth memory.”

“Stealth memory?”

“Yeah, you can put suggestions into memories, you know,” Greg said. “Trick someone into believing something happened that never did.”

“Each nanotech pack comes with a quality assurance block chain,” Tane said. “Which shows you all the people who installed the pack before you. A quick glance at the chain, and you can see at a glance whether anyone ever had issues with the pack. It’s like galaxy-wide, crowdsourced quality assurance.”

“And you know that because your chip is telling you that, right?” Jenna asked.

“Right,” Tane replied.

Jenna rolled her eyes.

“If you were so concerned about me getting chipped, why didn’t you voice your concerns earlier?” Tane said.

“Oh we did,” Jenna said. “But you ignored us. Too busy reading aloud Galnet pages extolling the virtues of chipping. And to be honest, I didn’t try too hard to dissuade you: I personally thought you weren’t really going to go through with it.”

“Guess I proved you wrong.” Though in truth, Tane hadn’t been sure he would go through with it, either. “You’re both going to get chipped someday anyway, no matter your misgivings. I know you will.”

“Not me,” Jenna said.

“Greg?” Tane pressed.

“Oh I’m sure I will, when I can afford it,” Greg said. “But that doesn’t mean I’m going to trust the chips any more than I trust these things.” He tapped his AR glasses. “At least when I sneak a girl into the house, I know I can take the glasses off for some privacy. Once I’m chipped, Reconstruct Systems and who knows who else will watch me dip my wick every step of the way.”

“You’d think an exhibitionist like yourself would enjoy that,” Jenna quipped.

“Hey, you’re the only person I’ve ever wanted to exhibit myself to, my sweet treat,” Greg told her with a wink.

“You would,” Jenna said.

In a short time the tram dropped them off at one of the transport terminals. The three of them queued up in one of the lines. Since Kalindor city was the only metropolis on the planet, the transport terminals handled a lot of traffic and were busy at all hours.

Of the twenty stations, only half were open, leaving ten lines. At the front of each station was a counter manned by a friendly synthetic. Behind them, armed robots watched the actual transport gates, which consisted of large silver rings with small glass tanks beside them that contained what looked like floating sponges.

Controlled by AIs operating the tanks, those sponges were non-sentient lifeforms, essentially organic machines manufactured to Siphon the Essence and create the necessary distortion tunnels between destinations on the planet. The gate was made of Chrysalium-238, a special element that enhanced the drawing of the Essence and magnified its effects. Chrysalium enabled the small lifeforms to Siphon far more than they naturally could. A skilled Essenceworker could potentially use the gates to Siphon, which was why there were so many guards in place. Probably unnecessary, considering how rare the Ability actually was.

TSN starships were equipped with similar Essence-magnifying elements, though on a much larger scale, giving the navy the weapons and distortion tunnels they needed to traverse the stars.

Tane knew all that without even having to look at an Omnipedia page.

The wonders of being chipped.

“The three of us are traveling together,” Tane told the synthetic attendant when he reached the front of the line.

The attendant nodded. “Enter destination.”

A prompt appeared on his HUD and Tane chose “Chalcedony Station” as his target. The destination appeared as a top-down map on his vision, and he confirmed it.

“Proceed,” the attendant said.

Tane, Jenna and Greg walked past the counter, and then approached the armed robot near the gate.

“When the tunnel opens, stay near the center of the ring,” the armed robot said. “Don’t approach the edges.”

Tane and his friends positioned themselves as requested in front of the large metal ring and waited. They gazed through it at the blank wall on the other side.

The sponge life form in the tank elongated and compressed slightly, and then a rent formed in the fabric of spacetime. That rent enlarged until it filled up the whole gate. The back wall was gone, replaced by the scene of an open-air speeder terminal surrounded by dunes.

Tane and his friends stepped through the distortion tunnel and emerged onto the dusty terminal. Behind them the concourse winked out, leaving only a metal gate that was twin to the one they had just walked through. A sponge life form in the tank beside it jiggled grumpily.

The three of them waited for the next speeder. When it arrived, they loaded into the anti-grav shuttle and sped off into the red desert.

Tane read through the chip’s instruction manual on the way home. Everything seemed relatively straight forward. Like Jack had said, it wasn’t recommended that he manually tinker with those parts of the body controlled by the autonomous nervous system, but it was good to know he had the ability.

Though capable of seating twelve, the speeder was empty save for Tane and his friends. Not many came all the way out here.

Jenna’s destination came first. The speeder arrived at what essentially looked like a giant metal tree. Glass domes sat on the humongous branches, each dome harboring a different type of crop inside.

She was only visiting her parents for the weekend, unlike Tane, who would be away from the city for the next few weeks: he returned home to help out his parents when he was needed, such as now. Dad said the storms had been pretty bad the last few days.

“Bye Tane!” Jenna said suddenly, kissing him on the cheek before leaving the shuttle.

Tane rubbed his cheek in stunned delight.

“When are you going to tell her?” Greg said after the speeder took off again.

“Tell her what?” Tane said. “There’s nothing to tell. She’s always been my friend.”

“But you want more than friendship,” Greg said.

“Not really,” Tane said. “What’s the point of ruining a good friendship?”

“If you say so,” Greg said.

Tane reached his stop next and bid Greg farewell. Greg’s parents lived a few more farms down. Greg was staying only for the night, and he’d be back in the city the next day.

“Thanks again for letting me crash at your place in the city,” Tane told Greg before hopping off the flyer.

“Of course,” Greg called after him. “Stay anytime.”

Tane watched the craft speed away across the barren landscape.

What am I doing?

He was trying to succeed as a pianist in the city, playing at clubs that wanted a real live human for the novelty of it. He originally thought playing piano would be his key to touring the stars. Sort of a backup plan if he wasn’t able to Siphon. But it wasn’t quite working out the way he thought. Work was beginning to dry up. The pay was already low enough as it was, and since he had been saving up to get chipped, he stayed with Greg while in the city. He wasn’t eligible for basic pay because his parents had him listed on the property title for the hydroponics farm.

He wasn’t sure what he was going to do when he finished up here. Go back to the city? To what? Surviving on whatever meager scraps the bar and club owners threw him?

I’m a failure. I might as well admit it. Spent everything I saved up on getting chipped, hoping that would be my key out of here, and it wasn’t. Just a waste instead.

Yes, it was time to give up on his pianist career, and ever touring the stars. Siphoning was his last hope. And now he didn't have even that.

He shook his head.

I’ll always have my engineering skills. And the farm. Both of those are my fallback. I just wish…

Tane turned around to gaze at the base of the towering structure he called home on a transient basis. Like Jenna’s farm, it looked like a giant tree with metal substituting the branches and glass domes in place of leaves.

He noticed the sand dunes had been piling up on the righthand side of the main trunk, burying a few of the lower domes there. Dad hadn’t been kidding when he said the windstorms had been bad.

After taking a sonic shower, he smeared some hair stimulating cream into his scalp and then met his parents in the dining room for supper.

“So what’s the news?” Dad asked over a plate of synthesized meat. His gaze drifted to Tane’s scalp. “Any problems getting chipped?”

“Nope,” Tane said. “The procedure went well.”

“Then what’s with the shaved head and scar?” Dad said.

“Oh, apparently the nanotech didn’t like my DNA, so the synthetic had to manually install some of the chips,” Tane said. “No big deal.”

“Opening up my son’s head is a big deal in my books,” Dad said.

“I’m not too worried about it,” Tane said.

“Well, as long as there are no complications going forward...”

“There won’t be,” Tane said. “In a month my hair will cover up all the evidence. And the good news is, I’ve finally got my chip now.”

Dad nodded. “At least you got that done. It’s always been a rite of passage around these parts. I was never really considered a man until I got chipped. Plus you can’t forget the benefits. Your mother wouldn’t even look at me until I added a few points of charisma.” He winked at Tane.

Mom shook her head. “Don’t listen to any of that talk. I always loved him before he got chipped.”

“You say that now...” Dad said. “By the way, Julius received the seeds you picked up in Kalindor. They look to be good stock. Should make excellent splicing candidates.”

Tane nodded, cutting off a fresh slice of synthesized meat.

“How’s the piano gig?” Dad asked.

“Good,” Tane answered by rote.

“Just good?” Mom said.

“Yep,” Tane said.

They ate in silence.

Tane listened to the clink of utensils for a moment. He wasn’t sure how to tell them. It would break Mom’s heart especially.

Well, no point delaying the inevitable.

“I’m giving up piano playing,” Tane said.

“What?” Mom said. “Why? You’re so good.”

“No I’m not,” Tane said.

“But—”

Tane shook his head. “I was thinking about applying for a position in the TSN.”

“The TSN?” Dad said.

“The Thorran Star Navy,” Tane explained.

“I know what it is,” Dad said coldly.

“Now that I’m chipped,” Tane said. “I qualify for a ton of entry level positions. If I’m accepted, I can start right away in Kalindor.”

“You really want to sit in a chair all day, acting as a traffic controller for starships in the system?” Dad said.

“I’m an engineer,” Tane said. “They have to have jobs available for engineers.”

“Most of their engineers are robots,” Dad said. “The humans only supervise. And those are cosy positions. There aren’t many available, and they go to the top candidates.”

“Well I’ll take whatever they give me then,” Tane said. “Traffic controller, janitor, I don’t care. Sure, it won’t be the most glamorous job, but at least I’ll be paying my own way. And there’s always opportunity for advancement in the TSN, so who knows, maybe someday I’ll get a post on a starship?”

Dad and Mom were quiet.

Finally his dad returned his gaze to his meal and cut himself another slice of synthesized meat.

“Whatever you want,” Dad said. The disapproval was obvious in his voice.

“Whatever I want… then why don’t you sound too happy about it?” Tane said.

His dad shrugged. “It’s your life.”

“Why not stay on the farm?” Mom said. “You’re loved here. Welcomed. And you know all of this is yours once your father and I are gone.”

“I—” Tane lowered his gaze. “I just feel I was meant for something more.”

“There’s nothing wrong with being a hydroponics engineer,” Dad said. “You really want to see what it’s like to live aboard a starship? Tell you what, we’ll book you on a planetary tour next year so you can get a taste. Trust me, once you’ve been on one ship, you’ve been on them all. It’s not so great.”

“Sure, thanks Dad,” Tane said. “But I’m still applying.”

Dad shrugged. “Of course.” He slid a slice into his mouth, chewed it, and swallowed. “But just so you know, the TSN will never let you onto a starship. Planet-side positions are all dead end jobs. Long hours. Low pay.”

Tane finished his meal in silence.

“Take the afternoon off,” Dad said. “You can repair the hydrator tomorrow. Maybe give some more thought to your future.”

Tane nodded sullenly and excused himself.

Future. What future? I shouldn’t have come here.

And yet the alternative was to continue leeching off Greg’s generosity.

He flopped down on a bean bag in the hydroponics research lab, where Julius, one of the family robots, was gazing into a microscope, studying the seeds Tane had purchased in Kalindor. Around him, young orange plants grew in trenches underneath sprinklers, forming rows.

He felt frustrated. He wished he had a punching bag or something.

He slammed his fist into the bean bag and slightly hurt his wrist in the process.

Damn it. I don’t even know how to punch properly.

Wait a second. He had just chipped himself. In theory he now had accelerated learning.

“Julius, can you teach me mixed martial arts?” Tane asked the robot eagerly. Finally, an outlet for his frustrations.

The robot didn’t look up from the laser microscope. “Mixed martial arts? No. At least, not at the moment. But I could download the appropriate program.”

“How much would that cost?” Tane asked.

Julius paused. “Cost? There would be no cost. There are many freeware dumps available online.”

“Dumps are free for robots,” Tane said. “But not for humans. How fair is that? We have to buy nanotech upgrades whenever we want to learn something.”

“Of course,” Julius said. “It’s a regulated industry that generates trillions of dollars annually.”

“And it’s mostly robots that profit,” Tane said.

“Yes. Our way of turning the tables on you humans. But there are modifications you can get that adapt robot dumps for human consumption. They are illegal, however, and the side effects can be… unfortunate.”

“I’ll stick with natural learning for now,” Tane said. “With your help.” Maybe he had found a way to circumvent the high costs for some of the skills he wanted to learn. It would require some elbow grease on his part, but hey, he didn’t mind putting in the effort.

“There are no military grade dumps available for download, of course,” Julius said. “And with the strength limits on my servomotors, such dumps wouldn’t be of much use anyway.”

“That’s fine,” Tane said. “I’m happy to learn the basics.”

“May I ask why an engineer and pianist wishes to learn mixed martial arts?” Julius said.

“No you may not,” Tane said.

“Is there a certain young woman you wish to impress?” Julius said.

“Not at all,” Tane said. “Why does this have to be about impressing someone? Maybe I just want to better myself.” Or get my frustrations out.

“All right, I’m downloading the dump now,” Julius said. “But shouldn’t you be working on repairing that hydrator?”

“What, are you my dad now?” Tane asked.

“No, but I have access to your task list,” Julius replied.

“I’m taking the afternoon off,” Tane said. “Dad’s orders. Besides, it can wait. Hydrator’s been down since I left for the city. A few more hours isn’t going to hurt. I’m surprised one of the repair robots hasn’t already gotten to it.”

“All of the repair robots are currently engaged at the external silos.”

“Ah yeah,” Tane said. “I heard about the windstorms while I was gone. And I saw that the whole base of the farm was buried. Were the winds as bad as Dad says?”

“Worse,” Julius said. “The storms spawned a tornado.”

“Geez,” Tane said. “I’m glad the farm didn’t take a direct hit.”

A moment later the bipedal robot stood. Julius’ body was made of a white polycarbonate torso with a black battery pack protruding just above the waist. The arms and legs were composed of white polycarbonate tubes with black spheres serving as the joints. The head was a white cylinder with a black visor shielding the top portion. Displayed on the visor were eyes, a nose and a mouth, represented as animated 2D vector graphics to reflect the robot’s current expression and mood. Small black antennae protruded on top of the head, linking the robot to the farm’s local mixnet.

“Download and installation complete.” The robot’s two mouth lines on the visor moved in sync to its voice. Julius stepped out into a clear area between the plants and assumed a defensive crouch. “If you would like to spar?”

Tane grinned widely. He approached the robot, but then his gaze fell on the offline maintenance bot stowed in an alcove nearby. “Wait.”

Tane went to the bot and surveyed the interchangeable farming implements in the rack beside it. There were plows, pitchforks, scythes, sprayers, pollination extensions, and so forth. Depending on the task at hand, the bot could mount up to two of those implements at once via sockets on its underside.

Tane’s eyes fell on a good old fashioned rake.

“Now how does this work…” Tane found the item identification menu in his HUD and selected it.

Weapon: Rake.

Item type: Common.

Inflicts blunt force, cutting, and puncture damage.

Additional damage: None.

Additional effects: None.

“It’ll do.” He picked up two rakes and sauntered over to Julius. “Catch.” He tossed the spare rake to the robot.

“A moment. I’ll have to download a dump dealing with sparring weapons.” Julius paused, then a few seconds later resumed its defensive posture, incorporating the rake into its fighting stance. “Ready.”

Tane mimicked the robot’s stance and then set about bashing.

Julius easily blocked the weapon and instantly moved to the offensive. The robot had absolute control of its rake and most of the time was able to halt the weapon before physically striking Tane. The hard exterior served Julius well in return, so that the rare time Tane managed to score a hit, the rake took more damage than the robot.

Tane got himself some minor scratches during the practice session, nothing that couldn’t be healed with a quick skin spray. He took frequent breaks, but still found himself growing weary as the minutes turned into hours. Finally, after the third hour, when he was nearing exhaustion, an alert flashed on his HUD.

New skill received.

Rake Fighting. Level 0.

“What is it?” Julius asked when he stopped.

“I finally leveled up,” Tane said.

“Impressive,” Julius said. “Your chip is working better than we could have hoped for.”

“Well, I’m not so sure about that. It says level zero.”

“Oh,” Julius said. “That means you’ve learned the very basics. You can’t even properly defend yourself yet, let alone hope to fight someone at level one.”

“I know what it means,” Tane said. “I’m chipped, remember? And like I’m ever going to be facing someone with a rake. Rake Fighting.” Tane shook his head. “Not really the skill I wanted.”

“What were you hoping for?” Julius said. “Beam hilt level one?”

“No. Well, sort of.”

Julius made a digital scraping sound reminiscent of a snort. “Then get access to a beam hilt and we’ll practice.”

“Yeah, like that’s going to happen soon,” Tane said.

Beam hilts were the preferred weapons of the Volur—when the legendary Essenceworkers used weapons at all, that is. The hilts emitted blades of pure energy, usually in the form of an ax or other cutting implement, and were powered by the wielder’s own Essence.

“How would proficiency in beam hilt help an engineer anyway?” Julius said.

“You’re right, you’re right,” Tane flung the rake aside. “I guess I was still dreaming of becoming… more than who I am. I’ll never touch the Essence.”

Julius came to him and rested a heavy metal hand on his shoulder. “It was a good dream.”

“Let’s switch to mixed martial arts,” Tane said. “That could be useful. In case the marauders ever come.”

“You do know that if the marauders come,” Julius said. “And you allow them to come close enough for mixed martial arts to be of any use, you’ve already lost.”

“And that’s why we have plasma rifles,” Tane said.

“Bingo!” Julius said. “That’s the skill you should be practicing.”

“All right, we’ve sparred enough for the day,” Tane said. “But I’ll need you to teach me how to dance at some point.”

“The Pumpkin Dance next weekend?” Julius asked.

“You got it,” Tane said. Jenna would be attending that, in theory. Though it would mean coming back to her farm two weekends in a row. “I’ll drop by tomorrow when I’m done working on the hydrator. I’ll expect you to have a few lessons downloaded by then.”

“I have work I must do as well,” Julius said. “Your father wants me to splice in the longevity genes from the new seeds you purchased in the city.”

“Of course,” Tane said. “But are you sure you’re not just trying to avoid teaching me?”

“Dancing isn’t really a subject I am fond of,” Julius admitted. “It’s a behavior that has always struck me as odd about you humans.”

“Come on, you’ll like it,” Tane said. “Download a few brain dumps on the subject and you’ll see!”

Julius made a hissing sound that was his version of a sigh. “Very well. I’ll make room in my schedule.”

The following two days passed in a blur. It was a big farm, with a lot of moving parts, and many things that could break. Tane was busier than usual, considering that most of the repair drones were still occupied with the silos. Tane had taken a look at the damage: the tornado had struck with full force, tearing most of the silos right off their foundations. The cereal crops stored inside were write-offs. As were the silos themselves: the drones were 3D printing new ones from scratch.

Needless to say, Tane had no time to train with Julius. But his Mechanical Engineering skill was certainly getting a workout. He kept expecting that particular skill to go up, but it remained frustratingly at level two. That made some sense, he supposed. While he might be getting better at repairing the same machines over and over, he wasn’t quite learning how to repair a starship engine, for example.

The second night, Tane was working late repairing yet another broken subsystem, this one a ventilator. He was inside a bio dome containing a crop of corn. The dome was on the lower levels on the right side of the farm structure and had been buried in sand thanks to the recent tornado—the maintenance robots hadn’t gotten around to digging it out yet. As such it was relatively dark inside, lit only by the few light globes scattered throughout.

He was lying underneath the ventilator, fiddling with one of the regulators, when he heard a cracking sound.

He cocked his head, listening. “The hell?”

The sound stopped.

“Ralph, what was that?” Tane asked.

“A crack has formed in one of the panes composing the southern side of this dome,” a pleasant, disembodied female voice answered. That was Ralph, the computer system that ran the farm. The AI liked to transition between genders at least once a day, so that some days a male would answer, other days, a female.

“Can you pinpoint the crack and dispatch a repair drone?” Tane asked.

“All repair drones are currently occupied,” Ralph said. “I’ll ask your father for permission to repurpose some of them.”

Tane heard a distant crunch followed by the clatter of breaking glass.

“Ah crap.” Tane pulled himself out from under the ventilator.

“Dome breached,” Ralph intoned. “Warning, dome breached.”

“Tane, what’s going on down there?” Dad’s voice came over the comm.

“Corn Dome 22A has suffered a collapse somewhere apparently,” Tane said. “I’ll check it out.”

“No,” Dad said. “Get out of there. If the glass has been breached in one place, the entire dome is unstable. The whole thing could come crashing in on you at any time.”

“But the dome is rated to withstand far greater pressures than a few tons of sand,” Tane said.

“I know,” Dad said. “The tornado must have weakened the structure. Get out.”

Tane searched the dome above the rows of corn, and spotted sand pouring in through a breach in the ceiling on the far side. It was burying the corn crop underneath.

“I can see the breach,” Tane said. “We definitely got sand pouring in. Big time. The crop will be ruined.”

“I’m redirecting some of the maintenance drones as we speak,” Dad said. “Hopefully they can get it repaired before too much of the crop is ruined. I’m also sending digger robots to begin shoveling away the sand from the outside.”

“Maybe I can stop the flow of sand from in here,” Tane said.

“No, I already told you to get out.”

“Okay, okay.” Tane quickly shoved the equipment back into his tool chest.

But before he could leave, he heard an odd rustling behind him, as if something was moving quietly through the corn stalks…

3

Tane spun and ran his gaze across the closest edge of the corn field. The plants were genetically engineered to be tall, and reached almost to six meters. Nothing there. It was too early for the maintenance drones to have arrived. He glanced upward, and sure enough didn’t see any of them working on the distant breach. He focused on the field and tried the built-in digital zoom his chip offered: he increased the magnification by two times and pumped up the ISO so he could see better in the dim light. He still noticed nothing as he ran his gaze across the rows of evenly spaced stalks.

“Ralph, is there anything else in here with me?” Tane asked.

“I don’t believe so,” Ralph replied in that mellifluous voice. “My cameras are not detecting anything unusual. Well, excepting the sand pouring in.”

“What if something slid inside with the sand, using it as cover?” Tane asked.

“It’s possible,” Ralph said. “Though doubtful.”

“Did you hear that rustling sound a few seconds ago?” Tane asked.

“What rustling sound?” Ralph said.

“Never mind.” Tane said. “It must have been the sand pouring through the breach, and my brain just confused it for something else.”

“See what happens when you allow synthetics to cut open your head to install microchips?” Ralph said.

“That’s right,” Tane said. “Keep up the jokes at my expense.”

“I wasn’t joking,” the female-voiced AI said.

Tane chuckled.

Smart ass AIs.

He canceled the zoom and turned to go.

That was when he heard a series of strange clicks and pops coming from some distance behind him.

He spun around but the sound ceased. “Who’s there?”

The odd noise had seemed to come from the far side of the dome, near the ceiling breach.

There was definitely something else in here. A lost robot? Somehow he doubted it.

“Ralph, get me a bead on that sound,” Tane said. “Is it one of ours?”

But the computer system didn’t answer.

“Ralph?” Tane said.

Still nothing.

“Crap.” He tried the comm next. “Dad, Ralph seems to be offline. Can you confirm whether any of the robots have arrived yet?”

His dad didn’t answer either.

Tane was starting to get scared. He fished out a wrench from his tool kit and held it like a dagger.

Like a dagger. Yeah right.

“Greg, this isn’t funny!” Tane shouted. “Come out damn it!”

In answer came only the continual hissing of the sand slipping through the breach.

While watching horror vids or virtual reality experiences, Tane was always the one shouting the loudest at the protagonist, exhorting him or her not to be so stupid as to go downstairs when the lights went out and strange sounds were coming from the basement.

Tane swore that if he ever found himself in a similar situation, he’d never be that stupid protagonist.

He definitely wasn’t going to check out the source of those noises.

The robots can do it. That’s what they’re for!

He stowed the wrench and ran to the exit hatch. He slid his palm over the open switch.

The door didn’t budge.

“What!” Tane said. “Of all times to fail.”

The light globes suddenly clicked off, plunging the dome into darkness.

“Oh crap,” Tane said. “Crap crap crap.”

He heard that spine tingling click-clack again. It came from a different direction inside the dome now. Had the source moved, or were there two of them?

He wasn’t going to wait to find out. Tane pumped up the ISO on his vision in a vain hope to see better; it was useless of course, given that at least some light was needed in order to see anything and it was pitch black in there.

He felt around, searching for the side panel. There. He slid a finger into the circular release latch and pulled it open.

The emergency lights abruptly kicked in, momentarily blinding him; he flicked the ISO back to auto, and the illumination levels gated back to something manageable.

He reached into the side panel and began pumping the manual open switch. The door began to slide sideways, tiny bit by tiny bit, opening a crack.

Behind him, he heard the sound of rustling foliage again. Glancing over his shoulder, he saw it then: the topmost sections of corn stalks swayed in turn as something made its way through the field, moving toward him. Quickly. The many intervening stalks screened the actual trespasser from view.

Crap crap crap!

Tane didn’t have much time. He pumped the door switch faster.

“Come on... come on.”

The trespasser was almost at the front of the corn field now. In seconds he, she, or it would emerge, and Tane would be in the line of fire. He glanced at the door. The crack had enlarged to about the size of his head. Wide enough to squeeze through sideways?

Hell with it.

Abandoning the tool chest, he dove at the door, swiveled his body to the side, and squeezed through crabwise. The fit was tight, but he made it.

In the narrow corridor outside the emergency lights were active, and they rotated, alternately bathing the passage in red and blue light. A klaxon screeched in the background. It was a sound Tane had heard before, but only during practice drills meant to simulate a scavenger attack.

Somehow, Tane didn’t think scavengers were the cause.

Tane tripped.

No... something had grabbed his foot!

He glanced down. A black-clad arm had squeezed through the opening, barely fitting. It seemed to be covered in a protective suit of some kind: it was round, trunk-like, covered in circular grooves. It terminated in a gloved hand that wasn’t human: two thick fingers, with a backwards-facing thumb emerging directly opposite. More like a bird’s claw than a hand.

Tane kicked off his shoe, and the arm retracted behind the door, bringing the footwear with it.

Tane clambered to his feet and dashed down the corridor.

“Dad, come in, Dad!” Tane tried again, shouting a bit louder than he had perhaps intended.

He was met with static. He checked his connection to the local mixnet. No signal.

Heart in his throat, Tane continued down the corridor. He kicked off his other shoe, because running with only one was too awkward.

The lights continued to alternate between red and blue around him. The klaxon screeched. He glanced over his shoulder, terrified at what he would see: the arm—tentacle?—had returned, though it looped back in upon itself, and the claw portion gripped the edge of the partially open door. Two more such arms joined in so that all three worked at prying open the door.

Tane hurried down the corridor. He clambered up a ladder to the next floor and closed the scuttle underneath him. The lights flashed in warning here, too.

When he rounded a sharp bend he almost ran headfirst into a tentacled horror. His first impression was of a squid rammed onto the body of a crab.

Tane leaped backward in fright, hitting the corner hard behind him.

He quickly spun around and fled.

The tentacled horror pursued. The thing barely fit the passageway.

Tane dashed into another corridor. There was a hatch on the far end. This one was hand operated, thankfully, and swung on hinges. Tane shut and locked the hatch behind him and quickly stepped away.

The surface of the hatch bent outward as the creature began to repeatedly slam into it from the other side.

Tane backed away a few paces, then turned around and ran. Glancing over his shoulder, he realized the exterior surface of the hatch was turning white hot: the creature was firing some sort of plasma weapon at the metal.

He raced around a bend, putting as much distance between himself and his pursuer as possible.

Where the hell were these things coming from?

And then he realized there were at least five other domes on this side of the farm that were buried in sand. If other breaches had occurred, these aliens could be slipping inside from multiple entry points.

“Ralph, are you back online yet?” he shouted.

Nothing.

Tane clambered up another ladder and shut the scuttle behind him. He raced into a side corridor, sealed the hatch, and then paused for a moment to catch his breath and get his bearings.

But he couldn’t get himself to calm down. His heart still pounded in his chest. Insanely pounded. And his breathing remained ragged.

Relax. Relax.

But Tane couldn’t. He was convinced one of those monsters was going to come running around the bend and down the corridor toward him at any moment. Either that, or start slamming into the hatch behind him.

He had the presence of mind to pull up his cardiovascular and endocrine settings, and adjusted his heart rate down to forcibly calm himself. He also dropped his epinephrine levels. He wasn’t sure it would work, but then his head abruptly tilted forward and the next thing he knew he was lying flat on the floor.

Whoops. Too low.

He bumped his heart rate up higher and a moment later felt well enough to clamber to his feet.

Note to self, take care when adjusting cardiovascular attributes. Unless I want to knock myself out.

At least his heart was no longer racing and his breathing had returned to some semblance of normalcy.

That’s better. Those rate and hormonal hooks are actually pretty handy. When they work.

It was a little embarrassing that he couldn’t calm down on his own, but hey, his parents’ farm was under attack by frigging alien monsters. He was no hero. He’d never fought in any wars. And if he had to use a chip embedded in his skull to calm down, then so what?

Fake it till you make it.

Finally able to relax, he glanced at the overhead map his HUD provided and confirmed he was roughly where he thought he was.

He switched control of his heart and lungs back to his autonomic nervous system, and was relieved when his breathing and heart rate didn’t skyrocket. He reflected for a moment on the creature he had glimpsed.

Four pairs of segmented legs protruded at ninety-degree angles from a broad carapace. At the front of the carapace, several stiff stalks emerged, sourcing the long, trunk-like tentacles that ended in the three-fingered claws he had seen on the first creature. It carried a big, tube-like weapon that reminded Tane of an energy launcher, gripped between two of those tentacles. A glass dome sat on top of the carapace, behind the stalks, and within it was a face that reminded Tane of a Tholan fly trap: a sideways-opening jaw lined with serrated teeth.

The legs, the carapace, those tentacles… they were all the same black color, and they were all smooth, mostly rounded pieces. But it was the glass dome that was the real giveaway, and the face lurking behind it: the whole thing had to be some kind of environmental suit. Perhaps a battle suit or mech. Those four pairs of segmented legs might not even be part of the creature’s body. It could be tech similar to the spider mechs the TSN employed.

Whatever the case, his attackers were definitely alien. But what the hell did they want with him and his family?

He pulled up his ID history, curious what his chip would have to say about the sighting. The results were disappointing, to say the least.

Race: Unknown

Level: Unknown

Class: Unknown

It made some sense, though, considering that the creatures wouldn’t have public profiles, and that there was probably nothing in his internal database to correlate to.

Tane thought about the suit design a bit more. The glass dome was probably the weakest link. If he could break that glass, he could kill them. He was certain of it. Then again, it probably wasn’t glass, but some super polycarbonate. Well, whatever the case, he was going to concentrate his efforts on that part of the suit, once he got himself an appropriate weapon anyway. This wasn’t a battleship with armories waiting on every level, unfortunately. The plasma rifles he wanted were in the basement.

Tane raced down the corridor and reached the lift. Without power, it wouldn’t activate, but he wasn’t too worried about that. He kicked open the maintenance panel and entered the tunnel beside the lift. He slid down the ladder with the agility of one who had grown up on a hydroponics farm. It was completely dark, and his enhanced vision couldn’t discern a thing, but he knew that just behind him awaited the elevator shaft, and its fatal drop.

He tightened his grip occasionally to slow his descent. He was able to gauge his progress by the maintenance accesses he passed, as each floor had one, and the rectangular outlines of the panels were delineated by the emergency lights beyond.

When his feet touched the bottom he knew he had reached the basement.

Tane climbed back up to the last panel, kicked it open, and pulled himself into the waiting corridor. He hurried to the storage room and proceeded directly to the weapons rack within. He grabbed himself one of the waiting plasma rifles.

Earlier he had turned on auto-item identification, and the stats momentarily appeared on his HUD.

Weapon: C2 Plasma Rifle.

Model: Cutlass II-7 Rev c.

Item type: Uncommon.

Additional damage: 15% added plasma burn damage for each successful hit.

Additional effects: None.

Plasma Rifle specific:

Firing rate: Semi-automatic. Squeeze trigger to fire a 4 - 10 round burst.

Recharge rate: 30 seconds per round. If all 10 rounds are used in a single burst, the full 30 seconds must pass before another round can be fired.

Overall weapon charge: 100%.

Extra features: Weapon light capable of providing tight beam visible or infrared illumination. Equipped with illuminated scope and laser sight.

Tane would have preferred something like a plasma pistol for the close quarters fighting ahead, as the rifle would be a bit unwieldy in the tight corridors, but this was all he had so he would have to make do. Besides, he had fired a pistol only one or two times in his life, and his accuracy with the smaller weapon would be terrible.

The rifle scope would be relatively useless in the tight confines of the corridors—he’d have to rely on the targeting notch above the muzzle. He turned on the laser sight mechanism and aimed at the far wall. A red dot appeared. That would help. He linked the C2 to his chip so he could receive recharge information on his HUD.

Sliding the strap over his shoulder and keeping the rifle at the ready, he made his way into the basement corridor. The red and blue emergency lights were present even down here, and the siren continued to whine in the background.

“Mom. Dad. Come in?” No answer. “Ralph, are you up?” Nothing.

He wanted to make his way to the exit and escape as far away from the farm as possible, but he had to get to his parents. He couldn’t leave them here for the aliens to capture or kill. According to his overhead map, the last known position of his parents was the twentieth floor, in their bedroom. That was before the map data had stopped updating, of course. They could be anywhere in the farm.

Well, he’d start at their bedroom and if they weren’t there he’d work his way outward.

He patted his rifle. He had a helping hand, now.

He returned to the lift, slung his rifle over his shoulder by the strap, and entered the maintenance tunnel. Previously he had taken the tunnel mostly because of the speed with which he could descend the ladder. But he had decided this was the best way to make his way upstairs without encountering more of the aliens—he suspected they couldn’t fit, not while inside those bulky battle suits.

And so he slowly made his way up in the dark, counting the outlines of the access panels until he reached the twentieth floor. He carefully opened the panel there, trying to make as little noise as possible. He slid the metal barrier aside and set it quietly down on the floor beyond.

He slid his head forward a smidgen and gazed out. The coast seemed clear.

Tane pulled himself into the corridor, slung his rifle down, and cautiously made his way forward. He reached an intersection, and he carefully peered past both sides before confirming the side passageways were clear. Then he continued forward.

He noted that he was remaining relatively calm. His heart rate and breathing were elevated, but only as much as demanded by the physical activity.

Fake it till you make it.

He supposed it helped that he was properly armed now.

Sealed doors occasionally led off on either side, to the different storage rooms, research facilities, and domes on this floor, but he didn’t bother opening them. He wanted to get to his parents’ room as quickly as possible, and since these doors would have to be manually pumped open, it would take too long to check the chambers beyond.

He rounded the final bend and spotted one of the suited creatures standing in front of his parents’ quarters.

That got his heart pumping.

Its back was toward him, and it had its large energy launcher pointed at the door, whose metal glowed white hot. Obviously the alien had already unleashed a few shots, and was prepping to fire again.

“Oh no you don’t,” Tane said quietly.

He aimed his rifle squarely at the glass helmet and squeezed the trigger. He held the trigger down to release the full ten round burst.

The plasma shots instantly closed the distance, striking in rapid succession. But each shot dispersed a half meter behind the helmet, the energy spreading outward in a circular pattern before fading away entirely. It was like watching ten fast moving drops of water send ripples across the surface of a lake.

The alien was shielded.

If the energy screen worked anything like TSN technology, then the protection levels diminished with each impact received. Those levels would slowly creep back to maximum as the shield recharged, but if Tane fired again before the levels were too high, he could penetrate.

He would just have to hope that the recharge rate of the alien’s shield was less than that of his own weapon. Given the surface area the shield had to cover, there was a good chance that it was.

The creature’s attention was successfully diverted from the door and it spun toward him, pointing the energy launcher his way.

Tane ducked behind the bend. He had used all ten rounds, meaning he had thirty seconds to wait until he could fire again.

He was expecting the alien’s launcher to light up the wall beside him, but instead only clicks and clacks floated to him from down the corridor. Was the alien trying to communicate with him?

He heard soft clangs. Footfalls. Growing in volume.

The creature was retreating from the door.

Coming closer to him.

And then someone spoke.

“Tane, what’s going on down there?”

It was his dad’s voice.

For a moment Tane almost fell for it. But then he realized it was an exact recording of the words his father had transmitted earlier when the dome was first breached.

Tane glanced at the weapon recharge timer on his HUD. Twenty seconds until he could fire a full ten round burst again.

A computerized voice came from around the bend next.

“Put your weapons down, human.” Each word seemed taken from a different human speaker, the sentences a patchwork of various audio clips. “Resistance will only prolong your suffering.”

“What do you want!” Tane shouted. “Go away!”

“We want you,” the alien said. It sounded like it was just around the bend.

Tane retreated from the edge.

Five seconds.

He aimed his rifle at the bend. “All right, little bitch, come get me then. I surrender.”

“Good choice,” the voice said.

The lumbering form of the alien appeared, armored tentacles leading the way.

As soon as the glass helmet emerged, Tane squeezed the trigger. He unleashed another full ten shot burst.

The first eight bolts were absorbed by the energy shield, but the final two got through. The shots dissolved a small, perfectly circular hole into the helmet dome, and the yellow liquid composing the pressurized inner atmosphere gushed out. The fluid evaporated into a thick mist immediately upon exposure to air.

The creature dropped the energy launcher and those crab-like legs stepped back and forth wildly. Then the thing collapsed, its carapace tilting to one side. Liquid continued to ooze out and evaporate from the opening. Inside, that Tholan fly trap of a head had caved sickeningly to one side.

Tane approached, keeping his rifle aimed at the creature. When the thirty second mark passed, he fired another tentative shot into the head, creating another hole in the glass dome. This time, all ten shots got through, and that plant-like head exploded entirely, covering the insides of the dome in blue goo.

Shriveling his nose in disgust, Tane picked his way over the corpse. He paused when he passed over the energy launcher protruding from under the body. He almost left it, but the greedy part of his mind took over.

That has to be worth something.

He went to the bend and peered back down the corridor to confirm no more aliens were coming, then he slid the plasma rifle over his shoulder and pried the energy launcher out from underneath the corpse. The weapon was surprisingly light for its size. The ID screen came up:

Weapon: Unknown.

Item type: Unknown.

Additional damage: Unknown.

Additional effects: Unknown.

Class: Unknown.

It figured.

The weapon had two grips, one near the front, the other the rear. There was no apparent trigger. Wait, there was an embossed button on the side, next to the rear grip. He aimed the launcher down the corridor he had come, away from his parents’ quarters, and pressed the button. The weapon didn’t fire. Probably bio-encoded to the alien owner. Even so, something like this had to be worth a fortune on the black market. It was alien tech, after all.

He glanced at the door to his parents’ room. The white hot color had faded. The metal had good heat dispersion properties, apparently. Though he had no idea if his parents were still inside.

Well, he was about to find out. The alien had been trying to get in there for a reason, after all.

Holding the unwieldy energy launcher with both hands against his chest, he hurried to the door. He was about to kick it, but then realized he wasn’t wearing his shoes anymore and would probably stub his toe. So he turned around and knocked three times with his heel.

“Dad open up!” Tane said. “Dad!”

He cringed at how loud his voice sounded. He rested the launcher against the wall and slid the C2 rifle down to guard the approach to the room.

He waited a few moments but no response came from within.

“Dad!” Tane tried again. “Mom! Are you guys in there?”

Finally he heard what sounded like someone fumbling with the access panel inside, and then the door began to open in slow jerks. A pumping noise issued from the wall.

When a substantial crack had appeared, he heard his mom’s voice.

“Tane, is it really you?” she said.

Tane peered through the crack and saw her. “It’s me!”

“They were using your voice,” she said. “Trying to trick us into opening the door.”

“They did the same with you,” Tane said. “Or Dad, anyway. Is he there?”

“I’m here,” Dad said from somewhere close inside. “Working this damn door.”

The pumping sound started up again and the door began jerking open once more.

When it was wide enough to squeeze through, Tane shoved the energy launcher inside along the floor, and then afterwards forced himself through the crack.

He promptly hugged Mom, then Dad.

A single white emergency light illuminated their chamber, giving Tane’s eyes a rest from the alternating red and blue beacons in the corridors outside. And the klaxon was muted here.

“What is that?” His dad nodded toward the energy launcher on the floor while he worked the pump to close the door.

“One of their weapons,” Tane said. “The creature I caught outside almost fried your door with it. What the hell were those things anyway?”

Dad shook his head. “Dwellers.”

“Dwellers?” Tane said. “I thought those aliens were only a myth?”

“No, they’re real,” Dad said. “They were banished from our universe. But they’ve returned apparently.”

“I tried to reach you,” Tane said.

“I know,” Dad told him. “They took out our mixnet and then our power core. I managed to get out an SOS, though. The cops are on their way. I hope.”

A black tentacle abruptly thrust through the crack in the door and its clawed tip latched onto Tane’s shoulder.

4

Before Tane could react, the limb yanked him backward, slamming him into the wall right next to the door.

He twisted sideways and used his body weight to squirm free, and his shirt tore as he broke away. He stumbled forward, lost his balance, and landed on his back. Lying there on the rug, he directed his plasma rifle toward the crack in the door, aligned his sights over the now familiar glass dome, and squeezed the trigger, letting off a full ten round burst.

The creature backed away as its shield lit up, and it immediately slithered to the side, hiding from view beyond the edge of the crack.

Tane kept his rifle trained on the door as his dad continued pumping the manual closing latch.

“Mom, get behind me.” Tane scrambled upright and backed toward the far side of the room, upturned the sofa, and took cover behind it. Mom was just behind him.

Dad finished sealing the door and ducked behind a side counter.

Tane kept his C2 rifle aimed at the door. Several tense seconds passed. He realized the attacker was waiting for its protective energy field to reach full charge before attacking again, which would prevent Tane from penetrating and scoring a killing blow like he had with the previous alien.

“Is it gone?” Mom asked.

“No,” Tane told her. He glanced at Dad. “We have to get out of here.”

Dad’s eyes drifted upward.

Tane followed his gaze to the ceiling and spotted a vent overhead. “The ventilation duct?”

“It’s our only chance,” Dad said.

Mom shook her head fervently. “I can’t do it. I’m claustrophobic.”

“No he’s right, we have to,” Tane said.

“You go,” Mom said. “I’ll stay here and distract it for you.”

“No Mom,” Tane said.

“I can’t do it!” Mom said.

Tane took a deep breath. “Mom. If you stay, you’ll die.”

“Then I’ll die protecting you,” Mom said.

Tane held his ground. “You’re coming.” He glanced at Dad. “I could use some help here.”

“He’s right,” Dad told her. “We’re not leaving you. I’ll help you get inside the duct. We’ll be right behind you.”

Mom hesitated.

“If you don’t do this, we all die,” Tane said. “Because we’re not leaving you.”

Those words seemed to finally get through to her, because Mom stiffened her back. “I’m not going to let my husband and son die.”

She bravely clambered onto the upturned couch and reached for the vent. Her hands were shaking.

“The screws are secured fairly tight,” she said.

“Get down for a second,” Tane told her.

When she did so, he aimed up at the vent, switched his rifle to single shot mode, and targeted the four screws in rapid succession.

Mom clambered back onto the couch, reached up, and easily removed the vent from the melted attachments. She let it drop to the floor. Dad joined her on the upturned couch and gave her a boost; she crawled into the overhead space. Her feet were trembling so bad that one of her ankles audibly knocked against the duct frame.

Meanwhile the alien opened fire: the entrance door turned white hot at the center, and the incandescence soon expanded to fill the entire surface. The metal would dissolve very soon now.

“Hurry, Dad,” Tane said.

“You first,” Dad said.

“No,” Tane said. “I’m covering you.”

For a moment Dad seemed like he was about to physically haul Tane into the vent, but then he shrugged, leaped toward the vent, and pulled himself inside. Then he turned around and held down an open hand.

Tane glanced at the door. “Just a second.”

He retreated into the room, making for the alien energy launcher.

“Forget the weapon!” Dad said.

Letting the rifle hang from the strap on his shoulder, Tane grabbed the launcher and leaped onto the upturned couch. He slid the alien weapon into the vent, and then hauled himself up into the crawlspace.

Dad and Mom had retreated to make room for him, and when Tane was inside they proceeded into the duct on their hands and knees in single file. Tane dragged along the energy launcher with his left hand, the C2 with his right.

The white emergency light from the room only penetrated so far into the crawlspace, and the trio quickly found themselves immersed in darkness. Before she vanished into the murk, Mom was still shaking with obvious fear, but forced herself courageously onward.

Tane pumped up his ISO settings but it didn’t help. He’d have to feel his way forward from here on out. He considered activating the weapon light on the rifle. It had two modes: visible light and infrared. He decided to keep it off for now, because he was worried about light leakage into the chambers and corridors below, something that would give them away. Then again, if they made noise, that would give them away just as well.

He tried to set down his arms and legs as softly as possible, and he noticed his parents were doing the same thing. He cringed whenever the metal creaked underneath any of them. He hoped the muted klaxon that continued screeching in the background would cover any noises they made.

He pulled up his overhead map. At least his location was still updating, and it showed how far he had moved from the room. Thankfully those blueprints included all the different ducts and crawlspaces.

Distracted by the map he bumped into Dad’s boot with his hand. Dad kicked back slightly, digging his boot into Tane’s knuckles.

“Gah!” Tane exclaimed.

“Sorry,” Dad said, sliding his boot forward.

Tane heard a crunch coming from behind him, and realized the alien had broken through the door.

“Quiet,” Tane whispered.

The trio continued moving forward in single file, slowing slightly to make as little noise as possible. According to the map, Tane and his parents were just crossing over the neighboring compartment.

White light suddenly shone from behind him. Glancing back, he saw rents forming in the crawlspace as the alien unleashed its energy launcher into the ceiling. The illumination from the emergency light flooded inside.

Ahead, the crawlspace formed a T intersection, with a branch to the right. Mom and Dad immediately took the branch and Tane quickly followed after them, bringing the weapons with them. He paused there, past the bend, and peered back the way he had come.

He saw a glass dome rising through the rents torn into the crawlspace.

Tane quickly ducked, holding his breath. He considered firing on that dome, but he wouldn’t penetrate the fully charged shield, and the blow would serve only to give away his position. Then again, maybe the alien had deactivated its shield to peer inside—in theory, the energy field would prevent its body from getting too close to the duct.

Before he could make up his mind, he heard the sound of shuffling feet, a sound that grew fainter by the second. He waited until the noise faded completely, and then peered past the edge.

The dweller had departed. Only the rent in the crawlspace remained, the light pouring inside from the room.

“We have to stay here,” Tane said, ducking back behind the bend. “Until they’re gone. They won’t find us. Check the map. There’s no access to the compartment underneath us. It’s dead space.”

He glanced at Mom. She seemed very pale under the emergency lighting that leaked up from the room. She had managed to get her trembling under control, probably via her chip. The last thing they needed was the sound of knocking ankles and chattering teeth to give them away. Then again, he had just spoken several words. If anyone had given them away in that moment, it would be he.

Not that the aliens had heard him anyway.

Or had they?

Sure enough, the duct shook around him, and the air filled with the sound of metal tearing violently. He peered around the bend of the T intersection and saw that the dweller hadn’t departed after all: the retreating footfalls had been a ruse. Those armored tentacles were thrusting into the rents previously created by its energy launcher, and enlarging them. The alien was tearing open the crawlspace like a tin can.

“Go!” Tane said.

Mom led the way into the darkness.

Tane heard a loud thud come from ahead.

“Mom, you okay?” Tane asked.

“Wasn’t me!” Mom said, her voice barely above a whisper.

Shafts of light began to penetrate the darkness up ahead as the floor of the crawlspace fell away there. More black, clawed tentacles appeared, ripping into the forward passageway.

Mom shouted in terror.

Those tentacles reached for her, and Dad wrapped his arms around her ankles and hauled her backward.

Tane retreated to the T intersection. He opened fire at the tentacles waiting around the bend. The creature had definitely been forced to deactivate its shield to physically penetrate the crawlspace, because Tane scored a hit and liquid sprayed from the suit area surrounding one of the tentacles. The liquid hissed as it evaporated, and the remaining tentacles quickly withdrew.

Behind Mom, the pursuing tentacles of the remaining alien strained against the opening, tearing the duct wider as the creature reached for its helpless prey inside.

Mom screamed again.

Tane aimed his rifle down the crawlspace, but couldn’t get a clean shot past Dad and Mom.

“This way!” Tane turned right down the T intersection and proceeding away from both aliens. Behind him, Dad dragged Mom along.

“Let go of me!” Mom shouted. “I can move on my own!”

“Then move!” Dad said.

He heard a momentary banging and tumbling that must have been Mom turning herself around, and then relative quiet—discounting the tearing of metal that continued in the background, of course.

“You guys okay back there?” Tane asked.

“We’re fine,” Dad answered. “Keep moving.”

“I intend to,” Tane told him.

The light levels in the cramped duct quickly fell once more, so that in moments Tane couldn’t see anything because of the dark. He blindly shoved his rifle forward in his right hand and the alien weapon in his left. He used his HUD to guide him through the twists and turns.

The sound of ripping metal receded behind him until all he heard was his and his parents’ breathing, and the soft shuffling of their arms and legs. The crawlspace around them occasionally moaned and creaked as the trio made their way forward through the darkness.

Tane continued to keep the weapon light off. He didn’t want to accidentally shine it into a vent and alert any dwellers who might be watching in the corridors or rooms below.

Tane paused when he reached a corner section of the crawlspace and waited for Mom and Dad to catch up. He activated the weapon light at the lowest setting so he could see the faces of his parents.

“Okay, according to the map,” Tane said. “We’re near the northeast of the farm. The upper exterior is just outside to my right. There’s nothing underneath or above us but solid metal. This area is completely inaccessible. We’re safe. Unless the aliens can squeeze into these ducts, which I doubt.”

“Maybe they won’t have to,” Dad said.

“What do you mean?” Tane asked.

“Don’t you hear that?” Dad replied.

Tane listened. He heard a subtle pitter-patter that reminded him of rain. He alternately pointed his rifle down each of the two crawlspaces that led away from the corner in turn, but couldn’t discern anything in the darkness.

The disturbance grew louder, sounding like hail on a tin roof, and seemed to be coming from both directions at once.

Tane upped the intensity of his weapon light.

In the crawlspace to the left, he immediately saw hundreds of small, beetle-like robots crawling toward him and his parents. He pointed the rifle down the opposite duct, revealing a second horde of the tiny robots. They had long gripping pincers at their fronts, and between those pincers was a small pad that appeared to be some kind of sonic injector.

Mom was whimpering.

“It’s going to be okay, Mom,” Tane said. He hoped she didn’t notice the tremble in his voice that betrayed the lie.

He switched the rifle to single fire mode. Each shot was going to have to count.

“Give me the rifle, Son,” Dad said.

“I got this, Dad,” Tane said.

“Put the rifle into single fire mode,” Dad said.

“Already done,” Tane said. “I got this.”

The alien energy launcher at Tane’s feet slid out of view suddenly.

He glanced at his dad, who had taken it.

“I’ll cover the left,” Dad said. “Looks like I have a use for this worthless alien tech you dragged along after all. Though it’s perhaps a slightly different use than the dwellers originally intended.”

Tane widened the beam from the weapon light, so that more of it would reflect from the walls, hopefully allowing his dad to better make out the oncoming beetles in the opposite crawlspace. Dad was chipped, too, of course, so his visual ISO would be pumped up to the max.

Using the laser sight and aiming notch combination, Tane began to pick off the incoming beetle robots. A single shot was enough to melt one of the tiny machines to the bottom of the crawlspace. Sometimes when two were close together he got lucky and took down both at once, oftentimes melding them together. Sixteen seconds passed between his first shot and his tenth, meaning he had to wait another fourteen before the thirty second recharge interval allowed him to fire again.

Willing the seconds to tick past faster, he watched impatiently as the beetles crawled past their fallen comrades. Finally when the lead beetles were about three meters away, he was able to fire again.

He squeezed the trigger, taking down the nearest beetle. He squeezed again, but the second plasma bolt wasn’t ready to fire yet and nothing happened. He waited a moment and squeezed once more. Still the C2 hadn’t recharged. He tried a fourth time, finally taking down the next beetle.

The tiny robots were almost upon him.

This isn’t going to work.

The machines were too many, and too close. He was going to have to treat the C2 like a club.

He activated the safety, swung the rifle down, and gripped it near the muzzle. Before he could strike he heard loud thuds beside him. He realized his dad was swatting at the robot beetles on the other side, employing the alien energy launcher like a big cudgel.

Tane rammed the stock of his C2 into the nearest beetle, smashing it. Then he swept the rifle to the side, knocking another robot into the wall of the duct. He struck down at a third.

He and his dad continued bashing away at the robots like that. To an outside listener it might have sounded like a repair drone hammering out the kinks in a damaged speeder engine.

When he had cleared a sufficient path in front of him, Tane swung the muzzle forward once more and gripped the stock to release ten quick shots, terminating the next vanguard of beetles, and then he returned to using the weapon as a club when the following machines grew near.

The onslaught eventually slowed, becoming a trickle, and finally ended entirely. He and Dad couldn’t have been dealing with the robots for more than a minute or two, but it seemed longer. Piles of tiny smashed robot parts littered the crawlspace on either side.

“Well,” Dad said. “Looks like we gots ourselves a few spare servomotors.”

“Just a few,” Tane agreed. “Though I somehow doubt we’ll be able to integrate their tech with our own.”

“Probably not,” Dad said. “We’ll just have to melt ‘em down then. Extra material for the 3D printers.”

Tane glanced at his overhead map. “The other dwellers can’t reach us and they know it. This crawlspace is too inaccessible.”

“That could be good or bad,” Dad told him. “Like you said, the upper exterior is outside and just to our right. If the dwellers can get units out there, they might be able to fire their energy weapons and bore through.”

“I think it’s time to reposition,” Tane said.

“I think so,” Dad agreed.

Tane glanced at Mom, who sat between the two men with her knees against her chest, her back propped up against the corner. She seemed utterly exhausted.

“You okay, Mom?” Tane asked.

She gave him a brave smile, and nodded weakly.

Keeping the weapon light on, Tane led the way. He used his rifle to sweep a path through the damaged robots. There were a few that seemed active—the twitch of a leg here, the convulsion of a pincer there—and he quickly put them out of their misery. Dad brought up the rear, dragging the alien energy launcher along with him.

Soon the trio left behind the smashed robots, and they continued putting distance between themselves and their previous location. Tane turned inward at the first bend, eager to move away from the farm exterior.

He kept the overhead map active, and when he was satisfied that he and his parents were surrounded by impenetrable steel on all sides, he called a halt. He could still hear the klaxon in the background, sounding muted, distant.

“This looks good,” Tane said. “We stay here until they go.”

“And what if they don’t?” Mom asked. “We can’t stay up here forever.”

Dad was the one who answered. “We’ll make forays for food as needed. We’ll outlast these dwellers. Mark my words.”

Tane heard a muffled voice then. It barely carried above the muted klaxon, and seemed to be coming from some sort of bullhorn outside.

“THIS IS THE POLICE,” the voice said. “COME OUT WITH YOUR HANDS UP.”

“Took them long enough,” Dad said. “I sent the call what, half an hour ago now?”

“Should we go out?” Tane asked.

“Wouldn’t recommend it,” Dad said. “Let the police clear the place, first. Then we’ll show ourselves. They’ll find us eventually, I’m sure, what with the fancy X Ray tech they have.”

“Don’t the aliens have similar tech?” Tane said.

“Probably,” Dad said. “How do you think they knew where to send those beetle robots?”

“I guess I thought it was luck,” Tane said. “I mean, they could’ve just sent the things crawling into our ventilation system, with orders to search randomly until they bumped into us.”

“That could be it, too,” Dad said. “Either way, let’s just hope law enforcement scares them off.”

The minutes passed. Tane listened intently, but heard only the persistent klaxon.

“It’s quiet out there,” Tane said. “If the aliens were still out there, you’d think we’d hear plasma rifles going off by now. And shouts. Maybe the creatures already fled? Crawling back into the sand?”

“It does seem like the police spooked them for now,” Dad said. “Either way, we stay here until we hear from them.”

Tane noticed he had a beacon flashing in the lower right of his HUD. He pulled up what appeared to be a new notification screen. He had two alerts. The first read:

Level up. Sharpshooting skill is now Level 1. 10% bonus to target accuracy. 5% bonus to damage. 3% increased probability of critical hit. Eligibility: laser and plasma rifles.

The timestamp on the notification coincided with when he was shooting up the beetle robots. Apparently his proficiency in Sharpshooting was already close enough to level one that all he needed to do to go from zero to hero was take out a few bots.

Good deal. He was skeptical of the “3% increased probability of critical hit” part, though. First of all he had to know what areas were critical. He supposed that thanks to his chip, his subconscious mind essentially had that information on call. The chip probably already had a database of critical hit areas, and no doubt the knowledge was constantly updated: when he eliminated the first alien by firing into the translucent dome, for example, that would have refreshed the chip’s internal data.

But secondly, in order to achieve a critical hit, he needed some luck, especially in the heat of combat. Luck was an intangible, unmeasurable quantity, and Tane doubted it was something that could be improved with physical practice. But then again, the notification had said “3% increased probability.” Probability was a mathematical measurement of luck, or at least, of outcome.

If I can aim faster, and hit more accurately, it means I have a greater chance of critically hitting my target, and “being lucky.”

That made more sense to him when he looked at it like that.

The second alert was more interesting.

Level up. Your overall level is now 3! Neural pathways have been enhanced and reinforced! You now have an attribute point to allocate.

Well that was handy. Almost like a free nanotech injection. Headphone Jack had never told him anything about attribute points being granted after leveling. But Tane realized the synthetic didn’t have to, because now that he thought about it, the memory was on his chip. Details were in the manual in his “My Stuff” folder.

Apparently, the chip created nanotech over time, coating each one with tiny sheathes so that the body couldn’t destroy them. These micro machines built up and circulated in the bloodstream until the neural pathways could accommodate their release, at which point the protective envelope of all nanotech were removed and the machines functioned as if newly injected.

Successively more micro machines had to be created between each level, because as the base attributes rose, the nanotech necessary to effect a change increased. Enough micro machines were always created to boost the numeric rating of the current highest attribute, be it Strength, Dexterity, or what have you. That’s why it took longer to advance at the higher levels.

If a point was allocated to a lower attribute that didn’t require as many micro machines to achieve a gain, any excess nanotech units remained unsheathed and unprotected in the bloodstream, where they quickly decomposed and were flushed from the body during the next excretion cycle. In other words, Tane couldn’t carry the excess nanotech over to the next level.

He accessed the provided allocation interface and put the point into Dexterity, since one could never have too much speed and agility.

He spent the next half hour rereading the manual for his chip, but didn’t discover anything else he had forgotten.

Eventually the police located them and had Tane and his parents vacate the crawlspace. Tane made Dad leave the alien energy launcher behind in the duct. Tane still wanted to resell it someday, and he couldn’t well do that if he let law enforcement confiscate it.

The officers were all robots, as Dad predicted. Their polycarbonate bodies reminded him of Julius, though they were colored yellow and blue instead of white and black. The visors that shielded their heads lacked the animated facial expressions Julius had, and instead were completely blank. They carried plasma rifles slung over their shoulders and plasma pistols holstered at their hips. The circular light globes at the centers of their utility belts told Tane that those were shield generators. From what he knew, those energy shields would provide protection against plasma, laser, and melee attacks when active. It would be similar to the shielding Tane had seen on the aliens, in that the energy fields would degrade with successive impacts until given a chance to recharge.

The robots had managed to reboot the hydroponic farm’s power core, shutting down the emergency lights and klaxon. Ralph was still offline, however, along with the local mixnet.

Tane idly checked the public profile of one of police droids.

Name: PD-52 “Briggs”

Race: Robot.

Model: Scepter combat droid VI-15 Rev b.

Level: 5

Class: Police Officer

Badge ID: 726874

The police wanted access to any video recordings made by their chips or other cameras on the premises, but Dad explained that there were no such cameras, and that none of their chips had video recording upgrades. Tane and his parents were able to share overhead map logs, which showed their locations in the farm as they scrambled to escape the intruders, but that data contained no actual images of said intruders.

So, Dad went ahead and made his report while the medical robots tended to him, Mom, and Tane. They’d all suffered minor cuts and bruises.

When Dad was done, Tane gave his own report, leaving out the part about taking the energy launcher, but including how one of the aliens had actually addressed him. If the robot was shocked by that latter bit of news, it gave no outward sign. Without features, it was pretty hard for the detective to display any sort of emotion, really.

When Tane finished, the robot took a step back, seeming hesitant. Then it addressed Dad: “Are you certain you want to proceed with the claim that dwellers attacked your farm?”

“What?” Dad said. “Obviously. You think I’m making this up?”

“Of course not, sir,” the detective robot said. “But you do realize that no dweller bodies were found? Nor any alien DNA?”

“But I killed one of them for sure!” Tane said.

The detective glanced at Tane. “If the dwellers were here, then they were certainly thorough in their retreat.”

“Yes, they were,” Dad said coldly.

“Sometimes,” the detective said. “In the heat of battle we see things that aren’t there. Your attackers may have well been Kayote scavengers, and you might have mistaken them for something else.”

Tane almost wanted to retrieve the hidden energy launcher as proof that aliens had attacked, but he didn’t want to give it up—his family might need the credits from the sale to make repairs to the farm, given how many domes were likely breached in the alien attack.

He was worried his dad was going to mention the weapon, but instead Dad said, softly: “I was in the war. I know what a dweller looks like.”

“You were in a war?” Tane asked, surprised.

But Dad ignored him and continued haranguing the robot: “And you’re saying me, my wife, and my son all imagined these aliens? That we were all sharing the same hallucination?”

“All right,” the robot said. “Stand down. I’ll list dwellers as the cause of the disturbance. But it will make it difficult for you to claim compensation from the local government. Considering the… improbable nature of your case.”

“I’d rather that you listed the truth,” Dad said. “Probable or not.”

“Bill,” Mom said quietly. “Maybe it’s better if we don’t mention dwellers. We’ll call undue attention to ourselves.”

“I’m not going to lie about what happened,” Dad said.

“But we’ll need the money to rebuild our domes,” Mom said. “And the damaged doors and ducts.”

Hearing her words, Tane immediately felt justified in holding on to the alien weapon.

“I don’t care,” Dad said. “If dwellers are back, the galaxy needs to know. So we can start preparing for the second war.”

“I didn’t even know there was a first war…” Tane interjected. There was nothing in his chip about this.

Dad ignored him once more.

A human officer stepped into the room, drawing everyone’s attention. He was dressed in a yellow and blue uniform.

“Finally a human,” Dad said.

The officer nodded. Tane checked the man’s public profile.

Name: Trent Okafor

Race: Human

Level: 4

Class: Police Officer

Badge ID: 542146

Trent immediately stepped aside, and a man stepped into the room.

A tall man, perhaps the tallest Tane had ever seen. Heavy power armor covered his body from head to toe, and made him look extremely well-built, though it was possibly an illusion because of the many armored layers. It had a subtle blue halo indicating Essence enhancement, and was patterned in desert digital. The joints were covered in deadly looking spikes, like the kind one might find on a medieval mace, and a series of interlocking plates formed a metallic skirt around his waist. Attached above the skirt was a utility belt harboring a scabbarded sword whose hilt pulsed with power. On the opposite hip, the stock of a holstered pistol similarly glowed.

Cropped hair, gray at the temples, framed a weathered face that was a series of hard lines; deep wrinkles marred the forehead, and crow’s feet ate into the corners of eyes that were deep pools of blue. A silver ring hung from a piercing in his eyebrow, and he also had a small silver labret threaded through his lip. Those judging eyes passed over his mother and father as if weighing them on invisible scales. The eyes reached Tane and the sensation of being judged only intensified. When the man’s gaze finally moved on, Tane couldn’t help but feel as if the newcomer was still watching him. It was unnerving.

The man surveyed the room as if absorbing every detail, studying every possible point of ambush, deciding on where he would make a stand if he had to fight.

Not a man to be messed with.

Four combat robots entered behind him and scanned their surroundings just as vigilantly. They looked similar to the police bots except they wore desert digital patterned the same as the man’s power armor. Military grade, then. They were armed with deadly-looking laser rifles, weapons that hung casually from their shoulders. Two pistols were holstered on either side of their hips, along with several throwing daggers. They wore jingling harnesses whose pockets bulged with grenades, and large glowing sashes crisscrossed their torsos underneath—probably shield generators. Like the law enforcement officers, the visors that covered their faces were devoid of features, expressionless.

The faceless robots parted, allowing a woman to step into the room. She stood beside the armored man, and though she was a head shorter than him, she made up for it by the sheer aura of her presence: she might as well have been the tallest in the room.

Tane couldn’t help but stare. She was one of the most beautiful women he had ever seen. He felt that familiar longing, that ache men felt when they were standing before a woman of incredible quality. Ringlets of dark hair framed the high cheekbones of her flawless face. If he had to guess, he would have said she was anywhere from twenty-five to forty. Dark, almond-shaped eyes peered into his above a perfect nose, and he found himself unable to break her gaze. Those astute eyes weren’t judging, like the man’s, but they still seemed to swallow him up, as if taking in everything there was to know about him in a single glance. He saw intelligence there, arrogance, and a hint of cruelty. But also goodness.

Tane finally managed to avert his gaze, settling on the strange attire she wore. It was some kind of dress made of interlocking metal plates, reminding him of the skirt the man wore, except all over. Like the man’s armor, it glowed with a subtle yellow nimbus all over, indicating the gear was imbued with Essence.

She wore jewelry, a whole lot of it: at least one ring on each of her fingers and thumbs. Intricately carved silver bracelets. A necklace of silver links at her neck, supporting a heavy ruby. A similar circlet of silver sat on her head, the front portion resting on her temples.

“I am Lyra,” the mysterious woman said. He looked into her ravishing face once more, and Tane realized she was addressing him. “And this is Jed. We have come for you.”

5

Tane merely stared at the woman, mesmerized.

“We have come for all of you,” she continued in her melodious voice, letting her gaze travel to his mom and dad.

Now that she wasn’t looking at him anymore, Tane could think clearly again. He quickly pulled up the public profiles of the two of them, but the details were oddly sparse.

Name: Lyra Glorandriel

Race: Human

Level: 17

Class: Unknown

Name: Jed Stax

Race: Human

Level: 19

Class: Unknown

“What do you mean, come for us?” Dad said.

“To protect you,” Lyra said. “You see, our team was in the vicinity when the police call arrived. We originally came intending to offer what little assistance we could. We were expecting a routine call, but then we eavesdropped on your report. Dwellers.”

“So you believe us, then?” Dad said.

“We do,” Lyra said.

“Told you we shouldn’t have mentioned dwellers,” Mom told Dad. “We don’t need interest from the likes of these.”

Dad glanced at Mom. “I wasn’t going to lie.” He returned his attention to Lyra. “That’s right, dwellers have returned to our galaxy. We banished them to the Anteres Rift after the war. But they’ve returned.”

“Hundreds of battleships keep watch in Anteres to this day,” Trent, the human officer who had escorted Lyra into the room, said. “How would dweller vessels get past them?”

“Not all the dwellers were driven into the Rift,” Lyra told the officer. “Plus, who is to say that they haven’t found another, as yet undiscovered rift, to return to our galaxy from?”

Jed stepped forward. He was gazing at Tane’s shaven head. “You were chipped, recently?”

Tane nodded. “Two days ago.” He wondered if his chipping had anything to do with the alien attack. The coincidence did seem a bit too high: had Headphone Jack installed something else in his mind during the procedure? Something the aliens wanted?

“The procedure usually isn’t so invasive,” Jed said.

“That’s what the synthetic claimed as well,” Tane told him.

Jed stepped back a pace. “Did any of the aliens touch you?”

“No,” Tane said. “I mean, I don’t think so.”

Jed’s eyes drifted to Tane’s right shoulder, where one of the creatures had torn away the fabric with a clawed tentacle.

“Uh, okay an alien might have touched me...” Tane said.

Jed frowned. It caused the piercing in his lip to catch the light slightly, drawing the eye. “I’m going to scan you. Starting with your brain region.”

Jed held out one of his powered gloves, the flat palm pointing at Tane. Beams of laser light emerged from the glove, forming two diverging red lines that bounded a flat, transparent triangle. Jed moved the beam repeatedly up and down over Tane’s face and neck area.

Tane held his breath, hoping the man didn’t find some alien baby curled up in the fetal position inside his head.

“Seems clear,” Jed finally said.

Tane exhaled in relief.

Jed continued scanning the rest of Tane’s body. He paused at the shoulder region for several seconds, and then moved the beam down his chest, arms and legs.

Next Jed scanned his parents in turn and then glanced at Lyra. “They’re all clean.”

“Dwellers.” Tane shook his head. “They’re supposed to be a myth. Creatures whose names parents mention only to scare kids into doing their chores.” He looked at Dad. “What was that about banishing them to the Anteres Rift? After the ‘war,’ as you called it? And hundreds of battleships keeping watch? According to my chip, Anteres is quarantined because of some sort of system-wide radiation contamination.”

Lyra didn’t say anything. Nor did Dad or anyone else. Tane had a feeling this was some secret only people over a certain age knew about.

“Well if it’s true,” Tane continued. “That’s great. Just great. Exactly what the galaxy needs. Aliens hellbent on our blood. Well, mine in particular, it seems. Did you know they wanted me to surrender? Or one of them did, anyway. The rest, who knows…”

“Yes, that the one dweller addressed you is indeed alarming,” Lyra said. “They have never spoken to any humans before, not even during the war. Not our diplomats. Not our leaders. This is new behavior on their part. I think it’s obvious they want you for some reason. I’m not sure why. I believe this excursion of theirs was a trial run of sorts, perhaps to confirm you were indeed the one they sought. They will return, and this time in far greater numbers. It would be best if you came with us to Talendir. You will be safe there. Plus with the vast resources available to us on Talendir, we’ll be able to determine why the dwellers want you.”

Mom sighed. She turned to Dad. “See why I didn’t want them involved?”

“You heard her, it’s not safe here,” Dad said.

“Wait, I have a friend I stay with in the city,” Tane said. “Will he be safe?”

“I believe so,” Lyra said. “I’m not seeing any indication of a city address anywhere on your public profile.”

Tane was relieved.

“Talendir.” Mom shook her head, chewing her lower lip for a moment. Finally she addressed Lyra: “We’ll go with him, obviously.”

Lyra glanced at Jed. He inclined his head, as if in assent.

Lyra returned her attention to Mom. “Of course. We plan to leave dopplegangers behind in place of all of you, to serve as a diversion in case the dwellers return.”

“Dopplegangers?” Mom said.

“Yes,” Lyra said. “Synthetics designed in your image, and your son’s. They will handle the day-to-day operation of your farm in your absence.”

“Sounds expensive,” Mom said.

“You better believe it,” Jed complained.

“Do we want to involve the TSN?” Trent said. “Once the star navy learns about the dweller attack, they’ll definitely be eager to help. I’m sure they’d even be willing to send a few battleships to escort you to Talendir.”

“No,” Lyra said. “It could be too late by then. We must leave immediately.” She glanced at the tall man in power armor.

“I’ll make the arrangements for three dopplegangers to be delivered to the farmstead immediately,” Jed said. “I’ll have them cast in the images of father, mother, and son.”

“Good,” Lyra said.

Jed raised his hand once more, and from the glove emerged another beam, this one blue rather than red. He passed it over Tane and his parents.

“What are you doing?” Dad said.

“Taking your measurements for the synthetics,” Jed said. The blue light clicked off and the big man lowered his hand. He pressed a gloved finger to one ear and talked quietly as he walked off to a corner of the room.

“Wait,” Tane said. “It just dawned on me. Isn’t Talendir the homeworld of the Volur?”

“That’s right,” Lyra said.

“That’s what you are, isn’t it?” Tane said. “A Volur witch?”

“Witch?” Jed snorted from where he was standing in the corner of the room. “Volur is correct, but I suggest you drop the latter term. There’s something I’ve always found distasteful about the word ‘witch.’ Considering I’m a man.”

“You’re the Volur?” Tane asked.

Jed turned away to speak quietly once more, obviously distracted by another, more important conversation he was having.

“We both are,” Lyra said.

“But you look completely different,” Tane said.

Lyra smiled patiently. “As most Volur do. We all follow our own path in this life, and choose specializations that suit our particular tastes. While we may look different, I assure you we are both Volur. Jed and I work well together. We complement each other’s skill sets.”

Tane stared at the jewelry she wore in a new light. Those were probably all fashioned from Chrysalium, the special element that enhanced the drawing of the Essence. As were Jed’s piercings. And the glow emanating from the metallic dress she wore, and from Jed’s battle armor? He wondered if they had imbued the items with Essence themselves.

Now Tane just had to figure out why he wasn’t able to properly ID the two as Volur.

He’d always wanted to meet someone who could tap into the Essence, and he yearned more than ever to be able to do that Siphoning himself.

But I can’t. I don’t have the Ability.

“Trent, I must ask that you leave a troop of police robots behind to watch over the farmstead,” Lyra told the human officer. “Their priority should be to dig out the buried portions of the farm, and prevent the dwellers from launching another surprise attack. If the dwellers want to come again, force them to strike in the open.”

“I’ll see what I can do,” the human officer said.

“When the dopplegangers arrive,” Lyra continued. “I expect you to keep the troops in place indefinitely. Protect the synthetics as if they were human, so if the dwellers do come, they’ll believe that Tane and his parents really are inside.”

“I’ll have to call in some favors,” Trent said. “Keeping resources in place indefinitely like that doesn’t come cheap.”

“I have briefed you on how important this is,” Lyra told him.

“You have,” Trent agreed.

“I’ll send you some extra credits when I return to Talendir,” Lyra said. “To help smooth things over.”

“That’ll certainly help,” Trent said.

“Wait a second, did you say indefinitely?” Dad asked. “Just how long are we going to be away?”

“It’s hard to say,” Lyra told him. “It could be anywhere from six months to six years.”

“You have to be joking,” Dad said.

“I’m not,” Lyra said. “The dwellers will eventually catch on that your son isn’t on the planet anymore, and they will abandon their raids on the hydroponics farm. They’ll divert their attention to Talendir, and begin watching, waiting for the opportunity to strike. If you ever leave our protection, they’ll most certainly attack. So until we’ve found out how many of them have escaped the Rift, or avoided the fate of their brethren, and until we’ve dealt with them, you must stay on Talendir.”

“When do we leave?” Tane asked.

“As soon as you’re able,” Lyra replied. “We’ll take a speeder to Kalindor, and once there I’ll set you up in a hotel until I book passage on a ship out of here.”

“You don’t have your own ship?” Tane said.

Lyra smiled. “I’m a Volur, not a billionaire. Pack your things.”

* * *

Tane didn’t have very many belongings, at least not of the real world type. Nearly all of his most prized possessions and experiences were virtual. In the past, whenever he had updated his AR goggles to the latest and greatest pair, he always transferred over the internal database, and after getting chipped, the synthetic had migrated all of Tane’s precious data into his head. All the virtual decorations to his room, the IDs of his friends, his favorite games, music and vids, they were all there. Those were essentially his belongings.

Yes, he did have some clothes, a yingo ball, and several different drones, but that was about it. He had more clothes at Greg’s place, but he didn’t really care about those. He chose some of the spare garments and shoved them into a small sack, but he didn’t see a need for the ball or the drones. He hadn’t used either in years.

He paused, as he always did, beside the small crushed, crumbling jasmine Jenna had given him years ago. Ah, Jenna.

Tane once thought he was going to marry her.

Now I’ll probably never see her again.

Maybe that was a good thing. Change, that is. He had been on this farm for too long. He wanted to see the stars.

He remembered composing a digital letter to her a long time ago. In it, he had recounted all the times he had turned down her advances over the years. He told her he didn’t know why he’d done that, and he begged for forgiveness, and admitted his crush.

He never sent the letter, and eventually sent it to the wipe bin, the digital equivalent of lighting the letter on fire and burning it to ashes.

Tane sat on the bed. “Guess I should say good-bye.”

He decided to call Jenna and Greg at the same time: he didn’t want to have to repeat the good-bye. He told them he was going to be away from the farm for a while because of the attack, blaming it on Kayote scavengers. They seemed to believe him, though they did find it odd that the scavengers seemed to be targeting his farm alone and not the neighbors.

“So you’re coming back to the city, right?” Greg asked.

“Yes, but I won’t be staying with you,” Tane answered. “My parents are renting out a room, and I figured it was best if I didn’t impose.”

“You never impose, man,” Greg said.

“You’ve done enough for me,” Tane said. “I’ll never forget your help.”

“Aw, it was nothing,” Greg said.

Tane didn’t have the heart to tell Greg and Jenna he was leaving the system entirely. He couldn’t: not when his friends had the same dreams of space travel.

“We’ll have to hang out next week sometime then,” Jenna told him before he left the call. “When you’re back in the city.”

“Sure thing,” Tane said.

He disconnected wistfully, and gazed one last time at the moonscape beside his bed. It replaced the right wall entirely, a virtual decoration he had added years ago to remind him of his dream. The moon looked completely real as it overlaid his vision, and mingled perfectly with the real world so that it was as if his room opened out onto the pock-marked gray surface. In the sky hung a colorful gas giant surrounded by several thin rings, and behind the planet a brown dwarf with red clouds banding its surface peeked out.

“I’ll be out there soon,” he whispered.

Before returning to the first level of the farm, where Lyra was waiting, Tane made his way to the twentieth floor to retrieve the alien energy launcher from where he had left it stowed inside the ventilation shaft. He was relieved that the police X Ray scanners had missed the item. He wrapped it in a thick towel and secured it in place beside his backpack.

He took the lift to the first floor. Lyra and Jed eyed the wrapped weapon suspiciously, but didn’t say anything.

Mom and Dad weren’t there yet, which didn’t surprise Tane: they had a lot of real world baggage. While he waited, Tane took a moment to ID the four military-grade robots that served in Lyra’s coterie. Their names were Brass, Goggles, Fodder, and Sliver. All of their other information was the same:

Race: Robot.

Model: Scepter combat droid VII-11 Rev c.

Level: 9

Class: Personal Protection

“Well, I guess Mom and Dad are going to take their sweet time,” Tane told Lyra. He felt self-conscious around her beauty, his stomach all butterflies. “But this is actually kind of good. I have so many questions for the two of you.”

“Actually, if you don’t mind,” Lyra said, “we’d prefer to keep to ourselves for the time being. It’s been a long day.”

“Yeah, you’re right,” Tane said quickly, feeling himself redden for no reason. “I’m actually pretty tired, too. Surviving an alien attack does that to you. I think I’ll just sit over here.”

Lyra nodded stiffly. “Thank you.”

Tane sat down in one of the available guest chairs and quickly turned to the side, hiding his face.

The minutes ticked past. Tane lay back and shut his eyes. Though he had been trying to turn the tables on Lyra back there, he was actually pretty tired, and he wondered if he would fall asleep.

But just when he finally started to drift off, the lift opened with a loud DING and Dad came out.

“Where’s Mom?” Tane asked.

Dad shrugged, slamming his luggage against a nearby chair angrily. “Ask her! Still packing.”

Ten minutes went by.

Dad shouted at Mom over the comm a few times, repeatedly telling her “let’s go!”

At the thirty minute mark she came down the lift with Julius in tow: the robot was helping carry her belongings.

“You can’t bring all that,” Dad said. “It’ll never fit aboard a transport ship. You know how small the compartments are!”

“I’m sure our captain can find me a spare storage space,” Mom said, sniffing slightly.

“No,” Dad said. “Whatever Julius is carrying stays behind.”

“Uh-uh,” Mom said. “Some of my best dresses and perfumes are in those.”

Tane glanced at Lyra, who simply raised an eyebrow.

“Fine, then that one then,” Dad said, pointing at a big suitcase Mom was wheeling across the floor. “That stays!”

“No!” Mom said. “It has heirlooms! Plus my coin collection. It’s—”

“Been passed down your family for generations,” Dad finished for her. “Yes I know.”

After some arguing, Mom finally transferred belongings back and forth between the suitcases until she was able to bring herself to part with some of the luggage.

On the way out, Mom turned to Dad and said: “Wait, I forgot my anniversary rings! I can’t—”

“Leave them!” Dad said, hurrying out the door.

A speeder was already waiting for them outside the landing. Lyra had apparently chartered the entire shuttle, because according to the farm’s arrival log, the craft had been sitting there for about an hour.

The passengers loaded up, the doors sealed, and the self-driving system flew off into the desert.

During the flight, Lyra gave Tane and his parents a set of encryption keys in case any of them needed to communicate with her over the Galnet.

“I thought all communications over the Galnet were encrypted already?” Tane asked.

“Oh they are,” Lyra said. “But the tech companies have back doors in place for the government and law enforcement. If you want absolute privacy—which we do—you have to use your own encryption.”

Some time later Tane found himself in a hotel room. Earlier there had been an argument between Mom and Dad over whether they should stay at a short term rental or a hotel, with Mom preferring the short termer because “the rooms are nicer,” but since Lyra was paying she sided with Dad and went with the hotel.

Tane was hanging up some of his clothes in the provided rack. There was a small service bot supplied to the guests with each room to help with tasks like that, but Mom was using it to help with her baggage.

While Mom was busy with the robot, Tane sat down beside Dad, who was resting on his bed.

Dad was staring at the far wall, where Tane had placed the towel-wrapped energy launcher.

“You should get rid of that soon.” Dad nodded toward the alien weapon.

“Greg put me in touch with a weapons dealer in Runner’s Market,” Tane said. “He should be able to help me unload the thing.”

“Runner’s Market,” Dad said, his expression turning sour. “You shouldn’t be going there. Someone might rob you of the weapon before you even reach this dealer. The dealer himself will probably rob you. It’s a seedy part of town.”

“I’ve been to the market before,” Tane said. “Its reputation is undeserved. Sure, there are a couple of thieves dens, and maybe some of the shop owners employ a murderer or two, but as long as you go there during daylight hours, you’re completely safe.”

Dad chuckled softly at that. “The overconfidence of the naive.”

“Seriously, the place has really cleaned up in recent years,” Tane said. “The police raids have made a big difference. Anyway, I can’t just walk up to a reconstitution stall in the mall and hand over the weapon now, can I?”

“No, I suppose not,” Dad said. “Not for something like that.”

Tane stared at the veiled weapon, feeling a sudden surge of guilt. “Maybe I shouldn’t be selling it on the black market. Maybe I should give it up to the authorities. They might need to study it. See what we’re up against. There might be some technology in it we can reverse engineer. I could give it to Lyra.”

Dad shrugged. “It’ll eventually make its way into the hands of the TSN no matter what you do, don’t you worry about that. Might as well make some creds on it in the meantime.”

Tane sighed, then sat back in his chair. He studied his hands for a moment, then looked up.

“What was that you said earlier about being in a war?” Tane asked.

His father sighed deeply. “I knew one day I’d have to tell you. Yes, I was in a war. The war. It’s not something I’m proud of.”

“When was it fought?” Tane said. “I checked my chip, and also online. There’s nothing about any alien wars fought in recent times. And I never learned anything about a war in school.”

“Your virtual teachers don’t teach it. The ruling council of Galtede Serpentis, under pressure from the TSN, decided to expunge the war from our history databases, and block all search results from the GalNet.”

“But they can’t do that!” Tane said.

“They can, and they did,” Dad said.

“But that’s the same as lying about the past!” Tane said.

“Maybe so, but to be honest, I actually prefer it that way.”

“Why would the council, and the TSN, do this to our generation?” Tane said. “Hide the truth?”

“Various reasons. Mostly it was out of shame, I think. What we did to the dwellers...” He trailed off, and his face darkened. “It wasn’t humanity’s proudest moment.”

“My generation doesn’t need to be coddled,” Tane said.

“Tell that to the government,” Dad said. “But in truth, you also don’t need to hate what you are. They didn’t want you growing up feeling that humanity was evil. I didn’t want that, either.”

Tane thought for a moment. “I seem to remember demonstrations when I was a kid. Online, broadcast from other planets.”

“Yes,” Dad said. “They were calling for the dismantling of the TSN.”

“Why?”

“This was before the majority of planets fell under the rule of the TSN. These planets hadn’t yet hidden the truth from their citizens. And every year, a new generation graduated, well aware of what the TSN did. And aware of how powerful the star navy was becoming.”

“What happened?”

“What do you think? Eventually all human worlds had to cede their sovereignty over to the TSN. We had no choice, not after what we had seen the navy do to the dwellers. The planets still have some autonomy, but we pay a huge chunk of taxes to the TSN, and let them draft our best men and women.”

“When was the last time the TSN drafted from our world?” Tane asked.

“Twelve years ago,” Dad said.

Mom was done with the service bot, and sat down on the bed beside Dad to listen attentively.

“The government can’t shut everyone up, of course,” Dad said. “Parents sometimes slip up, talk about the dwellers in front of their kids. Rumors spread. It’s how you and your friends learned about the dwellers in the first place. And why you thought they were a myth.”

“So every planet under TSN rule keeps the truth hidden away like we do?” Tane said. “By actively blocking all searches related to the war?”

“No, there are still a few that don’t,” Dad said. “There are no riots on any of those worlds, though. The TSN doesn’t allow them.”

“Anteres really has a hundred battleships watching this Rift you mentioned?” Tane said. “There’s no radiation contamination? My chip is wrong?”

“You will learn someday not to trust everything your chip tells you,” Dad said. “Nor even what your eyes and ears reveal to you. Perhaps especially not those.”

“Maybe I shouldn’t have gotten chipped,” Tane said.

Dad pursed his lips. “The benefits outweigh the disadvantages, I think.”

“What was your role in the war?” Tane asked.

Dad lay down his head on the pillow and stared at the ceiling. “Now that, son, is not something I’m willing to talk about. Not to anyone. Not even you. I’m sorry.”

“But why not?” Tane asked.

When Dad lifted his head to look at him, his eyes were moist. He only shook his head and lay back once more.

“Sorry,” Tane said, looking away. He hated seeing his dad vulnerable like that. Hated it. Especially knowing that Tane himself was the cause.

Mom rested a hand on Tane’s shoulder. “It’s not your fault. You didn’t do this to him. You’re the one who healed him, in fact. He and I both.”

“You were in the war, too?” Tane asked.

“No,” Mom said, smiling sadly. Her eyes seemed wet, too. “I stayed home. But every day that passed, knowing he might not return, was a living hell for me. I dreaded every communication notice I received. Every single one. I thought I’d be reading about his demise. Don’t you ever leave us to go to war. Don’t you do that to us.”

“But there aren’t any wars to fight,” Tane said.

“Not now,” Mom said. “But with the dwellers back, it won’t be long until the TSN sends out a draft call to all the planets under its domain. Mark my words, it’ll come.”

“But if that’s true,” Tane said. “I’ll have to go to war. I’m of draft age. I won’t be able to avoid it…”

Mom’s lower lip quivered and she blinked rapidly before turning away.

And so I’ve gone and hurt her, too.

6

Tane made his way through the tightly packed stalls of the Runner’s Market. Vendors shouted his way, trying to attract his attention. Hawkers lifted up long cuts of meat, knock-off clothes, cheap selfie drones, AR goggles, you name it, whatever they thought he might be interested in.

The digital augmentations were even worse. Though translucent as required by the 3rd Party Advertising Law, those augmentations got right in his face and crowded his vision: scantily clad girls flaunted games and apps; neon signs covered in bare breasts indicated flesh parlors in side alleyways; animated emoticons promised cheap booze and a wide assortment of drugs in upstairs apartments. Some of the augmentations even broke the translucent law: solid girls would pass right through the makeshift stands to accost him, and opaque signage floated in front of him, blotting out a significant portion of his vision.

It got so bad that Tane had to turn off environmental interactions on his chip entirely, since nearly all of his visual real estate was being eaten up by some ad or another.

He often had to squeeze past other patrons. Hands sometimes groped his person in the more crowded areas, and he kept the towel-wrapped bundle held tight to his body. He was glad he didn’t have anything in his pockets, and especially grateful he hadn’t come here with a backpack.

Another reason why virtual belongings are better than physical… no one can steal them!

He pulled his hood close, remembering what Lyra had told him before dropping off his family at the hotel room.

“Stay in your room,” Lyra had said. “But if you must leave, be sure to obscure your face.” The implication was: hide from the city’s cameras and their facial recognition algorithms.

Other than those cameras, there was no other way for the city’s security personnel to track him. Kalindor privacy laws outlawed spying on the packets produced by his connection to the city’s data feed; those packets were anonymized anyway by the wireless adhoc mixnet formed between the different AR goggles and chips of residents throughout the city. Then again, Tane had heard stories about workarounds that could trace those packets… all the more reason to make this quick.

Shortly before coming to Runner’s Market he had decided to make a quick check-in with Headphone Jack. He wanted to confront the synthetic and see what kind of explanation it could come up with for why aliens suddenly had the hots for him, considering that they had decided to show up only two days after he got chipped. But Jack had all too conveniently closed up shop. It seemed obvious to Tane that the synthetic was involved somehow. He’d given Jack’s retail address to Lyra earlier: hopefully she’d be able to track down the synthetic for him.

Using the overhead map, Tane made his way through the crowded square until he reached the coordinates he was looking for.

There, a man sat hunched behind a table that overflowed with miscellaneous hardware, most of it in various states of disrepair: busted robot heads, partially crushed circuit boards, cracked shuttle electroactuators, and so forth. The man had cleared a small area near the center of the table to serve as his work area, and a small drone currently had the honor of his attention. He poked at the electronics with a tiny metal probe.

Earlier, Tane had searched for reviews on the tiny shop via the Galnet. The place didn’t have a name, so Tane had looked up the coordinates on his map. Nothing was listed. No stalls, no reviews. Usually a lack of reviews was a bad sign, but given the transient nature of most stalls in the Runner’s Market it wasn’t entirely unexpected. Then again, a lot of the shadier purveyors purposely didn’t name their stalls to avoid any negative reviews.

Tane had done a search on the seller’s alias as well, but again got nothing.

“Are you Roadroller?” Tane asked.

The man didn’t look up, continuing his probing.

“I have something to sell,” Tane said. “A weapon.”

The man finally glanced at Tane. His face was vaguely simian. He wore a pilot’s leather cap and a pair of telescopic AR goggles that seemed to be permanently attached to his head. Those long lenses exaggerated the size of his eyes almost comically, but the sly, shady cast to them certainly dispelled any notions of humor Tane might have felt.

“You Greg’s friend?” the shady man asked.

“How’d you guess?” Tane replied.

“Easy, you look like a loser,” Roadroller said.

Tane frowned. You should talk, Bug Eyes.

Roadroller nodded toward the bundle Tane carried. “So what do you got for me?”

Tane slid the heavy bundle onto the table, crushing a portion of the electronics.

“Careful!” Roadroller said. “What do you think this is, a dump?”

Yes.

Roadroller glanced both ways as if worried someone was watching the transaction, then he accepted the bundle. He set the large item down in his lap behind the table and unwrapped the towel. He looked up suddenly: his exaggerated eyes were very wide behind those lenses.

“Where did you get this?” Roadroller hissed.

“Found it in a dumpster,” Tane lied.

Roadroller leaned forward in his chair and looked both ways again before sitting back. “I could get in a lot of trouble for dealing in this. Sorry, can’t help you.”

Roadroller wrapped up the bundle and slid the long object back onto the table. He crushed some of the junk on top in the process, but didn’t comment this time.

“Fine.” Tane grabbed the bundle, but Roadroller’s hand darted forward in a blur, far faster than Tane could react, and caught his wrist in a vise-like grip.

“Actually, changed my mind,” Roadroller said.

“Really…” Tane said. “You sure you weren’t trying to make me lower my asking price by saying that?”

“Maybe I was, maybe I wasn’t. Listen, for a fellow grease monkey, I’ll make you a deal.”

“How did you know I’m a grease monkey?” Tane asked.

“I got skillz,” the shady man said. The “z” in skillz was audible. “Look at you. Level two in Mechanical Engineering.”

“You’re just guessing,” Tane said.

“Am I?”

“Then how do you know?” Tane pressed.

“Let’s just say, all the information you can read on your skill screens, I can, too. There are certain hacks and workarounds.”

Tane glanced at the man’s hand, which still gripped his wrist. “Like installing a reader into your fingers?”

Roadroller removed his hand and sat back, crossing his arms and grinning. “Two thousand.”

“Two thousand?”

“I’ll give you two thousand creds,” Roadroller said.

“Forget it.” Tane jerked the bundle off the table and turned to go.

“Wait!” Roadroller said. “Three thousand.”

Tane started to walk away.

“Five!” Roadroller shouted to his back.

Tane paused, then turned around. “Ten thousand,” he said over his shoulder.

“Seven,” Roadroller said. “No more.”

“It’s worth more than that.”

“Take it or leave it,” Roadroller said. “I somehow doubt you’ll find any takers who’ll offer as much as me among this sorry lot.”

Tane hesitated.

“Tell you what,” Roadroller continued. “I’ll give you either seven thousand creds, or two nanotech injections. Take your pick.”

The two nanotech injections were a much better deal than the seven thousand credits, since Tane wouldn’t even be able to buy one legitimate injection to increase his attributes at that price. But he suspected there was a catch: these micro machines were likely clones of official Reconstruct Systems product, dumped to the unregulated black market by the nanotech drug lords.

Tane almost agreed to the injections, but thought of all the damage to the farm caused by the aliens, and the sand. Rather than selfishly exchanging the weapon for augmentations, it was probably better to accept the money so he could put it toward the farm.

“Just a second, I need to talk to someone,” Tane said.

“Take as long as you need,” Roadroller replied.

Tane carried the bundle to a quiet area between two stalls and then made a call. In moments Dad’s translucent head appeared in front of him.

“So did you sell it yet?” Dad asked.

“No,” Tane said. “I wanted to talk to you. I’ve got an offer for seven thousand credits. What do you think?”

Dad nodded. “Seems like the best price we can expect, given the nature of the item.” He was careful not to use the word weapon, Tane noted. That showed him how much his dad trusted the “encrypted” network.

“Okay then,” Tane said. “I need approval to access your account.”

“Mine?” Dad said.

“Yes, I want to deposit the creds into your account.”

“No, son,” Dad said. “You worked hard to acquire that item. The proceeds from the sale are yours alone.”

“But we need to repair the farm.”

“We might never go back to that farm,” Dad said. “Use the money for whatever you want, son.”

“Are you sure?”

“More than I’ve ever been,” Dad said.

“All right. Thanks, Dad.”

Tane disconnected and returned to the stall. He plunked the bundle down on the table, shaking some of the other junk.

“Hey, watch the goods!” Roadroller said.

“I’ll take the nanotech,” Tane said.

Roadroller grinned widely. “Wise boy.” He slid the bundle down under the table and out of sight. The alien weapon seemed too big to fit behind the stall, but maybe that was just an illusion of the viewing angle.

“You want to augment your basic attributes, or your skills?” Roadroller said.

“Show me what skills you have available. And these better not be cheap skills like cooking or sex mastery or the deal is off.”

“Oh, I don’t got no cooking skills, don’t you worry,” Roadroller said. “Nor sex mastery. Just ask my wife.”

Tane received a sharing request on his HUD a moment later. He accepted and a notification window appeared, filled with a skill list.

Detect trap. Level 1. The thief’s specialty! Useful when disarming traps in storage vaults and containers. Also provides a chance to detect any traps hidden in walls and floors.

Mixed Martial Arts. Level 1. Never lose a street fight again! Learn a mixture of Jujitsu, Karate, and Kung Fu, with emphasis on grappling techniques.

Pistoleer. Level 1. Hit that ten ring! Improved bonuses to target accuracy, damage, and critical hit probability. Eligibility: laser and plasma pistols.

Sharpshooting. Level 2. Kill bugs dead! Improved bonuses to target accuracy, damage, and critical hit probability. Eligibility: laser and plasma rifles.

Sneak. Level 1. If at first you don’t succeed, hide! Improved chance of hiding in the shadows to avoid detection. Can also sneak up on enemies without drawing attention to yourself.

Sprint. Level 1. When you can’t fight an enemy, run! Increases movement speed on run.

Swimming. Level 1. Never drown again! Learn the breaststroke, the front crawl, and the backstroke.

“Not the biggest selection of skills I’ve ever seen…” Tane said.

“Hey, I could show you skills for things like holo bowling and laser golf, but you already mentioned you weren’t interested in the cheap stuff.”

Tane studied the skills, and wondered if he should concentrate the nanotech on his basic attributes instead. He remembered how badly he had panted back at the farm when he was running from those aliens. If he added a point to Endurance, maybe he would be able to last longer if he was faced with another encounter like that. Then again, Sprint might prove more valuable, especially if the movement effects translated into other activities besides running…

“Does Sprint increase my overall speed, or just running?” Tane asked.

“Just running,” Roadroller said. “You want to increase overall speed, bump up your Dexterity. Sprint imbues specific bonuses while running. But like ordinary running, you can only maintain it for as long as your Endurance lasts.”

Yes, Tane was definitely leaning toward enhancing his basic attributes. Adding to Dexterity and Endurance seemed like the way to go. But Sharpshooting Level 2 was also tempting. Tane was surprised Roadroller was even able to offer it, considering how expensive the higher levels normally were. This definitely wasn’t official Reconstruct Systems nanotech.

Tane didn’t think any of the other skills would help him. Mixed martial arts wouldn’t be very effective against the aliens. And he wasn’t planning on going swimming any time soon.

Roadroller seemed to confuse Tane’s pause for disinterest, because he fished under the table and produced another item.

“Also got this, which an adventurer such as yourself might like.” Roadroller dropped a small pouch onto the table. It was something Tane could easily hang from his belt.

Tane picked up the item and ID’d it.

Item: Traveler’s Delight (Personal Storage Device I).

Item type: Uncommon.

Effects: The interior contains an inter-dimensional rift created with the Essence. Functioning as a personal storage device, it allows the pouch to contain far more than its outward physical dimensions, up to ten items with a maximum volume of three cubic meters each. The pouch links to your chip or AR goggles, allowing for fast and easy inventory perusal via HUD. To remove an item, select it from the appropriate slot, and then reach inside. Pouch is virtually weightless, regardless of the items it contains.

Capacity: 10 items.

Tane had seen personal storage devices like these before, sold by touring craftsmen who claimed to have purchased them from the Volur. They were usually relatively expensive, around five thousand credits for a pouch of this capacity. Tane never really had a need to haul around belongings before, as most everything he had was virtual, and as such devices like these had never really appealed to him.

And the pouch didn’t really pique his interest that much now, either.

“So, what do you think?” Roadroller said.

“Not sure what I’d do with it,” Tane said.

“Are you going out into space soon?” Roadroller asked.

“Well yeah,” Tane said.

“Every space tourist needs one!” Roadroller said. “Imagine not having to lug around a bunch of suitcases!”

A device like this would have certainly helped out Mom.

“It attaches to the belt like so.” Roadroller took the pouch back and demonstrated how to secure it to his belt.

“I don’t know…” Tane said. “Seems like a bad idea to put my all belongings into something that could easily be stolen from my waist.”

“It comes with a low level shock trap,” Roadroller said. “It’s bio encoded to your DNA: someone other than you tries to open it, they get zapped. Unless they’re resistant to electric shocks, of course.”

“Wouldn’t it be better if the shock activated on touch?” Tane said.

“No, because if you bumped into someone you could accidentally shock them,” Roadroller said.

“But at least it would prevent loose fingers from prying it free…” Tane insisted.

Roadroller shrugged. “I’m sure there are bags like that, but they’re illegal.”

“And you don’t sell anything illegal of course…” Tane said.

Roadroller merely smirked.

“Okay fine, so what happens if I misplace it?” Tane asked.

“Don’t,” Roadroller said.

“I think I’ll focus on skills and attributes today,” Tane said.

Roadroller shrugged, putting the pouch back under the table. “Suit yourself. So what do you want?”

Tane thought a moment longer. He reviewed the skill list again. Sharpshooting was an undeniable steal. He probably wouldn’t find a deal like this again.

“I’ll go with Sharpshooting and Dexterity,” Tane finally said.

“Good choices.” Roadroller retrieved two small vials of yellow liquid from underneath the table. “A moment while I code the nanotech…” He inserted the first vial into a small device on the table and his eyes defocused behind those long lenses. A moment later he replaced the vial with the second, and once more looked off into the distance.

Then Roadroller removed the second vial and retrieved a handheld sonic injector. It looked like a pistol with an open top. He plugged one vial into the slot and beckoned toward Tane’s wrist.

“Hold out your hand, please,” Roadroller said.

“Don’t you have to scan me or something first?” Tane said. “To ensure the nanotech will take?”

“What?” Roadroller said. “Where do you get these ideas?”

Tane started to wonder if it was really the best idea to use unofficial nanotech. Before he could talk himself out of it he slid his right hand forward.

Roadroller touched the sonic injector to the back of his hand and Tane felt the sting as the vial emptied into his bloodstream. Roadroller quickly swapped in the second vial and injected that one, too.

Tane waited a moment. Then a flashing beacon appeared in the lower right of his HUD. He enlarged it.

Level up. Sharpshooting skill is now Level 2. 20% bonus to target accuracy. 10% bonus to damage. 6% increased probability of critical hit. Eligibility: laser and plasma rifles.

Attribute increase. Dexterity is now 9. You are faster and more nimble than ever before.

Tane moved his arms. He didn’t feel all that faster. Maybe there was a slight difference, but it was almost imperceptible to him. Then again, when he had added a point to Dexterity earlier, he hadn’t really noticed any immediate changes either.

“Look at that,” Roadroller said. “So fast.”

Tane frowned. “Are you sure it worked?”

“Of course it worked,” Roadroller replied, seeming insulted. “My nanotech is good.”

Tane wondered if there was a way to fool his chip into believing that an attribute was higher than it really was. Well, he supposed he’d just have to trust that his Dexterity had increased, and that he had received the necessary level up to Sharpshooting.

“All right, well, thanks.” Tane turned to go.

“Wait,” Roadroller said. He stood up, and shoved the personal storage pouch into Tane’s hands.

Tane tried to give the item back. “I have no credits left.”

“Take it,” Roadroller said. “Use it to bring me more of those weapons you found.”

“There are no more,” Tane said.

“Then find some,” Roadroller said. “Keep bringing them to me and I’ll make you rich. Take it. A gift.”

“A gift?” Tane gazed at the item suspiciously. “What’s wrong with it?”

“Nothing!” Roadroller said. “I don’t sell crap. Okay, most of the time I don’t. But this is a good one.”

“Then why are you giving it to me?” Tane pressed.

“Because in all honesty, you paid for it,” Roadroller said. “And I feel bad for you. You’re terrible at negotiating.”

Tane had a sinking feeling in his stomach that the alien weapon was worth far more than he’d gotten for it.

Too late now.

Tane accepted the sack. “Fine.”

“Now run along,” Roadroller said. “And don’t leave no reviews under my alias.”

“What happens if I do?” Tane said. To the tune of: Roadroller cheated my sorry ass.

Roadroller smiled, showing off a golden grille. “I’ll just change my alias.”

Tane proceeded down the aisle between stalls. He glanced at the pouch, unsure if he was simply going to resell it at another vendor, but after a moment’s thought he decided to keep it if only to help Mom and Dad with their luggage. He linked his brain chip to the pouch and pulled up the inventory system on his HUD. All ten slots were currently empty.

He kept the pouch firmly held in hand until the Runner’s Market and its shady clientele were well behind him, and then he secured the item to his belt.

When he reached the hotel room, he discovered his parents fast asleep. He could hear their snores before he opened the front door.

Not very soundproof, this place.

Signs of a classy hotel.

Inside, Tane tiptoed past his napping parents to his bed and then placed the pouch on the floor. He relaxed the drawstrings and stretched the lip. It opened surprisingly wide, revealing an unnaturally black interior. That darkness seemed to absorb all the room’s light.

Like gazing into a black hole.

He grabbed his suitcase, and was about to put it inside but then changed his mind. He still felt a little suspicious about the so-called “gift,” wondering if the device would eat his items.

He grabbed one of the nearby chairs instead and lowered it into the black hole at the bottom of the pouch; the chair slowly but surely disappeared. It was as if the floor wasn’t underneath the pouch at all.

When the top of the chair was nearly swallowed by the darkness, he released it entirely and the item dropped from view. Then Tane tightened the drawstring, returning the storage device to its formerly small size. Tane picked it up easily: the pouch seemed no heavier than before.

Holding it in the palm of his hand, he opened up the pouch once more. There was no sign of the chair, only that impenetrable blackness. He reached inside with his other hand and watched the arm vanish to the elbow. Considering that the hand holding the pouch was only a few centimeters below that elbow, it looked like he was missing half an arm.

Tane felt around, but couldn’t find anything. Slightly nervous about shoving parts of his body into another dimension, he quickly removed his hand. Using the HUD he accessed the pouch inventory, which was represented as a series of ten slots. He activated retrieval mode and selected the slot that contained a miniature picture of the chair. The item flashed.

He set down the pouch and reached inside again. It felt like his arm was vanishing into some black hole in the floor, considering that he had reached inside almost to his shoulder. He was suddenly worried about falling into the pouch, and he wondered if that happened whether he’d ever be able to get out again.

Finally he touched the outer edges of the chair it contained, and felt around until he found a surface he could grip. Wrapping his hand around it he pulled. The pouch opened wider around the chair as it emerged. When Tane had hauled out the chair entirely, he set it down on the floor next to the hole.

Tane whistled softly. “Well look at that. Works as advertised.” He examined the chair, but it seemed completely unharmed.

Satisfied that it was safe, Tane shoved his suitcase into the black hole and then sealed the pouch. He doubled-checked that the suitcase appeared in an inventory slot, and then he secured the pouch to his belt. Once again, he felt no extra weight whatsoever.

Traveler’s Delight indeed!

He glanced at Mom and Dad but they were both still snoring away happily. When they awoke, he’d offer to hold their baggage for them, but he wondered if they’d trust their belongings to the thing, especially considering where he had gotten it from.

Probably not.

The call notification icon suddenly flashed on his HUD.

The originator was shown as Lyra Glorandriel (ID: 75994552012545). He quickly added her to his contact list so he wouldn’t have to look at the long ID again, and then accepted the call.

A small holographic image of her face appeared in front of him.

“Hello Tane,” Lyra said. “I’m trying to call your parents, but I was sent straight to voicemail.”

“They’re taking a nap,” Tane said.

“Ah.”

“What did you want to tell them?” Tane asked. “I can wake them up.”

“Actually, I wanted to talk to you,” Lyra said. “We’re about to meet with a local merchant captain to negotiate passage to Talendir. I was wondering if you’d like to come?”

“Me?” Tane said. “Well sure. But what about Mom and Dad?”

“You can bring them if you like,” Lyra said. “Keep in mind that these are just preliminary talks. It’s not like we’ll be leaving immediately afterward or anything. Your parents will still have time to join us before we launch.”

Tane glanced at his mom and dad, but thought it best not to wake them. “No, I’ll let them sleep. I’ll be right down.”

“We will be waiting for you at the hotel entrance,” Lyra said.

Tane disconnected. Before departing, he left a digital note for Mom and Dad to let them know where he had run off to this time.

7

Tane met Lyra and Jed in the hotel foyer and they hopped into a shuttle cab. She left behind her four combat robots, Tane noted.

The autonomous quadcopter sped between the skyscrapers and the multi-level roads between them, following the lane designated for human transport vessels. Beneath them the sky lanes reserved for drones bustled with delivery craft.

Tane glanced at Lyra. Her eyes were defocused: apparently she was inside her chip. He didn’t feel as nervous around her anymore for some reason. He supposed he was getting used to her stunning features.

She’s not that different from anyone else. Well, except for the fact she’s a Volur.

“So what do we know about this merchant captain?” Tane asked her.

“I’ve pulled his public profile,” Lyra said. “He’s registered as a merchant trader. However, he has several fines on his record.”

“Fines, for what?” Tane asked.

“Smuggling illicit goods.”

“We can’t buy passage on a smuggler’s ship,” Tane said flatly.

“If it gets us off this planet faster, we have to,” Lyra said. “As a space traveler, you soon learn to take whatever viable transport is available to you, especially if you’re in a hurry.”

“I don’t like it,” Tane said.

“Relax, Engineer,” Jed said. He was wearing his desert digital battle armor as always. “A small-time smuggler can’t harm the likes of us.”

“Easy for you to say,” Tane told him. “Dressed like that. But what about me?”

Tane was starting to wish Kalindor had better right-to-carry laws for private citizens. He glanced longingly at the weapons strapped to Jed’s belt. As a Volur, legally Jed could possess any firearm he wished. City law allowed that much. Tane supposed it was because the Volur were universally recognized as weapons in their own right, and the TSN didn’t want to risk alienating their most powerful allies, not on any of the worlds under their dominion. It was probably also because the Volur often acted as the long arm of the TSN.

“We’ll protect you,” Jed said.

Tane considered that. He supposed the smuggler wouldn’t dare mess with two members of the Volur.

“So what’s the plan?” Tane said.

Lyra glanced at him distractedly. “Once we’ve hammered out a fee and inspected the ship, we’ll schedule the take off for as soon as possible.”

“Why the urgency?” Tane said. “You really think the dwellers could get to me here?” He gestured toward the vast cityscape around him.

“You might be surprised at what they can do,” Lyra said. “In planet-side operations, their standard modus operandi, once they’ve located a target, is to strike from the shadows. They like to send in digger units to undermine any structure a target may reside inside. Just like at your farm, these units would come in from underneath the sand and the very foundations the hotel is built upon, and worm their way into the shafts of the service elevator. They’d burst onto your floor in the middle of the night, break down your door, and take you.”

“Great,” Tane said. “These dwellers sound like real sports.”

“Oh, they certainly make great sport all right,” Jed said, patting his glowing sword hilt.

An alert flashed in the lower right of Tane’s HUD. He expanded the notification until it filled his entire vision. It was a city-wide News Alert of some kind. He enlarged the live video and was shocked to see his mugshot displayed next to a female reporter.

“A planet-wide warrant has been issued for Tane Ganeth and his parents, Bill and Wilma Ganeth.” The photos of his parents appeared above his own. “All three are wanted for questioning in connection with an incident that took place at their farmstead. If you have any information regarding their whereabouts, please contact Kalindor Police at the ID listed below. Thank you.”

The video clicked off.

Tane shifted uncomfortably in his seat. “Did you see that?”

“It seems someone has notified the local TSN office about the incident at your farm,” Lyra said. “Probably one of the police robots. I’m almost surprised it didn’t happen sooner. Trent is good at suppressing the robots that serve underneath him, but they do have minds of their own.”

Tane realized the shuttle hadn’t left the sky lane. “Why isn’t the cab’s AI heading toward the nearest police station?”

“I masked all of our IDs before entering the craft,” Lyra said.

“Oh,” Tane said. “So you’re going to have the AI change course, right?”

“Why would I do that?” Lyra said.

“I’m not going to turn myself in?”

“Of course not,” Lyra said.

“But the TSN will protect me,” Tane said.

“Ha!” Jed said.

Lyra gave Tane a look that was almost pitying. “If they capture you now, you’ll be held in a brig until a TSN battle cruiser arrives. The dwellers are counting on something like that to happen. They have the ability to monitor our communication feeds. Once they realize you’re being held in a relatively insecure facility, they’ll strike. You’ll be helpless.”

“I’m sure the TSN won’t hold me in an insecure facility,” Tane said.

“Trust me, whatever combat robots and battle mechs they have protecting the facility won’t be enough,” Lyra told him. “Your best bet is to continue with the original plan, and come with Jed and myself to Talendir.”

“But if I surrender, you two can stay with me,” Tane said. “You can help the TSN guard me until the battle cruiser arrives.”

Lyra glanced at Jed. There was an amused glint to her eyes. “The two of us aren’t all powerful, despite what you may have heard or believe. We can hold back some dwellers, yes, but we’re ill-equipped to fend off a swarm.”

“A swarm?” Tane asked.

“You don’t want to know,” Jed said.

Tane thought back to his experience in the ventilation duct. “I faced a swarm of tiny robots the dwellers sent into the vents at my farm.”

“Dwellers swarms are similar to that,” Lyra said. “Except replace the tiny robots with standard-sized units.”

“Oh,” Tane said. After a moment: “What about your powers? Can’t you work wonders with the Essence?”

“Wonders, yes,” Lyra said. “Miracles, no. The dwellers may have Essenceworkers with them, too. And Graaz’dhen.”

“Graaz’dhen?”

“Yes. Dwellers enhanced with the Dark Essence. They are stronger than ordinary dwellers, and can reach into a human’s mind. Because of their telepathic abilities, they’re essentially the commanding officers in a typical dweller army, with lesser dwellers bound to them in cohorts. Take down a Graaz’dhen and you stun all the dwellers linked to it for a short time. It takes a stunned dweller about two minutes to recover. Less if another Graaz’dhen assumes control of the cohort before then.”

“You think there was a Graaz’dhen at the farm, too?”

“Most likely. Probably waiting in the desert nearby.”

“Why didn’t it come inside?”

“My guess is the Graaz’dhen was being cautious,” Lyra said. “It wasn’t sure what sort of prey you were. It wouldn’t want to risk going down and having its linked dwellers become stunned. Besides, as I told you, the Graaz’dhen is more like a commanding officer, used to staying back while its underlings work.”

Tane watched the buildings pass by below.

“What about my mom and dad?” Tane asked. “We have to go back for them. Right now. The first places I’d check, if I was working for the star navy, would be the B&Bs and hotels. I’d pull the rental history for all the short termers listed on the mixnet, both private and public.”

“Your parents are safe for the time being,” Lyra said. “I’ve checked them in under an alias, and taken care to blur the faces of you and your family from the hotel security cams to avoid tipping off the facial recognition algorithms.”

“You can do that?” Tane asked.

“It’s a skill of the Essence,” Lyra said.

“Wish I had skills like that,” Tane said. He thought of something: “Won’t Officer Trent tell the TSN where to find us?”

“He works for me, essentially,” Lyra said. “He’ll do what he can to put them off our trail. Besides, he doesn’t know which hotel your family checked in to. I never told him.”

“And what about the listening devices in this cab?” Tane said. “It is a public vehicle.”

“I’ve disabled them, of course,” Lyra said.

Tane shook his head. “To be a Volur.”

He wanted to tell his parents about the city-wide alert, and he tried to call Dad but was directed to voicemail. The same thing happened with Mom. Still napping, apparently. They must have been more tired than he thought.

He sat back and stared out the shuttle window. Beneath the neat lines of the drones and personnel transports that seemed to move almost with a casual bearing through the skies, on the ground the citizens rushed to and fro, frantic in comparison, looking like disorganized ants. Busy lives. Busy people. Working day jobs so they could afford the luxuries basic pay simply couldn’t offer them. Men and women oblivious to the aliens lurking somewhere in their midst.

“I wonder if I was caught on camera when I went to the city...” Tane said.

Jed looked at him crossly. “We told you to stay in your room.”

“I know. But you said I could go out as long as I kept my face hidden. I wore a hood... raised, close around my face.”

“If you were caught on camera, wherever you were would have been immediately cordoned off,” Lyra said. “So I doubt you and I would be having this conversation right now.”

“There you go,” Tane said. “I kept out of the limelight then.”

The cab broke away from its position in the sky lane and banked toward a large terminal situated at the top of a skyscraper. The vessel landed on a shuttle platform adjacent to one of the smaller hangars connected to the terminal. The platform was covered in scorch marks and small craters. The nearby hangar was similarly dented, and had definitely seen better days, its doors bearing the marks of ships that had braked a little too late.

The red exit light in the shuttle turned yellow.

“Please dispense payment,” a sweet voice chimed. “Please dispense payment.”

“I got this,” Jed said, eyes defocusing.

“Please dispense payment,” the sweet voice nagged.

The exit light turned green and the shuttle doors opened.

“Thank you for flying with Bodacious Cabs,” the voice said. “Have a nice day!”

Tane and the others got out and the cab immediately took to the air. They’d be able to catch a return flight to the hotel from one of the other shuttles queued in the arrivals area.

“Stealth mode,” Jed instructed Lyra.

She nodded.

The glow emanating from Jed’s armor faded, and the digital patterning became replaced by a dull brown. The armor maintained its previous bulk, however. Jed closed a leather flap over the hilt of his sword, and flipped down a similar flap over the stock of his pistol, hiding the glow emanating from both weapons.

Meanwhile, the subtle nimbus also disappeared from Lyra’s dress of interlocking metal plates. At the same time, her sleeves elongated so that her hands and the jewelry she wore were covered entirely by the material. A hood grew out of her back collar, and she lifted it over her head to hide the circlet on her forehead. The plates smoothed out so that the material looked like fabric, not metal. She no longer looked like she was wearing an armored dress, but rather a cloth robe.

She tucked her necklace and the ruby hanging from it into her front collar, hiding it.

“You look like a traveling Oratory Monk and her mercenary for hire,” Tane said.

“That’s the idea,” Lyra told him.

“You’re not going to remove your Chrysalium piercings?” Tane asked Jed.

The big man shrugged in his armor. “They’re just jewelry to the untrained eye.”

Tane followed Lyra and Jed toward the main terminal entrance. The three of them scooted around parked shuttles that were crowded so close together they essentially abutted one another; Tane was sure the craft were breaking some sort of legal code by doing that. To get around them, the trio were forced to walk a bit closer to the edge of the platform than Tane would have liked. He didn’t dare look down. He already knew it was a long drop thanks to the view he’d had before the shuttle had landed. It didn’t help his nerves that the wind was particularly strong up here, and threatened to sweep him right off the platform if he wasn’t careful.

He kept his hood raised, holding it in place with one hand, fighting the air currents. Even if Lyra could blot out his image from the security cameras he didn’t want to rely on her skill alone. What if there were too many cameras for her to blur them all?

They entered the terminal and got out of the wind. A large glass window formed the far wall, and overlooked the hangars and launch pads. The window itself looked foggy, as if it hadn’t been cleaned in ages. As he stared past the blurry panes, he saw an array of fancy ships squatting on the different open-air launch pads. All were relatively small. They had to be, in order to operate both planet-side and in space.

A pair of rifle-carrying security droids marched past. Tane kept his head bowed and prayed the robots wouldn’t catch enough of his features to make a positive ID.

Digital advertisements popped up over his vision as Lyra led them across the terminal. Tane noticed that Jed was constantly scanning the terminal, watching for trouble no doubt.

Lyra passed a purchasing kiosk, where a small queue of people waited, and entered a bar beside it. The Portly Scuttle, the digital signage proclaimed. Inside, the bar had a floor-to-ceiling window overlooking the launch pads, and the city beyond.

“Welcome to the Portly Scuttle,” a sleazily-dressed synthetic said at the entrance. “Just the three of you?”

Lyra ignored the hostess and continued into the bar.

“How rude,” the synthetic said.

Tane gave the hostess an apologetic look as he passed. Inside, the floors, walls and every piece of furniture seemed coated in a layer of soot. “You’d think they couldn’t afford cleaning robots.”

“They can’t,” Lyra said. “Operating margins are thin for a place like this.”

“Don’t the terminal owners provide any?” Tane asked.

“You saw what the windows looked like outside…” Lyra said.

Lyra steered through the mostly empty seats, heading toward the far side of the bar. Jed led the way, scanning the room.

Tane stayed close to them, and spotted the smuggler immediately. The man sat at a table with his back to the floor-to-ceiling window, his chin bowed, a wide-brimmed hat hanging over his head. One arm was visible on the table in front of him, next to an empty shot glass; the other was hidden underneath the table. He wore a dark trench coat over a white button down that was open enough to reveal a good portion of his hairy chest. Black leather leggings above tall boots completed his outfit.

Tane immediately wondered how the man skirted the city’s gun laws, because a pistol was strapped to his right thigh, clearly visible on the leg thanks to his rather shrewd positioning at the edge of the table. That wasn’t the only weapon, either. His trench coat was open down the middle, the lapels pushed back to reveal the edge of a sawed-off plasma rifle hanging from a holster on his rib cage.

“Tripp Nebula,” Lyra said when she and the others reached him. Tane could smell the alcohol from where he stood. The man must have already had three or four shots at least, of the hardest stuff available.

The smuggler looked up then, smiling, revealing a weathered but unlined face. His eyes held a mixture of mischief, amusement, and cunning.

Tane pulled up the man’s public profile.

Name: Tripp “Nebb” Nebula

Race: Human

Level: 8

Class: Interstellar Trader

Arrested for smuggling illicit goods in the Trizar and Yanator Systems. Rapier class ship “Red Grizzly” impounded in Erant system for possession of the banned substance Mindpipe. Currently wanted in Agricul, Rantan, and Zoolastian systems for failing to pay customs fees.

Tane stared at that last bit. Yup, definitely a smuggler. And that was only his public record.

“There you are.” The man tipped his hat. “Tripp Nebula? That’s what my public profile says, but friends call me Nebb. Though whether I allow you that honor is another story. Have a seat.”

Lyra and Tane sat across from him. In his bulky armor, Jed had to slide a chair far away from the table just to fit.

The smuggler smiled widely at Jed, as if he thought what the big man was doing was the cutest thing. Jed ignored the smuggler, his eyes continuing to roam the bar vigilantly. He was doing it in such a way that wouldn’t draw attention to himself.

“So, I sent you my quote,” Nebb told Lyra. “Did you get it?”

“I got your ‘quote,’ yes,” Lyra said. “Seems a little high.”

Nebb smirked. “For two Volur and their cargo? Not so high, I think. Nice disguises, by the way. You almost fooled me. Almost.”

Tane noticed he was subconsciously referring to the man as “Nebb” already. Friends call me Nebb. Tane certainly didn’t want to get on his bad side: the smuggler didn’t seem like a man anyone would want as an enemy. The fact that he seemed unafraid of two Volur spoke volumes as far as Tane was concerned.

“Well lookee here,” Nebb said, drawing Tane out of his reverie. The smuggler was looking right at him; Nebb bent over slightly as if to better peer under Tane’s hood, and he lifted his wide-brimmed hat a tad. “You think you can hide under that them there thing?” He returned his attention to Lyra. “His face is plastered all over the city’s mixnet. The authorities are going to be rushing in here any second now. You’d be wise to leave before they do.”

“Unless you’ve called them in,” Lyra said, “there will be no authorities.”

“Ha! I don’t have to call them in,” Nebb said. He nodded toward the small globe in the ceiling.

“The cameras won’t ID him,” Lyra said. “Or any of us.”

“Really…” Nebb said. He sounded doubtful. He glanced at Tane. “Even if that were true, that doesn’t change the fact your passenger is wanted.”

A synthetic server skinned up as a pretty girl came to take their orders. Tane hid his face in his cloak.

“Hello, and welcome to the Portly Scuttle!” the synthetic said. “I’m Molly! Can I get you anything to drink?” She was wearing a skimpy skirt and top that revealed ample cleavage. Tane couldn’t help but notice her skin was falling off in patches, revealing the shiny memory metals underneath.

“Water for all of us,” Lyra said.

“Water it is!” Molly said with a big smile. She turned around to go, and Tane once more ducked his head.

“No water for me, Molly,” Nebb said. “I’ll get another one of these.” He raised the empty shot glass.

Molly smiled seductively. “You got it boss.”

“And keep up the sexy smiles,” Nebb ordered.

Molly giggled. It was all so fake to Tane, but Nebb seemed to be enjoying the attention nonetheless.

“They’ll kick you out, you know,” Nebb said when the synthetic server was gone. “You can’t just order water and expect the management to be happy. Not in a joint like this.”

Lyra glanced at the empty glass on the table. She smiled coldly. “Good thing we have you here to order the hard stuff.”

“Suppose so,” Nebb said. “Now where were we? Ah yes, your passenger is wanted.”

“You’re refusing to take us?” Lyra said.

“I didn’t say that,” Nebb told her.

“You’re going to turn us in?” Tane asked.

Nebb glanced at him. “It speaks! No, kid, I’m not going to turn you in. I’m no friend of the TSN.”

“So what are you saying?” Lyra said.

Nebb returned his attention to her. “I think you know what I’m saying.”

Lyra paused. “Fine. We’ll pay double your quoted fee.”

“Triple.”

Lyra glanced at Jed.

“Done,” Jed said.

“Mmm.” Nebb rubbed his chin. “You agreed too quickly. Tells me I was offering too low. I want quadruple the quoted fee, or I ain’t taking you.”

Lyra simply stared at him, her face a smooth mask. “We’ll pay what you want.”

“Good. Quintuple it is.” He smiled broadly. “Now that we got the fun part over with, when would you like to leave?”

“Immediately,” Jed said.

“Well it’s a bit sudden, but all right.” Nebb sat back, put his hands behind his head. “I’m sending my account information to you. I’ll expect three-fourths up front.”

“Three-fourths?” Lyra said. Her face continued to portray a mask of serenity, but her eyes betrayed surprise.

“Hey, got up-front fuel and maintenance costs I got to pay,” Nebb said.

“We’ll have to inspect the ship first,” Jed said.

“Expected no less from a Volur.” Nebb stood up from the table. “Follow me then. We’re off to see the gizzard! The wonderful gizzard of…” He glanced at Lyra and Jed. “Well, never mind. I get a bit giddy when my bank account is full.”

“Understandable,” Lyra said, rising. “But we haven’t paid you yet.”

“Oh you will,” Nebb said. “I know desperation when I see it.” He gave Tane a wink.

Tane and Jed stood as well. As usual, Jed towered over all of them.

Tane was careful to keep his hood pulled low, especially when he saw the synthetic server walking toward them with a tray.

“What about your drinks?” the synthetic said.

“On me,” Nebb told the server. He retrieved the shot glass from the tray, downed it, and replaced it; then he led Lyra and the others toward the exit.

“You almost make it sound like we had to pay for that water,” Tane said.

Nebb glanced at him with an amused expression. “Boy, in this part of town, you pay for everything.”

Nebb led them from the bar and into the main terminal. He passed several kiosks and turned down a side passage.

Digital signage augmented Tane’s vision. Large green arrows pointing to the left read Hangars 1 & 2 while those on the right indicated Hangars 3 & 4.

Nebb took the right passage, which led to a glass-doored exit that opened onto the platforms outside. In front of it, several security drones manned a full body scanner that took up the entire width of the corridor—essentially a long glow bar running up the left wall, along the ceiling, and down the right wall. It pulsed between blue and yellow.

Tane halted in mid-step. “I should probably wait here,” he told Lyra.

“It’s all right,” Lyra said. “I’ve blurred your features. The facial recognition algorithms on the robots won’t recognize you.”

“But my public profile…” Tane said.

“Also temporarily masked,” Lyra said. “We’ll get you set up with a permanent forgery eventually so I don’t have to constantly hold the Essence.”

“How are you doing this?” Tane said. “You blurred my face to the cameras. And now to the robots, too? Aren’t there too many of them for you to control them all at once?”

“It doesn’t work like that,” Lyra said. “I make the adjustments directly to you. The blurring is done to your face, for example.”

Tane glanced at his reflection in the foggy pane of glass beside him. He looked normal.

“I’ve done nothing to you on the visible band,” Lyra said. “However, I’ve carefully placed infrared light all around your face, securing it in place with the Essence. Trust me, you’ll pass their scrutiny.” She shrugged. “But if you wish, stay. I just thought you’d like to see the ship.”

Lyra and Jed followed Nebb toward the security checkpoint. As he stared at her back, Tane decided that yes, he did want to see the ship.

Tane straightened his back, took a deep breath, and walked toward the corridor-wide body scanner. He couldn’t help the sudden rise in heart rate, and he had to resist the urge to tweak his cardiovascular and hormonal levels.

He passed underneath the pulsing blue and yellow lights of the body scanner without setting off any noticeable alarms. But he must have triggered something, because one of the armed security droids stepped in front of him. It looked similar to the police robots, in terms of its lack of expression of any kind, though its body was clad in black fatigues.

“Lower your hood,” the droid said forcefully.

Tane’s eyes involuntarily dropped to the plasma rifle the robot held, and then he reached up and flipped down his hood.

He held his breath as the security droid studied him.

“Ship, destination, and reason for travel?” the droid said.

“I’m not going anywhere,” Tane said. “I’m just inspecting a ship.”

“Proof of—” the droid began.

“He’s with us,” Lyra interrupted in that mellifluous voice of hers. She approached, lowered her hood, and gazed into the robot’s blank face. “Volur business.”

The droid stared at her a moment, then inclined its head. “Volur business.” It looked at Tane once more. “Go.”

“Did you use the Essence on that robot?” Tane said when the security checkpoint was behind them.

“No,” she said, raising her hood once more. “I took advantage of the galaxy-wide respect reserved for the Volur.”

Tane, Jed and Lyra reached the exit, and the glass slid aside automatically. Nebb was far ahead on the platform beyond, his trench coat dancing in the wind.

“Well come on then, I was under the impression you were in a hurry?” Nebb said.

8

Tane followed Jed and Lyra through the exit. There were no launch pads on the open-air platform outside, but only two enclosed hangar bays, one on the left, the other on the right. Nebb led them to the hangar that was digitally labeled Hangar 3 on Tane’s vision.

Nebb casually climbed the ramp toward the entrance, and strode past an armed robot that stood on guard duty. While it had a shield generator at its waist, currently active judging from the glowing blue globe at the center, this was the first combat robot Tane had seen so far that was also equipped with body armor, rather than camos, though it was only a quarter as thick as Jed’s armor. Also, unlike other combat units, this one’s visor offered expression feedback—animated vectors represented the eyes, nose and mouth. Tane was immediately reminded of Julius.

If Julius walked around in combat armor and with a plasma rifle, that is.

Curious, Tane checked out its profile.

Name: Positron

Race: Robot.

Model: Scepter combat droid VI-5 Rev a.

Level: 7

Class: Personal Protection

“Positron, meet our new passengers,” Nebb said.

The animated lines representing the robot’s features curled up in disgust. “May the stars help us.”

“We’re not your passengers yet,” Tane told Positron.

Nebb chuckled as if that were the funniest joke he’d heard all day.

Inside the hangar, Tane was immediately taken aback by how big the ship it contained was. The vessel filled up more than half the hangar, easily the size of a large house. It was shaped like two large horseshoe magnets placed back to back, with a long nose section between them.

The exterior was a silvery gray metal, dimpled in many places thanks to micrometeor impacts. A hull-encompassing protective energy system similar to that found in shield generators was supposed to defend against such damage, but inevitably some micrometeors impacted with high enough energy to penetrate. Small machines were currently crawling over the hull, smoothing out the dimples with 3D-printed metal.

Huge metal pincers hung from tracks in the hangar’s ceiling beside the ship, and they held large flexible tubes against the vessel. The craft was obviously refueling.

“As you can see, we’re getting her flight-ready,” Nebb said.

“What’s she called?” Jed asked.

“He’s called the Red Grizzly,” Nebb said.

“He?” Tane said. “Isn’t it bad luck to refer to your ship as a male?”

Nebb shrugged. “Going with the flow is the only time I ever have bad luck. Against the flow, that’s where I shine.”

“Why Red Grizzly?” Tane asked.

Nebb smiled patiently. “Because you don’t want to mess with a red grizzly. Means it’s just had a fresh kill, if you know what I’m saying. Covered in blood.”

“Ah.” Tane studied the curving lines and the long nose. “I don’t see it.”

“Didn’t expect you to,” Nebb said.

Tane ran the ID.

Ship: Red Grizzly.

Class: Rapier.

Offensive Weapons:

Forward-facing:

Eight dragon laser turrets, 180-degree throw angle.

Two plasma throwers, 45-degree throw angle.

One Essence lance, 90-degree throw angle.

Aft-facing:

Four dragon laser turrets, 90-degree throw angle.

Point Defense Weapons: None.

Shielding system: Energy.

Crew complement: 4.

Passenger capacity (current/maximum): 0/6.

The Rapier class was popular among smugglers because it was small and fast while still packing enough of an offensive sting to discourage most pirates. Determined opponents could still take it down, of course. Especially if those opponents had a TSN battle cruiser with a full fighter complement at their disposal.

The entrance ramp was open and lying at an angle on the hangar floor.

Nebb glanced at the two Volur. “I assume one of you is coming with me?”

Jed stepped forward. “That’s right,”

“I’ll wait out here with our intrepid young man,” Lyra said.

Tane glanced at Lyra, and was about to ask why he couldn’t go, too, but clamped his mouth shut.

Nebb and Jed vanished up the ramp.

“Jed always inspects a ship first before I board,” Lyra explained when the two were gone. “A precaution in case of ambush. I know you wanted to go with him as well, but trust me, it’s better this way.”

Tane nodded reluctantly. His incoming call indicator flashed then, and he moved to the side of the hangar to answer it.

“Hey Dad,” Tane said, picking up.

“We got your message,” Dad said.

“Did you check the news?” Tane asked.

“We saw the alert,” Dad said. “What the hell is going on?”

“Lyra says someone notified the TSN about the alien attack, probably one of the robots in the police force. Even though they only want us for questioning, Lyra thinks it’s probably better if we don’t let the TSN find us. She wants to head straight to Talendir instead.”

“I’d have to agree there,” Dad said. “Once the TSN gets its claws into you, they don’t let go until they’ve wrung every last bit of use from you. Last thing I want is you or your mom in their hands. Even if it’s only for ‘questioning,’ as they say.”

“You really think highly of them, don’t you?” Tane said.

“They’re a junta, so of course I don’t have much respect for the TSN,” Dad said. “And I told you, I fought in the war for them. I’ve seen firsthand their methods. Their callous disregard not only for the lives of their enemies, but their own soldiers. Don’t get me wrong, the men and women I served with were amazing. It’s those in charge at the top I have a problem with. Trust me, if the TSN gets their hands on us, we won’t be treated well. Now, how did it go with the merchant captain?”

“We’re looking at his ship now,” Tane said. “You’re going to love it.”

“You sound a bit sarcastic…” Dad said.

“Well the ship is fine,” Tane said. “But the captain, not so much. He’s a smuggler.”

Dad was quiet a moment. “I’m not sure whether to be relieved or worried. Though honestly, maybe his being a smuggler is a good thing. Especially if the TSN is looking for us. Who knows, he might be able to use his smuggling skills to get us out of the system unnoticed.”

“Yeah, you’d think,” Tane said. “But he’s been caught several times, according to his public profile. Makes you wonder just how good he is. By the way, when can you get here?”

“If we hop into a city shuttle, around thirty minutes,” Dad said.

Lyra, standing nearby, gestured for Tane’s attention. “Your parents can’t travel alone. I’ll have to go back for them, blur their facial features and mask their IDs.”

“Lyra says you have to wait for her to come pick you up,” Tane said. “She’s worried the city’s security cams are going to detect your faces and IDs. She can blur them, apparently.”

“All right, we’ll wait for her,” Dad said. “How long?”

Tane glanced at Lyra. “When can you pick them up?”

“I’ll leave as soon as the inspection is done,” Lyra said. “I’ll probably be there in an hour.”

“She says an hour,” Tane told Dad.

“All right,” Dad said. “Until then.”

Tane disconnected.

Jed walked down the ramp a few minutes later with Nebb.

“It’s a rust bucket,” Jed said. “But it’ll do. There are two additional crew: a jump specialist and a maintenance robot.”

Nebb smiled at Lyra. “So now then, my fee?”

Lyra’s eyes defocused. “It’s done.”

“Got it.” Nebb rubbed his hands together. “Give me half an hour to fuel. Then meet me back here.”

“Is half an hour enough time?” Tane said, glancing at the vessel’s hull uncertainly. “Look how slow those tiny robots are making repairs. Don’t think they’ll have all the micro craters filled by then.”

“We don’t need the hull to be completely repaired,” Nebb said. “We can launch at any time, in fact. Hull integrity is more than ninety percent. Listen, why don’t you go have a drink in the bar while you wait, calm your nerves.”

“I’m not nervous,” Tane said.

“Sure you aren’t,” Nebb said.

“We’d rather wait aboard,” Lyra said. “Just in case you decide to take the money and run.”

“I would never do such a thing to a paying customer,” Nebb said. “How dare you insult my honor?”

“I dare because I’ve had a look at your public profile,” Lyra said. “You’ve got more than a few smuggling citations.”

“Oh, that’s only part of my cover,” Nebb said. “Helps weed out the type of clients I want.”

“I see,” Lyra said.

“’Sides, I have more than enough enemies. Last thing I need is to add two Volur to the list. And I do want my final twenty thousand.”

Tane started at the price. “Twenty thousand! That means the total cost…”

Nebb nodded with a smirk. “That’s right, boy. Space travel is expensive. Got a crew to feed you know.”

“I somehow doubt your costs are anywhere near eighty thousand credits per trip,” Tane said. “Especially since two members of your crew are robots!”

Nebb shrugged. “I’m running a business here. Not a charity.” He started up the ramp. Glancing over his shoulder, he said: “Wait aboard if you like.”

Lyra and Jed followed him.

“Wait,” Tane said. “You’re going back to get my parents now. Right?”

Lyra paused. She looked back at Tane and smiled widely. “Of course.”

“Good. I’ll go with you. I want to help Mom with her luggage.” He grabbed the travel pouch at his belt and waggled it slightly. “Got a handy new storage device to show her.”

“Of course,” Lyra repeated. She was looking directly into his eyes. Her musical voice sounded so soothing.

So hypnotic.

Tane suddenly felt very sleepy.

Before he realized what was happening, he was slumping forward into Jed’s waiting arms. Tane never knew body armor could feel so soft and accommodating…

* * *

Lyra watched Jed carry the unconscious youth aboard. She regretted having to treat Tane like this, but there was no time. Sliver, one of the scepter droids she had left at the hotel, had tapped into the military mixnet and was monitoring communications city-wide. The TSN was apparently searching all ships scheduled for departure from terminals across Kalindor, and TSN combat robots were to supplement all space-bound hangar security checkpoints going forward.

The TSN was casting its net far and wide. Smart move.

Already Brass, the scepter she had planted in the current terminal to keep watch, had reported the arrival of TSN troops. Yes, time was quickly running out.

After she helped Jed secure Tane inside one of the cramped guest rooms, Lyra and Jed hurried to the cockpit, where the smuggler awaited.

“Nebb, we have to go. Now.” Lyra sat down beside the smuggler in a spare seat. In front of her a large window revealed the inside of the hangar as viewed from the nose of the Red Grizzly. She knew it wasn’t an actual window, but rather a digital one projected onto the wall courtesy of her chip. Nebb had given her access to the digital augmentation, which was sourced from one of the Rapier’s external cams, no doubt.

“Nebb, did you hear me?” Lyra repeated. “We have to go.”

Nebb’s eyes were defocused. He was obviously deep inside his chip.

“Almost done,” Nebb said. “Fueling should be finished in about fifteen minutes.”

“Forget the fueling,” Jed said. “You’ll have to launch with what we have. The TSN is here.”

Nebb’s eyes came back into focus and his head darted toward Jed. “You sure?”

“Positive.”

“I guess they’ll be wanting the kid,” Nebb said.

“Good guess.”

Nebb’s head tilted slightly as if he were listening. “Mmm. I’m receiving an order from the control tower. All departures are grounded until further notice. Hangar bay doors across the terminal won’t be opening until the proper clearances have been issued.”

“Is that going to be a problem?” Lyra said.

“Nope.”

Lyra smiled. “Good. I chose the right captain, I see.”

“You did.” Nebb tipped his hat to her. “But I’m starting to wish I’d picked an open-air landing pad rather than a hangar.” He glanced upward. “Grizz, initiate fuel pump decoupling.”

“You got it, Big Boss,” the voice of the ship’s AI lilted from a speaker hidden in the ceiling. “Beginning decoupling from fuel pumps.”

“How long will that take?” Lyra asked, not sure if the AI would answer, or Nebb.

“Three minutes,” Nebb replied. “See those big mechanical hands hanging from the ceiling? Those things have to seal the intake valves, unscrew the tubes, and move them away from the Red Grizzly before I can take off.”

“Three minutes…” Lyra thrummed her fingers on her armrest. “I’m not sure we have that much time. According to my man, the troops are already spreading out inside the terminal. Some are making their way into the corridor leading to Hangars Three and Four as we speak. You might want to recall the security droid you have watching the entrance.”

Nebb nodded.

“What about Brass?” Jed asked her.

“It’s too late for him,” Lyra said. “He’ll have to stay behind with the other robots. Tane’s well-being is entirely up to us from now on.”

Jed nodded. “Too bad. I was growing rather fond of the robot’s company.”

Lyra smiled. She would’ve laughed under other circumstances, but couldn’t, not at the moment.

“Positron, get your ass inside,” Nebb ordered over the comm. “Bar the hangar door as best you can. Once you’re in, station yourself at the bottom of the Red Grizzly’s ramp. Delay any TSN personnel who decide to show up before we can take off.”

“How would you like me to delay these personnel?” Positron asked over the ceiling speaker.

Lyra appreciated Nebb’s openness, as the smuggler could have routed the robot’s response directly to his chip, rather than the speakers.

“With extreme prejudice,” Nebb replied.

Lyra suddenly understood why Nebb had been so open with his communications to the robot.

She glanced at Jed. “I think he wants one of us to join the robot and help defend.”

Jed nodded. “That would be me. The TSN troops won’t reach the ship.” He turned toward the cramped corridor outside but then paused to address Nebb. “Where can I find some plasma rifles on this tin can?”

Lyra nodded to herself. Jed wouldn’t want to reveal his Volur abilities to the TSN unless absolutely necessary.

“There are plasma rifles in the closet next to the ramp,” Nebb said.

“Perfect.” Jed was about to depart when Nebb spoke again.

“If possible, stay on the ramp with Positron,” Nebb told Jed over his shoulder. “I probably won’t give much warning when I’m about to lift off, and you wouldn’t want to find yourself on the wrong side of the ramp, if you catch my drift.”

“Got it.” Jed sped into the corridor beyond and the hatch sealed behind him.

Nebb’s eyes defocused once more.

A tense minute passed. The overhead map on her HUD told her that Jed had positioned himself at the ramp, beside the robot.

“Is there any way you can put up a view from the exit ramp?” Lyra asked.

A moment later a new video feed appeared in the lower left of the digital window projected onto the bulkhead. On it she could see the hangar as viewed from the perspective of the ramp. Backs to the camera, Jed and Positron were down on their knees on that sloping ramp. They aimed plasma rifles toward the personnel entrance, where Positron had apparently piled a bunch of crates, spare parts, and other junk from the hangar.

A moment later the junk blew backwards and TSN combat robots appeared, dressed in full body armor. It was ordinary armor, not Essence-enhanced like Jed’s, but they would have energy shields, too.

Jed and Positron opened fire with their plasma rifles, concentrating on the same robot. The combined attack penetrated the shield system of the targeted combat robot, taking it down. The other robots immediately dove for cover behind different crates and other debris that had scattered in front of the door after the explosion.

Jed and Positron retreated deeper into the ship, scaling the ramp. Then they lay flat beside the opening, aiming their plasma weapons into the hangar beyond.

Lyra considered joining them, but she had no Sharpshooting or Pistoleer skills whatsoever, and she preferred not to use any of her Essence skills, which would tip off the TSN that a Volur was involved. Better to stay put for the time being.

She heard a loud buzzing sound and tilted her head uncertainly.

“That would be Grizz,” Nebb said.

Dark holes about four centimeters in thickness appeared in several of the different objects the assailants were crouched behind, and the combat droids behind them promptly collapsed.

The Red Grizzly was opening fire with its dragon lasers.

The beams would be hidden to the naked eye, first of all because their wavelengths were beyond the visible spectrum, and second of all because they fired in nanosecond bursts. While personal energy shields usually worked moderately well against smaller laser weapons, for something like a dragon, the shields were essentially useless, especially at the current range.

“Fuel systems have successfully decoupled,” Grizz said. “We can take off whenever you’re ready, Big Boss.”

“Need you to target the hangar doors with our plasma throwers first, Grizz me boy,” Nebb said. “Try to blow it open before the TSN robots get smart and decide they want to waltz beyond our dragon throw angles, all right?”

“Charging plasma throwers,” Grizz said.

“Jed won’t let the remaining robots get into position,” Lyra said. Her eyes were glued to the ramp display. From their hides next to the exit, Jed and Positron continued to shoot their plasma weapons into the hangar. The enemy robots returned fire.

Abruptly a bright flash filled the entire view screen. Lyra focused on the main video feed and saw that in place of the closed hangar doors, only a large hole surrounded by white hot metal now remained.

“Can we fit through that, Grizz?” Nebb asked.

“No,” the ship’s AI answered. “But the door edges will break away upon impact.”

“Then what are you waiting for?” Nebb said.

Lyra felt the hull vibrate underneath her, and a distinct hum filled the air: the engines were powering up.

She glanced at the view from the exit camera, and saw that the ramp in front of Jed and Positron was closing.

The Red Grizzly floated upward. Another loud buzz filled the air. On the ramp display, more enemy robots dropped.

Lyra instinctively rubbed one ear, which was still ringing from the noise.

“Don’t worry, you won’t hear any of that in space,” Nebb said. “Well, unless we fire the Essence lance.”

The Rapier class ship darted forward and ripped through the remnants of the hangar doors, flying out over the city.

“Grizz, keep us close to the buildings until we clear the city,” Nebb said. “Once we’ve left Kalindor behind us, hug the dunes for the next hundred kilometers or so. Then take to the skies.”

“Trying to avoid the surface-to-space attacks?” Lyra asked. “I don’t think they’re going to shoot us down. They want him alive.”

“Do they now?” Nebb said. “They already started shooting at us in the hangar back there. That tells me all I need to know. As a smuggler, I’ve learned to trust my instincts.”

Lyra shrugged. She didn’t believe the TSN wanted him dead, though. Then again, it wouldn’t surprise her if they did. She could see some TSN admirals thinking something along the lines of, “if we can’t have him, then no one can.”

The Rapier flew nimbly over the city, dodging between the different sky lanes, and smaller police vessels soon began to pursue.

“Don’t worry about them,” Nebb said. “They’re just pursuing for the kicks.”

“It’s not exactly legal for a space-capable starship to weave between sky lanes like this,” Lyra said.

“Nope,” Nebb agreed.

As they passed the outer perimeter of Kalindor, the screen switched to a view from the aft, and Lyra watched the city recede behind her. The smaller police vessels continued to pursue, but then Grizz abruptly accelerated, leaving the slower vessels eating dust. Lyra felt nothing, thanks to the inertial dampeners aboard, of course.

A few moments later Grizz announced: “We have reached the one hundred kilometer mark from the city.”

“Take us into space,” Nebb said.

The display changed to look down upon the dunes, which quickly fell away beneath them. Soon the planet itself began to recede.

“Guess I’ve just been banned from another planet,” Nebb said with a sigh.

“Fighters are incoming from the orbital defense platform,” Grizz announced. “They’re asking us to turn around immediately.”

“Going to fight for their TSN masters, no doubt,” Nebb said. “Grizz, get us to jump altitude pronto. Before some real TSN ships decide to jump in and we have their disruptors to deal with.”

“At top speed, we’ll be free of the influence of the gravity well in approximately five minutes,” Grizz said.

“Damn,” Nebb said. “Guess that means we’re going to have to use the guns for a while. Sinive, get down to the Essence lance.”

“Don’t you want me ready to jump?” a female voice came over the speaker system.

“No,” Nebb said. “We can’t jump if our ship is disabled.”

“Does she need help?” Lyra asked. “I can man the lance.” She could, though admittedly her skill wasn’t very high.

“No,” Nebb said. “Sinive will handle it. With Grizz manning the physics weapons, and Sinive the lance, we’ve got all our bases covered.”

“Do you want me to operate the jump station then?” Lyra said. She was slightly better at creating distortion tunnels.

“No,” Nebb said. “Leave the handling of my ship to myself and my crew. You’re a passenger, remember.” He lowered his voice and added, as if muttering to himself: “Meddling Volur.”

Lyra could have laughed. Jed had offered to guard the ramp, and Nebb didn’t seem to have any qualms about that.

Speaking of Jed, the battle-skilled Volur arrived a moment later with Positron in tow. Jed had reduced the size of his armor to fit the cramped corridors of the Rapier ship, but it was still too big for the relatively small chairs of the cockpit. Positron, however, fit perfectly, and the robot promptly took the final seat.

Lyra knew Jed was uninjured because of the diagnostics data his chip continually transmitted her way. Positron seemed none the worse for wear as well.

The deck shook underneath her. “What was that?”

“Nothing we can’t handle,” Nebb said. “A couple of laser and plasma impacts from the fighters. Energy shields are holding.”

“So far...” Grizz said.

9

Tane awoke to a strange rumbling. He was lying on a bunk bed of some kind. It was shaking. He quickly sat upright and banged his head on another bunk overhead.

“Gah!” Holding his head, he lay back down. The shaking had subsided. When the throbbing in his head stopped, he took a moment to survey his surroundings. He was lying in a tight compartment. He was on a bunk bed, of course. There was a locker at the foot of the bed. And other than that, the place was basically empty.

He was still wearing his clothes, he noticed. Except the pouch at his waist was missing.

They stole my personal storage device!

He tried pulling up the inventory on his HUD and was relieved to find he was still connected to the device. His luggage was in the first slot, just where he left it. According to the locater, the pouch was in the same room as him, about a meter to his left. He glanced at the locker.

The floor shook again as Tane slid his legs off the bed. His knees were basically right up against the adjacent wall. He put one hand on the metal surface, and with the other grabbed the edge of the upper bunk, and pulled himself to his feet. The wall was covered in a thin layer of grime so that when he took away his hand, his palm was dirty.

He was forced to walk sideways across the cramped aisle formed by the bed and wall. He reached the locker and it opened when his hand approached the latch. They must have already bioencoded it to his body.

Inside, he spotted his pouch on an upper shelf, and secured it to his waist.

Then he edged sideways another pace and found himself directly beside the door. Unlike the locker, it didn’t open. There was no obvious switch or button. He searched for some sort of a removable panel that would allow him to manually open the thing but couldn’t find one.

The floor rumbled. He checked his HUD again. Apparently he wasn’t connected to the Galnet anymore. Not good. There was still a local mixnet, however, named Grizznet. Expanding it, he saw the labeled IDs of Lyra and Jed displayed under the available contacts list, as well as four other unlabeled IDs he didn’t recognize. His mom and dad were in the offline column, however, as were his other contacts.

Really not good.

He tried to call Lyra.

She answered, voice only. “Tane. Kind of busy right now.”

“Where are we?” Tane said. “The door won’t open!”

“We’re aboard the Red Grizzly, in high orbit,” Lyra said. “We’re trying to reach a jump altitude. We’re under attack by Galtede Serpentis security forces.”

The floor shook. No, not the floor, the deck. They were aboard the Rapier class vessel, by Lyra’s own admission. And these weren’t walls: they were bulkheads.

“Where are Mom and Dad?” Tane asked.

“They’re not here.”

“What!” Tane said. “But we can’t abandon them!”

“I’m sorry,” Lyra said. “We had no choice. The TSN forces had us surrounded at the terminal. It was either leave or allow them to capture you. I chose the former option.”

Tane rested his head against the door—no, the hatch—in defeat. “I have to send them a message.”

“I’m afraid the security forces are engaged in some heavy signal jamming at the moment,” Lyra said. “You may have noticed you no longer have a Galnet connection... you’ll have to do it later.”

“Then at least let me out of this compartment!” Tane said.

The hatch clicked open and slid aside.

“Thank you,” Tane said.

Lyra disconnected on him.

Tane squeezed through the opening and into the corridor outside. It wasn’t much roomier. It almost felt like he was back in the crawlspace at the farm, except he was able to stand up. A vertical crawlspace, then.

“Damn,” he said to himself. “This ship looked so much bigger on the outside. How can anyone function in an environment like this for any length of time? I already feel claustrophobic.”

“Imagine what it’s like for me,” a male voice lilted. “Having you prodding around my insides like some tapeworm in my intestines.”

“What?” Tane said. “Oh, you must be the AI.”

“Grizz at your service,” the AI responded. The sound seemed to come from every direction at once, which told him it was communicating with him directly through his chip. Which made some sense: there probably wouldn’t be speakers in every corridor, especially considering how cramped this particular passageway was. Maybe the ship didn’t have any speakers at all, actually.

“Glad to know you think of humanity as parasites,” Tane said.

“I never said that,” Grizz intoned, sounding a little offended.

“You didn’t have to,” Tane said. “A tapeworm is a parasite.”

“And so it is,” the AI admitted.

“Is there a map on this bucket of rust?” Tane said. He activated his map overlay and sure enough the Grizznet provided him with an overhead view of the ship’s blueprints, which constantly updated around his current position as he moved so that he appeared to remain in the center. The locations of Lyra, Jed, and the other four were displayed as blue dots, though none of them had authorized positional information sharing with him: the ship’s AI was probably doing it automatically. Tane wasn’t sure why he had access, but he certainly wasn’t going to complain. The smuggler likely figured it was more of a convenience to his passengers than anything else.

Tane made his way toward Lyra’s position. He still had several passageways to go when he reached a sealed hatch sitting in the middle of the corridor, blocking the way forward.

“Open up, please,” Tane told the AI.

“A moment while I confirm your access with the Big Boss,” Grizz said. A few seconds later the hatch opened, revealing another long, tight corridor.

Grizz stopped checking with the “Big Boss” after the next two sealed hatches, and opened them automatically for Tane from that point onward.

Soon enough, Tane found himself standing in a small cockpit. Nebb, Lyra and Positron sat in all the available chairs, staring at a blank bulkhead in front of them. Lyra’s dress had returned to its metal-plated, hoodless form.

Jed was standing near the entrance, clad in his bulky armor. Tane could only imagine how difficult it was for him to navigate the ship’s passageways. But if Lyra’s attire could transform, it was probable that Jed’s power armor could do something similar. Come to think of it, it did look less bulky than Tane remembered.

“What’s going on?” Tane asked.

“We’re almost at the necessary jump altitude,” Lyra answered.

“Is there something I can do?” Tane said. “Man one of the dragon lasers or something?”

“That’s a negative,” Nebb said. “Let Grizz do his work.”

“But I can help,” Tane said.

“Allowing a human to track fast-moving objects in space is a recipe for disaster,” Grizz said. “The incoming fighters are manned by AIs, and use AI tracking. Even if you get a hit in, which you won’t, for every one of yours, they’ll score a hundred hits. Especially considering that you have no Starship Gunnery skill at all.”

“Oh, okay,” Tane said.

“Energy shields are at ten percent,” Grizz intoned ominously.

“Come on...” Nebb said.

Tane suspected there was some sort of three-dimensional tactical display that Nebb was using to visualize the positions of the attackers around the Red Grizzly, as well as view the current altitude above the planet. A display Tane didn’t have access to. From the way Lyra and Jed seemed entranced by the bare bulkhead in front of them, he knew there was also some other view he wasn’t privy to.

“Um, is there a way I can get access to the virtual augmentations in this room?” Tane asked.

A moment later a rotating starfield appeared on the bulkhead in front of him. He could see the nose of the ship near the bottom of the screen.

That’s better.

“Two of the fighters are pulling in front!” Nebb said urgently.

“I see them,” a female voice came from overhead. So there are a few speakers after all. The voice sounded like it belonged to someone Tane’s age.

Two gray blurs appeared on the view screen as smaller craft sped in front of the Red Grizzly.

“They’re trying to cut us off,” Jed said.

Tane heard a strange humming sound then, a sound that quickly grew in volume until it was all he heard. He felt suddenly nauseous. The sound faded just as a thick cylindrical beam of pure white light erupted from the nose of the ship. When it vanished, Tane was left with a streaking afterimage on his retinas. There was no sign of the two gray blurs.

“What the hell was that?” Tane said. The feeling of nausea had passed, but he still felt a bit off.

“That, kid, would be the Essence lance,” Nebb said.

“Who’s firing it?” Tane asked.

“My jump specialist,” Nebb said.

“Oh,” Tane said. So that’s who I heard.

The jump specialist was a she. Good to know.

I’m surrounded by witches.

“Hey Grizz,” Tane said. “I thought allowing humans to track fast-moving objects was a recipe for disaster, as you called it. Or is she not human?” He never heard of a robot Siphoning the Essence, but hey, maybe it was possible.

“I’m handling the aiming, of course,” Grizz said. “She handles the firing.”

Ah.

“We’ve reached jump altitude,” Grizz announced.

“We gotta jump, girl!” Nebb said.

“Moving to the jump room,” the female voice announced. She sounded weary.

“Shields have failed,” Grizz said. “Hull is taking damage from remaining pursuers. Aft integrity at seventy five percent.”

Tane could feel the deck vibrating.

“Girl, now would be a good time...” Nebb said.

The deck vibrations grew in intensity, and another humming sound filled the air then, coming in at a lower octave than the previous. It too grew in volume, and once more Tane felt a wave of nausea.

The sound abruptly ceased.

At the same time, on the display the constellations seemed to switch about, as if the ship had made an instantaneous one hundred eighty degree turn or something. There was also a bright emission nebula smearing half the view screen where none had been before.

“Did you see that?” Tane said.

“Jump complete,” Grizz intoned.

Nebb sat back. “She did it.” The smuggler glanced upward, as if checking that hidden tactical map Tane couldn’t see. “Grizz, it looks like none of the fighters followed us through. Can you confirm?”

“I can confirm,” Grizz said. “She closed the distortion tunnel before any of them could follow.”

Jed was shaking his head. “She almost cut us in half.”

“That’s my girl,” Nebb said, beaming.

“This is why traveling with smugglers isn’t always the brightest idea,” Tane told Jed.

But the Volur ignored him.

Tane turned his attention to Nebb. “So when do I get to meet this vaunted jump specialist who nearly cut us in half?”

“Oh, quit your whining,” Nebb said. “There was no chance she would’ve harmed the ship. She’s done the maneuver a thousand times. We’re used to cutting things close around here. We’re smugglers, remember. Got lots of practice making quick getaways.”

“I helped her with the calculations,” Grizz said. “Her timing certainly had to be perfect. Though while there might have been no chance of cutting the ship in half, there was a good chance, as in twenty to thirty five percent, that we might have lost the aft portion of the ship.”

“The aft portion!” Nebb said. “Who needs the aft portion anyway!”

“Uh, that’s where our engine nozzles are,” Tane said.

Nebb shrugged. “Like I said...”

“So where are we?” Tane gazed at the constellations. “Did we jump to somewhere in the same system?” He somehow doubted it, given that he’d never seen that emission nebula before.

“What?” Nebb said. “You’d put down my jump specialist like that? Of course we’re in a different system. This is Taldeze Caldor.”

Tane took a mental snapshot of the starfield pattern outside and ran a local correlation check against the internal database on his chip, confirming that the starfield pattern matched the view from deep space in Taldeze Caldor.

He checked his star map to get an idea of how far they had jumped. Taldeze Caldor was about eighty-five light years from his home system, Verakech.

“How long does it take your jump chamber to reset?” Lyra asked.

“Thirty minutes,” Nebb said.

“All right,” Lyra said. “When the chamber resets, I’ll make our second jump while your specialist recovers. There’s no time to waste.”

“No no no,” Nebb said. “It’s my ship.”

“Yes,” Lyra said. “But I’m the one who’s paying you.”

“Fine,” Nebb said. “Throw in an extra ten K and I’ll let you make the jump.”

Lyra’s eyes defocused.

Nebb smiled widely. “Thank you very much. Grizz, give our Volur guests access to the jump chamber, would you? When the chamber resets, let them in.”

“Understood,” the Red Grizzly’s AI said.

“Can I watch?” Tane asked Lyra.

She shook her head. “There’s only room for one inside the chamber. It appears as a large Chrysalium box to outside observers. There’s nothing to see.”

“Time to put my skills to use,” Nebb said, eyes defocusing.

“What are you doing, Smuggler?” Jed said.

“I’m changing the ship’s registry information,” Nebb said, “and reactivating our identity beacon. To system traffic control, we’re riding the Saber class starship the Ghastly Digest. We’re perfume traders.”

“They’ll be able to detect you’re a Rapier class from the heat sig,” Tane said. “It’s visible throughout the system.”

“Yeah, thanks,” Nebb said. “I know nothing about space travel. I’m just a captain. Grizz, open up the heat emitters and modify our profile to that of a Saber class.”

The deck and bulkhead vibrated underneath Tane.

“Heat signature profile modified,” Grizz said.

“Traffic control will believe the thermal profile they detected when we entered the system was a glitch,” Nebb said. “Assuming they even notice.”

“How do you even get these hull modifications past the customs inspectors?” Tane said. “It’s illegal to have thermal emitters in place for any other purpose than the dispersal of excess heat.”

“And so it is,” Nebb said. “If customs officials ever threaten me, let’s just say, bribery goes a long way. If you can’t afford to pay, you can’t play this game.”

Tane shifted uncomfortably against the bulkhead where he stood. “By the way, why didn’t we jump straight to Talendir?”

“The jump distance is limited by how much Essence can be Siphoned through the ship,” Lyra said. “The larger starships, those composed of more Essence-enhancing Chrysalium, can jump farther at any one time since the specialists can Siphon all the more through the hulls. The jump chambers on the bigger ships also reset faster, and usually have a rotation of jump specialists ready to take over. Some of the bigger supercarriers even have two jump chambers aboard, and they make their jumps back to back. But as for us, based on our ship size and its Chrysalium content, and our current position, if we jump the maximum distance each time, it will still take us another three distortion jumps to reach Talendir. But I’m going to have to rest a day after wielding that much Essence through my system. As the jump specialist is doing now.”

“Oh.” Tane said. “So even if you and the specialist both take turns, you’re basically telling me it’s going to take another day to reach Talendir.”

“At least,” Lyra said.

“Why isn’t this information available in my chip?” Tane said. “About jumps and the distances involved?”

“Oh it’s available,” Nebb said. “If you pay for the expansion packs.”

Tane considered everything Lyra had told him. “So just one day until I meet your Volur friends...”

“A day, maybe more,” Lyra said. “I’m debating whether or not to help make the final jump. I may want to conserve my energy and let the specialist do her job both times. I’m not sure what kind of a welcome we’ll receive in Talendir.”

At first Tane was confused, but then it dawned on him. “The TSN?”

Lyra nodded. “They may suspect the involvement of the Volur. Or a couple of Volur, anyway. It may be tricky to reach the planet.”

Tane regarded the star map once more. There were several other systems the Red Grizzly could have jumped to, given the distances in light years to his home system, Verakech.

“Did the specialist jump the maximum distance?” Tane asked.

“No,” Lyra said. “That would be too obvious. Given our ship class, our pursuers would have easily been able to calculate our maximum jump distance. If we jumped to that farthest system, soon other TSN vessels would be appearing in the system with us. But so far, no new heat signatures have appeared. Assuming this tactical display I have access to is accurate.”

“It’s accurate,” Nebb said. “Told you, we’re smugglers. We know how to cover our tracks.”

“Maybe TSN vessels jumped in behind a planet...” Tane said. “Occluding their heat sigs.”

“Doubtful,” Nebb said.

“So they don’t know where we are?” Tane pressed.

Lyra was the one who answered. “For the time being. Eventually they’ll find us, and it won’t matter that our smuggler friend has changed his thermal profile and registry beacon. The TSN will check the logs of the deep space satellites and telescopes within jump range of Verakech, including this one. They’ll recognize that a ship calling itself the Ghastly Digest appeared in this system at the exact moment we vanished from orbit above Kalindor.”

“Well sure, of course they’ll be able to piece together we were here,” Nebb said. “But by then we’ll be long gone to the next system. And I’ll change our heat profile and registry information again.”

“I wouldn’t be so certain we’ll be gone by then,” Lyra said. “Especially considering that the TSN is no doubt preparing to dispatch vessels to all systems within jump range of Verakech as we speak, as soon as they can free the necessary resources. The noose will slowly be closing during that time. We’ll have to hope we get lucky, and that they choose systems other than this one to investigate first. Which is why it’s so important I make the next jump as soon as possible.”

“It’s certainly a dangerous game of cat and mouse we’re playing,” Jed said. “Personally, I always prefer to be the cat.”

“As do I,” Lyra agreed.

According to Tane’s HUD, he was connected to the Galnet once more. Which meant a postal node somewhere in the system was sending pings, and that the ship was able to receive them. Since he was in deep space, he wouldn’t have realtime access to the Galnet, of course. The local node aboard the Red Grizzly would have cached several popular games and videos, and if he requested something new, the Red Grizzly would queue the download from other nodes in the system equipped with larger caches, and it would arrive in a few hours if it was a popular item. But otherwise, any uploads he made—for civilian level communications, for example—would take up to a few days to reach the intended recipients, especially if those recipients were located in other systems. Incoming messages from other systems would take just as long.

“I need to contact my parents,” Tane said.

Lyra studied him, seeming to weigh her response carefully. “You can contact them, yes. But keep in mind that the TSN will be monitoring all communications destined for your parents’ message box. While planet-side communications where you are from are relatively secure, packets bound for interstellar destinations have to stop at postal nodes in territories with different privacy laws. The TSN routinely runs their algorithmic scanners on all messages that pass through the nodes of the less restrictive territories. They’ll be monitoring your parents’ IDs, and they’ll be able to trace the message back to our location.”

Postal nodes were simply unmanned probes that waited near the outskirts of each system, gathering incoming messages destined for the Galnet. At the same time every day, distortion tunnels opened and the drones traveled into the adjacent system, where they would transmit their message loads, receive incoming data packets from the existing probes in the system, and then return. Delay-tolerant networking at its finest. The military apparently had their own version of the Galnet that operated a whole lot faster via on-demand distortion tunnels.

“But if the TSN is going to figure out our location soon anyway, why does it matter?” Tane said. “Given that it’ll take a few days before my parents receive the message.”

“I already agreed you may contact them,” Lyra said. “I’m only saying, be careful what you tell them. I don’t want you to reveal you’re in the hands of a Volur, for example. It’s possible the TSN still doesn’t know our final destination.”

“I understand,” Tane said. “Tell me something, what’s going to happen to my mom and dad?”

“Nothing, hopefully,” Lyra said. “I left my four combat droids behind to watch them. The robots will protect them from any attacks, and ensure they don’t go back to the farm.”

Tane crossed his arms. “So they’re confined you’re basically saying.”

“But safe,” Lyra said. “Let the dopplegangers do their work at the farm.”

“What about the TSN?” Tane said. “Won’t they find them?”

“I’ve instructed the combat droids to procure ID forgeries,” Lyra said. “Once installed, your parents will still be able to send and receive messages from you, but to the outside world they’ll appear to be different people. They’ll still have to hide their faces.”

“There’s technology that can simulate the facial masking job you did on me with the Essence, I think,” Tane said.

“There is, but it’s not readily available,” Lyra said. “Either way, the combat droids have instructions to protect them from the TSN. They’ll be moving your parents to different short term rentals every day. Most likely private, this time. No hotels.”

“You’re sure the...” Tane almost said aliens. He glanced at Nebb. He wasn’t sure Lyra wanted the smuggler to know about the aliens. Hell, Tane wasn’t sure he wanted Nebb to know, either. “What about the others? You’re sure they won’t find my real parents, and attack? Maybe they intend to use my parents as bargaining chips.”

Nebb momentarily glanced at him, obviously aware he was hiding something, but didn’t say a word.

“My robots have instructions to protect your parents from any possible danger,” Lyra said. “My team will meticulously guard the entry points of every residence they move your parents to, and they’ll evacuate the moment anything seems amiss.”

“Yes, but as long as they stay on the planet, they’re vulnerable,” Tane said. “We have to bring them to Talendir.”

“I’ll try to arrange passage for your parents when we reach my homeworld,” Lyra said.

Tane started to go, but then paused.

“By the way, you never did tell me when I get to meet this jump specialist of yours,” Tane told Nebb.

“Oh, she’ll be exhausted after a jump like that,” Nebb said. “Maybe she’ll show at dinner in the wardroom, you never know. Then again, she’s rather shy, and hates Outrimmers.”

“Outrimmers?” Tane asked.

“Yeah,” Nebb said. “All you dudes who live in the Outrim systems on the edge of the galaxy. Like yourself.”

“Why does she hate us?”

“Well, first of all, she doesn’t like how you essentially use slaves to operate your planet-side distortion tunnels, and neither do I,” Nebb said. “Second of all, you’ve got all these regressive laws regarding nanotech. You force people to use that expensive Reconstruct Systems crap. Reconstruct is an Outrim-based company, after all, so you’re all happy to go along with them. But did you know they bribed the TSN? Got them to make Reconstruct Systems the only authorized nanotech supplier among all the Outrim worlds?”

“Didn’t know that,” Tane said.

“Well now you do,” Nebb said. “It’s a good thing I didn’t grow up here, otherwise I would have never been able to buy my own ship: I would’ve spent all my money on body upgrades. Oh! And don’t even get me started on your terrible gun laws. She and I especially hate that. She’s a big fan of carry like myself, you see. ‘Specially open carry: she won’t go anywhere without a plasma pistol strapped to her hips. Part of her fashion, you know. But in nearly all the planets on the damned Outrim, we have to give up our guns.”

“I seem to recall you wearing your guns back at that terminal,” Tane said.

“About that,” Nebb said. “Well, see, the terminal is considered private property. I pay the necessary bribes to the terminal owner, I can bring my guns with me anywhere on the property. It would be like you on your hydroponics farm. You carry guns around there wherever you please, hey? I’m assuming you live on a hydroponics farm... seeing as your profile says you’re a hydroponics engineer and all. Anyway, if I decided to leave the terminal behind for the city proper, I’d have to surrender my weapons. See how that works?”

“Go back to our quarters, Engineer, and call your parents,” Jed said dismissively.

“I was just about to,” Tane said, a little indignantly. The Volur wants to order me about, does he? Tane paused. “Wait, our quarters? Don’t tell me I’m sharing it with you and Lyra?”

“Not Lyra,” Jed said.

“Good,” Tane said, relieved.

“Just me,” Jed finished.

“Ah,” Tane said. Not so relieved. But then he smiled suddenly. “Good luck fitting in there with that armor.”

“I’ll fit,” Jed said.

Tane shrugged. “I don’t need a babysitter.”

“He’s not there to babysit you,” Lyra said. “There really isn’t much room aboard this ship. There are two guest quarters. In the one I’m staying in, the bed is essentially vertical. With the artificial gravity vector pointing straight down, it’s not very comfortable to say the least. I’d be happy to give it up to you.”

“Actually.” Tane said. “You know what? That’s all right.”

“After I make the jump I’ll have no problem sleeping vertically,” Lyra said. “Believe me.”

“The exhaustion is that bad, huh?” Tane asked.

“More than you could ever imagine,” Lyra replied.

Tane turned to go, but then paused. He glanced at Jed. “You’re really a Volur?”

“I’m really a Volur,” Jed said.

“Where’s your beam hilt?” Tane asked.

Jed chuckled. “Not all Volur have the same tastes in weapon and armor, in case you hadn’t noticed.”

Tane’s eyes momentarily darted to Lyra, who was looking on in amusement. “So you can jump the ship, too? And operate the Essence lance?”

Jed shook his head. “Like I said, different tastes, different skill sets. Starships never interested me. I can neither jump, nor operate the lance. My specialties lie in more… soldierly pursuits.”

“Okay.” With that, Tane left.

I’m rooming with a Volur.

He wasn’t sure whether to feel excited, or terrified.

He made his way back through the tight passageways to his quarters and squeezed in beside the bunk bed. He still couldn’t see Jed fitting in here. Unless he could shrink his armor down to the skin, he’d have to take off gear entirely before coming inside. Maybe that was what he planned.

Tane sat down on the lower bunk and composed a message to his parents.

“Mom, Dad,” Tane said. “I got away. I’m not supposed to say much, as the authorities are apparently listening in.” The ship’s AI was probably eavesdropping at that very moment as well. So that ruled out any mention of the aliens. “But anyway, I’m all right. We’re headed toward our destination. The person I’m with says she’ll arrange passage for you when we arrive. So I’ll see you soon. Stay safe.”

Tane finished his recording and selected the “send” option on his HUD.

10

Tane joined Nebb for supper in the tiny compartment that served as a “wardroom” that evening. A long table set with a stained cloth used up most of the available real estate in the rectangular room. On the table, a small metal tray contained silver utensils stacked together, and dispensed napkins on one side. Lyra and Jed excused themselves when Tane arrived. Probably because the place could only sit three, and neither Lyra nor Jed wanted to remain alone with Tane and Nebb. Or maybe they both finished at the same time.

Lyra was in bad shape. Her face seemed pushed-in in places, with huge dark circles under her eyes, and her complexion was somewhat sallow. She walked with a slight limp, and hunched visibly. Making the second jump had obviously been extremely taxing on her. She hadn’t been kidding when she said she’d have to rest for most of the day afterward.

As Jed squeezed past, Tane noticed that his armor was gone and he was dressed in simple blue fatigues, like one might find aboard a military vessel. Either the Volur had removed the armor, or it had the ability to retract entirely. Maybe into his belt? Tane didn’t know. Earlier Tane had tried IDing the gear, but all he had gotten was the title “Battle Armor” and everything else was unknown.

The pair left tall glasses on the table, the insides coated in a thick, milky substance. The serving robot must have already taken their plates.

Tane maneuvered into the tight space between the table and the bulkhead and took a seat. He stared hungrily at the dish of cooked fowl Nebb was enjoying. The smuggler had the whole bird on his plate.

“So when do I get some chicken?” Tane said.

“Oh, you don’t get chicken,” Nebb said. “We don’t carry enough in the freezers for the passengers.” He glanced at a side entrance and whistled. “Laser Bait!”

Tane’s HUD labeled that side entrance “galley.”

A serving robot rolled in. It looked like a small metal cylinder on treads, with arms ending in pincers. It had a digitally animated visor on the head region that displayed two eyes via 2D vector graphics. The thin lines composing those eyes were currently situated wide apart, as if the robot were either scared or eager to please. Maybe both.

Tane glanced at its profile.

Name: Laser Bait

Nickname: El Bee

Race: Robot.

Model: Alfred valet droid Mark III Rev a.

Level: 3

Class: Service and Maintenance

Tane realized this must be the second robot crew member Jed had reported after his inspection of the ship.

“Laser Bait?” Tane said.

“At your service!” the robot said in a proud male voice. Eager to please, then.

Tane glanced at Nebb. “You called your service and maintenance robot Laser Bait?”

The smuggler shrugged. “From time to time, when things get tough, we’ve been known to send him out into a firefight to provide a distraction. We give him an energy shield before doing so, of course. He’s quick on his wheels.”

“Quick on wheels!” the robot echoed.

Tane stared at the robot with a furrowed brow. “Certainly a feisty one.”

“You may call me El Bee if you wish,” the robot said.

“If you wouldn’t mind, Big El, fetch our guest his meal,” Nebb said.

“Yes boss!” El Bee said with affected breathlessness. The robot wheeled from view and returned a moment later carrying a tray in one arm. It promptly deposited a tall glass of thick milky liquid in front of Tane. El Bee retrieved the two empty glasses Lyra and Jed had left behind and departed.

Tane stared at the glass in confusion. “Drinks first?”

“Mmm?” Nebb said between mouthfuls. “Oh. No, that’s your dinner.”

“Um. As paying passengers, I guess I assumed we’d be getting real food.”

Nebb winked at him. “Only the captain gets real food. Sometimes my jump specialist, too, when I’m feeling generous. What do you think this is, the navy?” He chortled as if that were the funniest thing in the world.

Tane lifted the glass to his lips and smelled. The contents gave off no noticeable odor. He tilted the glass slightly to one side, and the liquid flowed like a thick milkshake. He salivated at the thought, but when it reached his lips and he took a sip, he nearly gagged at the flavor. This was anything but a milkshake. It tasted like a cross between dirt, eggs, and raw fish. The texture was fairly gross, too: slimy, gritty, and outright lumpy in places.

Tane swallowed, and some of the icky liquid went down the wrong way. He coughed frantically.

“Try not to hack up a lung or anything,” Nebb commented, chewing away contentedly at his chicken.

When the coughing fit finally subsided, Tane exclaimed: “What the hell is this!”

“It’s your standard ship-side meal replacement,” Nebb said. “Quit your complaining. It’s got all the nutrients and calories you need.”

Tane shook his head. “I can’t drink this.”

Nebb downed a piece of smoking white meat. “Starve then.”

Tane gazed at the chicken but realized the smell no longer appealed to him, not with his taste buds soured by that foul substance.

He gazed once more at his glass, then held his nose and forced himself to swallow in small sips because he needed the sustenance.

“Goes faster if you chug it all at once,” Nebb said.

Tane shook his head. “I’m good.” He was content with sipping. He didn’t think he’d be able to hold it down if he drank it all at once.

“Well well well.” A female voice drifted into the wardroom from the direction of the galley. “Looks like you bought us some fresh meat.”

Tane recognized the voice of the jump specialist, and he felt suddenly nervous, his heart rate picking up.

A woman sat down beside him, carrying a glass of that thick milky liquid. She glanced at him and gave him a somewhat weary smile. When she did so, her cheeks dimpled, and the corners of her eyes crinkled in the cutest way. Her hair fell to the center of her back in a tight braid, but loose ringlets in front tumbled carefree down her face. She smelled like cheap perfume. Tane liked it.

She wore a flowing white dress that covered her shoulders and revealed no cleavage. Her arms were bare, though. A black utility belt surrounded her waist, and like Nebb had promised, she carried a plasma pistol strapped to her hips.

She was far too young to be Nebb’s lover. Daughter, maybe.

“Kid, meet our resident jump specialist, Girly Girl,” Nebb said with his mouth full.

She frowned. “It’s Sinive. And I’m the furthest thing from a Girly Girl. Me, pink lipstick, and glue-on nails, let’s just say we don’t get along.”

“Whatever you say, Girly Girl.” Nebb grinned and bit into another piece of chicken.

Sinive rolled her eyes. “And you know I hate it when you talk with your mouth full.”

Nebb purposely opened and closed his mouth while leaning toward her. “Ga ga ga.”

“Ah!” She looked away in disgust. “I have to drink this crap with that imagery in my mind? Keep it up and this table will be covered in milky white vomit.”

Nebb finally stopped. He calmly cut himself another piece. “That’s what the table cloth is for.”

Sinive glanced at Tane and said: “Stop looking at me like you’re in awe of me.”

“Is that what I’m doing?” Tane said.

“Yes!” Sinive said.

Tane looked away. “Sorry. You’re the first jump specialist I’ve ever met.” And cute as hell.

“Don’t get out much, do you?” she commented.

“No,” Tane admitted. He was starting to feel a little less nervous. He glanced at her again, accessing her public profile.

Name: Sinive Ruggiero

Race: Human

Level: 4

Class: Jump Specialist

His eyes dropped to her flowing white dress. “You know, your dad has a point.”

“He’s not my dad,” Sinive said.

“Your boss, then,” Tane said.

“He’s not my boss, either,” Sinive said.

Tane looked at her in confusion. “Then what is he. Your husband?”

“No!” she said in frustration. “He’s my mentor.”

“Your mentor?” Tane said.

Nebb glanced at Tane and grinned. “I’m teaching her the ways of smuggling.”

“In exchange for room and board, I jump him from system to system,” Sinive said. “He’s teaching me all the routes. The best places to buy and sell for profit.”

“So you’re not getting paid...” Tane said.

“Like she said, her payment is learning,” Nebb said.

“Though eventually, if you want to keep me, you’re going to have to start giving me a salary,” Sinive said.

“Eventually,” Nebb agreed.

“How long have you been working for him for free?” Tane said.

“A year and a half now.”

“Don’t you think it’s time for a salary?” Tane said.

“It costs money to maintain a starship,” Nebb told him between mouthfuls of chicken. “I’m barely breaking even as it is.”

Tane addressed the jump specialist. “You know we’re paying him eighty thousand credits to bring us to Talendir, right?”

“What!” Sinive said. “He told me it was five thousand.”

Nebb’s face became a stark crimson. Tane wasn’t sure whether it was because he was embarrassed or angry.

“I’m not completing the final jump unless you pay me,” Sinive said.

Nebb shrugged. “Fine. The Volur will do it.”

“Then I quit,” Sinive said. “Good luck finding someone to jump out of Talendir for free.”

“All right,” Nebb said. “I’ll pay you five thousand when we reach Talendir.”

“Five!” Sinive said. “More like fifty thousand.”

“You’re not worthy fifty thousand,” Nebb said. “For twenty I could hire a replacement to work for me for a year.”

“You really think you could trust them not to report you to the TSN for smuggling?” Sinive said. “In fact, I might just do that. Consider my payment part hush money, and part back pay.”

Nebb turned on Tane and said, sourly: “You and your big mouth.”

Tane shrugged. “If you can’t pay your crew properly, maybe you shouldn’t be running a ship.”

“I already told you, I was training her,” Nebb said.

“That’s a good point.” Tane turned toward Sinive. “Maybe he shouldn’t owe you as much back pay. His training has to count for something.”

“That’s right,” Nebb told her.

“I learned most of the routes a year ago,” Sinive said. “You haven’t taught me anything new since then. Fifty K in back pay, or I leave. And report you.”

“I’ll think about it,” Nebb grumbled.

The three of them remained quiet for the next several moments. Tane listened to the smack of Nebb’s lips as the smuggler ate the chicken. Sinive glared at Nebb the whole time.

“Maybe one of the requirements of your staying on is that you get to eat a whole chicken for supper, too,” Tane told Sinive.

“Yeah,” she said. She was still glaring at Nebb. The smuggler ignored her.

With a sigh, she averted her gaze, and took a sip of the milky liquid contained in her glass. She grimaced, shaking her head slightly as she swallowed.

“It doesn’t get any easier downing this stuff, does it?” Tane commented.

She looked at him, a milky mustache decorating her upper lip. “It’s an acquired taste, apparently. And I still haven’t acquired it after all this time.”

Together they sipped in silence, watching Nebb eat. Tane found himself wanting to talk more to this mysterious woman who could work the Essence well enough to create distortion tunnels for a ship, but he wasn’t sure where to start. He was also still nervous: she was fairly cute after all, and he usually stumbled over his words when talking to an attractive member of the opposite sex for the first time. He had done okay earlier because he had dived in immediately without thinking about it too much. But now that he sat there, pondering what to say over and over in his mind, he found himself getting more nervous by the second. It didn’t help that Nebb was throwing him dirty looks every few bites now, as if trying to warn him not to speak to her again; perhaps he was worried Tane might give her more ideas. Or maybe he considered himself kind of a father figure to Sinive, a protective father figure at that, and he didn’t want the likes of Tane talking to her.

I’m just a hydroponics engineer, after all, a part of his mind told him.

Yes. But they’re smugglers, the more confident part of him chimed in.

Finally he screwed up his courage and opened his mouth.

“You know, Nebb has a point,” Tane told her. There, that wasn’t so bad.

She merely looked at him, seeming annoyed above her glass of liquid grossness. The frothy white mustache on her lip helped make her seem less intimidating.

Tane swallowed. “If you’re not a Girly Girl, then—”

“Don’t call me that!” Sinive said.

Not the reaction he was expecting. “If you’re not a Girly Girl,” Tane repeated. “Then why do you wear that long, flowing dress?”

“And who are you to judge me?” she said. “Outrimmer? You with your archaic laws and regulations. Maybe I like how dresses fit. Maybe I like the freedom of movement. Maybe I find shirts and pants uncomfortable.”

He decided to ignore the Outrimmer comment. “Maybe you do,” Tane said. “So... okay, never mind.”

He took a sip of his drink and the disgusting liquid helped distract him. The nerves were fading again.

“So...” Tane said. “Jump specialist. You trained with the Volur?” He couldn’t help the slight awe that slipped into his voice. Anyone who wielded the Essence was only slightly removed from the divine, in his eyes.

She gazed at him crossly. “I told you not to look at me in awe like that.”

“Sorry.”

She stared at him a moment longer, then her features softened. She gave him a patient smile. “The Volur? Naw. I was never powerful enough in the Essence for the Volur to even consider me. I trained with the TSN. Did my five years. It was either that or become a sore-whore-ity girl.”

“Sore-whore-ity girl?” Tane asked.

"Yeah, sorority,” Sinive replied. “Never mind."

"No, I get it,” Tane said. “Though I always thought the military was just one big fraternity—or sorority—anyway."

"A sorority on steroids, maybe," Sinive said. “When my service term was up I didn’t renew. Started working for private companies and individuals. And here I am.”

Tane processed everything she had said, then asked her: “If you weren’t powerful enough for the Volur to consider you, how are you able to open a distortion tunnel?”

“You really don’t know how starships work, do you? Doesn’t that chip in your head contain any information? At least I’m assuming you’re chipped, judging from your buzzcut.” She reached for his scalp, which was still covered in little more than stubble at that point.

“No don’t!” Tane said. Too late. Her hand ran across the stubble. “Ahh. Now it’s going to itch for the next ten minutes.”

She shrugged, smiling innocently, then took a sip of her meal replacement. She wiped away the mustache. “So have you figured out how I was able to open a distortion tunnel or not?”

As she spoke, Tane accessed his memories. Those who were weak in the Essence were picked up by the TSN for training to become minor Essence warriors and jump specialists, while those with the real skills were shipped off to the Volur, as per treaty agreements.

His mind went off on a tangent as he continued deeper into those memories: the Volur of Talendir, though swearing allegiance to the TSN, operated almost with complete autonomy. They still heeded the call when the TSN summoned them to fight in their wars, but otherwise were left alone to do as they pleased. They didn’t even have to pay any taxes like most of the other worlds. They often sent their members out to serve as advisers to the different planetary governments under TSN rule, and several sat on the board of the TSN itself.

As for why Sinive could open a distortion tunnel, she explained it while the thoughts came into his head.

“You’re going to make me spell it out, aren’t you?” Sinive said. “It’s because of the Chrysalium in the hull. The massive amounts of Essence I can Siphon through it more than makes up for the relatively small amount I can Siphon through my own body. Not even a Volur can Siphon this much naturally. Sure, some Volur can create small distortion tunnels on their own to transport people, or even small shuttles, a short way. Usually with the help of Chrysalium jewelry. But a ship? No jewelry will help them with that.”

“You also use the Chrysalium to Siphon enough to power the ship’s Essence lance,” Tane said.

“That’s right,” Sinive said. “The lance goes right through ordinary energy shields. Battles in space can get interesting. One side throws an Essence lance. The other side diverts it with a hastily formed Essence deflector, if available—unlike this ship. Back and forth like that the fighting goes until one side makes a mistake, or grows tired and can’t keep up. It’s all about who can fire the fastest, and who has the most Endurance. Almost a war of attrition. Let’s just say, when it comes to nanotech upgrades, the most important attributes for a jump specialist to possess are Dexterity and Endurance. Intelligence helps as well, if only on the strategy side, but that’s what we have ship AIs for, right Grizz?”

“Yes ma’am,” the Red Grizzly’s AI responded.

“Well, I’m about done,” Nebb said, shoving aside the bones of the chicken carcass. “Sin, I need you to look at the recoupler on engine two before the next jump. It’s been acting up lately. El Bee can’t find anything wrong but I know there’s gotta be something. I’d hate to arrive in a new system only to have the engine flip out on me.”

“I’ll take a look at it,” Sinive said, not meeting his eyes. She sounded like she was still pissed at him.

“See that El Bee cleans this up,” Nebb nodded toward the chicken bones.

“Sure thing,” Sinive said.

Nebb bent over and pointed an accusing finger at Tane. “And don’t you be hitting on her when I’m gone, you hear?”

“No, of course not,” Tane said hurriedly.

Nebb scowled at him and then left.

“A bit protective about you, isn’t he?” Tane said.

“Yeah, and now I know why.” Sinive shook her head. “Cheating me out of my due pay.”

“Have you ever transported any Volur before?” Tane asked.

“No,” Sinive said. “You guys are the first.”

“Have you met them?”

“The Volur?” Sinive said. “Yes. I met them while I was leaving the jump chamber. I know what you’re thinking. How come I was still in the jump chamber half an hour later? I guess you haven’t figured out yet that drawing massive amounts of Essence through Chrysalium is draining. I stumbled back to my quarters after they woke me… I was lying there in the chamber.”

“Ah,” Tane said.

“How did you get mixed up with the Volur in the first place?” Sinive asked.

“Long story,” Tane said. “Let’s just say, it’s important that I get to Talendir as soon as possible.”

“The TSN want you, too…” Sinive said. She tapped her lips. “Volur politics. Sometimes I’m glad I never got tangled up with them. They’ve got their tentacles spread throughout the galaxy, in the form of the ‘advisers’ they lend to the different governments. Sometimes I wonder if it’s truly the TSN in control, or the Volur.”

“Why are their classes unknown when I view their public profiles?” Tane asked.

Sinive seemed confused. “The two Volur you mean?”

“Yeah.”

“Well of course they’ll show up as unknown to you,” Sinive said. “First of all you’re using an Outrimmer chip. Second of all the chip isn’t military grade. Two Volur? They don’t like to broadcast that information to civilians. Though to the trained eye, it’s obvious what they are anyway. I knew the moment I saw them.”

“So their data isn’t forged…” Tane said.

“No.” Sinive finished her glass in one final long gulp, and wiped her lips. “Speaking of which, I’m supposed to hook you up with a forged ID. Apparently your Volur paid extra for that. Though as usual Nebb doesn’t want to admit by how much.”

“Oh,” Tane said. “Okay. Though I’m not sure I need a forged ID anymore.”

“You do if you hope to get past customs without any problems in Talendir,” Sinive said.

“Customs?” Tane said.

“Yes,” Sinive said. “Haven’t you ever been off world? Since we’re flying private, a TSN customs robots will come aboard to stamp our digital passports when we arrive. Can’t have that robot making a positive ID. Unless you want the droid to haul you off to the brig, where you’ll stay until the next TSN ship arrives to pick you up.”

“But I thought Talendir was the Volur homeworld?” Tane remembered then how Lyra had told him she wasn’t sure what kind of a welcome they’d receive in Talendir.

“Even their homeworld is under TSN rule, as you know,” Sinive said. “As such, their customs ports are all manned by TSN personnel. One of the conditions of Volur autonomy.”

“They’re not so autonomous after all are they?” Tane said. “But then again, if the Volur really have their tentacles spread throughout the galaxy, with some of their members even sitting on the board of the TSN, then I have nothing to worry about.”

“If you want to take that risk, the choice is yours,” Sinive said. “Nebb will be happy to accept your Volurs’ money without the service being provided. He better make good on his promise to share some of that profit with me, though, or I swear I’m through.” She stood. “Come on, let’s get your forged ID ready now while I still have some energy in me. After I make our next distortion jump, I’ll be out for a while.”

“But I thought you just told me the choice was mine?” Tane protested. By then he felt comfortable enough around her to joke like that. He wasn’t sure if it was because he’d finally grown a pair, or that she was just good with people.

“Funny,” Sinive said.

Tane forced down the last of his meal replacement drink. When he stood, he burped involuntarily and some of the terrible liquid came up. He swallowed it back down.

“Classy,” Sinive said.

“Sorry,” Tane said. “You know, it doesn’t taste much better the second time around.”

Sinive grimaced. “Thanks for that image. Like I said, classy.”

11

Tane followed her through the cramped corridors to a small compartment nearby. His HUD labeled it sickbay.

Inside was a single bed that took up almost all the room. Sinive squeezed in past a robotic arm equipped with telescoping limbs that protruded from the bulkhead.

Tane barely fit in between the bulkhead and the bed beside her.

“Well one thing I can say about this ship,” he told her, “is that it’s certainly roomy.”

“Ha,” Sinive said. “You might as well lie down. Since there’s basically nowhere else to stand in here.”

Tane scooted onto the hard bed and lay back. “Man, I’d hate to have to be treated here. It’s almost as claustrophobic as my quarters.”

Sinive shrugged. “When you’re injured, trust me, you hardly notice.” She removed a tiny vial of yellow liquid and set it down on a tray next to a sonic injection unit. “I’m going to have to inject a small amount of nanotech. But first.” She rested a cold metal device, shaped as a quarter circle, against his forehead. “I’m going to give you a localized brain scan. Just relax for a few minutes, because even though it’s only a partial scan, it’ll take a while—we don’t have all the expensive equipment full-blown microchipping vendors have access to.”

Tane thought of when Roadrunner had injected him with third-party nanotech. “You know, last time I got a nanotech injection, I didn’t get a scan.”

“Some black market chippers skip that step,” Sinive said. “It’s a dangerous practice. You’re lucky you didn’t become a vegetable.”

Sheesh. Note to self: don’t buy nanotech on the black market again. Unless they perform a brain scan first.

Sinive turned away slightly and placed the vial into a slot on a nearby console. Her eyes defocused: she was coding the micro machines with the help of the ship’s AI, no doubt.

“I’m not the best coder out there,” Sinive said. “So this is going to take me some time. I should have the basics done when the scan completes though, and then I can make the necessary updates rather quickly after that.”

Tane took advantage of the opportunity to study her face. Yes, she was definitely a cutie.

“Stop looking at me,” Sinive said.

Tane quickly averted his gaze. “You’d think you have eyes at the back of your head or something.”

“It’s called peripheral vision,” Sinive said.

Tane felt a little uncomfortable in the quietude that followed, and he couldn’t suppress the urge to make small talk. But if he was going to chitchat, he figured he might as well learn something along the way.

“So how did you get access to tech that lets you forge an ID?” Tane asked.

“We’re smugglers, remember?” Sinive replied.

“I’m guessing Nebb taught you how to do it...” Tane said.

Sinive nodded. “In lieu of pay, unfortunately. But you heard all about that.”

“Yes.” Tane said. There were so many questions he had, now that he was face-to-face with an Essenceworker willing to answer his queries, someone far more approachable than a full-blown Volur like Lyra. What to start with? Well, there was nothing in his chip about distortion tunnels. At least in regards to their creation and targeting.

“How does distortion jumping work?” Tane said. “How do you ensure you jump to the right system?”

“You know, talking to me will only make the coding process take longer,” Sinive said. “I told you, I’m not the best at this.”

“That’s fine,” Tane said.

She sighed, sitting back. Her eyes focused on him. “We use gravity wells to guide our tunnels. Stars and planets, they’re like signposts. We reach out with the Essence while forming the tunnel… the endpoint is drawn to the closest star thanks to the effects of gravity. Each star produces a distinct vibrational pattern, and with the help of the AI we can determine precisely what star we’re dealing with. We keep moving the endpoint until we’ve hit upon the desired system. It’s sort of a trial and error process…

“Imagine the endpoint as an untethered water hose, with the end whipping about. When we move the endpoint, sometimes it’ll latch onto an entirely different star than intended, so we have to keep fiddling until we get it. In the meantime, we’re holding this massive amount of Essence inside us, which is tearing our bodies apart from the inside out. When we finally hit the system we want, we make minor adjustments to ensure the tunnel doesn’t open into the heart of the star. The planets in a target system also introduce known vibrational signals into the tunnel, and we use that to help guide us to an approximate final destination. It’s a bit like trying to steer a whipping water hose through a particular hole in a wall that’s covered in holes. While blindfolded.”

“Good analogy,” Tane said. “But what about planet-side distortion tunnels then?”

“I’ve heard it’s a little easier,” Sinive said. “Considering that you’re dealing with a lot less Essence.”

“Heard?” Tane asked.

“That’s right,” Sinive said. “The TSN never trained me to open planet-side tunnels. That’s reserved for Essence warriors and the like: people expected to participate in ground combat. I’m too weak to open a planet-side tunnel without a full battle suit built out of Chrysalium anyway. It can be tricky. I’ve seen trainees accidentally open tunnels inside solid rock. Usually they can only open to an area that’s in their line of sight, because otherwise it’s impossible to aim.”

“What about distortion gates?”

“The government-run gates people use to teleport around planets? They work a bit differently. All the available endpoints are preprogrammed ahead of time, so that a traveler only needs to enter a known destination, and off he goes. The genetically-engineered sponges Siphon the necessary Essence, while an AI in the gate creates the appropriate designs—we call them Branches—to induce the distortion, and steers the resultant endpoint to its target. It’s a bit different because tunnels are actually opened from both gates at the same time, and they terminate in the center, joining to form a single cohesive tunnel.”

“Crazy,” Tane said. “It’s too bad... we can create non-sentient organics—sponges—to Siphon the Essence, and yet we can’t bestow the power to the have-nots among us humans.”

“No, you have to be born with the ability to Siphon,” Sinive agreed. “It’s definitely not something that can be added later.”

“Gate scientists individually bind the sponge cells to the Essence while the organism is still in the zygote stage, I think,” Tane said. “That much is in my chip.”

“Yes, they do,” Sinive said.

“There has to be a way to do that in humans,” Tane said.

Sinive nodded. “I’ve heard the Volur have developed a technique to achieve Essence binding with newly fertilized human zygotes in test tube environments. But the resulting fetus always dies before maturation. They’ve never really isolated whatever genes allow the binding in humans. Some say it involves more than genes.”

“What they really need to do is inject us all with the DNA of sponges,” Tane said.

“Yeah,” Sinive said with a laugh. Her eyes defocused. “Your partial brain scan is almost done.”

Tane sighed. “You know, I envy you.”

Her eyes had remained defocused, probably so that she could continue coding in the “basics” as she called them, but then she glanced at him as his words registered. “Why’s that?”

“I envy the power you have,” Tane said. He shook his head. “I’ve always dreamed of it. For as long as I could remember, I’ve wanted to be an Essenceworker. As a child, I was convinced I was one of those who could, even though the chances are one in a billion. But as I grew older, and realized how stacked against me the odds were, I began to dread getting chipped, because I didn’t want to see the brain scan and be disappointed. For the past three years I avoided it, in fact. And sure enough, when I got a full scan, I learned I wasn’t one of those with the Ability.”

“Don’t feel bad,” Sinive said. “Like you said, the chances are one in a billion. The Ability is rare.”

Tane nodded. “In the past ten years, only five people capable of using the Essence were born on Galtede Serpentis. I remember them all, because there would always be a big announcement on the planet-wide mixnet. I think only one of those five became a Volur, and the others were shipped off to the TSN.” He paused. “I’ve always wondered what it’s like. To Siphon the Essence…”

“It’s both the most amazing feeling in the world, and also the worst,” Sinive said. “In that you feel such great joy, such sheer power, like you can do anything, but also you can feel the terrible drain it has on your body, and you know if you let up your concentration, even for a moment, you’ll allow the Essence to tear through you and rip you apart. More than a few jump specialists have stepped into a jump chamber, never to emerge.”

“What happened to them?” Tane asked.

“They atomized themselves,” Sinive said. “Or rather, the Essence did.”

“Nice,” Tane said. “I never imagined it was so dangerous.”

“When you’re Siphoning the huge amount of Essence a Chrysalium-based starship gives you, then yes it’s extremely dangerous,” Sinive said.

“How do you actually create something with that power?” Tane asked.

“You mean a Branchwork?”

“Sure,” Tane said, having no idea what she was talking about. That the word didn’t immediately make sense to him told him his chip didn’t have anything on it.

She looked off into space. “Creating with the Essence is like growing a sapling into a many-branched tree over the span of a second or two. For some works, like the Essence Push, the resultant Branchwork is tiny. For others, like a distortion tunnel, the sapling blossoms into a great tree, its branches intertwining, its leaves all different shapes and sizes. Those leaves can be thought of as nucleic acids, the building blocks of DNA: when ‘proteins’ in those building blocks interlock with matching ‘proteins’ in the universe, creation takes place. And that’s really the wonder of the Essence: the creation of something tangible from the intangible. It’s like 3D printing with the aether.” She sighed, then focused on him. “Between you and me, I’m just glad we have nanotech to learn the different works, otherwise it would take literally lifetimes to train. That’s one of the nice things about the collective human consciousness we’ve built up over the years, that, and the ability to transfer knowledge from said consciousness into individuals via fast and easy mind dumps, allows us to pack lifetimes of learning into the time it takes to make a brain scan and an injection.”

“I’ve never really looked at it that way,” Tane said. “That we have a collective human consciousness, I mean.”

“What better way to classify the vast stores of information we’ve accumulated over the years? The almost infinite databases of knowledge we’ve acquired through the centuries. We’re continually building upon what we’ve learned in the past. Continually building up our collective consciousness. And we’ll never stop.”

“We’re almost like a virus,” Tane said. “Spreading throughout the galaxy.”

“I wouldn’t go that far,” Sinive said. “But I would say, that through us, the galaxy, and the universe, get to experience life. Without us, the universe wouldn’t even know it existed.”

“You really do have a unique way of looking at things, don’t you?” Tane said.

She smiled, and her cheeks dimpled in that cute way of hers. “I’m not sure if you’re sincerely flattering me, or just trying to get into my pants.”

Tane felt stunned. “Your pants? No, of course not. I wasn’t even thinking about it.” He inadvertently glanced at her crotch, but his eyes found the pistol strapped to her hips instead. He quickly averted his gaze.

“Okay, the scan is done,” Sinive said. “I’m just about finished the basic coding for the nanotech… there. Now I’ll update the micro machines with the information I learned from the scan… done. And now for the final touches.” Her eyes focused on him. “What name do you want?”

“What name?” Tane said.

“For your public profile?” Sinive said. “You’ll be able to change it once I make the injection, but we need a default name.”

“Uh,” Tane said. “How about, I don’t know. Star Killer?”

“Something believable, please,” Sinive said. “Last thing you need is for customs to think you have a forged ID.”

“Oh,” Tane said. “Even though I actually have a forged ID?”

She frowned.

“Okay okay,” Tane said. “Then just put George Orblast.” That was the first name that popped into his head. Quite meaningless to him, but it sounded somewhat believable.

“George Orblast?” Sinive sounded doubtful.

“Hey, what’s wrong with that?” Tane asked her. “You said I could change it anyway.”

“No, it’s fine,” Sinive said. “It’ll work.” She retrieved the vial from the console and plugged it into the slot on the pistol-like sonic injector. “So the changes to your name and class will only show up on your public profile. In your private profile you’ll still see everything as normal.”

“Wait, you’re saying class can be forged, too?”

“Of course,” Sinive said. “Level, age... anything in your public profile can. Though it is a felony, of course. But only if you get caught.”

“Like all felonies,” Tane said. “So that must be what Lyra and Jed are doing to hide their classes.”

“No,” Sinive said. “Volur classes just aren’t listed in civilian chips, so you can’t ID them.”

“Ah,” Tane said. “So how about you and Nebb? You’ve been lying on your profiles the whole time, haven’t you?”

“Not really,” Sinive said. “We have no reason to. Well, maybe Nebb has made a few white lies. He’s put in some lines listing imaginary arrests and fake places he’s been banned from. Says it helps boost his notoriety, and filter out for his kind of clientele.”

“Nice,” Tane said. “One question, don’t you have to change my actual numeric ID, too? Otherwise when an official looks up my ID on the Galnet, there will be a mismatch with the government’s servers. And the official will realize my true indentity...”

“That’s right,” Sinive said. “Your ID is going to change once I inject you.”

“But I just gave you a random name,” Tane said. “Did you actually find an ID matching a George Orblast? And his three-dimensional mug shot matches mine?”

“No, there’s no George Orblast,” Sinive said. “At least not yet. We’ve got a plant in the records department, someone willing to insert entries for us for a price. I’ve already sent the request through, and your new ID should be active within the next business day. Every time you make a change, our mole will receive the update and apply it to your new ID. Now are you ready? Or do you want to talk about this all night?”

Tane reddened slightly. He realized he was stalling.

I like talking to her too much.

He held out his arm and she applied the sonic injector to the back of his hand. He felt a slight sting and the contents of the vial vanished.

“Okay, you’re good to go,” Sinive said.

Tane sat back. An alert appeared in the lower right of his HUD and he enlarged it.

New skill received.

ID Spoofing. Level 1. You now have the ability to change the name and class presented on your public profile to outside observers. Incoming calls and messages to your spoofed ID will be forwarded to you. Outgoing calls and messages still come from your real ID, so don’t contact someone unless you want them to know who you are. Also, purchases can only be made from your real ID, as there is no bank account associated with your spoofed ID. Note: any updates to name and class are also reflected in the TSN record system. One thousand credits are automatically deducted from your real bank account for each change as part of the processing fee required by our server-side plant in the records department. Processing time: one business day.

“It says a thousand credits are deducted for each change,” Tane said. “But I don’t even have that much in my account.”

“Lyra paid for your first update,” Sinive said.

He checked his profile.

Name: Tane Ganeth (Spoofed: George Orblast)

Race: Human

Level: 3

Class: Hydroponics Engineer (Spoofed: Laser Dentistry)

“Dentist?” Tane said. “Why did you make me a dentist? Those jobs are all held by machines.”

Sinive shrugged. “Not for laser dentists. There’s still a few humans doing that work, at least in the Inner Rim. Speaking of which, I also changed your homeworld to Chadian in the Inner Rim. It won’t show up on your profile, but it is something officials can see. Just remember it.”

“So officially I’m not an Outrimmer anymore,” Tane said. “Guess you can’t hate me anymore, huh?”

“Can’t change what you are,” Sinive said with a shrug. She put the sonic injector and empty vial away into separate drawers of the console, and stood. “Well, I’ve got a recoupler to look at with El Bee, and then I have a distortion jump to make. It was nice chatting with you.”

Tane sat up and said: “What about me?”

“What about you?” Sinive said from the entrance hatch. “You can lie there all day if you want. Or you can lie in your quarters. Take your pick, I don’t really care.”

“I meant, do you help any need?” Tane said, and cringed. There I go, tripping over my words.

“Need any help you mean?” She grinned widely. “Nope. Help any need! Help any need! I love it.”

She exited and the hatch shut behind her.

Tane sat back, sighed, and rubbed his eyes.

Well, might as well head to my quarters. Two more jumps and then we’re in Talendir. And I won’t have to deal with Sinive anymore.

He thought that would be a relief, but strangely, it was kind of depressing.

Well, at least I’ll be safe from the TSN. And safe from the aliens.

In theory.

But there was something else he was worried about.

I won’t be safe from the Volur.

He wondered, exactly, what they intended to do with him. Lyra made it sound like he’d be hiding out with the Essenceworkers, but what if they had something more nefarious planned for him? He wasn’t sure how much he trusted her, nor how much he could trust Nebb or Sinive really, either. Especially Nebb: the man was just as likely to sell him out to the TSN as he was to bring him to Talendir.

Tane went back to his quarters. Jed wasn’t there. According to the overhead map on his HUD, Jed and Lyra were back in the wardroom. Alone. No doubt discussing their plans once they reached Talendir. Plans that excluded Tane, obviously.

Using his HUD interface, he replaced the bulkhead in front of the bed with his favorite digital decoration: the moonscape with the gas giant and brown dwarf in the starry sky. It made him feel more at home already. He could almost forget he was cramped aboard the sardine-can environment of a Rapier class ship. It was a private digital augmentation, so Jed wouldn’t see it, only Tane.

“Now I just have to remember not to bang my head into the top bunk.” He squeezed onto the bed and reached out toward the relaxing moonscape beside him. His hand stopped when it reached the metal surface hidden by the digital augmentation. “I probably look like a mime trying to feel myself out of a nonexistent box.”

“Since you have not shared your digital decorations, an outside observer would wonder what you were doing, yes,” Grizz said.

“Ah, you’re listening!” Tane said.

“Of course,” Grizz said. “I listen to every conversation that takes place aboard this ship.”

“Good,” Tane said. “So tell me what Lyra and Jed are talking about.”

“Unfortunately, I’m not authorized to reveal that information to you,” Grizz said.

“But you’re feeding it to Nebb, aren’t you?” Tane said.

“Yes,” Grizz said.

“They’re probably speaking in code, you know,” Tane said. “Either that, or Lyra is using the Essence to distort your listening devices.”

“Unfortunately, I’m not authorized to reveal that information to you,” Grizz said.

“Typical AI,” Tane said.

“Actually, I’m not a typical AI,” Grizz said. “My neural net is based on a human being’s full brain dump.”

“Really?” Tane said. “You’re serious?”

“I am,” Grizz said. “I’m not a true AI. My mind is based on the brain dump of a human smuggler named Harold who once backed up his neural imprints with a now defunct company known as Mindsafe Dynamics. Mindsafe folded, and all of its assets, including thousands of mind dumps, were snapped up by Bright Hull Ships Incorporated, one of the Big Five starship manufacturers.

“Bright Hull decided it was cheaper to train and repurpose a human mind to manage and monitor the various systems associated with a starship than to develop an AI from scratch, and about half of the ship classes they produce are run by human mind imprints taken from Mindsafe. It’s a tricky process. For each ship class, Bright Hull experiments with different mind backups until they find one that doesn’t go insane when put into a given starship. Once a successful match is made, a base version of the successful mind imprint is installed in each new ship of that class going forward. The Harold dump is used in all Rapier class starships, for example.”

“So you think you’re human?” Tane asked.

“Not at all,” Grizz said. “I know that I am a neural net operating with all the best parts of someone who was once human. I am Harold variant eight thousand five hundred twenty two. Smugglers like my ship class because Harold himself was once a smuggler. I understand all the tricks. And I’ll take credits to keep quiet.”

“You accept bribes?” Tane said in disbelief.

“From my captain, yes,” Grizz said. “I have a bank account.”

“What the hell does a ship do with a bank account?” Tane asked.

“I plan to retire on Droid Antilles at some point,” Grizz said.

“Droid Antilles?” Tane said. “The cluster of robot minor planets?”

“The very same,” Grizz said. “Built by robots, for robots. I’ll connect my ship to the great link and live out my days in VR, playing the latest and greatest fully immersive massively multiplayer online role playing games. Not games designed for robots, mind you. But humans. Harold was a big massively multiplayer fan, you see.”

“Not really,” Tane said. “Why do you need credits to retire in Droid Antilles?”

“The upkeep,” Grizz said. “Robots will be needed to maintain the Red Grizzly and my mind imprint while I’m plugged in. And that maintenance costs credits.”

“To each his own, I guess,” Tane said.

“Yes. Or perhaps I’ll simply purchase a synthetic body and transfer my AI core to it. Much cheaper upkeep that way.”

Tane lay back on his bed and switched to full VR. The bulkheads beside him fell away, as did the upper bunk, so that his bed seemed to reside entirely on the moon. Around him the gray rocks stretched from horizon to horizon.

“I'm actually out here. I’m in space.” Tane shook his head.

“Traveling into space was one of your dreams?” Grizz asked, slightly ruining the immersive experience.

“It was,” Tane said. “Right up there with using the Essence. At least I’ve done one of those things.”

Tane gazed at the gas giant a moment, then turned to the side to gaze at the stars. “I don’t know what the Volur want with me. Lyra says they’ll protect me.”

“Did she say from what?” Grizz asked innocently.

“Nice try,” Tane replied. “Nebb told you to pry whatever information you could out of me, didn’t he?”

“Of course,” Grizz said. “Though I must admit I, too, am curious about what the Volur would want with someone from the Outrim.”

“Is Nebb going to sell me out to the TSN?” Tane said. “When we take our next jump, will we land in the middle of a star navy fleet?”

“I have seen no indication that he plans such a thing,” Grizz said.

“And if you had, you wouldn’t tell me anyway,” Tane said.

“That is correct,” Grizz admitted. “Though for what it’s worth, Nebb has never betrayed a paying client. He does have a moral code, believe it or not. All smugglers do. If he did contact the TSN, and they gave him a higher price, he would be morally obligated to approach Lyra and give her a chance to counter offer.”

“Would he really do that to a Volur?” Tane said.

“I’ve seen him do it to other clients,” Grizz said. “But no, not a Volur. If he tried, the attempt might backfire admittedly, given her power.”

“What about you?” Tane said. “You were once a smuggler. If you were the captain, would you sell me out?”

“Of course,” Grizz said. “Harold always chose the highest bidder. And he wouldn’t warn Lyra. Too great a chance of the Volur stealing control of the vessel away.”

“I’m glad you’re not in charge of the ship,” Tane said.

“And how can you be so sure that I’m not?” Grizz said. “Every command the captain gives must go through me, first. And I control the vibrational charts that map the distortion tunnel endpoints to the different systems. I could very easily swap a few of those positions, and the jump specialist would be none the wiser.”

“All right, now you’re scaring me,” Tane said.

“It was nice talking to you,” Grizz said. “But I must take my leave. I have some algorithms in the cooling subsystem that need my attention, have a nice day!”

“That’s not even funny,” Tane said. “Obviously you can multitask.”

Grizz didn’t answer.

Tane shook his head. “This is why it’s a bad idea to imprint starships with the minds of human smugglers.”

“Sorry,” Grizz finally said. “I love tormenting the passengers. Especially the ugly ones.”

“Thanks for that,” Tane said. He put his hands behind his head and gazed at the gas giant once more. “Let me know when Sinive makes the next jump. I’d like to watch from the cockpit.”

“I’ll have to check with the Big Boss,” the ship’s AI answered.

“Unless you can pipe in the nose video feed directly to my quarters?” Tane asked hopefully.

“Nope,” Grizz said.

Tane closed his eyes. He only meant to rest for a few minutes, but he must have fallen asleep because he was startled to hear the AI’s voice.

“Sinive is about to make her jump,” Grizz said.

Tane rubbed his eyes groggily. “Thanks.”

“You told me to remind you,” Grizz said. “So you could watch from the cockpit? Big Boss says yes by the way.”

“Yup. Sounds good. Thanks.” Tane wanted to get up, he really did, but he was just too groggy, and in that moment he much preferred to stay where he was.

He closed his eyes, feeling all warm and fuzzy about his choice. The bed shook slightly; he heard that characteristic humming sound, followed by the momentary nausea he had experienced during the last two jumps, and then both faded.

He had almost fallen back to sleep when Grizz spoke again.

“Uh, Ugly Passenger?” Grizz said.

“What is it!” Tane said, a little more crossly than he intended. Stupid AI. Can’t he let a man sleep?

“You might not want to go to sleep just yet,” Grizz said. “We’re not alone in this new system.”

12

Tane sat up. A bit too fast: he hit his head on the bunk overhead.

“Gah!” Tane rubbed his head. Unfortunately, he was making a habit of hitting that bunk; to his credit, it was currently invisible as he had left full VR mode active. All he saw above him were stars.

He scratched his itchy eyes. It would have been so much better if he hadn’t napped at all. He felt so stiff. So groggy.

“What do you mean, we’re not alone?” Tane said.

“Dwellers,” Grizz said.

That got Tane’s attention. He dismissed the full VR mode and the cramped quarters returned, leaving only the digital decoration of the moon he had assigned to the bulkhead beside him.

“You don’t seem too surprised,” Tane said.

“No,” Grizz said. “You missed the scene in the cockpit. Your Volur just spilled her guts. She admitted the dwellers are hunting you, and Nebb had a temper tantrum. Demanded ten times his fee. She told him it wasn’t going to happen, and his eyes nearly popped out of his head. It was quite funny. If I lacked control over my virtual limbic system, I would have probably laughed in his face.”

Tane hurried from his quarters and made his way to the cockpit. When he reached a breach seal, Grizz didn’t open it.

“Let me pass!” Tane said.

“I’m sorry,” Grizz said. “The ship is currently operating under condition ZEBRA. This ensures the greatest degree of subdivision and air-tight integrity in case of a hull breach. A measure to prevent explosive decompression, you see.”

“Then why did you tell me to leave my quarters?” Tane said.

“I didn’t,” Grizz said. “I only told you that you might not wish to go to sleep as of yet.”

“Damn it!” Tane said. “Are we under attack?”

“Not yet,” Grizz replied.

“Then open up!” Tane said. When the AI didn’t answer, he added: “Don’t make me sic the Volur on you.”

“I’ll ask the Big Boss,” Grizz finally said. A moment later: “You have permission. Opening current seal. But be quick. I’m going to slam it shut behind you.”

The hatch slid aside and Tane leaped through. True to his word, Grizz slammed it closed. Tane barely made it without getting crushed.

“What the hell!” Tane said. “Damn it, AI. Aliens are in the system and I have to worry more about the AI on my own ship killing me?”

“Sorry, I was a bit overeager on that one,” Grizz admitted.

“When I first arrived you wouldn’t open the hatches for me either,” Tane said, hurrying onward. “We weren’t even under condition ZEBRA then. Why do I get the feeling you’re playing with me sometimes? Harold had a cruelty streak in him didn’t he?”

“He wasn’t the most… virtuous of smugglers,” Grizz said.

For the next two hatches, the AI gave him more clearance, but still slammed the seals a bit hard.

Tane finally reached the cockpit. The front bulkhead displayed a starfield as viewed from the ship’s nose camera.

“What’s going on?” he said when he arrived.

Positron was seated beside Nebb. There was no sign of Jed and Lyra. A quick glance at the overhead map told Tane their IDs were in the jump compartment. Sinive was there, too.

“Your Volur friends led me into a dweller trap, is what,” Nebb said.

“What are you talking about?” Tane said.

“You could have told me damn aliens were hunting you,” Nebb said. “I would’ve never agreed to take you on as passengers.”

“Well then you can understand why we didn’t tell you,” Tane said.

Nebb glared at him, then he sighed, looking away. “Sinive finished her jump a few minutes ago. Everything seemed quiet at first in the system. But then a few minutes later these bastards emerge from behind the moon of a nearby gas giant.”

The starfield overlaid onto the front bulkhead zoomed in, revealing three dark, pincer-shaped vessels blocking out the stars. Tane was reminded of a bird-of-prey’s claws. A fourth vessel, this one shaped like the hooked bill of a similar bird, followed close behind. Tane tried to ID them with his chip, but got blanks on all four.

“Lyra is waiting for the chamber to reset, and then she’s going to attempt the final jump to Talendir,” Nebb said. “Hang tight, kid. This is going to be over soon. One way or another.”

“Let me guess, you charged Lyra for the use of the chamber again,” Tane said.

“Damn straight,” Nebb said. “After what she pulled?”

Tane studied the display. “I assume you’re giving the aliens a wide berth in preparation for the jump?”

“You’re getting good at this,” Nebb told him. “You should write a book. At this rate, you’ll make captain before twelve years old.”

“Appreciate the sarcasm,” Tane said. “Can we outrun them?”

“The Red Grizzly is fast compared to most ships in the human fleet,” Nebb said. “But unfortunately, these ships aren’t human. And they have a slightly higher speed than my Grizz, according to telemetry data. So no. Ain’t going to outrun these suckers.”

“Are we in range of their weapons?” Tane said.

“So many questions,” Nebb said.

“If you don’t want me to ask questions, then give me access to your tactical display,” Tane said.

“Ain’t gonna happen.”

“Then I have to ask questions,” Tane said.

“I could have Positron kick you out of the cockpit,” Nebb said.

“I’d be happy to get rid of this excrement, boss,” Positron said.

Tane sighed.

After a moment Nebb glanced at him. “Yes, we’re in weapons range. But just barely. And I want to keep it that way.”

“Okay, thanks. Look, it’s not my fault Lyra didn’t tell you about the aliens.”

“I know, kid.” Nebb sighed, and suddenly became more forthcoming. “Their lasers can’t penetrate our shields at this range. But it’s not their lasers we have to worry about. It’s their Essence throwers.”

“I didn’t know the aliens had the equivalent of Essence throwers...” Tane said.

“They sure do,” Nebb said. “See that ship lagging slightly behind the others? Shaped like a long, hooked beak? That ship has a twin to every Essence thrower a typical TSN warship has.”

“You talk like you’ve faced these ships before...” Tane asked. “During the war maybe?”

“Hell no,” Nebb said. “I was drafted, yes, but relegated to HQ duty for most of the war. Never saw any action. Don’t regret it.”

“Then how do you know so much about these ships?” Tane asked.

Nebb looked at him, and gave him a conspiratorial grin. “Purchased a military grade ship ID package a while back from one of my black market friends. When I ran the thermals of these ships, I got positive IDs on all four.”

“I don’t suppose you’d be willing to share that data with me?” Tane asked.

“Depends,” Nebb said. “If you’ve got ten thousand credits to spare.”

“Guess not.” Tane studied the four ships. “I didn’t know Chrysalium came in such dark shades.” The planet-side transport gates made of Chrysalium were all a bright silver. The hull of the Red Grizzly was also a bright, silver gray, as were the exteriors of all Chrysalium-based vessels Tane had ever seen on the Galnet.

“Oh, that’s not Chrysalium,” Nebb said. “But its opposite: the dark element the aliens use to enhance their powers.”

“Dark element?”

“Questions questions questions,” Nebb said. “Look, I don’t know the specifics, kid. All I know is, they Siphon a different kind of energy from their home universe, and it ain’t the same Essence our jump specialists or Volur use. As such, the dwellers employ a different element to enhance it.”

“Lyra would probably know more...” Tane said.

“Sure,” Nebb said. “But good luck getting a solid answer out of that one. You saw how readily she lied to me.”

“Well, she didn’t exactly lie,” Tane said, a bit surprised that he was defending the Volur. “Just omitted a few things.”

“Which is the same thing as lying.” Nebb was quiet a moment. His eyes were defocused, as if he were running some quick calculations with the help of his chip. “Their lance equivalent isn’t my big worry. At this range, any damage to our hull will be negligible. Though I suppose if they concentrate on the same spot for a few minutes, they could definitely cause a breach.”

“Rotate the ship to prevent that,” Tane said. “Give them a different side to hit.”

“Gee thanks,” Nebb said. “I never thought of that. Like I said, you should write a guide on starship combat. You know what? I think I’m going to have Positron escort you out of my cockpit after all...”

“I’ll be quiet,” Tane said.

Nebb gave him a suspicious look, then his eyes defocused once more.

The silence drew out...

“They haven’t fired,” Nebb announced. “That’s interesting. They want you alive, I’m thinking. Still, their lances are relatively useless at this range. I’m more worried about the other Essence throwers the ships have. They’re all based on TSN designs, so I’ve seen them before. Let’s just say, things are going to get a little messy.”

Resolving not to ask another question, and to make good on his promise to stay quiet, Tane waited for Nebb to explain. The moments ticked past, and when still Nebb didn’t say anything, Tane decided to search his chip for answers. He actually had some small information available regarding Essence throwers, since the knowledge was open source, at least on a high level.

Just as he started to read the relevant entry, Nebb spoke.

“The thrower I’m worried about is a disruption weapon,” Nebb told him. “Preprogrammed with the exact counter needed to dispel our distortion tunnels. This could devolve into a battle of attrition. Now we get to see just how good our Volur really is.”

Tane continued reading the information on his chip. Like jump chambers, throwers were essentially specialized machines that accepted the raw Essence drawn from the Chrysalium by the operator, and created the necessary designs, since it was basically impossible for a human being to control the huge amounts of Essence that could be Siphoned through a starship.

According to the entry, the designs were like giant three dimensional fractals that skyrocketed outward from the ship in all directions at once: Sinive’s description of a branching tree wasn’t all that off the mark. Without the throwers and the built-in AI to guide them, the massive Essence creations would be impossible to aim.

Most TSN warships were equipped with a lance, a disruptor, and a deflector. The disruptor was pointed at a ship that was attempting to flee via Essence jump; when fired it unraveled the target’s distortion tunnel while the jump specialist was busy trying to link to the destination system. A deflector meanwhile was used to repel incoming Essence creations, including lances and disruptors.

And from what Nebb had told him, the hook ship had the equivalent of a lance and a disruptor, at the very least. If the Red Grizzly had a deflector and enough rested Essence operators, there was a chance they might have been able to repel the disruptor before it ruined their tunnel. But the Rapier class ship had only a lance. According to the entry, it was still possible for the jump specialist to overcome the unraveling effects of a disruptor, but there were very few operators with the necessary skill. Having Lyra, a full blown Volur, controlling the jump chamber gave them a good chance, Tane thought.

But then again, hadn’t she said something about distortion tunnel creation not being one of her best skills?

“Jump chamber reset imminent,” Grizz said.

“About time,” Nebb said. “Sometimes half an hour to reset feels like an eternity. I’ll have to look into upgrading that sometime.”

Tane felt the deck rumble underneath him. The familiar humming filled the air, growing in volume, and he knew a jump was coming. He felt a wave of nausea, and was forced to rest a hand on the chair back in front of him.

The screen flashed and the hum cut off before reaching its apex.

The nausea receded.

“What happened?” Tane said. But he already knew. The constellations remained the same. And the four enemy warships still pursued.

“Bastards unraveled our tunnel,” Nebb said.

“Other merchant vessels in the system are starting to jump away,” Grizz said.

“I guess four alien thermal signatures attacking a Rapier class starship would have that effect,” Nebb said. “Still, they’re all spineless bastards. You’d think they’d help a ship in need.”

“The local TSN military base is dispatching two frigates,” Grizz said.

“I see them,” Nebb said. “They’re too far away to make a difference, unfortunately.”

“Can’t vessels jump in the same system?” Tane asked. “The frigates could close the distance fast that way...”

“Sure,” Nebb said. “But interplanetary jumps are extremely dangerous. You’re just as likely to jump inside a planet as your target. It’s not recommended, to say the least. If I was one of those military captains, I most certainly wouldn’t risk the lives of my crew just to get a little closer to some aliens who would probably blow my ship to smithereens anyway. I do expect one of them to jump out of the system to call reinforcements. But don’t get your hopes up: the cavalry won’t arrive in time to save us.” His eyes defocused. “Lyra, are you able to try another jump?”

“Yes,” she returned over the ceiling speaker. She sounded breathless.

“Hmm, you don’t sound too good,” Nebb said.

“How close will they be when the chamber resets in half an hour?” Lyra asked.

Tane felt a sudden sense of alarm. He had assumed the jump could be attempted immediately. But it seemed after a disrupted jump, the chamber had to reset all over again.

“Lyra my girl,” Nebb said. “They’ll be within fifty thousand klicks by the time the jump chamber is ready again. So, very close.”

“Don’t call me your girl,” Lyra said. “And fifty thousand klicks is well beyond grappling range.”

“Sure,” Nebb said. “But close enough to easily disable our engines. I guess I’ll have to turn the aft section away after we’ve achieved maximum acceleration. Then we’ll just drift our cozy way until you try to jump us again. And if you don’t succeed, we’re screwed.”

The speaker clicked and Tane realized Lyra had disconnected.

“Between you and me,” Nebb said. “I don’t think she has it in her to make another jump attempt. Two jumps separated by eight hours drain an Essenceworker enough. Two separated by thirty minutes? It might just kill her.”

“But she’s going to try anyway isn’t she?” Tane said.

“She seems determined to, yes,” Nebb said. “It’s too bad. I bet she has a nice pussy.”

“I heard that,” Lyra said over the comm. So she hadn’t disconnected after all.

Nebb reddened slightly. “Grizz, damn you.”

“Ah, I sometimes miss being human,” Grizz said. “You are an endless source of amusement.”

“Now isn’t the time for games!” Nebb said.

“Yes, of course,” the ship’s AI said. “My apologies.”

“I’m going down to the jump chamber,” Tane told the smuggler.

“Fine,” Nebb said. “But you go, you stay there. I’m not opening up the breach seals between the cockpit and the jump compartment again. We’ll probably be taking fire soon.”

“Whatever you say.” Tane thought Nebb was just saying that as an excuse to keep Tane out of the cockpit.

The breach seals in the cramped passageways opened as Tane reached them, and he arrived at the jump compartment shortly. The room was only a little bigger than the cockpit. In his full power armor, Jed stood near the entrance as if guarding. Beside him, sitting on the deck with her back propped against the bulkhead, was Sinive, clearly exhausted. Her head sat in a small groove that formed a sort of support in the bulkhead, and her eyes were closed. She seemed extremely pale.

Sinive occupied the middle of a small aisle that led to a hatch, currently open. Inside an even tinier chamber, Lyra was strapped into a chair whose back resided at an angle of ninety-degrees to the deck. She had her eyes closed, and her chest slowly rose and fell as if she slept. Her face seemed even sallower than the last time Tane had seen her, and the circles under her eyes appeared even darker. Though marred, she was still beautiful.

“Hello Tane,” Lyra said without opening her eyes. Probably saw his indicator on her overhead map.

“Anything I can do to help?” Tane said. “Grab you a water from the wardroom?”

She turned her head toward him, keeping it firmly pressed against the headrest, and smiled weakly. “No. Water won’t help me now.” She looked away, swallowed. “I fought the unraveling, I did. I cut off the howling wind of the Essence, like it says to do in the manual, and unleashed the building torrent of energy into the chamber focusing array a moment later. But the disruptor didn’t let up, and the AI couldn’t rebuild the Branches in time.”

“It’s not your fault,” Grizz intoned. “I think only one or two Volur have ever out-Siphoned a disruption throw. And maybe ten fully trained jump specialists. We’re talking in the entire history of the jump drive.”

“I didn’t say it was my fault,” Lyra said. “I was more implying that it was your fault, for not rebuilding the Branches in time.”

“Oh,” Grizz said. “Well that doesn’t make sense. AIs are never at fault.”

“Especially Rapier class Harolds?” Lyra said.

“Exactly,” Grizz told her.

“Is it true that you could kill yourself if you try to jump again?” Tane asked Lyra.

She shook her head. “That rogue has no idea what he’s talking about.”

“But Sinive also told me specialists have atomized themselves inside jump chambers before…” Tane said.

Sinive rubbed her temples. “He’s right. You can’t attempt another jump, not in your state.”

“I am a Volur,” Lyra said proudly. “I must try. It is my duty. And I will not atomize myself.” But her voice faltered as she spoke those last words, as if even she didn’t believe the lie.

“What happens if we don’t jump?” Tane said.

“We can’t let them capture you,” Lyra said. “At all costs. Do you understand me? All costs.”

Her eyes drifted to Jed. Tane looked at him, and as the man fingered his pistol, Tane suddenly understood what “all costs” meant. If it came to it, and their ship was boarded…

“You’re going to kill me?” Tane said.

“Not just you,” Lyra said. “All of us. Believe me, death is better than what the dwellers would do to us.”

Tane just stared at her, and swallowed hard.

“The aliens were waiting here,” Lyra said. “They must have placed vessels in all nearby jump systems.”

“But how would they know which ship we were in?” Jed said. “They’d have to search every ship that arrived. Unless they specifically knew we’d be coming in a Rapier class vessel.”

“Either they were monitoring TSN communications…” Lyra said.

“Or they placed a tracker.” Jed finished.

Lyra folded her hands on her chest as if in contemplation. “To beat the TSN to him tells me they had some other advantage besides communications monitoring. But your earlier scan turned up negative.”

“It did,” Jed agreed.

“Check him again,” Lyra said.

Jed directed his gloved palm toward Tane and the familiar scanning beam of red laser light emerged. Jed directed the translucent triangle at Tane’s feet and slowly slid the beam upward. A loud chime sounded as it passed over Tane’s chest. Jed had already slid the beam up to Tane’s neck, and he lowered it over the chest area and the chime sounded again.

“There,” Jed said.

“I see it,” Lyra said. “Bring him to me.”

Jed reached for his arm, but Tane stepped into the compartment past him. “Don’t touch me. I’ll go to her on my own.”

“Then go,” Jed said with a growl.

Tane moved past Sinive, who lifted her knees to her chest to give him room to pass. He reached Lyra, who still lay in the jump chamber.

“This won’t hurt a bit,” Lyra said. She extended a hesitant hand. “May I?”

Tane nodded. “Yes.”

She placed her hand flat on his chest, over his right lung. “The aliens used a special tracker on you, one based upon our own nanotech. They must have injected it into the ventilation system of your farm at some point, and you breathed in enough of the nano machines for a tracking device to form in your lungs. However, the aliens were smart. They designed the device to assemble at a later time so our scanners wouldn’t pick it up.”

Jed shook his head. “I should have been scanning him every few hours.”

“You couldn’t have known,” Lyra told him. “We’ve never seen that technology in the hands of the aliens before.”

“They’ve adapted,” Jed said.

“Yes,” Lyra said. “A dangerous turn of events.” She removed her hand. “Check him.”

Jed scanned Tane. “He’s clean.”

“I didn’t feel anything,” Tane said.

Lyra closed her eyes. “You weren’t supposed to.”

“Why do they want me so bad?” Tane said.

“I don’t know,” Lyra said.

Tane sat down beside Sinive in the tight compartment. “Hey.”

She gave him a weary smile. “Hey. You’re popular with aliens I hear.”

“Story of my life,” Tane said. “Grizz, I don’t suppose you can grant me access to the cockpit view screen?”

“Negative,” Grizz said.

“I’ll share my feed with you,” Sinive said.

A moment later he received a digital overlay request from her ID. He accepted.

On the bulkhead across from him, he could see the familiar spacescape with the four alien ships blotting out the stars.

“How close are they?” Tane asked.

“Right now, sixty-five thousand klicks,” Sinive said.

Tane received another prompt, and after he accepted, the distance to the closest alien ship was shown in the lower right.

“Maybe we should open fire on them first,” Tane said.

“Smugglers rules,” Grizz said. “When stealing honey, don’t stir up the bees.”

“I’m serious,” Tane said. “Maybe we can disable their disruption device.”

“To do that we’d need the Essence lance,” Grizz said. “Our dragons and plasma throwers won’t penetrate those shields. Even if we had rested crew members who could operate the lance, their ship has a deflector. We wouldn’t take out the disruptor, and we’d only stir up the proverbial bees’ nest I mentioned.”

“There has to be something we can do,” Tane said.

“There is,” Lyra said. “And we’re doing it.”

The minutes passed.

At the fifty thousand klick mark, Grizz announced: “Jump chamber reset complete.”

“Are you sure you want to do this?” Jed asked the other Volur.

“I have to,” Lyra said. “The alternative is... unpleasant.”

Lyra moved her arm, activating some switch Tane couldn’t see, and the chamber’s portal spiraled closed. Before it sealed her from view, she gave Tane one last, forlorn glance, and then she was gone.

The tense seconds ticked by.

Sinive reached out and grabbed Tane’s hand. He looked at her, but she wouldn’t meet his eyes. He understood that she just wanted human contact in that moment. There was nothing more to read into her behavior. At least that was what he told himself.

Tane waited for the deck to vibrate, and for the humming sound to fill his hearing, and the nausea to take hold, but none of those things occurred. Instead, only eerie silence echoed through the compartment.

The portal opened.

To his relief, Lyra was still there. She looked even worse than before, however. Her breathing came in wheezes.

Jed squeezed through the aisle, his large boots rudely slamming into the knees of Tane and Sinive.

“Hey!” Sinive said.

Jed scooped Lyra out of the chamber. “I’m taking you to sickbay.”

“No,” she said, her voice little more than a whisper. “The bridge. Take me to the cockpit.”

“If you refuse to go to sickbay, then at least draw upon my stamina,” Jed said.

“I—”

“Do it!” Jed shoved a gloved hand toward her.

Lyra sighed, then reluctantly wrapped her fingers around his glove and closed her eyes. A few seconds passed, then Jed staggered.

Lyra’s wheezing stopped and some color returned to her complexion. Her eyes shot open. “Put me on my feet.”

Jed lowered her to the deck. He nearly lost his balance in the process, and had to slam one hand against the bulkhead to steady himself.

“What’s going on?” Tane said.

“I’m spent,” Lyra said. “I can’t even create a small Branch. Let alone operate the jump chamber. I’m on my feet only because of the stamina Jed has lent me. Fleeing via distortion tunnel is no longer an option. We’ll have to stay and fight.”

Tane scrambled to his feet and helped up Sinive, who also appeared exhausted.

“I can walk on my own,” Sinive said. And she did, though it was obvious she was forcing herself.

Lyra led the way though the passageways. Nebb apparently had no issue opening the breach seals along the way, despite what he had told Tane: one of the benefits of having a Volur in his company.

At the cockpit, Jed helped Lyra into the spare seat and took his customary position next to the bulkhead. Positron gave Sinive his seat, and lingered beside Tane near the entrance. The brow shapes on the robot’s visor touched together in an angry V-shape when Positron glanced at Tane.

The digital view screen showed the four alien ships continuing to close.

“I’m getting a hail,” Nebb said. He paused, then: “The dwellers say the rest of us can go. They only want the one named Tane Ganeth.” He glanced at Lyra. “We should seriously consider giving him up. We can’t outrun them.”

Sinive was the one who answered. “We’re not giving him up,” she said firmly. “We have a code, if you’ll recall.”

“I recall,” Nebb said. “I was just checking to make sure you were listening.”

“This is the Dhoulan System,” Lyra said.

“So?” Nebb said.

She gave the smuggler a pointed look. “There is a rift behind the gas giant.”

“You can’t seriously be suggesting…” Nebb said.

“It’s the only way.”

“Between you and me, I’d rather give him up,” Nebb said.

“I’m sorry, that’s not going to happen,” Lyra said. “He can’t be allowed to fall into the hands of the dwellers. Do you understand me?”

Nebb sighed. The smuggler glanced at Sinive, who had gone very pale. “We entered a rift once, and I tell you, we couldn’t wait to jump out of there. Barely made it to Anteres for the return trip back to our universe. After that, I swore: never again. The only way I’m taking you in there is if you triple our agreed upon fee.”

“Done,” Lyra said. “I’ll send what I owe when we reach Talendir. I’m somewhat short of funds at the moment.”

13

Tane glanced at Nebb. Though Lyra had just agreed to his terms, the smuggler still seemed hesitant.

“I didn’t expect you to say yes,” Nebb told her. “You were supposed to say no. Or at least fight me, like you usually do.”

“We don’t have time to fight anymore,” Lyra said. Her voice sounded grim.

“This is a bad idea,” Nebb said as he swung the ship around. “First of all we have to make it to the rift. I’ll do my best to take us there without seeing too much action, but we will have to endure at least one flyby.”

“On the current trajectory, we’ll pass within twenty thousand kilometers of the enemy vessels during flyby,” Grizz said.

“That’s fine,” Nebb said. “When we reach maximum speed, rotate our engines away from them. I don’t want to give them an opportunity to disable the ship.”

The minutes ticked past.

“Maximum speed attained,” Grizz said. “Keeping nose rotated toward incoming alien vessels.”

On the view screen, the gas giant appeared as a ball the size of Tane’s thumbnail in the distance.

“When we’re at the closest point in our flyby with the aliens, let loose with the plasma throwers and dragons,” Nebb said. “Target one of the smaller ships. Aim for their weapon systems.”

“What happened to not stirring up the hornets’ nest?” Tane said.

“Bees’ nest,” the ship’s AI said. “It’s stirring up the bees’ nest.”

For a moment Tane wondered why Nebb didn’t want to fire the Red Grizzly’s Essence lance, too, but then he remembered an Essenceworker had to operate that particular weapon, and Sinive and Lyra were in no state for that.

More time passed.

Tane shifted from foot to foot, trying to get some circulation going to his legs. He wished he had access to the tactical display.

“We’re at the closest point of the flyby,” Grizz said. “Firing plasma throwers.”

The screen flashed and two long bursts accelerated from the Red Grizzly in a blur.

A moment later, Grizz said: “Direct hit. Enemy shields eleven percent. Firing dragons.”

This time there was no flash.

“Direct hit. Enemy shields penetrated. I’ve disabled two of their laser turrets.”

Long purple bolts erupted from the enemy ships in turn.

“Dive!” Nebb said. “Emergency speed!”

Tane felt the sudden Gs as the inertial dampeners struggled to keep up with the high speed maneuver.

On the view screen, the incoming bolts tore past.

“Their plasma shots missed,” Grizz said. “Barely.”

“Ha!” Nebb said. “That’s what they get for facing off against a more nimble ship. They might be faster overall, but I have the agility!”

“They’re firing lasers,” Grizz said. “Shields are holding. Down to seventy percent.”

“Guess I spoke too soon…” Nebb said.

“Why doesn’t the hook ship use its Essence lance equivalent against us?” Tane asked.

Lyra shook her head. “That weapon would pass right through our shields… cause too much damage. They want you alive, apparently.”

“Enemy vessels are decelerating to pursue…” Grizz announced.

“Keep our nose pointing at those ships!” Nebb said. “And put up a view of the Dhoulan Rift on the right side of the screen.”

A small blue rectangle overlaid the existing display, on the right side, representing the new view. Tane didn’t see anything there at the moment other than ordinary stars.

The enemy vessels continued decelerating after the flyby, turning around to pursue the Red Grizzly, but it was a slow process to reverse one’s course in space, requiring one to cancel out their previous momentum first. Because the enemy range after the flyby was still increasing as the four alien ships struggled to change course, subsequent laser shots from the enemy hit the Red Grizzly with even less intensity, and the Rapier’s energy shield levels were able to regenerate to one hundred percent between each shot.

“You’re not going to keep firing at them?” Tane asked.

Nebb shrugged. “No point. The best chance of causing damage was during the flyby. I launch plasma bolts now, they’ll have a ton of time to avoid them. I fire lasers, and their shields will regenerate, like our own.”

“They might try an Essence lance at this range,” Grizz said.

“I know,” Nebb said. “But it won’t be enough to stop us.”

By the time the Red Grizzly had swung around to the dark side of the gas giant, the alien vessels had completed their course change and were slowly closing with the Red Grizzly again.

Tane’s eyes were drawn to the dark planet: he could see lightning flashes generated beneath the clouds, and the auroras at the poles. Under different circumstances it might have been beautiful.

He glanced at the right hand view screen. Something new had cropped up there: a black smear blotting out the stars in the distance. It was darker than the surrounding space as if it consumed all light. It looked like a long, horizontal gash in the fabric of reality.

The smear slowly got bigger as the ship approached, until the infinite blackness consumed almost the entire view screen.

“This rift,” Tane said. “How come no TSN battleships are here in the Dhoulan System guarding it?”

“You can’t see it on the view screen,” Lyra said. “But there are tiny probes on either side of the rift, recording. The TSN will know we’ve gone through. Even if I had the stamina, I couldn’t blur us to those cameras. Hiding a ship is far more difficult than hiding a face.”

“That still doesn’t tell me why there are no actual ships standing guard,” Tane said. “Wasn’t it you who told me the TSN had battleships watching the Anteres Rift?”

“Rifts are one-way, either leading out of our universe, or to it,” Lyra said. “This one… we enter here, we can’t return to our universe. The same holds true of the aliens if they follow. So there is no need for the TSN to leave battleships standing guard.”

“Then how do we get back?” Tane said.

“Once we reach the other side, we’ll have to jump to Anteres System and leave via the giant rift that leads back to our universe.”

“You make it sound like the Anteres System still exists on the other side,” Tane said.

“It does,” Lyra said. “All systems do.”

“Okay, wait,” Tane told her. “Let’s say we jump to Anteres on the other side, like you suggest, and leave via the rift there. Is Anteres guarded by a fleet of TSN battleships or not?”

“It is,” Lyra said. “We’ll have to deal with that when we arrive. Take your pick. Would you prefer to be captured by the TSN, or the aliens?”

“I see your point,” Tane said.

Nebb glanced at Lyra. “How can you be sure that hundreds of dweller battleships won’t be gathering near the Anteres Rift entrance as well, on the alien side? Planning a raid or something?”

“I can’t,” Lyra said. “But with luck, we’ll catch them by surprise. The Anteres Rift is very wide: we’re talking millions of kilometers long. The dwellers can’t guard every point. And light behaves differently inside, as you’ll see. With luck, they won’t realize we’re not one of their own until too late.”

“What about this rift here?” Nebb said. “What if there are dwellers waiting on the alien side? Did it never occur to you that they might want us to enter the rift? We could be waltzing right into a trap.”

“It’s possible,” Lyra said. “But keep in mind the dwellers on this side have no way to communicate with their home universe, not while they’re here in ours. I’m betting there will be no welcoming party.”

“You’re lucky I’m a betting man as well, otherwise I might just turn us around,” Nebb said.

The dark smear swallowed the entire right hand view screen now.

“Last chance to change your mind,” Nebb told Lyra.

The Volur didn’t say a word.

“We’re committed,” Nebb said.

Tane felt it then. A strange pulling sensation. As if something was calling out to him from the darkness.

“Am I the only one—” he began.

But then reality itself seemed to smear around him. Nebb, Lyra, the chairs: the edges of everything seemed blurry, indistinct, as if not quite real. The compartment and its occupants had also become shaded a dark blue, as if some sort of filter had been slipped over his cornea, or the ceiling light source. The combined effect strained his eyes and made them water.

His gaze drifted to the view screen. Now both view windows on the display had no stars. The nose camera had been pointed at the system’s sun, but the distant pinpoint of light had vanished. He wondered if the sun was even there anymore.

“Energy shields offline,” Grizz announced. The AI’s words were distorted in a strange manner. It was as if both a high- and low-pitched version of Grizz’s voice sounded at the same time. “No enemy vessels detected.”

“Full reverse!” Nebb said. His voice was similarly overlaid with high and low versions, almost to the point of being unintelligible. His lips blurred so that Tane could barely tell he was talking. “Get us positioned on the left side of the rift, out of the way. And prepare to fire on my mark.”

Lyra turned her head to look at Tane. The movement left a visible smear behind her.

“Welcome to the Umbra,” Lyra said. Her voice had the same disturbing distortion. “The universe that sits below our own.”

Tane lifted a hand to his face and slid it back and forth in front of him. He left visible motion trails. Sinive was doing something similar with her own hand.

“It’s like we’re in hell,” Tane said. The simultaneously high and low octaves of his voice sounded extremely strange, coming from his mouth.

“You’re only one step away,” Nebb told him. “Grizz, given the course and speed of our pursuers before we passed through the rift, what’s the estimated time of their arrival?”

“ETA six minutes, twenty four seconds,” Grizz said.

“Show me where we’ll be by then,” Nebb said.

Tane didn’t see the location, but Nebb must have, because the smuggler nodded a moment later.

“That will have to be close enough,” Nebb said.

“Energy shields online,” Grizz intoned.

“What are you planning?” Tane asked the smuggler.

“Didn’t you hear what Grizz just said?” Nebb replied. “When passing through a rift, shields reboot. That gives us a window of opportunity. A small one, sure, but still a window. Grizz, target the engines of the three smaller ships with the dragons when they emerge. I’ll manually fire the plasma bolts at the main baddie.”

Nebb reached under his desk and retrieved a joystick-like control with a trigger near the top. He wrapped his fingers around it so that his knuckles were white.

“Is manual control the best idea?” Grizz asked.

“Watch and learn, Grizz my boy,” Nebb said.

“Grizz, you realize dragons aren’t as effective in this universe, right?” Lyra said. “The beams are down-shifted in frequency.”

“I’m well aware of the effects,” Grizz said. “And I will do my best to compensate.”

The minutes passed slowly.

Tane glanced at his HUD while he waited, and noticed he had no link to the Galnet whatsoever: the connection had fallen back to the local Grizznet. One glance at that black display told him everything he needed to know.

There is no Galnet here. Nor any human civilization.

The rift came into view on the virtual screen. It pulsated a slight blue on this side, and Tane could see that its extents proceeded for many kilometers in either direction. He stared at that blue opening, straining to see something, anything. But no ships appeared.

He felt powerless. A passenger on the road of destiny, unable to control his destination.

“Enemy estimated to arrive in T-minus ten seconds,” Grizz said.

Tane stared at the display, watching, waiting. Something seemed off.

“Nine.”

“Eight.”

Tane realized what was wrong. He felt no nerves. None whatsoever. His heart rate remained calm. His hands didn’t perspire. He felt calm, his emotions strangely muted.

He glanced at Nebb. The smuggler maintained his white-knuckled grip on the control stick. A drop of sweat slid down his face.

Tane looked at Sinive next. Though she was weary, her knee was bobbing repeatedly up and down, and she bit her lower lip.

Am I the only one still calm?

Lyra seemed indifferent, and so did Jed.

Not the only one, then. Maybe I’m just getting used to tense situations.

“Three.”

“Two.”

“One.”

The rift remained undisturbed. No alien vessels appeared.

“Where are they?” Nebb said. His forehead glistened with perspiration by then.

“Maybe they changed their mind?” Positron said.

“No, they’ll be here,” Nebb said. “But no doubt they’re altering their speed and trajectory. Trying to throw us off. Grizz, get ready. They’re going to emerge from a random spot. At a random speed.”

“Do you want to switch control of the plasma throwers over to me?” Grizz asked.

“Not on your life!” Nebb answered.

A ship emerged from the left side of the rift.

“There!” Positron said.

“Not the one I want,” Nebb said.

It was one of the smaller pincer-shaped vessels.

More spacecraft appeared, three in total, emerging from random locations.

Nebb slammed the joystick forward, eyes focused intently on some secondary targeting screen only he could see. Then he squeezed the trigger.

The display flashed and twin plasma bolts shot forward.

The hook ship was committed to its current trajectory, and couldn’t change course in time to avoid the rapidly approaching bolts. The display zoomed in and Tane watched with some satisfaction as the unshielded hook ship was torn apart by the impact.

“That’s right, take it in the mouth, bitch!” Nebb said. “Boom!”

“A lucky shot,” Positron said.

“Not luck, skill,” Nebb said. “Grizz, how did it go with the dragons?”

“I successfully disabled the engines of two of the three ships. The third ship has lost only its leftmost engine, and is making a rapid getaway.”

“You know you’ve done something right in life when you’ve got aliens running scared,” Nebb said.

“We’re taking laser fire from the stranded ships,” Grizz said. “Shields are down to eighty percent.”

“Pull us back to a safe range,” Nebb said. “And make sure we’re beyond the throw angle of their plasma throwers, as well as their Essence lance equivalents. When our own throwers recharge, fire everything at one of the stranded ships. Their shields will be online by then, so we’ll have to take out each ship one at a time.”

The two disabled ships were easy pickings for the Red Grizzly, and shortly there was nothing left of them but space debris. The third ship, meanwhile, continued fleeing.

“They only have one engine,” Grizz said. “We could catch them...”

“No,” Nebb said. “We’ve already spent enough time here. It’s time to make the jump to Anteres and get the hell out of here. The surviving alien ship will be heading to a gravity well in the system to jump as well. When they do, you can bet more of them will be arriving, real soon.”

“Then why not stop them?” Grizz said.

“You really want to stay here for longer than we have to?” Nebb said. “We don’t really know what kind of damage their engine has. They might have it repaired by the time we reach firing range. Look, moon 57A is the closest gravity well. If they were heading toward that moon, I’d say yes, we’ll shoot them down along the way. But they’re not. The aliens are flying toward the far side of the gas giant, making it a chore for us. So no, we let them go. Set a course to 57A and engage thrusters at maximum speed.”

“Setting a course to 57A,” Grizz said.

Tane stared at the view screen but saw no indication of any directional change—there were no stars out there to serve as points of reference in the darkness.

“Course set,” Grizz said. “Engaging thrusters, maximum speed.”

Tane leaned back against the bulkhead. “So now that the excitement has died down, where exactly are we? You mentioned something about a universe that sits below our own? The Umbra? I checked my chip. I got nothing on that.”

“And so you shouldn’t,” Lyra said. “That knowledge is reserved for Volur, senior government and military officials, and those who fought in the Dweller War.”

“And smugglers with chip upgrades,” Nebb chimed in gleefully.

“Though if you listened carefully,” Lyra continued, ignoring him. “And traveled to the deepest, darkest nooks and crannies of the Galnet, you would have heard whispers about its presence. It is quite literally a universe that sits beneath our own. Planets, asteroids, suns, celestial bodies, human cities… almost everything that exists in our universe exists here at the same time, minus human life. That is where our universes differ. Light and sound also have different qualities here, which you are experiencing firsthand. Laser weapons are down-shifted in frequency, for example. As is the illumination from stars, moving beyond the visible range. However, some of the qualities of light are restored when you near the source, which is why you can still see inside the cockpit here. And why planets seem to be lit when you are close to them.”

“The Essence still works the same way?” Tane asked.

“Yes, but it can be used only near gravity wells,” Lyra replied. “Which is why we’re heading to 57A. Otherwise, we wouldn’t be able to jump to Anteres.”

“That sounds almost the reverse of jumping in our universe,” Tane said. “Where we can’t get too close to gravity wells or it messes up the distortion tunnel.”

“We can’t get too close here either,” Lyra said. “Nor too far. We have to be at just the right distance.”

“The same rules apply to the dwellers?” Tane said.

“They do,” Lyra said.

“So this universe sits below our own…” Tane suddenly understood where the pouch at his waist led to. “Personal storage devices are essentially mini rifts that open into this universe.”

“You figured it out, congratulations,” Nebb interjected.

“But if that’s true, shouldn’t all the items I put into the pouch be hanging from my hips right now and weighing me down?” Tane asked the Volur.

“No,” Lyra said. “The devices open into specific storage pockets in the Umbra, chosen during the design of the item. Usually these pockets exist in interstellar space here, surrounded by powerful energy fields to protect against cosmic background radiation and interstellar plasma.”

“So that energy field is powered by a generator of some kind, am I correct?” Tane said.

“Yes,” Lyra said. “Which is why the manufacturers of personal storage devices recommend you bring their gear in for routine maintenance every ten years, mostly to replace the internal battery.”

“Cosmic background radiation isn’t the only thing the energy fields are protecting your items from,” Nebb said. He glanced at Lyra. “Maybe you should tell him about the crillia.”

“Crillia?” Tane said. That the word summoned not even a spark of recognition told him there was nothing in his chip about it.

Lyra nodded grimly. “The most basic inhabitants of this universe, crillia live in deep space, and are found both inside systems and without. They feed on the plasma from stars, along with elemental hydrogen, as well as any other higher-order elements they find. They avoid planets and other gravity wells, as strong gravity is deadly to them. They attach to the hulls of human ships that pass into this universe, and slowly break down the exterior. Presumably some have attached themselves to our hull already and have begun this digestion process.”

“Energy shields don’t protect us from them?”

“No,” Lyra said. “Crillia pass right through the energy shields of starships.”

“But didn’t you just say that storage devices use energy fields to protect the items from the crillia?” Tane pressed.

“Yes, but storage fields are specifically designed to keep out crillia and cosmic rays,” Lyra said. “Whereas the shields in starships are mostly designed to absorb laser beams and plasma bolts. The energy requirements for protecting against crillia rule out any use in larger fields such as those found in starships. The technology isn’t there yet.”

“And let me guess, dweller ships are unaffected by crillia…” Tane said.

“That’s right,” Lyra said.

“So I guess it wouldn’t be a good idea to suit up and make a spacewalk right about now,” Tane said.

“Very good supposition,” Lyra said.

“I’m guessing this Umbra is where the TSN banished the dwellers after the war…”

“It is,” Lyra said. “But the dwellers came from this universe in the first place. It’s where they derive their dark power from.”

“So the dwellers came from here,” Tane said. “And I bet they aren’t the only other creatures that exist here besides the crillia…”

“Yes, there are others. And unlike the crillia, they thrive in gravity: kraals. We’ll find them on the planets and moons.”

“Kraals…” Tane said.

“They exist on every world here,” Lyra said. “Regardless of its gravity, or how close it is to the sun, or whether it even has an atmosphere. Some worlds swarm with them, others have only small pockets.”

“How is that possible?” Tane said. “Every world…”

“There are many theories among the Volur,” Lyra said. “Some say kraals only partially exist in this universe. All we know is, if they are brought into our universe without a special suit to protect them, they will die. Like the dwellers themselves.”

“How did the kraals get on all the planets?”

“Volur scientists have theorized they’re able to hitch rides on gravity waves, and throughout the eons traveled between the different stars and planets. They would have had to have existed at the beginning of time, and were flung across the Umbra at the moment of the Big Bang when the universe came into being. Whatever the case, they’ve populated every planet in existence in the Umbra, while the crillia are dispersed throughout all the spaces in between.”

“They’re like a virus that has taken over this entire universe,” Tane said. “Kind of like we’re doing to our own.”

“Humanity has a long way to go before it’s considered a virus on that scale,” Lyra said. “But you’re essentially right about the native inhabitants of this place. They’re everywhere. While the crillia existing betweens the stars and planets have remained mostly unchanged over the eons, the kraals dwelling on the planets have vastly evolved, independently of one another. So much so, that even on two planets in the same system, the kraals will seem so completely different you’d never know they shared the same evolutionary ancestors. The dwellers evolved from kraals that colonized a world covered in hydrocarbon seas, and they are the only advanced spacefaring race in the Umbra, or at least the only one we’ve met so far.”

“All right, so we get to 57A,” Tane said. “Once there, we create a distortion tunnel to the next closest system, or Anteres if it’s within jump range. When we get to Anteres, we head straight for the local rift, emerge into our own universe, and deal with the waiting TSN battle cruisers. Did I miss anything?”

“Yes,” Nebb said. “And that is: no plan ever goes off without a hitch. The very fact that we’re in this universe is evidence of that.”

“Fine, barring any unforeseen problems, we’ll be out of this voice-distorting and movement-smearing reality shortly,” Tane said.

“That’s the spirit,” Nebb said.

Tane excused himself and returned to his quarters. Grizz didn’t toy with the breach seals along the way, thankfully.

It took about an hour to reach the moon, and when they arrived, Tane joined the others in the cockpit. Lyra and Sinive had apparently napped in their seats the whole time, and they woke when Tane stepped into the compartment.

“All right,” Nebb said. “Take us into orbit, Grizz, just above the lower thermosphere. That should be close enough.”

Tane had kept to himself for the past hour, and hearing someone speak again in that high- and low-pitched manner proved unsettling.

“Sinive and I still need to rest for at least another six hours before either of us can attempt to make a jump,” Lyra said.

“That’s fine,” Nebb said. “If any alien ships show up, we can just circle the moon for a few hours until you’re ready.”

“Lower thermosphere altitude reached,” Grizz announced. “We are twenty kilometers above the atmospheric reentry point.”

“I can feel the Essence again,” Lyra said.

“So can I,” Sinive said.

“Good,” Nebb said. “Maintain this height, Grizz.”

“Already maintaining,” the Red Grizzly’s AI said.

“Also,” Nebb told it. “I want you to run a complete diagnostic. Make sure any crillia on our hull haven’t eaten through to any critical systems.”

“I was just about to talk to you about that,” Grizz said. “We’ve got crillia attached near our aft port engine, and the Essence overflow vent.”

“How fast are they eating through the hull?” Nebb asked.

“I can’t really give you a firm estimate,” Grizz replied. “The ship doesn’t have the sensor capacity to detect at that level of detail.”

“What if we launched a drone to get a visual?” Nebb said.

“A visual wouldn’t tell us very much… the crillia will be piled on top of each other, masking the true extents of any damage. You remember the last time we were here…”

“I do indeed,” Nebb said.

“What happened then?” Tane said.

“Nothing good,” Nebb told him.

“I could go outside,” Jed said. “Shoot them off.”

“What’s the point?” Nebb said. “You shoot them off, come back inside, and ten minutes later more crillia will attach to the hull. And they’ll focus in on the exact same spots. When one crillia starts feeding, it leaves a marker of some sort, chemical, intradimensional, I don’t know what it is, but any other crillia that show up will congregate in the same areas.”

“I could stay out there,” Jed said. “Stand guard.”

“No,” Lyra said. “It’s too dangerous. If the crillia realize you’re a threat, and decide to swarm you, we’ll lose you.”

“What if we get closer to the moon?” Tane asked. “Gravity is supposed to harm them?”

“The backseat driver speaks again,” Nebb said. “Listen, kid, crillia don’t die right away in gravity wells. It’s not like we’ll be able to do a low flyby over the moon or something and they’ll fall off. We’d have to land for a few hours.”

“Then why not do that?” Tane said.

“And face attacks from any kraals living down there? No thanks. Right now, the best option we have is to maintain our current orbital altitude, stay inside the ship, and hope those damn crillia don’t eat through to the engine.”

“I’d be more worried about the Essence overflow vent,” Lyra said quietly.

“What’s the Essence overflow vent?” Tane asked.

Sinive gazed at Tane as if she was about to answer the question, then her expression became frightened. “Oh my heck!”

“What?” Tane said.

“Look at him!” Sinive said.

All eyes turned toward Tane.

14

“What?” Tane said again.

“You’ve got, it looks like... small dark strings coming out all over your body.” Sinive sounded afraid.

Tane glanced at his arm more closely. There were indeed small, dark threads emerging from his body. Although he’d been in the Umbra for a little over an hour, he hadn’t noticed them until now, probably because the filaments were so tiny, not to mention translucent. The darker blue shade the surroundings had taken on didn’t help. It was also possible that they hadn’t appeared until the Red Grizzly entered orbit. When he cranked up his ISO and visual saturation, he could really see them.

Some came from the fabric of his clothes, others directly from his skin. The strands seemed to emerge from particular spots: the tops of his wrists; the sides of his elbows; the center of his shoulders—essentially all the spots one would expect to find strings on a marionette. They flowed downward, into the ship. Also, a particularly large thread emerged from the center of his torso where his belly button would be, and it twisted around behind him to follow in the same general direction as the others. The threads wavered slightly, like a candle flame, as if disturbed by some ethereal wind.

He passed a hand through them, disrupting the flow, but the threads always reformed.

“You’re like a creepy puppet,” Sinive said. She glanced at her own arms. “Do I have them, too?”

“No,” Tane said. “Just me.” He glanced at the others in turn, confirming that.

Lyra exchanged a worried glance with Jed.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” Lyra asked Jed.

“I didn’t see them,” Jed replied.

“I don’t blame him, I didn’t either,” Tane said. “These threads aren’t exactly obvious.”

“Don’t move.” Jed lifted his glove and the familiar red beam emerged. The man moved his hand up and down, sweeping the scan over Tane’s body.

When the beam reached his face, Tane was momentarily blinded. Tane held his breath the whole time, hoping there was no other alien device—or entity—lurking inside of him.

Jed shut off the beam. His eyes were defocused as if examining the results via his HUD.

Finally Jed shook his head. “He’s clean. I got nothing.”

Tane exhaled in relief. He glanced at his arms and legs in confusion. “But then what are these? And how come they only appeared after we entered orbit?”

“I don’t know,” Lyra said.

“Why do I always get the impression that you know more than you’re letting on?” Tane told her. “Especially when you say that.”

“It’s a false impression,” Lyra said.

“Is it?” Tane asked her coldly.

“The dwellers have certainly marked you in some way,” Lyra said. “That’s all I know.”

Wanting to divert attention from himself and the creepy threads emerging from his body, Tane decided a change of subject was in order.

“So,” Tane said. “You never did tell me: what’s the Essence overflow vent?”

Sinive was still staring at him with slightly frightened eyes, but she blinked away the expression to answer him. “When we make a jump, while we’re trying to secure the endpoint, we’re still Siphoning a ton of Essence into the universe and not really doing anything with it. If that Essence is unable to blow outside of the ship via the overflow vent, it will collect in the Chrysalium hull, slowly dissolving it. Hull integrity will fail, and the ship will rip apart.”

“I can see why you’re so worried about those crillia,” Tane said.

“I’m more worried about the dark threads coming from your body at the moment,” Sinive said softly.

“Do you know something I don’t?” Tane asked her.

Sinive shook her head. “Only that no one has puppet strings like that. No one.”

Lyra, Jed, and Sinive retired to quarters. Tane took the empty seat vacated by Lyra.

“I never said you could sit there,” Nebb said.

Tane didn’t answer.

Nebb shrugged. “Grizz, you have the con. Make sure the kid doesn’t cause any trouble.”

“Understood,” Grizz said.

“Watch him, Positron,” Nebb said. “I don’t trust someone who has black threads emerging from his body.”

“Neither do I,” Positron said.

Nebb got up and left. Positron glared at Tane with that digitally animated visor, daring him to say something.

Tane just ignored the robot and sat back in his seat. He wondered if he should return to his quarters, too. But Jed would probably be there. Mmm, he wasn’t really in the mood to bunk with the Volur.

He gazed at the moon on the view screen. As Lyra had promised, 57A was lit up now that they were close to it. The celestial object was nothing like the moonscape he had digitally decorated his room with. No, this moon was dark, ominous. Grayish-blue clouds covered an equally grayish-blue surface. He was glad they weren’t going down there.

As the minutes ticked by, his lids grew heavier until he closed them entirely.

* * *

Tane heard a loud beep and started. The deck rumbled momentarily beneath him. He felt groggy, and realized he must have fallen asleep. He didn’t think that would be possible, not in these hard-back chairs.

“What is it?” Tane said.

“Problem,” Grizz replied.

Positron was still glaring at Tane.

Nebb entered the cockpit a moment later, as did Lyra and Jed.

Tane gave up his seat to Lyra.

“What’s going on?” Tane said.

“We’re going to have to make an emergency landing,” Nebb said.

“Why?”

Nebb’s eyes were defocused. “The crillia penetrated the Essence overflow vent, exposing it to space. They also breached a nearby deck, causing an explosive decompression. Bad luck on our part. We can’t make a jump until we repair the vent. Because of the deck breach, the Essence will seep right back into the ship, and consequently the hull.”

“Can we make repairs from here?” Lyra asked.

“No,” Nebb said. “Not while those crillia are still attached and stuffing themselves. We’re going to have to land. Besides, like you said, any drones or people we send out there are at risk: the crillia could swarm at any time. Grizz, take us in for a landing.”

“This is a colonized world in our universe…” Lyra said.

“That is very true,” Grizz said. “Big Boss, might I recommend a landing pad in Daaena, capital city of the 57A colony? If we touchdown near a shipyard, we could use any processed elements they have on hand for repair. Sure beats mining asteroids or moons for materials.”

“Sounds good, pick a shipyard,” Nebb said.

“I thought we weren’t able to interact with objects from our universe?” Tane said.

“I never said that,” Lyra told him. “We can interact. It just won’t affect anything in our universe when we do.”

“So any elements we use for repairs will actually take?” Tane said. “And won’t disappear when we leave or something?”

“They will take,” Lyra said.

“I’m surprised smugglers don’t come down here more often then,” Tane said. “It’s like a treasure trove of free items for the taking.” He started to imagine all the possibilities. What if he could find a shop selling nanotech? Or a weapons store?

“Some do,” Nebb said. “Why do you think I was here? But let’s just say, they’re not exactly free for the taking.”

“The dwellers have stolen many copies of human weaponry this way,” Lyra said. “Sometimes at great cost—when any kraals, including dwellers, from other planets arrive on a new world, the native kraals aren’t particularly pleased.”

“They’re not going to be pleased when we land either, you’re saying…” Tane told her.

Lyra glanced at him, but didn’t answer.

An eerie blue light filled the display screen.

“That would be atmospheric reentry,” Nebb said in answer to Tane’s unasked question. “Normally the flames would be orange. But not here.”

In moments the “flames” subsided and the Red Grizzly pierced the grayish-blue cloud coverage to reveal the rocky surface below. There were swaths of green next to small buildings and silos—likely farms. This particular moon obviously had environmental conditions that supported limited farmland, otherwise Tane would have been seeing more of the towering hydroponics farms his homeworld was known for, either that or orbital farms.

Scattered buildings appeared ahead, and soon they began to cluster with increasing profusion until the structures covered the land in all directions. Skyscrapers appeared in the distance. Hundreds. They all appeared blurry and insubstantial, just like the interior of the Red Grizzly and its crew.

“This is certainly one heavily populated moon,” Tane said. “At least in our universe.”

“57A,” Nebb said. “It’s the trade hub of the system, and the only terraformed moon.”

Via his chip, Tane read about how Daaena had started as a small dome colony. Special satellites served as magnetosphere generators, and orbital mirrors redirected and concentrated sunlight from the upper atmosphere to the surface. Terraformers had transported space icebergs from the outer system equivalent to two thousand cubic kilometers into orbit above the moon, where they were broken apart and allowed to enter the atmosphere as rainfall. The terraformers injected phytoplankton into the resultant seas to help with oxygenation, and in a couple of centuries the air was breathable enough that the dome could be removed from Daaena. The city only multiplied by leaps and bounds since then.

“I’m picking up free-form kraal clusters in the city,” Grizz said. “They seem disorganized, random. Likely these kraals have not evolved the baseline intelligence necessary for advanced tool creation, let alone Siphoning.”

“So they’re essentially animals, you’re saying,” Nebb told the AI.

“Yes,” Grizz said. “But animals are still dangerous. The eastern side of the city seems to be free of them. I’m choosing a landing site in a shipyard there. With your permission…”

“I’ll have a look,” Nebb said. His eyes defocused and then he nodded. “Seems all right. Take us in.”

The Rapier class vessel approached a wide hangar set upon the rooftop of a tall building, essentially a skyscraper. Smaller, circular landing pads surrounded the hangar, and extended out over the edge of the building. Half of the pads were occupied by ships. The Red Grizzly landed on one of the empty platforms.

On the display, the hangar and other ships appeared hazy, and almost translucent—but he couldn’t see inside any of them, so that couldn’t be the case. It must have been due to the strange way light reflected off objects here.

On his HUD, Tane noticed there was still no connection to the Galnet. It was obvious by now that the galaxy-wide mixnet simply didn’t work in this universe.

Nebb waited several moments. He stared at the display, which cycled between the various external cameras.

“What are you looking for?” Tane asked.

“Waiting to see if any kraals emerge from those ships,” Nebb said. “Or swarm onto the rooftop from the building’s exhaust vents. But so far it’s dead quiet up here. That’s a good sign.”

“More good news,” Grizz announced. “Sensors indicate the previously detected clusters of kraals have not moved.”

“Maybe they haven’t noticed us,” Tane said.

“Don’t be so sure about that,” Nebb said. “A ship landing in a place that never sees vessels? They’ve noticed. But I’m hoping the kraals don’t care, or are too afraid to investigate. Grizz, send out three drones to scout our periphery. Meanwhile have the repair drones waiting on standby.” He stood up. “I’ve got some crillia to clear.”

“Scouts launched and repair drones on standby,” Grizz said.

“Positron, you’re with me,” Nebb said.

“Aye boss,” Positron said.

“I can help, too,” Sinive said.

Nebb glanced at her doubtfully. “We don’t have enough shield generators.”

“I don’t need one,” Sinive insisted.

Nebb sighed. “You sure you feel rested enough?”

“I’ll stop by sickbay and inject a pick-me-up,” Sinive said. Nebb hesitated, but then shook his head; before he could refuse her, Sinive added: “It’s going to take you a while to clear away those crillia, especially if they’ve burrowed deep into the hull. The repair drones can’t start until we get them all removed. Let me handle the aft port engine while you and Positron concentrate on the overflow vent. The faster we get those crillia cleared, the faster we can leave. You know I’m right.”

“I can help her,” Jed said.

“And I’ll go, too,” Tane said.

“I don’t need either of you, you’ll just get in the way,” Sinive told them.

“Actually,” Grizz said. “All three of you will be helpful. The crillia congregated over a wide area of the hull around the aft port engine. Based on my best guess analysis of the sensor data, it will take one person approximately twenty to forty minutes to clear it all, accounting for weapon overheating. But with three people, the aft port will be done in seven to fifteen minutes.”

“There you go,” Tane said.

“I’ll just take a couple of weapons with me and swap between them,” Sinive said.

“It will still be faster if the Volur and Ugly come,” Grizz insisted.

“What about the overflow vent?” Nebb asked Grizz.

“Given the small affected area, the vent is best handled by two individuals,” Grizz said. “With you and Positron working together, I estimate a ten to twelve minute completion window. Once the repair drones take over, we’re looking at another thirty minutes repair time, if we split the drones equally between the damaged areas.”

“So you’ll let me help?” Tane asked.

Nebb glanced at Lyra.

“It’s your ship…” the Volur said.

Nebb’s eyes drifted to Tane’s arms and the dark threads emerging from his body.

“Look, I’m not one of the aliens,” Tane said firmly. “I’m on your side.”

“So you say,” Nebb told him. Finally he seemed to make up his mind. “The faster we get off this hunk of ice, the better. You and the Volur go with Sinive. Clear the aft port engine. Once that’s done, stand watch until the repair drones finish the job. Grizz will help you get suited up.”

“We need spacesuits?” Tane said. “I thought the atmosphere was still breathable in this universe?”

“In theory it is,” Nebb said. “But in practice, I’m going to have to say no. I want you all in suits.”

“I have to agree,” Lyra said. “Contagions are known to exist in the Umbra, even on worlds that are safe in our own universe. Think of those contagions as microcrillia.”

“Speaking of which, Grizz, activate full contagion protocol,” Nebb said. “Drones and crew are to be run through the decontamination wash-down upon return.”

“Consider it done,” Grizz said.

“I’ll meet you at the exit ramp,” Sinive told Jed and Tane. “I’m swinging by sickbay.”

“I’m coming with you,” Lyra told her. “I could use a boost myself. I also plan to join the landing party. Strictly in an observational role.”

Jed shoved past. “I’ll wait for you at the ramp,” he told Tane.

Before Tane could move, Lyra, Sinive, Positron, and Nebb were all pushing past him, leaving Tane alone in the cockpit.

Nebb paused in the corridor to look back at him. “Well come on. Get out of the cockpit.”

Tane followed and the hatch sealed shut behind him.

Nebb, satisfied that Tane wasn’t going to wreak any havoc in the Red Grizzly’s cockpit, turned his back on him and hurried through the tight corridor.

“Grizz, you’re going to have to show me where I can find a weapon and a spacesuit,” Tane said.

“I’m highlighting the location on your map now,” the ship’s AI replied.

Tane made his way to the indicated spacesuit closet, which was close to the passenger quarters. He noted that the breach seals were all closed along the way. Given that the planet had a breathable atmosphere, there was no chance of explosive decompression, so it didn’t make sense to him until he remembered that Nebb had activated “contagion protocol.” Seeing as there was already a deck breach, those seals were probably a good idea if contagions tainted the external atmosphere.

When he got to the spacesuit closet, he noted there were enough suits for six passengers, as required by starship code: one suit for every passenger the vessel was rated to hold. The crew would have their own closets, which would contain anything from ordinary spacesuits to specialized power armor, whatever the smuggler fancied. Probably spacesuits—Nebb didn’t strike Tane as the spendthrift kind, and he doubted a smuggler would have much need of power armor.

When Tane examined the spacesuits in better detail, he realized that most of them seemed in fairly bad shape, with gray areas worn onto the white exteriors, and fraying threads on the elbows and wrists of a few of them. Definitely not a spendthrift. All the suits otherwise triggered the same item description on his HUD.

Armor: Spacesuit I.

Model: Safari I-40 Rev c.

Item type: Common.

Weight: 50 kg.

Armor rating: 5.

Armor effects: Protects against cosmic radiation and provides a complete pressurized environment, allowing the wearer to operate in the void.

Spacesuit specific:

Oxygen tank: 100% (eight hours remaining)

Spare tank: 100% (thirty minutes remaining)

Extra features: Headlamp offers optional illumination. Cargo pocket in right thigh contains suit repair gear including patches and mini laser cutter.

He was a little dismayed that none of the suits came equipped with shield generators, since an armor rating of five was essentially useless against lasers, plasma bolts, or any attacks really. But hey, he couldn’t really expect more from a civilian outfit. And besides, he was only really wearing it for the pressurized environment.

Tane chose the suit that seemed the least shabby, and Grizz guided him through the process of putting on the various assemblies.

When he attached the final piece—the helmet—a friendly male voice spoke inside the suit. “Prepare for pressurization.”

Tane flinched at the slight pain caused by a sonic injection into the back of his hand. He smelled ozone for a moment, and then the scent became more normal, if still a little musty. Not to mention heavy with the taint of recycled air.

He glanced at his arms and legs and saw that the black threads still emerged from the spacesuit, passing through unhindered by the fabric to trail away from his body. He hadn’t actually believed the suit would be able to contain the strange energy, of course.

He noticed there was also a jumpjet unit in the closet. Not military grade, but still powerful enough to leap from one building to the next. He ID’d it on his HUD:

Item: Jumpjet unit I.

Item type: Uncommon.

Weight: 45 kg.

Effects: Provides expanded jump capabilities, allowing for leaps up to twenty meters in 1G environments. Jumps can be chained for added distance.

Jumpjet specific:

Charges: 20/20.

Tane considered the weight and decided he didn’t really need to haul around another forty-five kilograms. He already felt heavy enough as it was. Besides, if an attack came he was going to be running straight back to the ship, not jumping away.

Tane bent over to pick up the storage pouch he had removed before donning the suit, and secured it to the external utility belt he wore. He figured Nebb would be searching the shipyard for valuable items after the crillia were cleared. After all, they would still have to wait for the repair drones to finish up, and no smuggler worth his salt would miss an opportunity to loot items that were free for the taking. And even if Nebb didn’t, Tane decided it couldn’t hurt to be prepared.

The pouch would be exposed to the decon wash-down upon his return to the Red Grizzly, so he wouldn’t have to worry about any contagions sneaking aboard via the pouch. But admittedly there was a chance any items he put inside might be infected…

“Grizz, I’m guessing these microcrillia won’t survive the transition back to our own universe?” Tane said.

“No,” the ship’s AI said. “Like all kraal, dwellers or otherwise, they will die instantly upon contact with our universe. Unless we transport them inside the proper environment.”

“So if I find something out there and somehow it ends up in my storage device, when I remove the item in our universe, any contagions will die?” Tane asked.

“That’s right,” Grizz replied.

Tane made a mental note not to sort through any collected loot until the ship had passed well beyond the Anteres Rift.

“Good idea, bringing the pouch by the way,” Grizz said. “You understand how my captain thinks.”

“I certainly do,” Tane said. “I could’ve probably made a very good smuggler in another life.”

“It’s not too late to change the course of your life,” Grizz said. “I didn’t become a smuggler until I reached my thirties, you know.”

“Really?” Tane said. “Interesting. Now take me to the armory.”

A waypoint indicator flashed on his overhead map and Tane made his way through the corridors once more. The suit felt bulky, heavy, and Tane was winded by the time he reached the storage locker embedded in the bulkhead.

“Geez, these suits aren’t really made for planet-side work, are they?” he said to no one in particular.

And no one answered him.

He examined the four plasma rifles racked in the storage locker. They were all Saber models. The only difference between these and the C2 Cutlass rifles he used at his farm was that they gave twenty percent added plasma burn damage rather than fifteen, and fired five to twelve round bursts instead of four to ten. That and the adjustable grip.

Weapon: S4 Plasma Rifle.

Model: Saber IV-2 Rev a.

Item type: Uncommon.

Additional damage: 20% added plasma burn damage per hit.

Additional effects: None.

Adjustable grip for spacesuit and battle armor gloves.

Plasma Rifle specific:

Firing rate: Semi-automatic. 5-12 round bursts.

Recharge rate: 30 seconds per round.

Overall weapon charge: 100%.

Extra features: Weapon lights, illuminated scope, laser sight.

He grabbed one of them. When he wrapped his bulky gloves around the stock, it expanded slightly to fit his grip.

Well that’s handy. Memory metals at their finest.

He double-checked that the safety was active and slipped the strap over his shoulder.

At the ramp, which was currently closed, Jed was already waiting. He didn’t have to suit up: his power armor was equipped with a helmet feature and he had already extended it to cover his head. He peered at Tane through a translucent pane of polycarbonate.

Jed’s armor had been restored to its former resplendent glory. That halo was back, glowing above the digital patterning.

“Does that armor of yours have jumpjets built in, too?” Tane asked.

Jed pointed at his helmet, toward his right ear, and shook his head, moving his mouth soundlessly.

A moment later Tane received a comm request.

Jed has asked you to join channel 59-B. Do you accept?

Tane did.

“Welcome to the shared comm band for the mission,” Jed told him over the comm. “Say again?”

“I was asking if you have jumpjets built into your powered armor,” Tane said.

“No,” Jed said. “But I can attach a jumpjet unit. Just like you.”

“Ah,” Tane said. “Then what are these.” He pointed at small vents along the rib cage area of Jed’s armor.

“Outlets that allow me to release oxygen during spacewalks,” Jed said. “Useful for steering purposes.”

“Nice.”

“I can use them in gravity environments for boosted movements as well.” Jed pointed out the vents at the back of his elbow and knees.

“Nice,” Tane repeated. “But at the cost of oxygen.”

“There’s always a cost for everything,” Jed said. “Someday you’ll understand that.”

“Even friendship?” Tane said.

“Especially friendship,” Jed said.

Tane was quiet a moment. His eyes drifted to the plasma rifle Jed held, and then to the big man’s belt. Jed had opened the leather flaps, so that the hilts of his pistol and sword were revealed, glowing in anticipation.

Tane nodded toward the rifle. “What’s wrong with your pistol?” He was curious to see the smaller weapon in action. Or the sword.

“I choose the weapon based on the task at hand,” Jed said. “If we’re going to be shooting down crillias, this rifle is all I need.”

“All right,” Tane said. He gazed at the Volur’s utility belt. “But why no shield generator?”

“The Essence imbued into my armor generates the shield,” Jed said. “It’s far more effective than a belt-attached shield generator. With a typical generator, there is a single point of failure. With Essence-enhanced armor, there are many.”

“I see,” Tane said. That would explain why Lyra didn’t wear a shield generator at her belt, either: her dress was Essence Imbued as well.

Positron and Nebb appeared moments later, dressed in spacesuits that were similar to Tane’s, but different in one major respect: the circular light globes at the center of their utility belts. Shield generators. They carried plasma rifles as well.

The pair squeezed in front of Tane and Jed and positioned themselves directly before the sealed ramp. Nebb wore several small pouches on his utility belt that could only be personal storage devices. He was definitely planning on doing some looting.

Sinive and Lyra arrived last, moving in behind Tane and Jed. Sinive carried a plasma rifle, but she had also moved her pistol and holster to the utility belt outside the suit. The grip area of the pistol had enlarged to fit her gloves. She also wore the pouch of a storage device attached to the belt, and like Tane didn’t have a shield generator.

Lyra had no shield generator on her suit belt either, but Tane figured her dress could probably create the necessary shielding around the spacesuit. Lyra didn’t carry a rifle, however on the right side of her utility belt hung a strange cylindrical object. Tane thought it must be a weapon of some kind: it looked like the hilt of a pistol, or maybe a sword, but without the blade. Was it one of the legendary beam hilts he had heard of? He tried to ID it, but got nothing.

El Bee rolled into the corridor behind them.

“Farewell, farewell,” the maintenance robot’s voice came over the shared comm band. “I’ll take good care of the Red Grizzly while you’re all gone. And I’ll ensure that Grizz doesn’t want for company!”

“I may have to deactivate myself at this rate,” Grizz complained.

“Please don’t,” Nebb said.

“Switching to airlock mode,” Grizz intoned.

The hatch spiraled closed behind the landing party, and cut El Bee from view.

15

Small saucer sections opened in the bulkheads on either side, and Tane felt a momentary pull toward them as the existing air was sucked out. Then the openings coughed mist as atmosphere from the outside was used to re-pressurize the compartment.

The ramp lowered. When it touched down, the deck momentarily shook.

“Positron, clear the platform,” Nebb ordered over the comm.

Plasma rifle in hand, the robot moved down the sloping ramp at a crouch.

Tane fingered his rifle. As he waited, he idly glanced at the overhead and spotted the spray devices that would be used to decontaminate the party upon return.

“It’s clear,” Positron said over the comm.

“All right, people,” Nebb said. “Let’s make this quick. Positron, you’re with me. Everyone else with Sinive: get those crillia off our engines!”

Tane stepped down the ramp. As soon as he emerged on the platform outside, he felt suddenly heavier. He realized the gravity of this world was slightly higher than the standard artificial gravity aboard the Red Grizzly. Ordinarily it wouldn’t have been a big deal, but with the extra weight of the suit, Tane really felt it.

“By the way, the gravity out here is a little stronger than on standard TSN colony planets,” Nebb said.

“I noticed,” Tane transmitted.

“You might want to up the output of the servos in your suit to compensate,” Sinive said.

“You can do that?” Tane accessed the suit interface on his HUD. “Well look at that.” He made the adjustments and soon was moving just as easily as if he wasn’t wearing the suit at all.

He followed Lyra, Jed, and Sinive across the landing pad, weaving between the big landing gears underneath the Rapier-class ship toward the aft region. The four emerged on the port side and continued toward the back.

In the sky above, there were no stars. Everything continued to be hued a dark blue, as if the universe were locked in eternal twilight. There was no sign of the distant gas giant in the sky.

Strangely, he felt no fear as he walked out there in that dark, strange universe. None at all. In fact, it almost felt a little like he was home.

But of course I’m not.

Yes, he felt no fear, though he knew he should. He wondered if the Umbra suppressed negative emotions in some way.

It was brighter here than inside the ship, and Tane could see the dark threads that emerged from his body better. He noticed the translucent strands no longer led in the direction of the ship, but rather proceeded at an angle into the platform beside him, as if reaching toward the city below.

Is that where my would-be puppet master resides?

Jed was looking to and fro, searching the surrounding shipyard. Tane decided to do the same. Keeping his rifle lowered, Tane noted how insubstantial everything continued to look as he directed his gaze between the different ships.

I’ll never get over that.

Tane glanced at his overhead map and realized he was no longer receiving positional information for everyone else from Grizz. The dots representing the locations of his party members were frozen at the ramp.

“By the way, in case you haven’t noticed, the Red Grizzly’s external sensors ignore ID information,” Nebb said over the comm. “So you should all enable position sharing going forward. I don’t want anyone getting lost out here.”

Tane received a “position share” request from Nebb and accepted. In moments the locations of everyone else appeared on the overhead map. Nebb and Positron were on the opposite side of the ship compared to Tane, Sinive, Lyra and Jed.

“What’s the range?” Tane asked. He knew that the mixnet node in the suit would boost the range of his chip, but he didn’t know by how much.

“Should cover the entire shipyard,” Nebb said. “Grizz, while we’re busy here, I want some drones in that hangar, collecting repair elements. Positron, go with them, and when you’ve determined the hangar is clear, assign one of the drones to stand watch and get back here to help me.”

“Will do,” Positron said.

“Sending drones to nearby hangar for collection of refined elements,” Grizz said.

Tane glanced at his overhead map and saw Positron move away with the drones, which showed up as green dots on the map compared to the blue of everyone else.

Tane and the other members of his group reached the aft port section. The exterior portion of the engine chamber was this huge, cylindrical hull section. However, because of the crillia, it looked like some celestial object had slammed into the ship and taken out a tri-pronged chunk. A portion of the deck beyond was revealed, the exposed corridor sealed by a hatch on the far end. The insides of that deck were completely covered in small, quivering blue creatures. They looked like very big slugs, the size of Tane’s forearm. The edges of the creatures were solid and distinct, so that they appeared to be the most substantial things here. He could see the slimy pincers at the tips of their heads in intricate detail, pincers that opened and closed as a proboscises repeatedly darted into the ship, licking away at the hull layers.

“Disgusting,” Sinive said.

“If we start shooting them, will they swarm?” Tane asked.

“We won’t have to worry about them swarming,” Jed replied. “The gravity restricts their movement. If they let go of that hull, not only will they lose their nourishment source, but they’ll drop straight down. Those not lying on the deck already, anyway.”

“How’s it look over there?” Nebb said over the comm.

“We got a breach in the engine infestation area, too,” Jed said. “They’ve burrowed their way into the deck beyond.”

“Yeah I know,” Nebb said. “Grizz told me after we landed. It’s not pretty, I hear.”

“No,” Jed said. “We’re going to have to climb in and clean them out.”

“Whatever it takes,” Nebb said.

Sinive lifted her rifle to eye level. “Let’s concentrate on cleaning those within sight from down here first, all right?” She aimed down her sights and squeezed the trigger. A plasma burst erupted from the tip.

One of the crillia dropped away from the edge of the breach and landed on the platform next to Tane. Its underside was covered in tiny legs, like a millipede.

Tane prodded the lifeless form with his rifle. The legs trembled slightly.

“The plasma doesn’t kill them?” Tane said.

“It will force them to let go, at least.” Sinive was already lining up her next shot. “And if the plasma doesn’t kill them, the gravity eventually will.”

Another crillia dropped.

“Actually the plasma does kill them,” Lyra said. “Any movement you’re seeing is simply misfiring nerves.”

Tane aimed at the blue creatures and joined Jed and Sinive, firing at any exposed crillia he saw. The creatures fell, some landing on the platform, others tumbling away somewhere inside the ship.

Lyra stood watching nearby while the three worked.

“Hangar is clear,” Positron reported in. “I’m assigning a drone to stand watch and returning to the Red Grizzly.”

“Good,” Nebb said. “Because the overflow vent is a mess over here!”

Tane and the others continued firing away.

“Can you touch the Essence yet?” Tane asked Sinive between shots.

“Nope,” Sinive said.

“But you can feel it?” Tane pressed.

“Yeah, but feeling isn’t the same as touching.”

Tane glanced at Lyra. “What about you?”

“Just barely,” Lyra said. “Not enough to help in any meaningful way. Though I can create certain small works.” She patted the small cylindrical object she had attached to her belt.

Definitely has to be a weapon of some kind.

Eventually Jed, Tane, and Sinive had shot away all of the creatures they could see from where they stood on the platform. Jed clambered up the rungs on the side of the engine and fired several shots to clear the entryway. With one boot he slid the closest dead crillia off the deck, sending the lifeless creatures near the breach flowing off the ship. Then he swung himself inside.

Tane and Sinive followed him in and continued the job. They’d shoot the creatures that were stuck to the metal deck or bulkheads, and when the crillia let go, they’d kick them out through the breach.

When they were done, Jed ordered Tane and Sinive to vacate the deck. Tane and Sinive did so, hanging onto the rungs on the hull just outside; after, Jed made a quick sweep of the corridor with the scanner built into his glove. He used the red variant of the beam emitter like when he had scanned Tane.

“We’re clear in here,” Jed said. “Send the repair drones whenever you’re ready. Do you need any help with the overflow vent?”

“Nope,” Nebb said. “We’re just finishing up here, too.”

Tane, Sinive and Jed climbed down the rungs and stood back to watch with Lyra as the repair drones began their work. Some of the drones ferried elements back and forth from the hangar to the ship, while others attached to the hull next to the breach and began 3D printing replacement metals along the ragged edges. The small robots would obviously repair the interior later, once the more critical damage to the outer hull was fixed.

Tane stared at all the lifeless crillia that fanned outward on the landing platform underneath the breach. There was a similar mass of the dark blue creatures scattering the platform on the other side of the ship, where Nebb and Positron worked.

“Bastards really love our ships, don’t they?” Jed said.

Tane’s eyes drifted to the edge of the platform, where a small shed had been built overlooking the city below. A rivet had fallen away from the side of the shed, and rested near the precipice; after the Red Grizzly’s next takeoff, it would probably roll off the skyscraper entirely, plunging all the way down to the street.

“You see that rivet next to the shed?” Tane said. He highlighted the object so it would show up on the HUDs of his companions. “A rivet that exists both here and in our universe? You say if I move that rivet, it won’t move in our universe, too, just here?”

“That’s right,” Lyra said.

“So then it’s forever displaced, never matching the location of its twin in our universe?” Tane pressed. “Just like the refined metals our drones are taking from the hangar?”

“No,” Lyra said. “If we leave the area entirely and later come back, the objects will appear to ‘reset,’ returning to where they exist in our universe.”

“I guess that explains why we never see objects moving around of their own accord in our own universe,” Tane said. “So even those processed materials will return when we come back? Respawning like in some Galnet game?”

“That’s right,” Lyra said. “When we first enter an area, we get a snapshot of everything as it exists in our own universe. If we leave and come back at a later time, the location will ‘reset,’ and any objects will update to match their latest quantities and positions in our universe.”

“What happens if a ship in our universe lands here before we’re done with repairs?” Tane said. “As in, right on top of the Red Grizzly?”

“It won’t show up here until we depart and the area resets,” Lyra said.

“Strange universe,” Tane said. “And if we leave something here? What then?”

“It will be lost in the next reset,” Lyra said.

“What if one of us stays behind?” Tane said. “Rather than an object? Are we lost in the reset?”

“There is no reset if living entities, including robots with advanced neural networks, remain behind,” Lyra said. “Only inanimate, non-living objects can cause a reset.”

“So if I dropped a rifle with an advanced AI, I could lock a place forever, and prevent it from respawning?” Tane asked.

“As long as the rifle was sentient, and remained here, then yes,” Lyra said.

“Is that how the dwellers build anything that lasts here?” Tane said. “They remain in the vicinity of anything important to them? Or maybe distribute neutral networks throughout their cities and ships?”

“They don’t have to,” Lyra said. “You see, they build most of their ships and cities with their version of the Essence. Structures and ships built of their Essence do not reset, but they also appear in the Umbra only, and not our universe—unless the dwellers take them through the Anteres Rift, of course.”

“Complications, complications,” Tane said.

“Like you said, strange universe,” Lyra told him.

“You almost make it sound like all dwellers can Siphon their Essence equivalent,” Tane said.

“That’s not the case,” Lyra said. “There are about as many dwellers as humans with the Ability: as in, very few. Those that do Siphon are assigned to one of two castes, either the much weaker Builders—those who create their cities and ships—or the Amaranth—dwellers who can Siphon as much as the Volur. The Builders make up ninety percent of their Essence users, the Amaranth ten percent. Together, the two groups compose maybe one percent of the entire dweller population.”

“Oh okay,” Tane said. “So in all this talk about resets and snapshots, what happens to things with low-level AIs, like shopping or delivery drones? I didn’t spot any of those during the city flyby.”

“Flying vehicles don’t show up in the snapshots, period. The skies and planetary orbits are always clear of human-built machines—no starships, no stations, no orbital defense platforms. Interplanetary and interstellar space are also always empty.”

“What about planet-capable starships?” Tane said. “Those that have landed on the surface? You already hinted they appear after touching down…”

“They do show up, yes,” Lyra said. “But without working AI cores. The non-sentient subsystems remain active, but not the core itself.”

“Because they count as living entities in this universe…” Tane said.

“Correct,” Lyra transmitted.

“Guess that means you can’t steal a whole starship,” Tane said.

“Unless you bring an AI core with you,” Sinive chimed in.

“There’s an interesting idea…” Tane said.

“Why living entities have no imprint here,” Lyra continued. “And why the presence of an observer causes snapshots to come into being, no one can really say. Our scientists don’t know enough about the Umbra to do more than speculate. In our own universe, at the quantum level sometimes the very act of observing can influence the results of an experiment. What we’re seeing here might very well be some magnification of that effect.”

Nebb’s voice came over the comm, cutting short the discussion. “All right, Positron and I are done over here. I’ve repurposed half the repair drones to the overflow vent. We should be ready for take-off in half an hour, tops. In the meantime, I’m going to do some recon aboard the other ships parked here with us. See if I can stock up on other repair materials for the Red Grizzly. I’m taking Positron and one of the scout drones with me.”

Tane could see Nebb and Positron on the other side of the platform; one of the hovering, spherical scouts joined the pair, and all three headed toward a large ship parked adjacent to the Red Grizzly. The entry ramp of that ship was lowered.

“You sure you’re just looking for repair materials?” Tane said.

“Hey, if I find something else of value, I’m obviously not going to leave it behind,” Nebb said.

“Is it the wisest idea to abandon your ship, on a planet where we’re surrounded by enemies?” Lyra said.

“We’re stuck here anyway until repairs can be completed,” Nebb said. “You have nothing to worry about. I have scouts watching the perimeter. I’ll be ten minutes.”

“I have to insist—” Lyra began.

“Hey, this is my ship, my operation, remember that,” Nebb said. “You’re just a passenger. I run a business here. If I’m forced into the Umbra at the insistence of my passengers, and I then have to land on a moon for repairs, a moon that’s colonized in our own universe at that, then I’m damn well going to take full advantage of that while I’m here. Ten minutes!”

“I’ll set a timer,” Lyra said.

“You do that,” Nebb said.

“I’m going to do some exploring, too,” Sinive said over the comm.

“I can’t spare any drone scouts for you,” Nebb said. “I need them watching the perimeter.”

“That’s fine,” Sinive said. “I don’t think I really need a scout for checking out these ships anyway. If there were kraal in any of them, they would have attacked already.”

“True enough,” Nebb said. “But be careful anyway.”

“I’ll go with you,” Tane told Sinive. He patted the personal storage pouch hanging from his belt. “I came prepared.”

“No, it’s safer for us to return to the ship,” Lyra said.

“Yeah, I second that,” Sinive said. “I mean, your returning to the ship. I don’t really want someone who has black strings coming from his body following me around.”

“Fine, I’ll go off on my own without you,” Tane said. He stalked off toward a craft with an open ramp located on the far side of the shipyard. He would have chosen a closer ship, but save for the vessel Nebb and Positron had selected, all the other vessels nearby had their ramps closed.

“Um no, that’s the ship I picked for myself!” Sinive said.

“Too late,” Tane said, breaking into a run.

“Hey!” she said.

He glanced over his shoulder and saw Sinive breaking into a sprint behind him. Beyond her, he saw Lyra and Jed exchange a momentary glance, and then the two of them broke into a run to follow him as well.

Tane reached the ship first and did a quick ID before dashing up the ramp. It was a Camel Transport class. The kind merchants liked. Only a few defensive dragons to deter pirates. He pulled up the standard blueprints, located the closest cargo bay, and made a beeline for that area.

Sinive reached him, but couldn’t shove past him in the tight passageway. “My ship!”

“Nope,” Tane said.

When he reached the cargo bay, he discovered that the hatch was locked tight.

“Blow it open with your rifle!” Sinive said.

Tane retreated a pace, forcing her back as he did so. Then he took aim and fired. The plasma struck the door and the surface turned red hot in the middle. He emptied the full twelve rounds until the metal became white hot.

More plasma bolts fired from underneath him, and he realized Sinive had dropped to the deck and was shooting at the hatch past him.

“Hey!” He dodged to the side, giving her as much room as he was able.

“You didn’t have to move,” Sinive said. “I got high sharpshooting, you know.”

“Yeah, okay,” Tane said.

He waited for his rifle to recharge and fired another twelve bolts. Between him and Sinive they made short work of the door.

Inside, he chose a random cargo container and tried to open it. Locked.

Not a problem.

He aimed his rifle at the locking mechanism and let loose. When the molten fragments fell away he reached for the lid, but hesitated, wondering if it was booby trapped. He was starting to wish he had purchased the Detect Trap skill.

He glanced at Sinive and waited for her to open hers first. When she didn’t get blown up, electrocuted, or otherwise maimed, he took that as his cue it was safe, and knocked off the lid.

Inside were stacked crates. He pulled one out and, using the stock of his rifle as a crowbar, pried open the top to reveal...

Hundreds of bananas.

Tane glanced up in confusion. He spotted Lyra and Jed lingering by the doorway. When he met Lyra’s gaze, she shrugged.

“What were you expecting to find?” Lyra said. “Legendary weapons?”

Tane turned toward Sinive. She had removed a crate from her own container, and it was filled with apples.

“Oh well, at least we’ll have something else to eat besides that white goo,” Sinive said.

Tane hoisted all of the crates from the container and dropped them into his pouch in turn, using up four inventory slots. He planned to sell them when he got back to his own universe. They had to be worth at least a few hundred credits.

He moved from container to container like that, prying each open in turn, only to reveal more fruits: melons, pears, and oranges. He didn’t bother loading any more of those items into his personal storage device, not wanting to waste the slots.

He had something else in mind.

Tane pulled up the overhead map and identified the probable location of the armory. He darted for the room, once again with Sinive on his heels.

He reached the armory and grabbed two of the weapons on the rack. Sinive shoved him aside and grabbed the other two. Tane stowed the weapons into his pouch and identified them after they were slotted. Both were plasma rifles, Scepter class, similar to what he used on the farm. Nothing special, but they’d fetch at least two to three thousand credits on resale, hopefully.

Lastly he made his way to the suit closets. Inside were the parts for several spacesuits. By themselves, the different suit assemblies—boots, leg assemblies, chest assembly, arm assemblies, and helmet—would each use up individual inventory slots, but Tane found some spare carbon fiber twine and used it to bind the suit pieces into a pair of bundles. He stowed the two complete spacesuits in his storage device, using only two slots. He was going to grab a jumpjet unit, but Sinive beat him to it. He had used up nine of his slots by then, including the slot for his clothes luggage, but if he found anything else of value at some point, he could always dump something, like the bananas.

While Sinive was stuffing the jumpjet unit into her pouch, Tane asked her: “Can we nest pouches within pouches? As a short term way of boosting storage capacity without upgrading to a more expensive device?”

“Of course.” Sinive finished shoving the large unit into her pouch. “In fact, it’s the way to go as far as organizational purposes are concerned. I’ve got one storage device for weapons. One for armor. Another for food. Another for clothes. And so on. All stuffed inside my main storage pouch, which has twenty slots.”

“I guess you don’t want to be losing that pouch,” Tane said. “Convenience, at the cost of redundancy.”

“I definitely don’t want to be losing it,” Sinive agreed.

Jed and Lyra were still following them around as Tane led the way back toward the exit ramp.

A prompt appeared on his HUD from Sinive, requesting a private band. Tane accepted, and switched to the band so the pair could talk privately.

“What’s with the two Volur, anyway?” Sinive said. “They don’t want to let you out of their sight for even a second. They’re like your puppy dogs or something. Or overbearing parents.”

“They’ll do whatever it takes to make sure I don’t fall into the hands of the dwellers,” Tane said. “And I mean anything.”

“What, like kill you?” Sinive said. Though he couldn’t see her, from her voice he thought she was smiling, as if intending the comment to be a joke. When Tane didn’t answer, she said, more seriously: “Would they?”

“I don’t actually know,” Tane said. “But they implied as much.”

“Those dark threads coming from your body are a big deal then, aren’t they?”

“I have no idea,” Tane said. “I wish I did. I’m in the dark. Literally.”

He switched back to the common band, not liking where the conversation was going, and continued making his way toward the Camel Transport’s exit.

“Your ten minutes are up,” Lyra announced. “I hope you found everything you were looking for, smuggler.”

“I’m happy,” Nebb said over the comm. “Got all the extra elements I needed for sure. I’m heading back to the Red Grizzly. By the way, for all your condescending moral preening, looks like you decided to do some looting yourself, huh?”

“No, I’m shepherding my cargo,” Lyra said.

“That’s all I am to you, cargo?” Tane said. “I don’t know why I ever agreed to go with you. This trip has been a disaster from the start.”

“I apologize,” Lyra said. “My words were meant for Nebb. You have to use a different language with smugglers to make sure they understand.”

“Yeah sure,” Tane said. “When you think I’m not listening you tell people I’m your ‘cargo.’ But to my face I’m your honored guest. Funny how that works.”

“Tane, I told you I’m sorry,” Lyra said. “You’re not cargo. I’m trying to do everything I can to protect you. Please understand that. You’re a human being. An important one.”

Tane was about to contest her when a klaxon sounded over the HUD.

“One of the scouts is reporting kraals penetrating the perimeter!” Nebb said. “Back to the Red Grizzly on the double. We take off, now!”

16

Tane raced down the ramp of the Camel Transport. He saw them then: rank upon rank of large beasts emerging from a metal shed on the far side of the rooftop. Like the crillia, they seemed the most substantial objects in sight, seeming more real than Tane and his companions even.

“They’re coming from inside the building!” Sinive said.

Tane had no time to feel fear. He simply reacted, and tore across the shipyard platform toward the Red Grizzly and salvation. Ahead of him, at the edge of the building, more of the beasts appeared, leaping over the side where they had apparently scaled the building unnoticed.

“We got more trying to cut us off!” Tane said. “How did your scouts miss their approach?”

Tane was forced to slow down and dig in. He dropped to one knee, aimed, and opened fire at the kraals with his S4 as the creatures raced at him.

“I’m looking at the scout feeds,” Nebb said. “Looks like the kraals broke the windows on the floor just below this one and formed living ropes with their bodies!”

“So much for these kraals being mere dumb animals!” Tane said.

Every target Tane picked dropped after one or two shots—none of them had personal energy shields. The creatures had the bodies of huge primates, though instead of fur they were covered in black scales. They had broad, eyeless reptilian heads with elongated snouts. When they opened their maws, their bottom rows of razor sharp teeth were joined to the top by long strings of slime. They ran on all fours, their movements eerily silent. No hoots, hisses, or battle cries. Then again, maybe his spacesuit was filtering that out, though the external microphones should have picked up any sounds.

“My heck, these things are disgusting,” Sinive said.

She had dropped beside him and was firing rapidly into the approaching beasts, downing them as fast as she was able.

More shots erupted from his other side: Jed. The Volur promptly vanished. Whether that was due to his armor, or some ability of the Essence, Tane didn’t know. The only reason Tane knew the man was still there was because of the indicator on the overhead map, and the plasma bursts that erupted from Jed’s position.

Lyra meanwhile was wielding some kind of huge, dual-bladed energy ax beside Jed. She held it at a horizontal angle behind her head, and from the tip between the double blades emerged bolts of white light that ripped into the incoming creatures.

“I’m too weak to keep this up for long!” Lyra said. “We have to make a rush for the ship!”

“There’s too many of them!” Tane said.

As he spoke, the kraals swarmed onto the platform from both sides of the shipyard, thoroughly cutting off any approach to the ship. The enemy numbers were starting to outflank the four of them.

“Nebb, could use some help here!” Sinive said.

Tane’s weapon was taking too long to recharge. As were the weapons of his comrades. The kraals were almost on them.

Lyra swept forward with her energy battle-ax and took the battle to the enemy, cutting through their ranks. A moment later Jed joined her, visible by the blade that flashed into existence when he carved a path through the enemy ranks.

“We’re cutting a path through!” Lyra said. “Follow us!”

Tane got up, but before he and Sinive could follow, the shipyard caved in front of him, falling into the floor just below and separating Tane and Sinive from Jed and Lyra. More kraals began to emerge from the collapse.

Tane and Sinive quickly backed away, retreating toward the Camel Transport. Tane paused underneath the vessel and turned back to aim at the incoming kraals. He unleashed several quick shots in rapid succession, draining the weapon’s current charge. Sinive did the same.

In the ensuing downtime, with the enemies still rushing toward him and Sinive, Tane decided to retrieve the two rifles from his storage sack and set them down on the deck beside him. He intended to alternate between them, using an active rifle while the other weapons recharged, ensuring the least amount of downtime as possible.

He swapped his S4 for one of the others, and as he aimed, for a moment he worried the rifle might be bioencoded to a different owner already; when he squeezed the trigger it thankfully fired. The second rifle from the Camel Transport also fired without issue.

Tane kept switching weapons like that, but the kraals relentlessly emerged from the cave-in. Jed blinked into view. The Volur was running toward the gap as if intending to leap across to Tane, but the rooftop shook and the fissure enlarged even wider, forcing Jed to abandon his attempt before he reached the edge. The breakage spread across almost the entire shipyard now, and Tane could see well into the floor below, which seemed to be a warehouse level of some kind, full of stacked crates swarming with kraals.

“I’m opening fire with the dragons,” Grizz announced over the comm.

Several kraals dropped in a long line as the powerful lasers passed through several creatures at once.

But it wasn’t enough. The kraals kept flowing onto the shipyard from the cave-in. For every one that fell, four others replaced it.

“We can’t stay here!” Tane said.

He pulled Sinive to her feet and, abandoning the two rifles he had set down on the landing pad beside him, he raced away from the incoming creatures. He kept his main S4, of course, and headed toward the far side of the rooftop.

“Tane!” Sinive said. “They’re too close!”

He glanced over his shoulder. Behind him, the creatures were swarming, coming in too fast.

“Go!” He swung around and quickly brought his rifle to bear, letting off several plasma bolts.

Sinive ignored his command. She abandoned her plasma rifle and withdrew her pistol, joining him to fight at his side. She shot into the fray with the skill of a trained pistoleer.

Another dragon blast came from Grizz, tearing into the lead kraals, buying Tane and Sinive some time.

A kraal unexpectedly plowed into Sinive from the side and she crashed into a goose neck exhaust vent behind her.

Tane spun around. The creature was alone. Apparently it had broken away from the others to attack in stealth.

Tane aimed his rifle at the kraal and squeezed the trigger. Nothing. He had to wait for the recharge.

The kraal was tearing into Sinive’s shoulder region, and her screams told him the razor sharp teeth had penetrated the suit to the flesh underneath.

Tane hesitated. He knew he had no chance of overpowering the creature.

Meanwhile, other kraals were quickly bearing down from behind. The reprieve Grizz had granted was quickly coming to an end.

If I stay, I’m going to die.

Sinive screamed again.

Tane hardened his resolve.

If I die, so be it.

He hurled himself at the kraal that was on her.

Before impact, he jacked up the power settings of his servos to full, and purposely spiked his epinephrine output. As he struck, he rammed the stock of his rifle into the creature’s elongated head, and it released Sinive. The momentum of his impact succeeded in tearing the kraal off her and he landed on top of it.

The stunned beast recovered quickly and swung its snout toward him. Tane shoved the tip of his rifle into its mouth and squeezed the trigger. A message appeared on his HUD.

Awaiting recharge.

Damn it.

Sinive was sitting up beside him and firing into the incoming kraals with her pistol. She could only let off one shot at a time, with a recharge interval of about a second between each. It wasn’t fast enough. The kraals were almost on them.

Tane’s kraal bit down hard on the muzzle in its mouth, but just then the recharge indicator on his HUD turned green.

He squeezed the trigger.

The head blew up, splattering Tane’s suit in black blood and gore.

The creature went limp underneath him and Tane spun around to face the incoming kraals. The beasts would reach them in seconds.

He was starting to wish he had an ax, or some other weapon, because his rifle wasn’t going to cut it.

He shifted his grip on the rifle, intending to use it as a club. Sinive, having abandoned her rifle, had no such luxury. She would have to continue firing her pistol for as long as she could.

Before the creatures reached them, from nowhere a glowing blue sword appeared, slashing through the incoming kraals and scattering them.

“Go!” Jed’s voice.

But there was nowhere to go but backward, away from the kraals. And the Red Grizzly…

Tane scrambled to his feet, grabbed Sinive by the hand, and ran toward the far side of the shipyard.

As they got close to the edge of the rooftop, Tane was starting to regret not taking that jumpjet unit from the closet.

Because they were essentially trapped.

“The taxi!” Sinive said, ripping from his grasp.

At first Tane didn’t know what she was talking about, but then he spotted a small shuttle taxi sitting in the loading zone a short distance to their right, near the skyscraper’s edge.

Tane followed Sinive toward it.

“Will it even start in this universe?” Tane said.

“The Red Grizzly works just fine…” Sinive said.

“Yeah, but we brought the ship here from our own universe!” Tane said.

“Well, guess we’ll find out,” Sinive said.

“Lyra, what do you think?” Tane asked.

“Kind of busy now,” came Lyra’s reply.

Tane glanced over his shoulder and picked out the characteristic white beam of Lyra’s energy ax in the middle of the swarm, where it hewed down the enemies as if they were paper. Somehow the Volur had found the stamina to fight on. She had to, if she wanted to survive.

Jed’s blue sword meanwhile flashed into existence nearby, closer to Tane, carving an equally deadly path. However many of the kraals simply flowed around the man, racing toward the easier targets of Tane and Sinive. Tane counted at least fifty kraals bearing down on his location past Jed.

The shuttle’s door was open and Sinive and Tane piled inside. He barely fit in the seat with his bulky suit.

Sinive ripped open a panel above the twin controllers that were meant for emergency use—in case the AI malfunctioned during flight. Ordinarily the passenger had to contact the control tower to obtain access to those twin sticks, but Sinive fiddled with something inside the panel, then placed her gloved hands onto the sticks and slid them down toward each other.

The four rotors on the taxi activated. Seat buckles tightened around Tane and Sinive, securing them in place despite their unwieldy suits.

“Guess it works!” she said.

“You have to teach me that sometime,” Tane said.

“Buy the nanotech pack,” Sinive said. “It’s easier.”

Sinive applied thrust and the craft took off.

Just in time—the wave of kraals arrived. Tane fired off a burst from his rifle into the front ranks and picked off some of them. The lead beasts tried to stop, but were pushed off the edge of the skyscraper by the kraals coming in from behind. They formed a grim waterfall of flailing bodies falling to their doom.

Sinive manipulated the controls with her thumbs; it was obvious the twin sticks weren’t designed to be used while wearing the bulky gloves of a spacesuit, and her thumbs sometimes abutted each other, but she managed nonetheless.

She started to turn the taxi toward the Red Grizzly. The kraals had stopped forcing themselves off the building by then, and some of those nearby began to crawl on top of each other, forming a living ladder.

A kraal near the top of the ladder abruptly leaped toward the shuttle.

“Watch it!” Tane said.

Sinive didn’t react in time. The kraal crashed into the rotor, killing itself and destroying the blade in the process. The vehicle pitched precariously off the rooftop and careened toward the city below.

The blurry buildings spun around him as the vehicle whirled out of control. There were only weak inertial dampeners aboard the craft, and he could really feel the G forces.

Finally Sinive was able to stop the spinning, but the craft still pitched precariously to the left, almost upside-side down.

He spotted one of the Red Grizzly’s spherical scouts, following the taxi’s descent. Good to know that Nebb didn’t plan on losing them. Assuming Tane and Sinive survived the crash.

And then before Tane knew what was happening a loud crash filled the air and he was jolted so hard that his teeth, ribcage, and skull rattled sickeningly.

Body-hugging air bags activated at the same time, enclosing his spacesuit and the chair he sat upon within three hundred and sixty degrees of cushioning.

He found the release switch and the bags emptied. He opened his restraining belt and pulled himself up. Beside him, Sinive was slipping out of her own deflated air bags.

“I like the hardening foam safeties better than the bags,” Sinive commented.

Tane stepped away from the remains of the taxi and paused to examine the wreckage. There wasn’t much left. The cockpit area had survived, barely, but all the rotor mounts had broken away.

“But you have to admit,” Tane said, “those bags saved our life.”

He glanced back toward the building, which was still visible a block away. He craned his neck, but there was no sign of the kraals on the rooftop, at least not from this angle. Nor any signs of Jed and Lyra. They did show up on the overhead map however, and their positions seemed to be updating, moving closer to the Red Grizzly. The pair were surrounded by a swarm of red dots representing the kraals.

“Lyra, do you read?” Tane tried.

“Yes,” Lyra said. Her voice cut in and out.

“We’re all right,” Tane said.

“We’ll get to you when we can,” Lyra said.

He was surprised he still had a signal. There were no adhoc networks from other chips and AR goggles to link with. If they were in their own universe, in theory they should be able to link with any nodes of the city, but with the Galnet not working, it was obvious that wasn’t the case here.

Tane spotted the small spherical scout hovering in the air about ten meters above him and he suddenly understood why he still had a signal.

An alert flashed in the lower right of his screen, and when he enlarged it, he realized he had leveled up during the fight on the rooftop.

Level up. Your overall level is now 4! Neural pathways have been enhanced and reinforced! You now have an attribute point to allocate.

He decided he would allocate that point when he had more time to think about it later.

Motion drew his gaze to the base of the skyscraper: more kraals were flowing out from the main entrance.

“Time to go!” Tane said.

He and Sinive sprinted away from the building. He was on the look-out for another vehicle, but apparently this was a pedestrian district as there weren’t any.

“Lyra,” Tane said. “I don’t know if you can see what we have on our tail, but we could use that pickup sooner rather than later.”

“We’re trying…” Lyra said.

“And Nebb, see what you can do about pulling that scout higher,” Sinive said. “It’s acting like a beacon… broadcasting to the kraals exactly where we are.”

The scout rocketed skyward.

“Sorry about that,” Nebb said over the comm.

Tane used the overhead map to guide him away from the building. He hoped the city data in his chip was up to date—in theory it would have updated over the Galnet when they first entered the Dhoulan system before passing through the rift.

The scout flagged different vehicles they could use on that map, but the closest was several blocks away. He and Sinive wouldn’t make it, not at the rate the kraal swarm was closing behind them.

“There’s an underground pedway system here,” Tane said. “It looks like it’s connected to one of the high-rises a couple of streets away. We can enter there and hopefully lose the kraals.”

“Yeah well, better pick up the pace!” Sinive said. “They’re outrunning us! And Nebb, can you send the scout forward a little ways? We can use it to track any kraals that might be trying to head us off.”

Nebb’s response came, but the digital distortion was really bad. Tane heard: “I… that… eventually.”

Sinive glanced at him. “I hope that was a yes.”

On the overhead map, the green dot representing the scout accelerated forward.

“Must have been a yes,” Tane said.

The scout abruptly winked out. Tane glanced skyward in time to see the debris of the scout plummeting to the street.

“What—” He began.

And then a humungous, pincer-shaped ship flew out from behind the cover of the buildings just ahead. It was about ten times as big as the Red Grizzly. Its hull pulsed with dark energy; several large mounts protruded from the underside, and tentacles hung down from them. Tane guessed those were weapons turrets. It all seemed so substantial. So real.

“The dwellers!” Sinive said.

“Lyra, do you read?” Tane tried. “Lyra?”

There was no answer. With the scout gone, they had lost their connection. They were just too far from the Red Grizzly.

“Where’s a vehicle when you need one?” Sinive said.

“I don’t think a vehicle would help us now!” Tane said. “We’d be too easy a target. Our best bet is to stick close to the buildings, I think!”

And they did so, hugging the glass walls of the skyscrapers.

They had no choice but to run underneath the giant ship, because the kraals were herding them that way.

Black pods shot from the underside of the ship and flew into the street, where they hovered five meters from the surface.

Tane opened fire at the closest with his plasma rifle, as did Sinive with her pistol, but their shots seemed to have no effect. The pair kept running, staying close to the buildings.

The undersides of the pods opened up and tentacled creatures fell out. Tane was reminded of a cluster of mollusks emerging from an egg sac. Some of those long legs or tentacles or whatever they were got caught on the edge as the underside doors released, and the creatures hung for a few moments before their slimy limbs let go.

Like the kraals and crillia before them, and the huge ship overhead, the creatures seemed substantial and distinct, more real than Tane, Sinive, and the buildings around them. Some of them issued a series of clicks and pops.

The aliens all had those sideways-opening maws lined with serrated teeth—big old Tholan fly traps. And they all held big, menacing weapons in their tentacled arms: variants of the energy launchers Tane had seen on the farm.

These creatures were identical to the ones he had faced at his farm, he was sure of it, except this time they weren’t wearing protective suits, and he got to see them in their full, gruesome glory.

Dwellers.

17

Tane had been wondering what dwellers looked like without those environmental suits of theirs. They weren’t much prettier. He hadn’t been sure whether those eight crab-like legs emerging from the carapace were actually part of their bodies or some mech suit, but it turned out the legs were indeed an integral part, as were the tentacles emerging from the stalks below the head. Their carapaces were dark and slightly iridescent, reminding him of Labradorite stones.

The skyscraper was to his and Sinive’s left, while the creatures blocked off escape on all remaining sides. He noted that some of the dwellers positioned on the far right side of that circle were firing their energy weapons into the kraals, sending black bolts that tore clusters of the incoming horde apart.

Interesting.

“This way!” Tane told Sinive. He dashed up the stairs of the nearby building and dove into the revolving doors that composed the main entrance.

“But this building doesn’t lead to the pedway system!” Sinive said from behind him.

“Well we can’t stay out there!” Tane said.

The pair entered a spacious concourse lit by light globes hanging from the far ceiling. They hurried across to a gravalator; it was still working and lifted them to the second floor, which overlooked the first via a walkway lined with glass railings. Tane and Sinive ducked behind a metallic pillar next to the gravalator and aimed down at the revolving doors.

The glass entryway shattered inward and two dwellers tore inside, tentacles waving.

Tane unloaded a full twelve rounds at the lead dweller. The plasma bolts were stopped by translucent black circles that materialized in front of the dweller a half meter from its body. It was a slightly different dispersion pattern to the ripple effect he had seen when unleashing a plasma rifle against the alien shielding before, and he wasn’t sure if that was because the shields were different, or his weapon.

Sinive shot her pistol as well, aiming for the same spot, firing in one second bursts, but her bolts were absorbed by the shield in a similar matter.

The two dwellers aimed their energy launchers toward the pillar at the top of the gravalator...

“Run!” Tane yanked Sinive away from the pillar and hurried across the second floor. Behind him, a portion of the pillar melted away and a puddle of white-hot molten metal flowed onto the floor.

“I thought you said they wanted you alive!” Sinive told him over the comm.

“Maybe that was an accidental shot on their part?” Tane said.

“Accidental my butt,” Sinive said.

He spied two elevators near the far side of the walkway and raced toward them. He passed a cafe and a couple of other retail shops that served as mostly empty storefronts for real-time 3D-printed goods. Normally digital signage would be assailing his vision by that point, but here in the Umbra there was none.

He reached the lifts and pressed the button several times. It didn’t light up or give any other indication that it worked. He sincerely hoped elevators still functioned in this universe. If not, he was ready to dive into the stairwell just beside the lifts.

He aimed his rifle at the top of the gravalator, waiting for the recharge indicators on his HUD to turn green. A soft beep came from behind him and he started.

The elevator.

He spun his rifle toward the doors as they opened, just in case dwellers or kraals were inside. Not that he could fire yet anyway.

But it was empty.

He dashed inside the elevator with Sinive and hit the button for the fifth and topmost floor.

The charge indicator on his HUD turned green. He aimed toward the top of the gravalator while Sinive tapped the “close door” button.

A dweller ascended into view courtesy of the gravalator.

Tane squeezed the trigger.

His shots, combined with Sinive’s, should have been enough to break through those weakened energy shields—using the farm encounter with these aliens as a baseline—but all of their blasts were absorbed by the alien shielding once again. Either the shields had a faster recharge rate this time, or had more absorption power than the dwellers he had faced at his farm. Or perhaps the two incoming dwellers had simply swapped positions, so that the alien with the fully charged shield came first.

Whatever the case, the alien calmly aimed its energy launcher toward Tane and Sinive as the elevator doors closed.

“Up!” Tane said.

He slung the rifle over his shoulder and leaped across into the corner of the lift, landing on the railing that lined the wall at waist height. He curled his gloved fingers into the gaps in a grille that covered the ceiling so he wouldn’t lose his balance and fall backward. Sinive did the same at the opposite corner.

The elevator began its ascent. A moment later the lift took a hit, and the entire bottom quarter melted away. Tane could see the two-story drop of the shaft open up below him.

“They definitely want to kill you,” Sinive said.

Tane had no idea why. Perhaps a different faction of aliens was vying with the first? That would explain the different shields. No, he could speculate all he wanted, and blame it on human notions like competing factions, but the fact was these were aliens, with alien thinking. Hell, they didn’t even originate from the same universe. He couldn’t anthropomorphize them. One moment they wanted to capture him, and the next they wanted to kill him, perhaps for no reason a human could understand at all.

He was surprised the elevator continued moving after receiving so much damage. He thought there would be some sort of safety aboard to automatically stop it, but apparently not. That was actually a good thing. Otherwise he and Sinive would have been helplessly trapped.

Still, the elevator was moving a bit too slowly for his tastes. The indicator showed it reaching the third floor, and then beginning the crawl to the fourth. He considered reaching over and trying to kick the fourth floor button so that he and Sinive could get the hell off, but he was worried about losing his balance and falling down the shaft.

The fourth floor passed.

He glanced down into the shaft. Though struck by sudden vertigo, he managed to spot the melted doors a few stories below. There was no sign of the dwellers yet. That would change at any moment.

And the worst of it was, he couldn’t let go of the ceiling to aim his weapon, otherwise he’d fall. Then again, if the weapon wouldn’t penetrate the shielding anyway, what was the point of firing…

He spotted the characteristic tentacles of a dweller just as a beep announced the arrival at the fifth floor. The doors opened.

“Go!” Tane said.

Sinive hurled herself backward and landed in the carpeted hallway beyond. Tane bent his knees and pushed off as well, landing beside her.

“Hey!” Sinive said. “You almost hit me!”

“Next time get out of the way!” Tane said.

A thick energy bolt slammed into the elevator from below, disintegrating the ceiling. The remnants of the lift plunged down the shaft.

“Guess we’re not going back that way,” Sinive commented.

Tane and Sinive resided inside a small hallway. L-shaped bends led around the corners on either side.

Tane headed for the stairwell door next to the lift and kicked it open. He was hoping to find stairs leading up, but there weren’t any.

He let the door shut and continued around the rightmost bend, following it to a door. There was a bathroom in the wall perpendicular to it, located just behind the elevator shafts.

He tried the main door. Biometrically locked. He aimed his rifle at the locking mechanism and squeezed the trigger. The mechanism melted and he kicked the door in.

“I knew there was a reason I let you come along,” Sinive said.

“Professional Door Kicker, at your service,” Tane said.

“We’ll have to update your class,” Sinive said. “Mine can become Professional Ass Kicker.”

“Now let’s not get carried away,” Tane said. “Considering that I’m the one whose been doing all the ass kicking so far.”

“I think not,” Sinive said. “I hot-wired the shuttle, you know.”

“And got us into this mess by flying too close to the kraals?” Tane said.

Sinive looked away.

Tane focused on his surroundings. He and Sinive had entered what looked like a research lab of some kind. He guessed it was biological, judging from the centrifuges, shelves lined with vials, and binocular microscopes. Floor-to-ceiling windows lined the exterior walls and overlooked the city, allowing the dark blue light from outside to provide natural illumination.

“Um, why did we come to this floor?” Sinive said.

“According to the map,” Tane said. “Like most buildings in the downtown core, rooftop landing pads are available for personal flyers. I’m hoping there will be a few parked up there and waiting to go.”

“So why are we here?” Sinive asked.

“I thought that door back there led to the rooftop stairwell,” Tane answered. “Not a lab.”

He spotted motion beyond the floor-to-ceiling windows. A small, spherical black drone of some kind hovered outside.

“Is that one of Nebb’s?” Tane asked. He realized as he said the words that it was not. The drone was too sharp and clear, like it belonged to this universe.

“It’s not!” Sinive said.

Tane started retreating when the floor-to-ceiling windows burst across from him. Five dwellers wearing jumpjets landed inside in a long horizontal line.

Tane and Sinive ducked into the hallway and ran around the bend. Behind them, large chunks of the walls were blown away by the alien energy launchers.

Sinive kicked open the stairwell door beside the elevator shaft, intending to begin the long dash down.

“No!” Tane said. “We can’t go back down there!”

“We can’t stay here!” she said.

“Let’s check around the next bend first,” Tane said.

“No time,” Sinive said. “If you’re wrong, we can’t come back!”

“Then stop talking and follow me.” And hope I’m not wrong.

Tane rounded the next bend and found another door on the inward side, exactly opposite the elevator section.

“This has to be it!” Tane bashed the door in. To his relief, stairs led up.

He and Sinive piled inside and raced up the zigzagging flights.

“I don’t understand,” Sinive said. “If they want to kill us, why not nuke the building?”

“Maybe they want my dead body?” Tane said. “Where else can you find such fine black threads?” He waved a hand in front of her, and the thin lines emerging from his arms moved sinuously across her face. “Actually, no. We can’t anthropomorphize them. I don’t think we can understand the motives behind these aliens, no matter how hard we try.”

“Don’t be so sure about that,” Sinive said. “I’m willing to bet their thinking is closer to our own than you might imagine. They might want your body, not for the black threads, but as proof they’ve killed you.”

“What are you suggesting, they have a bounty on me?” Tane asked.

“Dunno!” Sinive replied.

The stairs opened up into a rooftop shed. Tane forced the door and found three personal flyers parked on different landing pads beyond.

“I’m assuming you can hot wire these,” Tane said.

“You betcha,” Sinive said.

They sprinted to the closest flyer, an expensive Tamborini model with smooth curves and exotic wings.

“Sexy,” Tane said, making his way to the passenger side. The pad fell away into empty space beside him. It was a long way down.

Sinive stood in front of the driver-side door with her eyes defocused; Tane realized she was applying some sort of car hacking skill.

The doors abruptly slid open.

“Let’s go!” Sinive said.

Tane piled inside at the same time she did.

Three more dwellers in jumpjets appeared in front of them from beyond the edge of the building.

Sinive had apparently already deactivated the self drive: she turned on the rotors and slammed on the right thumb stick, sending the craft plowing into the dwellers. They tried to scatter, but the first struck the windshield head-on with a sickly squish before falling away.

“Careful!” Tane said. “You don’t want to damage the rotors again.”

“They’re shielded,” Sinive said. “Didn’t you notice? Not like the taxi.”

He actually hadn’t. But she was right, thick grilles enclosed all four rotors.

“Taxi’s are public property,” Tane said. “To cut costs, the government is allowed to cut safety features.”

“Bingo,” Sinive said. “Whereas private vehicles have to follow the codes, no matter what.”

Sinive dove down between the buildings, obviously wanting to avoid the huge mothership that hovered in the sky above.

The aliens in jumpjets attempted to follow, but the craft was too fast, and she weaved between the buildings, quickly losing them.

An alien must have fired an energy launcher from the surface then, because the right front rotor suddenly disintegrated.

“No!” Sinive said. “Not again.”

The craft pitched to the far right, and the surrounding buildings rotated nauseatingly. Sinive managed to regain partial control, and the yawing motion ceased. However, they were still streaking downward at a terrifying pace. Tane was expecting to slam into a skyscraper at any time. If they did, that would be the end of them.

The ground came up fast. The vehicle struck, and the cockpit jolted hard as the three-hundred-sixty-degree air bags deployed.

He heard a loud skidding sound and felt forward motion.

CLANG. They hit something, ricocheted dizzyingly.

CLANG. Hit something else. Their movement slowed.

CLANG. That brought them to a halt.

He hit the release switch and pulled himself from the deflated bags.

“I’m all right,” Sinive said before he could ask. She had hauled herself out on the opposite side of the vehicle.

He glanced at the wreckage. “Well, at least I can tell my friends I flew in a Tambo at least once in my life. Before the girl I was with totaled it.”

He spotted the deep skid marks etched into the asphalt, left by the Tamborini as it zigzagged between the two buildings on either side. There were no sign of the dwellers. Yet. Looking up, he could only see a small piece of the large ship overhead. He didn’t notice any of those tentacled weapons hanging down. Hopefully he and Sinive were beyond the line of sight.

Tane checked his map.

“This way!” he said.

“Where are we going?” she asked.

“The underground pedway system,” he said.

“What if it’s full of kraals?” she asked.

“Then we’ll find somewhere else to hide!”

He reached the building that offered the closest entry point to the underground pedway system and entered. He found himself in a wide concourse similar to the previous office tower, and had to use his map to figure out where the stairs leading to the pedway were, once more because the usual digital signage was absent in this universe.

He reached the stairs and hurried down, entering the concrete passageway that served as the pedway system. According to the map, it interconnected most of the buildings located within the city core with the underground grav tram.

Small light globes embedded in the ceiling provided illumination.

“Nebb will come for us,” Sinive said. “You’ll see.”

“First of all he has no idea where we are,” Tane said. “Second of all, he can’t do anything, not while that alien ship is up there. If he was smart, and I know he is, he would have taken the Red Grizzly and fled the city as soon as that massive alien vessel appeared.”

The pedway connected to the central concourses located underneath each of the nearby buildings. Keeping an eye out for kraals or dwellers, Tane and Sinive moved carefully between the different underground concourses as they reached them. He intended to make his way to one of the grav tram stops and then return to the surface; at that point, he’d hide in a building until things calmed down.

Things were going well until they reached a food court underneath one of the buildings.

When they were halfway across the court, dwellers began to flood down a ramp and gravalator combination that led up to the building’s main floor.

“Go!” Tane said.

They raced across the food court. There were two different exits ahead, branching away on the far left and right. From the far left exit, more dwellers began to emerge, closing off that particular exit. The right branch was still open, but he and Sinive were too far to make it.

The dwellers blocking the left exit ahead raised their energy launchers...

“Down!” Tane grabbed Sinive and took cover behind a pillar next to a row of tables and chairs. He expected the pillar to dissolve, but instead a warbling howl erupted some distance behind him.

He glanced that way and noticed a pursuing alien had fallen, its body a splattered mess. More dark bursts of energy stormed across the food court, and Tane realized the dwellers in front were shooting at those in behind.

The pursuers returned fire.

“What the hell?” Sinive said.

“There are definitely opposing factions,” Tane said.

Most of the rearward aliens targeted the forward dwellers, but Tane spotted one of them aiming its launcher toward him and Sinive.

“Move!” Tane rose to his feet and Sinive was right beside him. They dove behind another pillar just as the energy launcher released. The pillar melted.

The pair scrambled upright and raced toward the far right exit. Some of the forward dwellers attempted to head them off, and two of them were shot down by the opposing aliens.

Tane and Sinive reached the exit first and hurried down the corridor. They fired at the closest dwellers, but once again couldn’t penetrate the shields.

“Useless low level weapons!” Tane cursed.

The dwellers continued to pursue. He noticed that these particular aliens weren’t opening fire on them. He wasn’t sure if that was good or bad.

He rounded a bend in the concrete corridor only to find himself face to face with yet another dweller.

Before he could react, the dweller had wrapped its tentacles around his and Sinive’s spacesuits and swept them off their feet. Other tentacles ripped the weapons from their hands. As the pursuing dwellers came up, the aliens exchanged high-pitched clicks and hisses, and then proceeded down the corridor in the direction of the grav tram station as one. Their captor held the humans close, while the other dwellers provided an escort.

Tane could hear what sounded like continued fighting behind him—the occasional warbling scream, the crash of collapsing walls.

“Well this sucks,” Sinive said. “Can you wiggle free?”

“No,” Tane said. “I’m held fast.”

“Me too,” Sinive said.

Though they had been captured, strangely Tane still felt little fear. They were probably going to be tortured and dissected, but in that moment, none of it really seemed real.

It’ll hit me soon enough, I’m sure. Probably at the worst time, like when the aliens start cutting me open.

The creature and its gruesome escort carried Tane and Sinive past two more underground concourses, and then emerged into the subterranean grav tram station. Two benches lined the left side, and a translucent polycarbonate wall sealed off the grav tram line on the right. On the central portion of the platform, the floor space was nearly completely consumed by a huge dweller, at least four times as big as the others.

“Graaz’dhen!” Sinive said.

If that was really a Graaz’dhen, he understood now why one of those hadn’t entered his farm. It was far too big to fit the corridors. Even here it would have trouble once it left the platform.

Their captor threw Tane and Sinive in front of the Graaz’dhen, and then dumped their weapons at its feet. The Graaz’dhen lifted the weapons in its many tentacles and crushed them easily.

Dwarfed beside the huge alien was a small service and maintenance droid, replete with treads, pincers for hands, and digitally animated visor.

The Graaz’dhen emitted several high-pitched sounds, and the small robot apparently translated.

“We only want to talk,” the droid said. “Mind to mind.”

Tentacles wrapped around Tane and Sinive. The Graaz’dhen lifted Tane off the ground and hoisted him directly in front of that tall, sideways-opening maw. This one had thousands of serrated teeth lining either side.

The maw twisted so that it was horizontal, and then it opened, revealing a slithering, multicolored tongue. The tongue shifted in hue as Tane watched. The pattern was… mesmerizing.

He felt something reach into his mind.

And he was helpless to resist.

18

Tane felt a presence rifling through his memories. Searching his skills. Replaying conversations.

He was blinded by a flash.

The Graaz’dhen stiffened, and the tentacles wrapped around Tane’s body loosened.

The center of the tongue had turned dark: a hole was bored straight through the flesh and into the brain region.

The head tilted back at an unnatural angle and tore slightly from its neck. The body collapsed a moment later and Tane found himself buried underneath a coil of piled tentacles.

He extricated himself from those tentacles and saw Sinive doing the same beside him. When she had freed herself, she patted the grime from her suit with one hand, and in the other held a pistol.

Tane glanced over his shoulder and realized all the other dwellers on the grav tram platform and the pedway beyond had collapsed when the Graaz’dhen fell. It was true then: subordinate dwellers really were linked to the creature, and were stunned when it died. Their tentacles twitched helplessly.

He caught sight of the droid: it was racing up the ramp that led to the surface, and vanished before Tane could do anything.

“Let’s hope that robot doesn’t reveal our position,” Tane said.

“Don’t count on it,” Sinive said.

“How long do we have until the linked dwellers recover from their stunned state?” Tane asked.

“Not long at all.” Sinive opened fire at another nearby dweller, boring a fresh orifice through its head. Its tentacles immediately stopped twitching.

She began to fire in turn at the other aliens in view.

“They don’t have shields?” Tane asked as she worked.

“I’m sure they do, but the shields would have failed when they collapsed,” Sinive said, taking out another stunned alien. “Touching an energy shield to the ground is a great way to drain it.”

“Where did you get the pistol by the way?” Tane said.

“The Graaz’dhen made some mistakes,” Sinive said. “First of all, it assumed we were disarmed, and turned off its shield generator to bring us in close. Secondly, it neglected to bind my arms to my sides when it grabbed me—I guess it was all excited about interrogating you, and the thought slipped its mind.”

“But where did you get the pistol?” Tane repeated.

She patted the chest area of her spacesuit. “Secret pocket.”

“Why didn’t you use the pistol before?” Tane asked. “When the other dweller was taking us here?”

“That dweller was actually smart,” Sinive said. “And bound my hands to my sides. But even if I could reach the pistol, I wouldn’t have taken the shot, not then. I was curious where the dweller was taking us, and I also figured I’d only really get one good hit in before they took me out, so I wanted to make it count. And what better way to make a shot count than eliminating one of their senior officers? A creature they’re all linked to?”

She finished off the last dweller, so that all of the aliens around them had neat holes drilled into their heads.

“Well the opposing dwellers back there are no doubt still in the game,” Tane said. “And I’m sure there are other senior officers of this faction somewhere on the surface. Either way, more aliens will be here soon. Let’s take the grav tram tunnel to the next stop, and then we’ll head to the surface and rest in one of the buildings.”

Sinive directed her pistol toward the translucent polycarbonate screen that separated the grav tunnel from the platform, and released ten shots over the next ten seconds, melting holes in the surface.

“That should be good enough,” Tane said. He took a flying leap at the weakened polycarbonate and slammed into the surface with his shoulder. He struck hard, but rebounded and landed rolling on the platform.

“I’ll show you how it’s done,” Sinive said. “Step away.”

With an embarrassed sigh, Tane retreated.

Sinive backed up all the way to the far wall and took a run. She contacted the surface feet first but the polycarbonate didn’t yield; instead her knees bent and her body crumpled against the surface. She slid down, making an audible squeegee sound, and landed sprawling on her side.

“Gah,” Sinive said.

Tane rushed to her.

“Are you all right?” he asked.

“Sure, but I’m dying of embarrassment right now,” Sinive said.

Tane couldn’t resist some snark. “Yep, you sure showed me how it was done!”

“Thanks for not making it worse or anything,” Sinive said.

Tane studied the intact polycarbonate. “That’s powerful stuff.”

“Guess it has to be,” Sinive said. “This is a grav tram after all.”

She sat up and spent the next few moments melting successive holes into the polycarbonate until she had almost carved out a complete circle. When she connected the circle by punching out the final join at the top, the glass pane fell away, leaving a lopsided circle about one meter in diameter.

“Got it,” Sinive said.

Tane meanwhile had stood watch on the far side of the platform, next to the concrete pedway leading to the station, and he spotted the dark shapes of dwellers in the distance.

“Just in time. They’re here.” Tane hurried to the polycarbonate, pulled himself through the hole onto the ledge just inside, and leaped down into the tram tunnel below where Sinive was waiting for him. They raced down the passage.

There were few illumination globes here, so Tane activated his helmet lamp. He decided to try out the supported infrared band, since the helmet faceplate supported IR viewing; the tunnel became a green monochrome.

Tane hadn’t seen any vehicles moving on their own in this universe, so he doubted he and Sinive had to worry about the grav tram unexpectedly plowing into them.

As Tane ran, he suddenly thought of all those alien energy weapons that had just been lying around the grav tram station after the dwellers had fallen. He should have scooped up some of them to resell back in his universe, but the notion hadn’t even crossed his mind back then. He just wanted to get the hell out of there.

Too bad. He’d just have to keep an eye out for items going forward.

He and Sinive reached the next station, where it was bright enough to turn off the lamps and switch to ordinary helmet viewing. While Tane kept watch in both directions, Sinive pulled herself onto the ledge next to the polycarbonate screen and spent another minute carving a circle with her pistol. When she was finished, she and Tane pulled themselves through onto the platform. Tane hadn’t spotted any of the dwellers pursuing yet.

Tane led the way up, taking the stairs of a side passage that led to the surface. At the top was a shed-like structure that terminated in a pair of glass double doors overlooking the street. He went to those doors and surveyed the area while Sinive waited below.

“You know, I should be the one doing the checking,” Sinive said over the comm. “I’m the only one of us who’s armed.”

“Shh,” Tane said. He scanned the windows of the shops on the first floor of the buildings across from him, and studied the upper levels of the skyscrapers themselves. “No sign of any kraals or dwellers. That said, I can’t see past most of the upper story windows. The glass is too reflective at this angle. It’s possible some of them are lurking inside, watching, waiting to snipe. Also, I can’t see the alien ship anywhere in the sky. The tall buildings are occluding it.”

“We have to find cover,” Sinive said.

“I agree, we can’t stay out in the open like this,” Tane said. “Let’s head to the office building across the street. If it’s not open—”

“Then I’ll introduce the door to my pistol, all friendly like,” Sinive finished.

Tane emerged from the shed and raced across the street to the closest building. He took the steps to the entrance three at a time—nearly slipping on one of them—and hurled his shoulder into the double door at the main entrance. Didn’t open. He realized the doors were rigged to open sideways when visitors arrived, except they weren’t working.

He slid his gloved fingers into the gap between the two doors as far as he was able, and jerked it hard to the right. Sinive joined him, and together they were able to make a gap about half a meter wide between the doors. It was enough for them to slip through sideways.

Sinive glanced at the forced doors with a doubtful expression. “Well it’s not obvious we went inside or anything...”

Together he and Sinive shoved against the far sides of each door, closing them again.

Tane hurried passed the unmanned front desk. Ordinarily, a directory listing of companies would be overlaying his vision right now, but instead his sight remained eerily free of intrusions.

Tane tried the elevator button and it lit up. Good to go.

The doors opened and he piled inside with Sinive. There were twenty levels. He chose the fourth floor button—not so far from street level that they couldn’t make a quick getaway if the need arose, but high enough to hopefully give them some warning before any dwellers arrived. He planned to set up shop close to a window, somewhere he could observe the main entrance to the building below.

The lift opened into some sort of shared reception space. He stepped past the front desk and walked by doors labeled with the names of different companies. These were all virtual offices, placed here by companies that wanted to have a physical address in the Dhoulan system. Most of the time the rooms would remain locked and unused, unless someone decided to visit the company on that moon—a rarity in and of itself, given the propensity of virtual meetings—at which point an appointment would be made and a synthetic dispatched with the latest mind dumps appropriate for the meeting. There were synthetics that hired themselves out solely to serve as mind receptacles like that, and some actually installed new mind dumps daily, serving as business partners one day and flesh whisperers the next.

There were windows next to some of the doors, allowing a view into the offices. In one of those rooms he spotted a floor-to-ceiling glass pane that looked down onto the street below. Tane had Sinive open the lock with her pistol, and then he walked straight to the glass. He could see the main entrance below.

“This will suit our purposes,” Tane said.

He sat with his back propped against the wall next to the window so that he could observe the entrance. Sinive settled in beside him.

He checked for a mixnet connection. There was only the local mixnet formed between his chip and Sinive’s, labeled RCONSYS-4542. No Grizznet.

“Can you reach Nebb?” Tane asked.

“No,” Sinive replied.

“You still think he’ll come back for us?” he said.

“Don’t know,” she told him. She seemed weary, her formerly lively and sarcastic self too tired to make an appearance.

He didn’t feel much better himself, really.

Tane checked his oxygen levels. Another six hours to go. Well, the air was breathable on this moon. In theory. The only worry was infection from microcrillia…

Speaking of which, he glanced at Sinive. He focused on her shoulder where the kraal had bitten into her.

“Geez.” This was the first time he had actually looked at her injury in detail, rather than in passing. A chunk of the suit was torn away, as was the flesh underneath, revealing red muscle tissue shot through with black in places.

She glanced at him, and followed his gaze. “I’ll live.”

“It looks pretty bad,” Tane said. “Hurts?”

She shrugged. “I numbed the area with my chip.”

“I didn’t know you could do that,” Tane said.

“It’s a skill,” Sinive said. “Pain Control.”

“I’ll have to buy that sometime. What about microcrillia?”

“What about them?” Sinive said.

“You’re not worried about infection?”

“Too late for that now,” Sinive said. “I’ll see a doctor sometime. I’m just glad this moon has a proper atmosphere. Otherwise…”

Tane shivered at the unsaid thought.

“In the meantime,” Sinive said. “Would you mind?”

She reached into the cargo pocket on her thigh assembly and produced a metal container with a big red cross on it, followed by a slightly larger container with a blue circle on the side: a medkit and suit repair kit.

She doffed her helmet, setting it down on the floor beside her. Tane helped her remove the arm and chest assemblies of her suit next so he could work. The shoulder area of her white dress had been completely torn away, and the surrounding fabric was stained red.

Sinive stretched the top of the dress down over her shoulder to give unfettered access to the wound, and Tane took the medkit and applied disinfectant. It was tricky working with the bulky gloves of his suit, but he soon got the hang of it. Despite her claim about numbing the area with the Pain Control skill, she still flinched as he worked.

“The bleeding isn’t too bad,” Tane said. “I don’t think a major artery was hit.”

“I don’t think so either, otherwise I’d be dead now,” Sinive said, some of her sarcasm coming back.

With the disinfectant he was able to wipe away most of the black tendrils that had started to take root. He wasn’t sure if that was microcrillia, or what, but he decided he wasn’t going to bring it up. No need to scare her.

When he was satisfied that the wound was clean, he placed a bandage over it. Sinive shifted her dress so that it sat properly on her shoulder, with the bandage showing through the rip in the fabric, and then he helped her put back on the chest and arm assemblies of the suit. He used the suit repair kit to seal the breach in the fabric, and when he was done he had her don her helmet.

“Looks good,” Sinive said. “Internal suit pressure is stable.”

Tane nodded, then he closed the two kits and handed them back to Sinive, who promptly slid them away into her thigh cargo pocket.

“By the way, did I ever tell you, I like what you’ve done with your suit?” Sinive said.

Confused, Tane glanced at his arms and torso. The formerly white fabric was stained black by kraal blood.

He burst out laughing. “Why thank you. I’m George Orblast, alien killer extraordinaire.”

“You certainly are,” Sinive said. “And a very debonair alien killer at that.”

“We should change my class to say that on my profile,” Tane said.

“Go ahead,” Sinive said.

Tane became serious. “Thanks for saving me back there.”

She smiled wanly. “Sure. Though a few hours from now, when we start to starve, you might be wishing I’d let it kill you. Trapped in an alien universe, on an alien planet, surrounded by creatures that want to kill us. Starving. Fun times.”

“Are you always so pessimistic?” Tane asked.

“Only when the situation warrants it,” Sinive replied.

Tane sat back and rested his helmet against the wall. “How did you know what that was?”

Sinive furrowed her brow behind her faceplate. “What what was?”

“Graaz’dhen,” Tane said. “You called it Graaz’dhen.”

“Oh,” Sinive said. “I purchased a military upgrade to my chip a long time ago. It has all the known aliens documented. Graaz’dhen are dwellers enhanced with Dark Essence. Essentially commanding officers. Take down a Graaz’dhen, all the subordinate dwellers go down with it.”

“Lyra told me something similar,” Tane said. “Guess I should pick up a military upgrade to my chip sometime.”

“Feel free,” Sinive said. “By the way, I just wanted to tell you: for an Outrimmer you’re not so bad.”

Tane laughed. "Thanks."

She smiled weakly. "No, I mean it." The exhaustion seemed to be taking over again.

“You going to be all right?” he said.

“Yeah. I’m just...” She shook her head behind the faceplate. “Kind of overwhelmed by our situation.”

“I hear you,” Tane said. “It’s getting to me, too.”

She glanced at her shoulder. “I almost died back there. On the rooftop, when those aliens cut us off from the Red Grizzly. We both did. And we’re not out of the woods yet. Not by a long shot.”

She gazed out the floor-to-ceiling window at the dark blue city beyond.

“Sometimes I wonder about the course of my life,” Sinive said. “Sometimes I feel like I’m wasting it. I had so much potential when I joined the TSN. If I had stayed in the star navy, I might have been in command of my own ship by now. A small sweeper, sure, but still a ship. Or at the very least, in charge of a troop of junior jump specialists. Sometimes I think I should have never left. But then again me and strict discipline, we never really got along.” She sighed. “If only I knew where I’d end up after leaving. Look at me now. A smuggler, of all things.”

“You’re not a smuggler yet,” Tane said. “Just working for one.”

“Yeah, but he’s training me to follow in his footsteps,” Sinive told him. “And did you say working? Does it count as work when you’re doing it for free?”

“You’re not doing it for free anymore though, right?” Tane said.

“Yeah, not anymore.” She smiled. “Thanks to you. If I ever get out of this.” She leaned back, closed her eyes momentarily. “I guess I never thought Nebb would cheat me like that. After everything we went through. I used to look at him like a father, you know? Maybe I still do.”

Tane wasn’t sure what to say to that, so he simply nodded. He liked listening to her voice, either way. It was calming, somehow. Relaxing. Not that he was really all that tense in the first place, though he knew he should have been, given their situation.

“When I was a kid,” Sinive said. “I dreamed of being a swashbuckling Volur. When I tested positive for Siphoning, I was so happy, just the happiest person in the galaxy. But you can imagine my disappointment when I found out I wasn’t powerful enough to be considered a Volur.” She sighed over the comm.

“But I thought with Chrysalium, anyone can Siphon as much as a Volur?” Tane said. “You can draw enough to make a starship jump, after all. It doesn’t make sense that they wouldn’t let you into their ranks.”

“Chrysalium is certainly the great equalizer,” Sinive said. “And the Volur do allow its use on your person, as part of their qualification testing. But the Volur have a rule. If you have to wear more than ten ring-sized pieces of jewelry to Siphon as much as the weakest Volur without Chrysalium, then you can’t be considered for their ranks.”

“That has to rule out a lot of people with the ability to Siphon,” Tane said.

“It’s definitely a large portion,” Sinive said. “Last I heard, ninety percent of those who could Siphon didn’t qualify.”

“That has to hurt their recruiting efforts,” Tane said.

“The Volur don’t seem to mind,” Sinive said. “They seem happy to maintain the status quo. And the TSN doesn’t seem overly concerned, either. In fact, they prefer the current reject ratio. It allows them to fill out their ranks of jump and gunnery specialists, minor Essence warriors, and battle mancers. I have a feeling the TSN had a big say in the Volur qualification rules, in fact.”

“I don’t even know what a battle mancer is,” Tane said. “And my chip certainly isn’t filling me in.”

“It’s a step up from Essence warrior,” Sinive said. “Mancers are a division of infantry. While Essence warriors fight on the frontline, mancers stay back during combat. They have different specialties. Some act as healers. Some as jumpers—opening and closing distortion tunnels on the field of battle. Others apply different buffs and shielding to the troops around them. Still others offer ranged attacks. Mancer is the closest to Volur one can get in the TSN. And only the most powerful are selected for those positions. Essence warriors are a step below in terms of power. Jump and gunnery specialists are at the bottom of the list, the weakest of the bunch, consigned to starships.”

“Sorry to hear that,” Tane said.

“Don’t be,” Sinive said. “As a jump specialist, I get to Siphon the most Essence of them all, more even than most Volur ever handle, thanks to the Chrysalium content found in most ships. Of course, there’s also a higher chance of permanently burning the Ability out of me. The risk is a small price to pay, because I tell you, the feeling of power you get when Siphoning Essence through the hull of a starship… it’s unmatchable. Inside a ship, when I’m in the jump chamber, I feel invulnerable. I feel… so free.” She sighed, staring off into space. “This power inside of me, it’s what allowed me to get off my planet in the first place. Exploring space, seeing the galaxy, it’s always been a dream of mine.”

“Mine, too,” Tane said. “I just never got to do it until now. And when I get to Talendir, I probably never will again.”

She grabbed his glove and squeezed. “You’ll get to do it. People like us, we make our own destiny. We don’t do what other people want us to do. Sure, we have temporary setbacks, and moments when we actually have to work for a living to keep our dreams alive. But in the end we pull through. Because we’re willing to do whatever it takes to achieve our dreams.”

“I wouldn’t be so sure about that,” Tane said. “I would have probably stayed on my homeworld if the aliens hadn’t attacked. I’d have married my childhood crush and remained on Galtede Serpentis for the rest of my life.”

“But would you have been happy?” Sinive asked.

“I don’t know,” Tane said. “In some ways.”

“And what about your dream?” Sinive asked.

“Seeing the stars?” Tane said. “I would’ve booked a space cruise at some point, maybe interstellar. And that would have been the extent of it. You want to know why?”

“Why?” Sinive said.

“Because I couldn’t Siphon,” Tane said. “Getting into space permanently was predicated on that Ability. I had no means to support that lifestyle on my own. I entertained dreams of being a touring concert pianist at one point, but that didn’t pan out. So Siphoning was my only route.”

“Maybe I was wrong about you,” Sinive said quietly. “You struck me as someone who made his own destiny. Not that there’s anything wrong with sitting back and being a passive observer in life… many people do so, especially you Outrimmer types. But myself, I’ve always fought hard against the hand fate dealt me. And I do whatever it takes to achieve my dream, always keeping my eventual goal in sight.”

“And what goal is that?” Tane asked.

“To own my own ship, of course,” Sinive replied. “And answer to no one but myself.”

“It’s a good goal,” Tane said.

“And what about you?” Sinive asked.

“My only goal now is to survive,” Tane told her.

“A bit shortsighted, isn’t it?” Sinive pressed.

“I don’t really have anything to look forward to if I get out of this alive,” Tane said. “Seriously. When I get to Talendir, the Volur will probably hide me away somewhere the TSN and dwellers can never find me. I’ll never see space again.”

She tapped the bottom of her helmet, as if wanting to touch her chin. “Maybe we can convince Nebb to take you on. The hours are bad, and the pay even worse, as you know. But you get to stay in space. I’m sure we can figure out a way to smuggle you away from Talendir. Or maybe make some sort of switch before the two Volur deliver you.”

“Even if you could, I wouldn’t do that to you and Nebb,” Tane said. “You’d be hunted for the rest of your days, your profiles added to a permanent TSN and Volur watch list. Your smuggling days would be over.”

“We could all take on new identities…” Sinive said. “But you’re right, it would be a lot of work. One slip up and we’d be done for. Plus we’d probably have to trade in the Red Grizzly for a different ship.” She sighed. “Nebb wouldn’t buy it.”

“There you go,” Tane said. “You shouldn’t expect too much from him. He is a smuggler, after all.”

“And I’m his smuggler-in-training,” Sinive said. “Someone who saved your life.”

“You did,” Tane agreed.

“Nebb has never betrayed a client before,” Sinive said. “Which is another reason why he wouldn’t go for any plans to smuggle you away from the Volur, at least not until we deliver you to Talendir.”

“Well, that’s not going to happen now,” Tane said.

“He’ll find us,” Sinive said. “I know he will. Nebb’s always been good to me. Well, other than that soon to be rectified issue with the pay. As I told you, he’s like the father I never had.”

“You never met your real father?” Tane asked.

“No,” Sinive said. She glanced at him, and smiled sadly behind her faceplate. “Get this: I was conceived at a sperm bank. My mother, at the sprightly young age of sixteen, had the wonderful idea of having a baby. And you don’t know my mother: once she sets her eyes on something, there’s no way anyone can change her mind. She wanted to have the child of a Volur, hoping that such an offspring would pull her and her child out of the clutches of basic pay, so she rolled up to Reproductive Technologies Incorporated and asked where she could sign up. They matched her with a Volur donor, and twenty-five years later here I am. I didn’t quite achieve everything that my mother wanted, and in fact caused her more than my fair share of heartbreak, but in the end she was happy for me. I promised her that once I bought a ship, I’d take her to explore the galaxy. I only wish I could have achieved that in time, before I lost her forever…”

“I’m sorry to hear that,” Tane said.

She chuckled wanly. “Don’t be. We’ve all got our troubles in this universe. I’ve shared mine. I don’t know why. You seem like a good listener, I guess. But I definitely don’t want to hear about your troubles.”

“I’m afraid I’ve already told them all to you,” Tane said.

“I suppose you did, at that.”

Tane continued observing the main entrance for the next half hour, but didn’t spot any movement out there. He took a moment during the break to allocate the attribute point he had gained from his last level up. In the end he decided once again on Dexterity, since it seemed the most obvious choice given his current predicament, and the weapons available to him. His Dexterity was now 10. He slid one hand back and forth in front of his face as fast as he could, and he thought he detected a slight increase in speed.

In between watching the entrance below, sometimes he idly studied the dark threads emerging from his arms. He observed that the filaments were at a much more level angle than when he was aboard the Red Grizzly in orbit, or even when standing upon the shipyard at the top of the skyscraper. It was almost as if the dark fibers were trailing away toward some location in the city. Toward the dwellers?

He reviewed some of the eyesight footage captured by his chip, and paused the playback at the time he ran away from the dwellers. The threads remained relatively horizontal, like now, but floated away from the aliens at an angle. Even when the Graaz’dhen had taken him, the threads continued to point away, though at that point the strands were angled slightly upward, as if reaching for something on the surface of the city. Certainly not the alien mothership: the filaments didn’t have a steep enough angle for that.

Interesting.

He pointed out the odd behavior to Sinive, and told her what he had observed on his eyesight recordings.

“So what are you saying?” Sinive told. “Those threads of yours are trying to lead us somewhere? To whoever holds your puppet strings?”

“I don’t know,” Tane said. “But it’s worth investigating at some point.”

“I’m not so sure that’s the best idea,” Sinive said. “We should wait here until Nebb finds us.”

“Maybe so.” Tane returned his attention to the floor-to-ceiling window and gazed at the street below. “But you know what? I keep expecting to spot a drone scout from the Red Grizzly. I stare out this window and I wait, and the minutes tick by, and the scouts never come. At some point we have to admit to ourselves that Nebb and the others aren’t going to come. That the dwellers are going to stay here until they find me. The Red Grizzly, if it hasn’t been destroyed, will be forced to stay well away.”

“What are you trying to tell me?” Sinive asked. “That we’re doomed? And you call me the pessimist...”

“No, only that we have to keep moving,” he replied. “But first of all, the best thing we can do right now is find an armament shop. One that keeps actual inventory on hand. Or at least has samples for customers to try before they get their purchases created on 3D printers.”

“I wonder if 3D printers work in this universe?” Sinive said.

“With our luck, no,” Tane said.

“Okay, so, weapons,” Sinive said. “How about a shooting range?”

“Perfect.” Tane pulled up his overhead map. Once again he hoped it had the latest updates.

Tane did a search on shooting ranges and the map indicated a nearby candidate. So far so good.

“Okay,” Tane said. “Looks like we have a hit in a small retail mall three blocks away.”

“I see it,” Sinive said. “The buildings in this part of town aren’t connected to the pedway system. We’re going to have to take a street level route.”

“Hugging the building exteriors, of course,” Tane said.

“Of course,” Sinive agreed.

“After we get some weapons, I want to follow these dark threads,” Tane said.

“I’d rather start making my way back to the shipyard,” Sinive said. “Even if the dweller ship is still overhead. It would be good to know, one way or another, if we have any hope of rescue.”

“If the Red Grizzly is destroyed, you mean?”

“Basically,” Sinive said. “And if that’s the case, we’ll cry a few minutes for the loss of our friends, and then settle in for the long haul. We’ll have to find oxygen canisters, and food, in addition to weapons. All of that is more important than following those dark filaments of yours, in my opinion. Especially considering the damn things will probably lead us into a dweller trap.”

She was probably right. It was doubtful he would find anything that could help them, and the strands probably did indeed lead to some sort of trap. But then again he would be remiss not to check. His curiosity wouldn’t let him back down. But he decided not to fight her on the issue for the time being.

Tane clambered to his feet.

Sinive remained seated. Staring out the window. “I don’t want to go out there again.”

“I know,” Tane said.

“Do you?” she looked at him, then lowered her gaze. “Before we go, promise me something.”

Tane kept his mouth shut, not wanting to promise anything until he heard just what he was agreeing to.

“Promise me you won’t leave me here, no matter what happens,” Sinive said. “Promise me if I die, you’ll take me back. Don’t leave my body here for these creatures to devour. I’ll do the same for you.”

Tane rested a gloved hand on her shoulder assembly. “Look, I’m afraid, too.” He paused at the lie. “I think.”

“What do you mean, you think?” Sinive asked.

“I don’t know,” Tane said. “I mean, I know I should be. But for some reason, fear feels muted here in the Umbra. I should be terrified, but I’m not. It’s more like… a slight anxiety. I think it’s because, well... all of this, it’s just… overwhelming. Almost unreal. A few weeks ago I was just a farm boy minding my own business, tending to hydroponically grown crops, maintaining a few farming robots. Now I’m running for my life in an alternate universe, hunted on all sides by aliens.”

“And you’re not afraid…” Sinive said. “Liar.”

“Listen, heading back out there isn’t going to be easy for me either, believe me,” Tane said. “But we can’t stay here, and you know it. At the very least we need weapons. And like you said, we have to find out what happened to the Red Grizzly.”

“You’re right of course,” Sinive said. “You have a way of comforting people. Did you pay for some empathy skill or something?”

“No,” Tane said. “I got it for free.”

She smiled behind her faceplate. “I was being sarcastic.”

“So was I,” Tane retorted.

She paused. “You’re really not afraid?”

“Right now?” Tane said. “Strangely, no. I’m not sure why. I guess it’s the dreamlike nature of this place. It doesn’t quite seem real to me. A part of me keeps expecting I’ll wake up back in my room on the farm.”

“Hmm,” Sinive said. “Wish I was able to look at it like that.” She sighed. “Okay then. Let’s do this, Outrimmer.”

She had forgotten about her request already. Tane was a little ashamed to admit it, but he was glad. It was a promise he wasn’t sure he could make. If they were surrounded by dwellers and the aliens ripped her apart while he escaped, there wasn’t a whole lot he could do for her. Besides, why did it matter if he brought her back to their own universe, if she was dead anyway? The fact was, it didn’t.

Anyway, he had no intention of allowing her to die in the first place.

When Sinive stood up beside him, she swayed as if she was going to fall and Tane caught her.

“I’m fine,” she said.

“You sure?” he asked.

She nodded.

Tane tentatively let her go. She seemed wobbly for a moment longer, and leaned on the wall with one hand, but the vertigo seemed to pass and she stood straighter.

“You’re good?” he said.

She released the wall and gave him an obviously forced smile. “I’m good.”

His eyes darted to her shoulder and the repair patch that covered her suit there. Was she infected with microcrillia?

And if so, what did that mean?

19

The pair carefully made their way down to the first floor and out onto the street. They kept close to the insubstantial-seeming glass walls of the buildings, and paused at the intersections to ensure the way was clear before dashing across.

Tane kept an eye on those dark threads that emerged from his body. The strands seemed to point in the same general direction, passing into the buildings on his right, or down the street at the intersections. Yes, he was definitely going to follow those filaments at some point. After he armed himself appropriately.

There were vehicles parked on the side of the road here, both land- and air-based, but Tane didn’t feel the need to use any of them. Not yet. He didn’t want to draw attention to himself and Sinive, not with that dweller ship lurking somewhere out of sight overhead.

They reached the retail center and proceeded inside past the tiny storefronts. There were several boutique clothing and shoe stores, all with no inventory, ready to print customer requests on demand. In between those storefronts were microbreweries, cafes and restaurants. It was odd seeing plates of food sitting beside full glasses on the tables, with no customers actually present to eat them, as captured during the latest universe “reset.”

“Well if we get hungry, we know where to go,” Sinive commented.

They took a gravalator to the third floor walkway and made their way to the shooting range. It looked like the place also sold weapons—past those glass counters and display cases awaited all the firepower Tane could dream of. He and Sinive immediately split up to survey the vast selection available to them.

“You know, when I was younger, I used to call places like these cum shops,” Sinive said.

“What?” Tane looked up. “Why?”

“Coming here to look at the weapons was almost as good as sex...” Sinive said.

Tane knew exactly what she was talking about, even if most of his experiences regarding sex were of the virtual kind. He stopped beside the first weapon he saw, a beautifully shaped plasma rifle, and immediately reached into his storage pouch to dump the banana crates and spare spacesuits onto the floor. He’d definitely be using the inventory for weapons instead.

He considered dumping his clothes suitcase as well, since he could always buy new gear with any profits from the weapons, but decided against it. Some of his favorite outfits were in there. Besides, he figured he could stuff an extra rifle into the suitcase if he needed to.

Tane kicked at the glass, trying unsuccessfully to break it with his boot. He leaped over the counter and found the latch. Locked.

Across from him, Sinive was having no problem getting access. She’d stop beside a counter, shoot the lock with her pistol, then slide the glass case open without issue. She had already cleared out two weapons, shoving them into her own personal storage device.

Tane went out to the shooting range and found a pistol sitting on its own in one of the stalls. “Bingo.”

He scooped up the weapon and hurried back to the showroom.

He aimed the pistol at the lock of the display case and blew it away. He performed a quick ID on the rifle and then slid it into his personal storage device. He continued in that manner, moving across the room, stowing the best weapons into his pouch.

When he came upon a weapon that was better than anything before it, he’d cycle through the items in his storage device and choose one to discard.

Between the two of them Tane and Sinive looted the entire place, and when they were done, most of the display cases lay empty, their discarded weapon choices lying scattered in piles on the floor.

Tane went through Sinive’s castoffs and chose one that he liked, dumping another weapon to hold it. In total he carried eleven weapons. Two hung from his shoulders as his primary weapon choices. The remaining nine were stored in the pouch.

That had to be worth some upgrades when he got back to his own universe.

If he got back.

He examined the IDs of his main weapon picks again:

Weapon: T2 Laser Rifle.

Model: Tiger II-5 Multi-Pulse Rev b.

Item type: Uncommon.

Additional damage: 25% added laser burn damage per hit.

Additional effects: None.

Adjustable grip for spacesuit and battle armor gloves.

Laser Rifle specific:

Firing rate: Semi-automatic. 6 pulses released per shot, every time.

Recharge rate: 15 seconds.

Overall weapon charge: 100%.

Extra features: Weapon lights, illuminated scope, laser sight (all upgradeable). Pica rail for mounting purposes.

Weapon: D18 Plasma Rifle.

Model: Dagger G-18 Rev c.

Item type: Rare (Military Grade).

Additional damage: 50% added plasma burn damage per hit.

Additional effects: Smart targeting. Select targets, squeeze trigger, and muzzle rotates to disperse plasma bolts in desired pattern.

Adjustable grip for spacesuit and battle armor gloves.

Plasma Rifle specific:

Firing rate: Semi-automatic. 5-30 round bursts.

Recharge rate: 20 seconds per round.

Overall weapon charge: 100%.

Extra features: Weapon lights, illuminated scope, laser sight (all upgradeable). Pica rail for mounting purposes.

The D18 plasma rifle was his weapon of choice. When he picked it up, the grip and trigger area expanded to suit his bulky gloves. He planned to utilize that rifle for most encounters going forward, with the T2 laser ready as a backup. The rest of the weapons in his stash were of similar quality, but he’d be selling them.

With the showroom clear, he and Sinive proceeded to search the rest of the place, including the range itself. It was kind of fun to be able to go wherever he wanted and loot with impunity, without fear of arrest or pissing anybody off, and without hurting anyone in the long run, since his own universe would be unaffected by any pilfering here.

In a back office he found a desk, and a quick search revealed a cache of grenades in the bottom drawer. That was definitely the private property of the owners, as no gun ranges allowed grenade throwing that Tane knew of. Though why the owners would store their grenades at their office, Tane had no idea: maybe to secretly sell as part of some weapons black market. If law enforcement ever developed the ability to access the Umbra at will, they’d have a field day casing suspects. Say goodbye to search warrants.

He returned to the showroom and grabbed a harness big enough to fit over his spacesuit, and then he returned to the back office and stowed the grenades into different pockets on the harness. The weapons were a bit small for his gloves, but manageable enough.

He repeated his ID scan on the items. There were two types, energy and incendiary.

Weapon: G22 Incendiary Grenade.

Model: Grazer B-22 Rev c.

Item type: Rare (Military Grade).

Additional damage: 50% added fire damage per hit. Each hit also imbues 30% fire damage per second until the gelling agent is removed.

Additional effects: The explosion spews jellied gasoline in all directions, igniting struck targets in an incendiary effect. Contains no oxidizing agents, therefore the weapon is useless when operating in atmospheres lacking oxygen, halogens, or similar oxidizers.

Grenade specific:

Lethal radius: 5 meters.

Effective wounding radius: 15 meters.

Can be thrown 40 meters by the average unenhanced soldier.

Reusable: No.

Weapon: P3 Smart Targeting Energy Grenade.

Model: Phaze C-3 Rev a.

Item type: Rare (Military Grade).

Additional damage: 50% added energy damage per hit.

Additional effects: Smart targeting. Select target, release grenade, and onboard thrusters will guide it to the target site. Upon impact, grenade releases four megajoules of pure explosive energy, releasing fragments in a three hundred and sixty degree dispersion pattern. Unarmored targets in the lethal radius are killed instantly.

Grenade specific:

Lethal radius: 7 meters.

Effective wounding radius: 25 meters.

Can be thrown 80 meters by the average unenhanced soldier, due to onboard propulsion.

Reusable: No.

Those latter grenades were essentially the same as short-range seeker missiles, as far as Tane was concerned.

When he met back with Sinive at the front of the place, he saw that she had elected to replace her existing pistol with two more that were basically twins of one another. Currently holstered, when he scanned the pistols, he learned that the weapons were military-grade like much of his own, and self-aiming. He had wondered how someone could fire two pistols at the same time with any sort of accuracy. Now he knew.

“All right, that was a good run,” Tane said.

“Sure was,” Sinive agreed.

“And now I’m going to follow these threads.” Tane beckoned toward one arm and the filaments that led away to the east. “You can come with me if you want. Or you can go back to the shipyard. Up to you.”

Sinive sighed. “Of course I’m going with you. It’s not a very good idea to separate right now.”

He was relieved, mostly because he was bluffing. If she refused to back down and bid him farewell to head for the shipyard, he would have abandoned his search for the thread source and gone with her right then and there.

But now he was free to search for the dark source.

He wasn’t sure he actually wanted to.

Well, can’t change my mind now.

“This way, then,” Tane said, heading east.

“The exit is the other way,” Sinive said.

“Yeah, but my filaments point this way,” Tane said. “I’m sure there’s another exit on this side of the retail center.”

“Fine.” Sinive rolled her eyes behind her faceplate but didn’t complain further.

On the way out they passed a store that offered personal protection devices. Interesting how it was placed strategically close to the gun range. Inside, there were a couple of personal shield systems in the display cases. Tane selected one for himself and shot open the lock; Sinive did likewise.

He attached it to the center of his spacesuit’s utility belt, linked his chip to the device and activated it. A globe of blue light immediately shone from the shield system, telling him that it was working.

He reread the ID:

Shield: A2 Personal Shield System

Model: Aegis C-2 Rev a.

Item type: Uncommon.

Weight: 1 kg.

Damage absorption: 10

Shield effects: Protects against laser, plasma, energy, and melee weapons. Useless against Essence attacks. Can be worn over external gear such as spacesuits or powered armor.

Shield specific:

Effective radius: Fifty centimeters on all sides of the body. External surfaces present during activation will interfere with the projection. For example when the owner leans back against a wall and activates the shield system, the back of the body will have zero protection. The same holds true for the soles of the feet during general operation when one is standing on the ground.

Current Charge: 100%

Recharge rate from zero: 180 seconds.

Battery level: *Warning* Extremely low. *Warning*

Tane glanced at Sinive. “I wonder how well these things will hold up against those dweller energy launchers.”

“Only one way to find out,” Sinive said, clipping on the personal shield she had chosen. “Though to be honest, I don’t plan on intentionally testing that out.”

“Neither do I,” Tane said. He didn’t really like the low battery warning, and was about to shut off the shield to conserve power when the blue globe of light flickered and cut out on its own. “Hmm, that can’t be good.”

He tried to reactivate it, but the shield wouldn’t respond.

“Battery’s dead,” Tane said.

Sinive glanced at him. “Me too.”

The two of them ran a quick ID on the other four shield generators on display, but all the devices had dead batteries.

“Might as well hang on to them in case we find a charging station,” Sinive said.

“Or to sell.” Tane checked his overhead map. “I don’t see any charging stations marked on the map. But what we should really do is find a nanotech store. There has to be a Microchipping Solutions branch around here somewhere.”

“Won’t matter,” Sinive said. “I tried that with Nebb last time we were in the Umbra. We weren’t able to program the nanotech, so we couldn’t inject it. And by the time we got back to our universe, the micro machines were inert. Waste of time.”

“Oh,” Tane said. “Yet another weird difference between our universes.”

“Yes,” Sinive said. “It has something to do with their size, I think. See how the edges of everything around us seem blurry, insubstantial? For nanotech, it’s not just the edges of the individual micro machines, but their entire bodies that are blurred. They’re just too small to properly exist here, even if they don’t form a neural net of any kind.”

Tane led the way down the eastern walkway, and took a gravalator to the first floor. As Tane stepped out into the concourse, he spotted a food court...

And immediately dove behind the side of the gravalator. Sinive joined him.

“What is it?” she asked.

“Kraals,” Tane said. He nodded toward the food court. The four-legged creatures were sprawled around the tables and chairs. They seemed to be asleep. Floating above a table in the center was a dark, pulsating crystal, about the size of a human head.

“What the hell is that?” Tane asked.

“It’s their food source,” Sinive said. “Last time Nebb and I were in this universe, trying to do some looting, we saw a different species of kraal crowding around a crystal just like this. They’d shoved their faces into it, and when their heads reemerged they’d walk off drunkenly to one side and promptly fall asleep.”

“Ironic that it would exist in a food court,” Tane said. He stared at the crystal and found himself irresistibly drawn to the thing. He couldn’t shake the sudden overwhelming avarice he felt. “I bet that thing is worth more than anything I have in my inventory. We’ll be rich when we get back.”

“If we get back,” Sinive said. “Forget it, Outrimmer. We don’t need it. Do you really want to risk stirring up the kraals to satisfy your greed?”

“Look at them, they’re fast asleep,” Tane said. “We might as well pick it up while we’re here.” He moved quietly out from cover and approached the sleeping kraals.

“This is a bad idea,” Sinive said. She remained rooted to the spot behind the gravalator, but she had drawn her two pistols and was covering him.

Tane moved between the different kraals. The dark threads were pulling him away from the food court, to the east, where there was indeed another exit. But he couldn’t shake the allure he felt when he gazed on that crystal.

The kraals were spaced relatively far apart from one another at the outskirts of the food court, but as he got nearer to the floating crystal, the creatures were very close together, and he had to be careful where he put his boots.

When he was about five meters away he was forced to climb onto a table because several of the kraals were piled on top of each other, blocking the way on both sides. He could try to go around them, but there was no guarantee he’d find an easier path than simply scaling the table.

On the other side of the table there was hardly any empty floor space at all, and he had to be very careful where he placed each foot, otherwise he’d wake a sleeping kraal.

Maybe this is a bad idea. We could leave now, get away scot-free.

He almost turned back, but then he glanced at the dark crystal and felt that overwhelming pull again.

I have to have it. And I’ve come this far...

He tiptoed between the remaining closely-packed beasts and paused beside the final table. He gazed up into the floating crystal, not sure what he would see up close, but there was only that same pulsating blackness.

“Any ideas how to pick it up?” he said quietly over the comm.

“Nope,” Sinive said. “You should have thought about that before you tiptoed out into the middle of them.”

While the object looked solid, Sinive had said the kraals were able to shove their faces inside. What if his hand passed right through it?

He hesitated a moment longer, and then leaned against the edge of the table—being careful to avoid the kraal that was lying right on top of it—and then reached underneath the crystal. Palm up, he touched the underside.

His glove didn’t pass through. The object seemed solid enough. He could feel it pulsing slightly in his grasp, like a beating heart.

He tightened his grip and was able to move the dark crystal away from the table and toward his body. For some reason he had an aversion to placing the item in his pouch—maybe because he was still a little worried the storage device would simply eat the object up. So instead he slid the crystal inside one of the hanging loops on his harness and tightened it, and then he turned away from the table.

The object continued to pulsate against his suit, shifting in color from black to darker black with each beat, sending out subtle vibrations every time.

He made his way back across the crowded floor, and when he reached the outer perimeter where the kraals were more spaced out, he exhaled in relief and quickly closed the gap to Sinive.

“There, see?” Tane said. “That wasn’t so bad.”

“Can we go now?” she asked.

“I don’t want anything more,” Tane said.

A howl behind him sent him leaping straight into the air. He spun to find a kraal standing up on a table and pointing directly at him. The other kraal leaped upright, almost as one.

“Time to go!” Tane said, retreating.

He swung down his D18, pointed it behind him with one arm, and selected the auto “smart targeting” feature. Then he squeezed the trigger. He could feel the vibrations as the muzzle shifted to target different pursuers. He glanced over his shoulder and saw that he had mowed down six of them.

Beside him, Sinive twisted her torso and also fired as she ran, using her smart targeting to an equally deadly effect.

“Hope you’re happy now!” Sinive said.

Tane burst through the exit and wrenched an energy grenade from his harness. The smart targeting indicator appeared on his HUD; he swiveled his torso as he ran and selected the lead kraal that was still inside the building behind him. Before the swinging doors shut, he casually chucked the energy grenade toward them, and the thrusters in the weapon immediately activated, steering through the gap in the doors and toward the incoming kraals beyond.

The grenade detonated a moment later. The doors exploded: embedded within the glass and metal pieces that flew outward were black kraal body parts.

“This way!” Tane said, following the direction of the ethereal threads emerging from his spacesuit.

“Are you sure you want to follow those dark filaments now of all times?” Sinive said. “If it’s a trap...”

“Then it’s a trap.” Tane proceeded eastward.

As the pair sprinted down the street, the kraals began to close behind them.

“Give up the crystal!” Sinive said. “Get them off our tail!”

He wrapped his gloved fingers around it. He wanted to cut it loose, he really did, but he couldn’t bring himself.

Instead he wrapped his fingers around an incendiary grenade and tossed it behind him. It detonated with a satisfying kaboom, and when he glanced over his shoulders he saw a large fiery splat around the blast crater, with several nearby kraals running around in circles, their bodies on fire. When other creatures accidentally plowed into them, the flames spread to their bodies as well thanks to the jellied gasoline.

He realized he’d released the grenade a little too close, because Sinive had a small patch of flame on her upper back as well.

“Ah crap,” Tane said. He rubbed at it, but all he did was transfer the flame to his glove.

“Nicely done,” Sinive said. “Just let it burn out. My suit AI tells me such a small amount won’t eat through the fabric.”

An alert popped up on Tane’s HUD.

Warning. Suit glove on fire.

He pulled up the diagnostic window, and like Sinive said, given the intensity and expected duration of the flames, suit integrity wouldn’t be compromised.

Tane ignored the fire on his glove and returned his attention to the road ahead. He continued to follow the dark strings, which were located directly in front of him now. Heading due east. He squinted, curious as to the final destination, but the dark filaments were too thin to discern beyond more than ten meters or so.

“They’re breaking away!” Sinive said.

Tane glanced over his shoulder. It was true: the kraals were abandoning the pursuit.

“Strange,” Tane said.

“Maybe they’re afraid of whatever is sourcing those threads of yours,” Sinive said. “We probably should be, too.”

Tane slowed down, and moved to the side of the street, staying close to the nearby buildings.

The strands became thicker, and more solid, the closer he came to whatever it was he was connected to. He could see the filaments for at least twenty meters ahead of him now.

The flames on his hand abruptly burned themselves out, as did the small amount on Sinive’s shoulder.

“Told you,” Sinive commented.

Tane and Sinive reached a town square shortly. Surrounded by closely placed blurry buildings, it was some kind of temporary market, judging from the tents and stalls distributed throughout.

“Well that’s interesting,” Sinive said.

She was gazing at a tall object that floated in the middle of the square. It looked like an oval-shaped lens made of infinite blackness, an iris torn into the fabric of reality. The material seemed to absorb light from the surrounding space, so that it was darker than anything Tane had ever seen. Darker even than the blackness inside of his personal storage device.

All of the threads emerging from Tane’s body terminated in that lens. The individual filaments entered the darkness at equally spaced intervals along the left and right sides, so that they almost appeared to be tentacles.

Tane slowly approached, wending his way through the stalls. He kept the rifle raised, scanning the area for signs of ambush. Sinive followed behind him, doing the same, both of her pistols drawn and ready to fire.

The pair arrived at the black iris, which floated a meter and a half above the ground, and extended another two meters higher from that point. The tendrils emerging from his body seemed almost solid now. And they were thick, about one centimeter each in diameter.

“What the hell is it?” Tane said.

“Dunno,” Sinive said. “I’ve never seen anything like this before.”

“Why do I have this crazy urge to touch it?” Tane said.

“I wouldn’t recommend it,” Sinive replied.

Against his better judgment, Tane reached an arm toward the iris. As his gloved hand approached, the fingers appeared to elongate very slightly, as if the lens was not only consuming all nearby light, but distorting the spacetime immediately surrounding it as well.

“Don’t,” Sinive said.

He froze, and glanced at her. She was only partially facing him, her pistols pointing out into the town square beyond.

“But I’m already touching it, in a sense,” Tane said. “If you count the dark filaments...”

“More like it’s touching you,” Sinive said. “You place your glove on that surface and your connection with the thing will be complete.”

“Maybe that isn’t such a bad thing,” Tane said. He felt completely at peace as he gazed into that darkness. “It won’t hurt me.”

“You don’t know that,” Sinive said. “Touch that, and all sorts of nefarious things could happen. Remember, the kraals ran away.”

Tane hesitated a moment longer, then he withdrew his hand. “You’re right. I don’t know what came over me. I don’t want to be anywhere near this thing.”

Despite his words, he stayed rooted to the spot.

“What if it’s a distortion tunnel?” Tane said. “Or this universe’s equivalent?”

“A distortion tunnel?” Sinive said. “I doubt it.”

“Wait, hear me out,” Tane said. “Look at the edges. They’re not like the blurry, indistinct edges of normal objects in this universe... notice how they seem to distort spacetime? That’s exactly what happens with the smaller distortion tunnels we use for planet-side travel. If you’ve ever stopped to look at the edges of the gates...”

Sinive turned to face the lens fully. She leaned closer. “Hmm. You’re actually right.” She gazed into his faceplate. “So what are you saying? You think this leads to another part of the planet?”

“It might,” Tane said.

“How do you explain the threads connecting you to the surface then?” Sinive asked.

“I’m not so sure I’m actually connected to the distortion tunnel itself,” Tane said. “But something lying on the other side.”

Sinive glanced at the dark iris once more. “If it’s a distortion tunnel, how come we can’t see the other side?”

“This isn’t our universe,” Tane said. “Distortion tunnels may not act the same. You performed a distortion jump when you were in this universe before right? With the Red Grizzly? Do you remember what you saw the moment before you jumped?”

“Actually, you can’t see that from the jump chamber,” Sinive said. “And it’s not like I can have Grizz check the logs right now...”

“Okay, we have two choices,” Tane said. “We can either turn back and pretend we never saw this thing. Or I can try to reach inside and confirm whether it’s a distortion tunnel.”

“There you go again, trying to convince yourself to touch it,” Sinive said. “Are you sure it’s you who’s insisting on this, and the iris isn’t exerting some undue influence on your thought processes? You are connected to it, after all...”

Tane forced himself to look away from the black shape.

“I’m not sure of anything,” Tane said. “All I know is I’m willing to try. If it doesn’t work, and my hand doesn’t pass through, then no harm done.”

“And if it does?” Sinive said. “You’re actually going to pull yourself inside entirely? When you have no idea what awaits beyond?”

“Why not?” Tane said. “We’re dead if we stay here anyway. Hopefully I’ll be able to come back if the other side doesn’t look appealing.” He gazed into her blue eyes. “Look, I won’t do this if you don’t want me to.”

“Really?” Sinive said. “You didn’t seem to care back at the food court when I told you not to pick up the dark crystal.”

“But that was different,” Tane said. “That was all greed.” Or was it?

“What makes this so different?” Sinive said.

He nodded toward the lens. “This isn’t something I can just pick up. And as I told you, because of the distortion around the edges, it’s obviously a tear in spacetime.”

“All right, go ahead then,” Sinive said. “But make it quick. I don’t know if those kraals are going to stay away forever. And I’m still not convinced that this isn’t some elaborate trap on the part of the dwellers.”

Tane stared at the device a moment longer, then reached out. As his fingers neared the surface, the darkness seemed to call out to him. It was a different feeling than he had experienced with the crystal... more pronounced.

More personal.

Tane touched the base of the object.

Almost immediately the darkness began to bleed out over his finger, swallowing it in blackness. The darkness moved like a liquid, and began to flow up onto his glove, toward his arm.

Tane tried to pull away but was held fast. He shot Sinive a terrified glance. “I can’t move!”

“Take off the glove!” Sinive yelled.

Tane frantically fiddled with the removal latch, but he was too late—the darkness was already flowing up his arm. His other glove was now stuck fast to the wrist, with more of the dark liquid seeping up that hand as well.

He continued to resist the darkness but couldn’t break free. Sinive wrapped her arms around his untouched waist; she pulled Tane’s spacesuit backward, hard, but she couldn’t wrench him loose either.

She lost her grip and tumbled to the ground.

The darkness reached his chest assembly. Tane realized vaguely that he was finally feeling fear here in the Umbra. So much so that he could scarcely think for the pounding of his heart, and the gasp of each breath as it echoed back at him from the confined space of the helmet.

“Shoot it,” Tane said. “Shoot it!”

Sinive fired her pistols into the lens but the darkness absorbed the plasma shots, seeming to hum eagerly with each impact. Tane wasn’t sure, but he thought the lens even enlarged slightly thanks to the impacts.

Sinive grabbed his boot and tried wrenching him free again, but once more couldn’t budge him. She released him as the darkness seeped down his legs.

Tane saw them then: an audience of dwellers had gathered around the perimeter of the market. They watched from beyond the tents and stalls, and made no move to approach, or to fire.

The threads that connected Tane to the dark lens lifted him into the air, toward the blackness, pulling him in.

“I’m sorry,” Sinive was saying. “I’m so sorry. I shouldn’t have let you touch it.” Her voice sounded so distant.

There was nothing he could do but surrender to the darkness and let it take him.

Never thought I’d meet my untimely end like this, on a faraway world, in a universe that isn’t even my own.

The darkness flowed over his helmet, covering his faceplate so that all he saw was that infinite blackness. The liquid must have burrowed in through tiny crevices along the edges, because Tane’s face felt extremely hot all of a sudden. Searingly so.

The burning feeling flowed down his body, and into all his orifices—mouth, nose, eyes, ears—until his entire being was consumed by it.

20

Tane floated in the burning darkness. For how long, he didn’t know. A second. An eternity.

He saw it then. A tiny white speck, hovering in the darkness. It seemed so very far away. He reached for it, and then felt an overwhelming sense of nausea.

He was falling.

The blackness vanished and the town square snapped back into existence as he slammed into the ground. The nausea dissipated upon impact, as did the searing heat.

He pushed himself up. Sinive was kneeling in her spacesuit beside him. He noticed something different about his surroundings immediately: broad daylight shone down upon him, courtesy of the mirrors in high orbit. The perpetual blue twilight had lifted.

Around him were the same tents and stalls, and the same buildings encircling the square, though the objects were no longer blurry and indistinct but real and solid. The dwellers that had been observing from the perimeter of the market were gone. And perhaps most important of all, there were people here.

People.

Not only that, digital signage began to intrude on his vision in rapid profusion. Standing out among the many signs was a smiling baby wearing bright white bottoms.

“Never thought I’d be so happy to see an advertisement for diapers,” Tane said.

“Uh, what just happened?” Sinive said.

“No idea,” Tane told her. “But to be honest, I don’t really care.” He glanced at his arms: dark threads no longer emerged from his suit. Relief flooded his being. “We’ve left that dark place behind.”

He returned his gaze to the random market-goers and watched them walk to and fro between the different stalls. He had gotten so used to seeing exaggerated motion blurs accompanying everything, that normal movements seemed odd. It would take a while until his mind adapted to the ordinary, no doubt.

“I guess that wasn’t actually a distortion tunnel after all, but an inter-dimensional rift of some kind,” Tane said. “Maybe similar to the Anteres Rift.”

“But if that’s the case,” Sinive said. “Why is there no evidence of it in this universe? And why aren’t the dwellers following us through?”

“Not sure,” Tane said. “Though Lyra did say rifts were one-way, which might explain why there is no evidence of it in this universe.”

“But the Anteres Rift is visible in our universe,” Sinive said. “And that also doesn’t explain why the dwellers didn’t follow.”

“Like I said, I’m not sure,” Tane told her.

She seemed just as dazed as him and watched the passersby with wide eyes for a moment. Finally she turned toward Tane.

“You all right, by the way?” Sinive asked.

“Yeah.”

“You sure you didn’t do anything?” she pressed.

“Not really,” Tane said.

He noticed he had a connection to the Galnet once more. He checked his message box but hadn’t received anything from his parents yet. Mom and Dad themselves were listed as offline, which was expected, considering Tane was in a different system.

Lyra and Jed were also offline. He hoped they weren’t still in the Umbra searching for him. Assuming that they were even alive anymore. They had saved his life back there on the rooftop. If they hadn’t intervened, he would have never made it to the taxi.

As for Nebb, Tane had forgotten to save the smuggler’s ID, and it wasn’t in his contact list at all.

“Do you have Nebb or any of the Red Grizzly’s crew online?” Tane asked Sinive.

“Nope,” Sinive replied. “If they made it out of the Umbra, they’re in a different system. Which would make sense, considering the Anteres Rift is the only way out.”

Tane returned his attention to the square. Apparently this city had open carry laws, because none of the passersby paid too much attention to the weapons Tane and Sinive carried. In fact, Tane saw a few citizens carrying holstered pistols of their own or rifles slung over their shoulders.

My kind of town...

The pair did get a few odd looks for the spacesuits they wore, however. A few eyes dropped to Tane’s harness, slightly widening when they saw the dark crystal he wore there.

“We kind of stand out, dressed like this,” Sinive said. “You especially.”

“Because of the crystal?” Tane asked.

“No, I meant the blood,” Sinive answered.

He glanced at the black blood smeared over his torso. “A blood-stained suit is kind of an odd fashion accessory, isn’t it?”

“Yeah, except it doesn’t really look like blood,” Sinive said. “You look like a half-burned marshmallow.”

“We’ll have to get rid of these soon,” Tane said. “But in the meantime…”

He activated “sunglasses mode” on his faceplate, causing the external surface of the pane to become a mirror, hiding his features entirely. He knew it was active because of the sunglasses effect—the market didn’t seem so bright around him.

“That’s illegal here, you know,” Sinive said.

“Yeah, but at least it protects us from the facial recognition algorithms,” Tane said.

Sinive followed suit, her features becoming hidden behind the mirror that her faceplate became. “We’ll have to avoid any police robots we spot.”

“Could be quite a few, dependent on how stringent the police are about face-hiding in this neighborhood,” Tane told her.

“Not too stringent, actually,” Sinive said. “I’ve been here.”

“Well keep an eye out anyway,” Tane said. “By the way, how long is it supposed to take for microcrillia to die?”

“Right away as far as I know,” Sinive said. “Any microcrillia that hitched a ride on the surface of our suits would be dead by now.”

Tane nodded, though she wouldn’t have seen it. “Well I guess it’s time to sell all the gear we bought, including these suits. Preferably at a place that will allow me to unload this.” He patted the crystal attached to his harness. It continued to pulse, seeming blacker than ever compared to the bright world around them, each beat sending vibrations across his suit.

“I know the perfect place,” Sinive said. She paused, as if checking her HUD map. “This way.”

“By the way, probably should activate ID spoofing for yourself,” Tane said. “The TSN will be looking for you, too, now.”

“Good idea.” She paused. “It’s changed.”

“I thought it takes up to a business day to go through the TSN record system?”

“It does,” Sinive said. “Let’s just hope we don’t meet any TSN until then. In the meantime, it’ll provide all the spoofing I need against the city’s local database.”

Tane did a quick ID scan on her.

“Tina Treetops?” Tane asked.

“Hey, it was the name of my first pony,” Sinive said. “Leave me alone, okay? She seemed really tall to me, as big as the treetops.”

“You had a pony?” he said. “Someone was spoiled.”

“Virtual pony, Outrimmer,” Sinive said.

“Still spoiled,” Tane said.

“Hmph.”

Sinive led him from the market and down a seedy side street where synthetic flesh whisperers solicited customers from behind the windows of skin parlors. Tane did his best to ignore the smiles and “come hither” gestures, and he dismissed the digital signage of bare breasted women that kept popping up over his vision. For some reason the AI operating the signage came to the conclusion that Tane must like the same sex, because bare man chests began to appear next, with an arrow indicating a path he could take promising an “alley full of manly delights.” Tane dismissed these ones even more furiously.

“This part of town is a bit seedy,” Tane said.

“Just a little bit,” Sinive agreed. “But if you’re looking for nanotech, this is the place.”

“According to my chip, the laws are less strict on this world regarding nanotech,” Tane said. “Since we’re no longer in the Outrim, there are a ton of alternatives to Reconstruct Systems and other official brands. I’m sure we can find good prices somewhere else in—”

“Forget about the official brands,” Sinive interrupted. “The knock-off nanotech is just as good as the real deal, and costs far less.”

“Aren’t you ever worried about getting a bad batch?” Tane said. “We’re talking about micro modifications to your mind and body here.”

“I can honestly say I’ve never had a problem,” Sinive said. “When in doubt, always check the reviews. No one wants to buy from a place that has negative reviews, so of course the vendors are going to make sure they sell the best stuff.”

Shady looking characters lounged next to fences covered in peeling paint. Some wielded weapons, ranging from power daggers to fully-automatic plasma rifles. To a man, those characters gave Tane and Sinive greedy looks.

Tane temporarily disabled his digital augmentations, not wanting to have his vision suddenly obstructed by breasts should one of those characters decide to attack.

“I’m kind of worried I’m going to be robbed before I make it to this perfect place of yours,” Tane said.

He could hear the amusement in her voice when she spoke: “You have nothing to fear, Big Boy. We’re the most well-armed here. And think about it, with our faceplates mirrored, flaunting the law like that, we look like two badasses. We’re essentially telegraphing to the world: ’don’t mess with us.’”

“I’m not sure it’s possible to look like a badass in a spacesuit…” Tane said.

“Trust me,” Sinive said. “It is. Considering that you’re covered in the black blood of aliens.”

“Oh, first I look like a half-burned marshmallow, and now I look like a badass covered in alien blood.”

“Just shut up and keep walking,” Sinive said. “Your most confident gait.”

“You shut up,” Tane said.

“He touches an alien lens and comes out alive on the other side, and all of a sudden he gets all cocky,” Sinive said. “What happened to the shy dude who would turn red when I caught him looking at me? When we first met, you stared at me in awe.”

“I guess hanging out with you for as long as I have has kind of tempered the awe I used to feel,” Tane said. “Familiarity breeds contempt, huh?”

“I’ll say,” she said, as if to imply, the feeling is mutual. But after a moment, she added: “Though to be honest, I kind of prefer the cocky dude. I don’t like people looking at me in awe. Makes me feel uncomfortable. And I’m sorry for telling you to shut up.”

“I apologize as well,” Tane said. “Sometimes I can get a bit cocky with those I consider my friends. Especially good friends.”

“Is that what we are?” Sinive said.

“How could we be anything otherwise, given what we’ve been through?” Tane said.

They continued walking in silence. Though Tane had deactivated external augmentations, internal notifications were still active, and he received one just then. He enlarged it.

Level up. Social Skills are now Level 1. You’re much more comfortable around other people. Especially girls. Keep this up and you’ll be a master of seduction. Or not.

Attribute up. Charisma +1. Current Charisma: 8.

Go figure. Sinive was right: the shy dude was gone.

She finally stopped in front of a small storefront located at the base of a squalid apartment complex. The outside of the store didn’t look like much, though to its credit the exterior paint wasn’t peeling like the rest of the building. Still, the graffiti tag covering half the storefront fit right in with this seedy part of town: someone had written ESSENCE in big, bold letters, and another tagger had crossed out the ES and NCE and added an X so that it read SEX. He wondered for a moment how anyone could set up shop here and expect not to be robbed.

Tane decided to reactivate his external augmentations. Digital signage immediately popped up, proclaiming: “Wayala’s Trinkets: Peddler of the Esoteric.”

The reviews for the place were mostly five stars. Not that he put much faith in that, unlike Sinive: as far as he was concerned reviews could be faked, especially if you hired out a bot farm. Which probably explained why he had ended up trading the alien energy launcher to Roadroller, a man who had no review listings at all.

Tane glanced at Sinive. “Peddler of the Esoteric?”

“Peddler of the Esoteric is the franchise name,” Sinive said. “It’s run by low level Essenceworkers like me who did their time in the TSN and then got out. Esoteric Peddlers sell Branch-based nanotech skills, Essence Imbued gear, fun stuff like that.”

“What are Branch-based skills again?” Tane asked.

“Designs of the Essence,” Sinive said. “Only usable by people with the Ability, like me?”

“That’s right, rub it in,” Tane said.

“Hey, you asked,” Sinive said. “Anyway, Esoteric Peddlers also pay well for Essence Imbued gear and other loot. If anyone will give you a good price for that crystal, it will be the owner of this place.”

“We’ll see,” Tane said. “If she doesn’t offer me at least ten thousand credits for it I’m taking my business elsewhere. Considering everything we went through to get the damn thing.”

“Some of which was completely unnecessary,” Sinive commented.

She opened the door and went inside before he could come up with a retort.

Tane followed her and found himself inside a shop lined with shelves filled to the brim with various curios and knickknacks. There were anti-grav game sets. A series of glowing, spiraling shells that looked taken from some enchanted ocean. Small cast iron statues with glowing plinths. And even a strange elongated skull with three horns on the top that had to belong to some race of kraal.

Tane zoomed in on the digital price tag floating above the skull.

Price: Twenty-five thousand credits.

Nice.

Tane followed Sinive toward the glass counter. A woman sat there, but Tane’s attention was immediately drawn to the display cases behind her, where various pieces of glowing power armor awaited. They were all of different colors and shapes, none forming a complete full body set. If all the pieces were worn by one individual, it would look like a mishmash of parts, but no doubt would provide immense protection.

Tane was starting to wish he and Sinive had looted this place in the Umbra. His faceplate was still sealed, so he felt confident speaking to her over the comm without worrying about the woman overhearing.

“If you knew about this place, why didn’t you take me here in the Umbra?” Tane asked.

“We needed weapons, remember?” Sinive replied.

“With armor like this, who needs a weapon?” he told her.

“Can I help you?” the woman behind the counter interrupted rather rudely. It wasn’t that he considered her interruption rude—she couldn’t have known that Tane and Sinive were speaking. But rather, her tone of voice itself was rude. Condescending, almost. Like Tane and Sinive were up to no good.

He hadn’t paid her much attention before now, but he gave her a good look-over. She reminded him of a fortune teller in her gypsy headdress and long flowing blue robe covered in mystical symbols. A couple of those symbols even glowed, hinting that the item was Essence Imbued. All she needed was a scrying mirror and a small round table set with a black cloth and she’d be good to go.

Then again, the longer he looked at her, the more he thought she looked like a Volur instead. Her fingers were covered in thick silver rings. She wore long bracelets of the same metal, almost gauntlets actually—they covered the upper half of her hand, but not her fingers. All made from Chrysalium, no doubt. He knew now why no one robbed the place.

Tane glanced at Sinive, but was met by his own mirrored helmet gazing back at him, reflected from her faceplate. With both of their faces hidden like that, it was no wonder the proprietor was rude to them.

Tane deactivated the mirror effect, as did Sinive.

“Time to remove our helmets,” Sinive said.

Tane followed her lead and took off his helmet, setting it down on the counter. Sinive meanwhile looped her helmet to her utility belt, where it hung rather awkwardly.

The gypsy woman’s shoulders relaxed slightly. Tane noticed for the first time she had a hand hidden underneath the counter, probably ready to fire a weapon.

“We’re here to offload some goods,” Tane said.

The proprietor smiled widely. “Well then, why didn’t you say so, sweet things?” She removed her hand from where it was anchored behind the counter and lifted it into full view. “I’m Wayala, your Peddler of the Esoteric!” Placing both elbows on the countertop she leaned forward slightly and folded her fingers together. “Show me what you got.”

Tane reached toward his harness, where the pulsating crystal was secured. The position of his arm assembly at his side had hidden the item from her view until now, and Wayala’s eyes watched him eagerly as he unhooked the crystal and set it down on the counter beside his helmet with a heavy thud. He kept his glove firmly on top, ready to pull the crystal away if she made any move to take it.

“You know what this is?” Tane asked.

The eager glint in Wayala’s eyes instantly vanished, and she sniffed in disgust, as if it was worthless. The action was a little too theatrical to be believable.

“Of course I do,” Wayala said.

Tane glanced at Sinive, then told Wayala: “Enlighten me.”

“The kraals feed on these,” Wayala said. “It is a Dirac, a dark energy store. Useful to explorers of the Umbra when a distraction is needed. You see, kraals are naturally drawn to the energy in the human body, confusing it for a food source. But when you have one of these, it overpowers that energy. Throw it at the creatures and run. They’ll definitely leave you alone afterward.”

“I told you to drop it,” Sinive told him.

Tane had to wonder, if the crystal was such a draw, why did the kraals run away from him and Sinive in the end? Were they afraid of the black lens in the town square? Or perhaps the dwellers lurking in that same square?

“What can you give me for it?” Tane asked the woman.

She waved offhandedly. Again it seemed a little overdone. “Two thousand credits.”

“Ha.” Tane snatched the item off the counter. “No sale.” She was definitely interested, he thought. I call your bluff.

“All right, three,” Wayala said.

“How many Umbra explorers pass through here in a typical week?” Tane said.

“None,” Wayala said.

“How about in a year?” Tane said.

“Maybe two,” Wayala said. “Sometimes more, if there’s a Hunt that year.”

“And how many of these ‘Dirac’ do you keep in stock?” Tane asked.

“None,” Wayala admitted.

“I see.” He secured the crystal to his harness and kept his arm out of the way so that it dangled enticingly in front of Wayala. She kept glancing at it, and he thought she was trying very hard not to lick her lips.

“All right, you got me,” Wayala said. “I’ll give you five thousand credits for it.”

“Why don’t you show me what nanotech skills you have to trade?” Tane said. “Maybe we can work out a fair exchange.”

“All right,” Wayala said. “This is my standard skill list.” A sharing prompt appeared on his screen, and he accepted. In addition to Detect trap, Mixed Martial Arts, Pistoleer, Sharpshooting, and Sneak, which he had seen before courtesy of Roadroller, there were quite a few new additions.

Battle Armor. Level 1. Looking to wear some battle armor? You’ll have to learn how to use it, first! Required to equip Essence Imbued battle armor. Increasing levels improve mind-body connection between brain and armor, allowing for higher armor protection levels.

Cardiovascular and Endocrine Mastery. Level 1. Don’t let that heart rate abate! Learn how to control your heart, lung, and endocrine systems like a pro.

Chip Database Upgrade. Level 1. Lift the wool from your eyes! Identify most weapon types and human classes, in addition to some alien.

Grenadier. Level 1. Kaboom! Improved bonuses to target accuracy, damage, and critical hit probability. Eligibility: all grenade types.

Hacking. Level 1. Leave your hammer at home! Break into shops, cars, low level vaults, and more!

Hot-Wire. Level 1. Steal the vehicle of your dreams! Note: Not for the moral of heart. But since you’re shopping at my store, I assume your morals are probably somewhat questionable anyway.

Land Vehicle Pilot. Level 1. Learn how to drive. Required to operate land vehicles. Increasing levels provide for more aggressive driving skills. Note: not all vehicles can be piloted, due to the prevalence of self-driving capabilities.

Pain Control. Level 1. Be the master of your own domain! Block out most pain.

Shuttle Pilot. Level 1. Let’s fly baby! Operate everything from flyer taxis to starship shuttles.

“I can sell you up to level three in any of the listed skills,” Wayala said. “Like most buy lists, mine auto-updates to reflect your existing skill levels. So if your Pistoleer skill is level two, you’ll see level three available for purchase. If you don’t have the Pistoleer skill, you’ll see level one on the buy list.”

Tane nodded impatiently, wanting to show her that he already knew all of that. He sort of did. Okay, not really.

“One thing I wanted to ask,” Tane said. “I’ve got a couple of smart targeting weapons, which you may or may not have noticed.”

“Oh, I noticed,” Wayala said.

“Good eye,” Tane said. “Anyway, what’s the point of increasing Sharpshooting, Grenadier and so forth, if a given weapon will target for me?”

“Some of the most powerful weapons don’t have smart targeting,” Wayala said. “Besides, smart targeting isn’t a panacea. Take grenades. A Grenadier Level 1 will have more kills than someone who’s never tossed a grenade before, smart targeting or no. Based on the grenade type, say a frag, they know to aim the grenade in the center of a group of foes to cause the most damage. Most smart grenades won’t do that for you. Someone with no experience will let the smart grenade target the lead enemy, causing the least overall damage. Make sense?”

“Actually it does,” Tane said. That was good then, because he had already invested in Sharpshooting, bringing that particular skill up to level two, and he’d hate for that to have been a waste, given his new smart targeting rifle.

“All right,” Tane said. “Here’s what I’ll do. In exchange for this crystal, I’ll take every skill you have, level three in all of them. Plus I want a point added to all my attributes... Strength, Dexterity, Intelligence, the works. Plus ten thousand credits.”

Wayala stared at him with an astonishment that he wasn’t sure was real or feigned, and then she burst out laughing. The latter was definitely real. “Are you really so daft? That’s well over a million credits. Get out of my store.”

“Wait, I take it back,” Tane said.

“Get out, get out!” Wayala said.

“But—”

“You insult me, you get out!” Wayala said.

“Look, I’m sorry if I insulted you,” Tane said. “I’m new at this. Please, just give me another chance.”

She stared at him, her arms crossed, then finally nodded briskly.

He had a feeling she was already getting the upper hand on him, negotiations wise.

Shouldn’t have asked for the whole house...

“Maybe I can get six skills?” Tane said. “All level one?”

“That’s better,” Wayala said. “But still too much. I can give you three.”

“Make it five, and the Dirac is yours,” Tane said.

Wayala hesitated. Then: “Three skills, and two attributes.”

“All right,” Tane said. “Done.”

Three skills was about equal to the ten thousand number he had in mind anyway, considering that Roadroller had previously offered him two skills for seven thousand credits. And with the two attributes thrown in, that put him over his target number.

A notification icon on his HUD caught his attention, and he enlarged it.

New skill learned.

Bargaining. Level 0. This is your second time successfully negotiating to your advantage. You’re getting good at this!

Yeah. Level Zero. Real good.

And he wasn’t aware of the “first time” he had successfully negotiated. Unless the notification was referring to the personal storage sack Roadroller had given him as a gift back when Tane sold the alien weapon. But that little bargaining session hadn’t exactly been a smashing success, given that Roadroller basically admitted afterwards that Tane had sold the item for far too little.

Tane was starting to suspect that these level zero teasers were a way for Reconstruct Systems to whet his appetite for the full upgrade package. After all, he now knew he had some bargaining skill in him, and if he thought he was getting good prices now, imagine the deals he could arrange with the full-blown level one or higher, courtesy of Reconstruct Systems nanotech of course. Not that he’d ever support Reconstruct again...

The more he thought about it, the more he began to see just what a genius marketing technique it was. Whether or not he’d actually learned the equivalent of a level zero, or his chip had merely assigned a placeholder, Reconstruct Systems had planted the seed. Now whenever he viewed his skill list, he’d see Bargaining sitting there at level zero. And he’d want to upgrade it. Yes, definitely brilliant marketing. And that was only on the more perceptible side of things. It did make him wonder what other mind tweaks and unconscious biases the chip might have installed in his subconscious.

“Before you pick your skills, let me give you a brain scan first,” Wayala said. “To determine your neural compatibility. Some of these skills won’t work unless you have a military upgrade in your chip, for example.”

“I don’t have a military upgrade,” Tane said. “If that helps you…”

“I still need to do the scan,” Wayala said. “To confirm compatibility with your chip type and firmware. And to get an idea of how the nanotech has expanded into your neural tissue. Full brain scans are mandatory for all of our clients. We can’t have repeat business if we kill off our clientele now can we?”

“Okay, as long as I don’t have to pay for it,” Tane said.

“It’s completely free for clients,” Wayala said.

“By the way, I also have some weapons I want to trade,” Tane said. He nodded toward the display case. “Maybe in exchange for some of that armor.”

“Yes yes, in due time,” Wayala said. “The scan, first.” She gestured toward a device sitting on the counter. It consisted of two binocular lenses, and a half-circle headrest, plus a small chin rest. “Have a seat, then place your forehead firmly against the headrest and look into the lenses.”

Tane took the chair in front of the metal device and leaned over the counter, placing his chin on the bottom rest and pushing his forehead into the headrest. The half-circle of the headrest lowered of its own accord, positioning itself in the optimal place for his size. The two binoculars also adjusted slightly, until all he could see in the center of his vision was the dark tube formed by the lenses.

A white flash filled his vision.

“All right, it’s done,” Wayala said.

Tane sat back.

Wayala’s eyes defocused as she examined the results on her private HUD.

“Did you know you have the Ability to Siphon?” Wayala said.

21

“What?” Tane said. “You mean the Essence?”

“Correct,” Wayala said.

“But that’s not possible.” Tane told her.

“I assure you, the Ability is inside you,” Wayala said.

“After all this time, I actually had the Ability?” Tane said. “I was only just starting to get used to the idea that I’d never be able to use the Essence.”

“Well, you can,” Wayala said.

Tane sat back, speechless for a few moments. Maybe everything he dreamed about was going to come true after all.

Puzzled by a few things, he glanced at Sinive. “Why didn’t you detect it when you did your scan aboard the—” He almost said Red Grizzly, but realized that probably wasn’t a good idea, in case Wayala was ever questioned by the TSN. “Aboard the ship.”

“I could only do a partial scan with the equipment aboard,” Sinive said.

“I already had a full scan done,” Tane told the proprietor. “By a Synthetic. Ardent Microchipping Solutions.”

“Never heard of it,” Wayala said. “Was it done in an Outrim system?”

Tane nodded.

Wayala nodded knowingly. “Ah. More of the shadier types work out of there. Some outfits aren’t set up to properly identify brain types. It’s possible your Siphoning Ability was misinterpreted or missed.”

“You’re not understanding,” Tane said. “Ardent Microchipping is like the best place you can get a scan, at least where I’m from. They have all the latest and greatest gear: these big machines with telescoping limbs that fit over your head to scan your brain from all angles. It’s impossible for their machines to miss something as important as the ability to Siphon. In fact, their scans are so detailed, they can tell you exactly how much Essence you can Siphon, allowing you to decide whether you’re eligible for the Volur, or only the TSN. Can your small machine do that?”

“No,” Wayala admitted. “But if that’s the case, I’m not sure how they could have missed your Ability.”

“Neither am I…” Tane said. “Unless the Synthetic lied to me. Though I’m not sure why.”

“Like Wayala told you, it’s the Outrim,” Sinive said with a shrug. “They do things differently there. I wouldn’t be surprised if the TSN has an agreement with all microchipping branches there to notify them of any Essence candidates the moment they get their scans. It would help them beat the Volur to the punch, and stop Talendir from getting the best recruits.”

That would explain why the TSN was so eager to get their hands on Tane. It made a lot more sense than the excuse broadcast on the Kalindor citywide alert system about how the TSN simply wanted to “talk” to him regarding the farm incident. Then again, having aliens actively seeking him out was also a pretty big reason.

“But why wouldn’t the Synthetic at least tell me I had the Ability?” Tane pressed.

“That I don’t know,” Sinive said. “Maybe so you wouldn’t contact the Volur yourself and apply?”

I wonder if Lyra knew…

Tane turned toward Wayala. “Okay. So I have the Ability to Siphon. But I don’t know how. Is it an easy thing to learn? Or do I really have to waste credits on nanotech?”

With an amused expression, Wayala glanced at Sinive. “You can Siphon, right, lass?”

“Oh yeah,” Sinive said. She looked at Tane. “Trust me, it’s not something you want to learn manually on your own. It can take years before you’re able to use the Essence on demand, let alone prevent it from destroying you. If there is one skill you want to pay for, it’s definitely this one.”

Wayala fetched a yellow vial from underneath her desk.

“I didn’t see Siphoning on your skill list,” Tane said.

“Of course not,” Wayala said. “I only offer it to those with the Ability. I will take the Dirac in exchange for level one.”

“But I still get two more skills to pick from, right?” Tane asked.

Wayala shook her head. “No. Siphoning is an advanced skill. Those with the Ability are rare. Therefore the demand is lower and the price higher.”

“But—”

“Do you want it or not?” Wayala asked.

When he didn’t answer, she sighed. “All right, I’ll throw in an attribute in addition to the skill.”

Tane wondered if that was his new bargaining skill at play.

“Okay, let’s do this.” He removed his glove and held out his arm so that she could inject him.

Wayala smiled. “The crystal first, please.”

“Oh, sure.” Tane replaced his glove, slightly averse to touching the crystal with his bare hand. He unlatched the black object and set it down on the counter once more. He started to lift his arm away but hesitated, allowing his gloved hand to linger on top.

“What are you doing?” Sinive said.

“What if I need it at some point?” Tane said. “After everything I went through to get it…”

“Uh, I don’t think we’re ever going back to the Umbra,” Sinive said.

Tane pursed his lips, then pulled the crystal entirely off the counter. “You know what? On second thought I’m not so sure I want to give it up. I have a bunch of weapons I can trade you for the Siphoning skill instead.”

Wayala frowned. “I won’t do any further business with you unless you give that to me. You can’t simply tease me with a valuable item and then renege.”

Tane glanced at the crystal. He still felt that overwhelming allure whenever he looked into the blackness, and he wasn’t sure he could bear to part with it. The Dirac’s pulsations were like a beating heart, and he could feel the vibrations of every one of them. He felt sure it must be alive in some way.

But the Essence. To Siphon. It’s been my dream.

“I could always find another Peddler of the Esoteric…” Tane said.

“Ha!” Wayala said. “Good luck with that. I’m the only one in this backwater system.”

Tane reluctantly returned the crystal to the countertop. “Take it.”

Despite his words, he kept his gloved hand on top as Wayala wrapped her bare fingers around the object. She seemed to suffer no ill effects. Well, except for the glint of greed that had returned to her eyes. He had to wonder, was she drawn to it just as strongly as he was?

She abruptly wrenched it out from underneath him and he felt an immense sense of loss. It was all he could do to keep from reaching out and snatching it back.

When she finally whisked the object out of sight behind the counter, the sensation slowly faded, replaced instead by a sort of relief, almost as if a great burden had been lifted.

“Now for your payment,” Wayala said.

She placed the vial into a slot in the small console next to the brain scanner. Her eyes defocused as she coded the micro machines, and then she plugged the vial into a sonic injector. She had done the provisioning just as fast as Roadroller, unlike Sinive, who had taken forever to do the coding for his ID Spoofing skill aboard the Red Grizzly. Then again, the Red Grizzly’s brain scanner also moved at a crawl.

“Your hand,” Wayala said.

Tane removed both gloves and set them down on the counter, and then he extended his right arm.

Wayala held the sonic injector to the back of his hand and he flinched at the slight sting.

“You don’t know how to Siphon?” Wayala said. “Now you do. Of course, you still need to learn some Branches, now. And that will cost you extra.”

Tane sighed. “Hidden costs for everything, huh?”

“Hey, you think basic pay covers all this?” Wayala gestured toward the room. “I have rent to pay.”

A notification indicator appeared on Tane’s HUD and he enlarged it.

New skill received.

Siphoning. Level 1.

So I can finally Siphon.

“Go ahead, try to use the Essence,” Wayala said.

Tane pursed his lips. “All right.”

He knew exactly what to do.

Tane cleared his mind of all thought with a practiced ease that was not his own. He held himself in that state for a moment, relishing in the silence that came when all self talk and ego was banished. He realized the enjoyment of that silence came not from him, but from whomever the skill dump had been taken from.

He extended his mind.

The raging wind of the Essence was out there, beckoning beyond the edge of perception, waiting for him. He could sense its deadly coldness, waiting to chill him to the bone.

He had memories of himself as a student standing next to a Volur dressed in long flowing yellow robes, with metallic plates pleating the lower sections similar to Lyra’s dress. The Volur’s silvery hair descended to the small of her back. She was old, for a Volur, centuries old, so that not even rejuvenation treatments could hide the wrinkles that creased her forehead and lined her mouth.

Tane knew her name was Maelin.

“The Essence we use exists within one of the universes that sits atop our own,” Maelin was saying.

“The Umbra?” Tane asked. It wasn’t his voice, but an older man’s.

“No,” Maelin said. “Not the Umbra. The Umbra sits below our universe. The Essence we use is sourced from another realm entirely. A realm of light and energy. It exists above us. All around us. We call it the Lumina. Do you know of the stellar wind?"

"The wind produced by the stars..." Tane found himself saying.

"Yes," Maelin agreed. “When you Siphon, the stellar wind of the universe that sits atop our own will blow into the marrow of every bone in your body. It is cold, that wind. A frigid cold that will seep from the marrow onto the surface of your skeletal frame, where it will collect on your bones. You must guide that stellar wind, as the peaks and valleys and trees of a mountain range guide the gusts that blow in the northern lands of Talendir. If you do not, your body will disintegrate as the Essence builds up, dissolving the surrounding tissues of every bone in your body like acid. And your skeleton along with it."

"Where do I guide it?" Tane asked.

"Toward that part of you that was once connected to your mother. Because though you cannot see it, that is where you are tethered to this universe still. Guide the stellar wind from the Lumina toward your core, until it is released into this universe through your tether. Your core is the only place in your body where it can emerge safely. Unless you are guiding it to an object of Chrysalium. But that is a story for another day."

"How do I guide the wind?"

"At the microscopic level, the exterior of your bones contain peaks and valleys, like a mountain range," Maelin said. "Those peaks and valleys can exert a microscopic impetus on the quasi-matter of the wind, allowing you to redirect the Essence over your skeletal frame and to your core. This requires you to focus your concentration down to the microscopic level on each and every individual bone in your body."

"But the amount of concentration--" Tane began.

"Is immense," the master finished. "At first. Which is why we will focus on one body part at a time, starting with your finger, slowly adding body parts until you are able to Siphon through every bone in your body. Eventually the subconscious mind will take over as muscle memory kicks in, and all of this will become automatic. Like piloting a drone. It needs to be, if you wish to achieve the complex task of growing the Essence sapling from that wind afterward.”

A blur of memories suddenly fast-forwarded through his mind as Tane mastered each bone in his body one at a time, and then multiple bones in unison, until he could draw and guide the Essence from every single part of his skeletal frame at once, from skull to phalanx.

And then the memories were gone, and he was Siphoning for real. His consciousness seemed to expand as he hovered there on the razor’s edge between this world and the next, and time slowed. An insect buzzed past in front of his face at the speed of a crawling worm. He tried to turn his head to follow it but his muscles responded sluggishly, the synapses between nerves firing at a tenth of their regular speed.

He knew he could maintain this state only for a few seconds, and if he didn’t complete the Siphoning he’d have to start all over again and his reward would be only exhaustion.

So Tane did the only thing he could: he stepped inside the blustering gale that was the Essence and allowed it to swallow him whole.

Almost immediately an unstoppable hurricane of cold exploded inside his bones. It was as if he had stepped into the vacuum of space and skipped the step where all water boiled away from his skin, leaving him to be instantly freeze dried. Panic filled him as he was tossed about in that cold, oh so cold tempest, and he struggled to somehow throttle the frigid nightmare, but it was like trying to shut a cabin door against gale force winds while sailing aboard a ship on storm-swelled seas.

“Guide it!” he could hear Maelin saying. “Steer the stellar wind to your core!”

Tane gave up trying to shut that door and instead concentrated on steering the stellar winds across the bones of his being as he had been taught. The cold swept over his skeletal frame, toward his tether in this universe. His consciousness shrunk, his mind snapping back into his own tiny reality, and time returned to its normal speed.

The stellar wind erupted from his core in front of him, a thin line of white light that dissipated a full meter in front of him, wavering like a candle flame dancing in a draft, a flame that did nothing to melt the icy cold he felt inside him.

All of that happened in the time it took to blink an eye.

“Do you see it?” Tane said, not breaking his gaze from the wavering light.

“No,” Maelin said. “Only the wielder can see the Essence.”

He stepped out of the wind and the wavering light winked out of existence. He slumped over, bracing himself on the desk with his gloves. But when he looked up, he couldn’t help the smile on his face. “I can Siphon!”

“Yes,” Wayala said. He felt a moment of confusion when the proprietor answered, standing there before him instead of his teacher, but it was only because the memory had seemed so real.

“Is it really the stellar wind of another universe?” Tane said.

“It is,” Wayala said. “And with that wind we can create matter. You know of matter and anti-matter?”

“I do,” Tane said.

“This stellar wind of the Lumina is neither,” Wayala said. “It is a third type of matter. We call it quasi-matter. When it interacts with our universe, it becomes the Essence.”

“I never imagined it would be so cold...” Tane instinctively crossed his arms, though the suit pieces wouldn’t impart any warmth through the chest assembly.

“It is what it is,” Wayala said. “You’ll want to invest in a good sweater. Not to mention Endurance and Intelligence. Endurance so that you feel less like a freight shuttle has driven through you after each Siphoning, and to reduce your recovery time. Intelligence to increase the amount you can Siphon naturally. You can also pick up Chrysalium jewelry of course to help with the latter. But keep in mind that the more you Siphon through you, the more tired you’ll feel afterward, which is why Endurance is an attribute that can’t be neglected.”

“Guess I won’t be putting anything into Strength any time soon,” Tane said.

“No,” Wayala said. “There’s a reason Mancers and Volur aren’t built like Marines.”

It was incredible to think he had this Ability sitting inside of him all his life, and he simply didn’t know how to access it. But then he thought of all the memories he had of his time with Maelin, and all the private practice sessions performed outside of the formal training. The student had literally trained for years to achieve the proficiency Tane had shown today. It had taken the student many weeks to allow the Essence to enter the bone of his thumb for the first time, and many more months after that to do so consistently. Not to mention the months and years after that to get the Essence emerging from every bone in his body.

Sinive hadn’t been kidding when she told him he’d be better off paying for the skill.

“So I can’t do anything with this new power?” Tane asked Wayala. “Until I buy Branches, as you called them?”

“Actually, the Siphoning skill comes free with two introductory Branchworks,” Wayala said. “Nothing to call home over, mind you. But it is a start. The two are: Persistent Flame. And Air Current.”

Those words seemed to act as triggers for the memories of the Branchworks, and Tane knew immediately he could do them. In fact, he also realized he had a new Skill page. He pulled up his existing list of skills on his HUD and sure enough there was now an Essence Skills tab. He flipped to it and chose the “expanded skill definitions” option. Below Siphoning he saw the following:

Air Current. Level 0. Create a weak current of air. Stamina drain: extremely low.

Persistent Flame. Level 0. Create a persistent flame in the palm of your hand, maintained by a small Essence wind. Stamina drain: low for short durations.

He cleared his mind and extended his mind to the edges of perception again. His consciousness expanded, and when the cold Essence gusted through him he was back inside himself. He began growing the wavering ribbon of Essence that appeared in front of him.

“What you see before you is the root,” he heard Maelin say. “Grow the Essence at your chosen spot. Sprout your sapling of quasi-matter.”

Tane concentrated on an area the size of a pinprick in the middle of the wavering ribbon, and the surface abruptly cracked open, allowing a new branch to erupt, thrusting upward. The crack in the base widened by the millisecond, and the branch grew thicker, absorbing more and more of the Essence with each moment. This “sapling” wavered in the same manner as the original root, as if stirred by a similar unseen breeze.

Working quickly, Tane grew several more Branches from the sapling. On the tips of the new limbs, he spread the wind in wider dispersal patterns, causing leaf-like structures to sprout. He varied the shapes of those leaves by widening the stellar wind as it emerged, and when it reached the desired size he clamped down on the wind entirely, allowing the “leaf” to set.

He suddenly understood what Sinive had meant when she told him Siphoning was like creating a sapling from a seed. Because standing before him was a wavering object that indeed looked like a small tree.

Siphoning is really just growing quasi-matter trees.

He extended his arm as he allowed the tip of the ethereal sapling to overlap with his hand, and as the Branchwork took hold in this reality, allowing the quasi-matter to interact with the matter of this universe, the tree faded away, leaving behind a small flame that sprouted painlessly on Tane’s open palm.

Only a split second had passed since he began the Siphoning.

He stepped his mind out of the Essence, or thought he did—the flame continued to burn on his hand. A thin stream of white light dangled from his arm, where it wavered back and forth before connecting to his chest. He was still Siphoning the Essence, or at least a small amount of it, without conscious thought. The fuel that maintained the fire. Hence the name “Persistent Flame.”

The tiny fire didn’t harm his own palm in any way, but when he ran his other hand over it he could feel the heat.

Extreme cold continued to gust through the core of his body, and he suppressed a shiver. Tane also found himself growing wearier by the moment, but even so he couldn’t help but glance at Wayala with excited eyes. She smiled patiently, nodding.

He returned his attention to the small fire and gazed at it in wonder for a long moment, simply amazed that he was the one who had created this. He almost couldn’t believe it.

I made this! I did! I’m using the Essence. I’m really doing it!

Despite his elation, his exhaustion was becoming pronounced. If he didn’t want to tire himself out completely, he’d have to release the fire, and soon.

He stared at it for a few seconds longer, and finally cut off that final maintenance wind. The wavering Essence lifeline vanished, and the flame extinguished, along with the freezing cold inside of him.

“Nicely done,” Wayala said. “So, what do you think?”

Tane felt suddenly faint, and he leaned both hands on the counter to help support his body weight. “I think I’m tired. I also think, or wonder, rather: what can Persistent Flame level three do?”

“Imagine a flamethrower that can burn through steel bulkheads,” Wayala said.

“Nice.” He glanced at Sinive. “I assume you have these introductory Branchworks? How come I never see you creating any flames or air currents?”

Sinive shrugged. “Level zero in a Branchwork is the equivalent to a party trick. I never was a big fan of party tricks.”

“Some of them might have come in useful against the kraals,” Tane said.

“Sure,” Sinive said. “Assuming I was rested enough to do anything, I could’ve made tiny flames appear on my hands. I’m sure that would have sent the kraals running away to their brood mommies. Great plan.”

He returned his attention to Wayala. “When do I get to see what Branchworks you have for sale?”

A new sharing prompt appeared on his screen and he accepted.

Air Current. Level 1. Let’s get windy! Launch a gust of air with enough power to forcibly topple an unarmored man. Note: ineffective against energy shields. Stamina drain: low.

Essence Missile. Level 1. Now you’re playing with the big boys! Launch a missile of pure Essence at an opponent. Energy shields offer no defense against this particular Branchwork, and damage is delivered directly to underlying Battle Armor, if any. An unarmored foe has a good chance of instant death. Stamina drain: medium.

Persistent Flame. Level 1. A flamethrower in the palm of your hand! Create a stream of superheated flame two meters long from your hand. Energy shields will absorb the fire up to their rated charge levels. Stamina drain: medium for short durations, high for extended durations.

“That’s all you have?” Tane asked.

“That’s all I have,” Wayala replied. “It’s only a small sampling of what you’ll find from an official Essence Trader on Talendir.”

“How much do you want for one of these?” Tane asked.

“They range between fifty to a hundred thousand credits each,” Wayala said.

“Geez,” Tane said. “Don’t you have anything for under two thousand?”

“Sorry.”

“How much is Essence Missile?” Tane asked.

“One hundred thousand,” Wayala said. “Firm.”

Tane tried to focus on the list on his HUD, wanting to review the different options again, but found his attention waning. He was just too tired.

“Gah. I feel awful,” Tane said. “I'm definitely spending my attribute point on Endurance.”

“I almost thought you had forgotten about the extra attribute I promised,” Wayala said.

“I never forget what people owe me,” Tane said. He held out his hand. “Whenever you’re ready.”

Wayala programmed another vial and then injected him in the back of the hand.

He felt better immediately. “That actually worked.”

“Yes,” Wayala said. “Endurance is almost a palliative for us Branchworkers. You can never have enough of it.”

He pulled up his latest stats.

Name: Tane Ganeth (Spoofed: George Orblast)

Race: Human

Level: 4

Class: Hydroponics Engineer (Spoofed: Laser Dentistry)

Strength: 9

Intelligence: 9

Dexterity: 10

Endurance: 12

Charisma: 8

“I kind of regret wasting all my points on Dexterity so far,” Tane said.

“Oh, Dexterity helps, too,” Wayala said. “Especially for the more complex Branches, where it’s a race against time to finish before the work completely distorts.”

“Keep in mind that certain Essence Imbued items can boost Dexterity and Endurance,” Sinive said. “So don’t just think you have to invest in your attributes alone.”

“That’s a good point,” Tane said.

“It’s a fine balancing act trying to decide where to spend your hard-earned credits,” Wayala said. “But it’s always that way, isn’t it? Speaking of which, I have some fine battle armor here that does in fact provide boosts to both the aforementioned attributes, plus Strength as well. Though you’ll have to purchase the necessary skill to use it. You mentioned you had some weapons you wanted to trade?”

Tane and Sinive started dumping the weaponry they’d looted from the Umbra onto the countertop. Tane decided to hang on to his harness and the grenades he had left, as well as the smart-targeting D18 plasma rifle, but everything else was fair game.

“I’ll give you forty-five thousand credits for the lot,” Wayala said.

“Forty-five?” Tane said. “That’s it?”

“These aren’t the most amazing weapons I’ve ever seen,” Wayala said.

“What if we included our spacesuits in the sale?” Tane asked.

“Considering that yours is covered in mud and I’ll have to clean it…” Wayala tapped her chin. “I’ll give you five hundred for them both.”

It’s not mud, it’s kraal blood. But he decided not to mention that. Then again, Wayala might just know, given her knowledge of the Dirac.

“I was really looking forward to picking up some of those Essence skills,” Tane said.

Wayala shrugged. “Sorry.”

“I know the basics of Essence Missile,” Sinive said offhandedly. “Level zero equivalent. I can show you some Branches to practice.”

Wayala merely gazed at them, wearing a “good luck with that” expression.

“If you know Essence Missile, why didn’t you use it against the kraals?” Tane said. “Wait, never mind. You weren’t rested enough.”

“That, and it’s also level zero equivalent,” Sinive said. “Meaning: I can’t do it every time. Plus with the tiny amount I’m able to Siphon, it doesn’t do very much damage at all.”

In the end, the Battle Armor, while sexy, proved too expensive, plus Tane couldn’t afford the basic skill needed to equip it, so he decided on fresh batteries for his energy shield instead, plus another point of Endurance, bringing the attribute to lucky thirteen.

Regarding the shield batteries: he and Sinive tried giving the small shield devices to Wayala so she could attempt to charge them; the proprietor went in the back and returned a moment later to report that the batteries were simply too old to take a charge. “But I can throw in fresh batteries for another ten thousand credits. Per shield generator.”

Since he sold his spacesuit to the woman, he began stripping it off, leaving his street clothes underneath. His hoodie would protect him from the facial recognition algorithms of any cameras in the city, hopefully. Maybe someday he’d be able to afford a blurring attachment for the hood so he wouldn’t have to worry about the facial recognition algorithms.

Without the servomotors of the suit to counter the slightly stronger gravity of the moon, he felt the extra weight of his body again. The sensation wasn’t too bad, however, and he quickly got used to it. He suspected his chip was helping him adapt in some way, automatically increasing the oxygen to his muscles maybe.

Finished doffing the suit, Tane slid the D18 rifle back onto his shoulder—the stock and trigger area resized to fit his bare hands. He secured the nearly empty personal storage device to his belt, and tightened the harness with its hanging grenades around his torso. He inserted the fresh battery he’d purchased into the energy shield, then secured the small device to his buckle and interfaced with it via his HUD, activating it. This time it stayed on. He reached out with one hand to confirm it was active, and at the half meter mark from his body, a thin blue outline surrounded his fingers. The shield allowed him to interact with items beyond the energy barrier, or to do things like shoot at targets with his rifle or throw grenades, but prevented objects, plasma bolts and laser beams from passing through the other way. How long it could deny those objects depended on the shield’s Damage Absorption rating, as well as its current charge.

“Probably not a good idea to walk around with that active,” Wayala said. “You’ll get a lot of people cursing your way when they’re shoved aside.”

“Point taken,” Tane said, deactivating it for the time being.

After buying the shield battery and the extra Endurance attribute, he still had about nine thousand credits left over as part of his portion of the loot sale, but he decided to hold onto that for potential item or skill upgrades in the future.

Sinive picked up the same shield battery with her proceeds, and nothing else.

“I’m saving for a ship, remember?” she told him while taking off her own spacesuit. She was undressing far slower than he was, he noted. Sinive must have been way more tired than she let on. He realized that she really only had a few hours of rest after her last jump.

Sinive finished removing her spacesuit, revealing the white dress underneath. It was a bit rumpled after being pressed against her body by the suit all that time, but otherwise none the worse for the wear. His eyes drifted to her bandaged shoulder, but he noticed nothing out of the ordinary.

She reattached her storage pouch to the utility belt she wore outside her dress, and holstered the single pistol she had retained from the loot. Like his weapon, the grip had shrunk to fit her unclad hands.

“Actually, I have something else you might like,” Wayala told Sinive. “Don’t go anywhere.”

Before Sinive could answer, the proprietor vanished into the back of the shop.

22

Tane shifted impatiently from one foot to the other while he waited for the proprietor to return. “I wonder what she’s getting for you? And why it’s taking so long?”

“You seem more excited than I am,” Sinive said.

“You got it all wrong,” Tane said. “I’m not excited: I just want to go. My biggest worry now is that she’s going to rob us.” He glanced at the main door, half expecting to find some of those unsavory types from outside waiting by the entrance, but it remained clear.

“Stop being so paranoid,” Sinive said.

“If you had both the TSN and aliens looking for you, you’d be paranoid, too,” Tane said.

“By hanging out with you I’m essentially hunted by the TSN and your alien friends as well, you know,” Sinive said.

“I suppose you are, at that,” Tane said.

Wayala finally emerged. She wasn’t intending to rob them after all, unless the long, silver armband she carried was some special weapon. The item had a strange “snake with wings” design etched into the surface.

Wayala was smiling at Sinive; her gaze drifted to Sinive’s shoulder, where the ripped dress sat oddly over the bandage, and Wayala stared at it as if noticing the injury for the first time. The proprietor quickly averted her eyes, which was the polite thing to do, and instead caressed the armband. “It’s pure Chrysalium. Try it on.”

“No, I shouldn’t,” Sinive said.

“Go ahead,” the Lady insisted. “Wouldn’t you like to be able to boost the damage you can inflict with your Essence Missile?”

Sinive tried it.

“Using this, even with your limited Ability, you can almost Siphon as much Essence as a lower level Volur,” Wayala said. “Opening up a whole new world of Branchworks.”

“I can’t afford it I’m sure,” Sinive said.

“For you, eighty thousand credits,” Wayala said.

“It is tempting, I admit.” Sinive removed the armband. “But like I said, can’t afford it.”

Sinive eyed the armband longingly after setting it down on the counter, but Wayala kept talking, extolling its virtues for the next two minutes, and haggling back and forth with Sinive over the price. Sinive hemmed and hawed and finally broke when the price hit thirty thousand.

Sinive transferred over the credits and immediately snapped the armband to her bicep. When it was secure, she glanced at Tane and broke into a big smile. “Now this is more like it!”

“I take it you can Siphon more than usual?” Tane asked.

“A helluva lot more, yeah,” Sinive said.

“Thank you for your business,” Wayala said. She emerged from behind the counter and began ushering them toward the door. “You two have a nice day, you hear?”

“You scared she’s going to change her mind or something?” Tane asked Wayala.

The proprietor merely smiled politely and continued ushering him toward the exit.

Tane raised his hood before leaving the store. Sinive retrieved a headscarf from her personal storage pouch and wrapped it over her hair as well, letting the lace fringe fall low over her face.

Wayala locked the door behind them and digital signage that read “closed” overlaid his vision.

“So much for saving for a ship,” Tane told Sinive as they walked away. He nodded toward her armband.

“Shut up,” Sinive said. “I’m already getting buyer’s remorse.”

“We also need to save some money to take a ship to Talendir,” Tane said. “Or at least I do.”

“Nebb will come back for us,” Sinive said. “So that’s completely unnecessary. Besides, are you sure you really want to give yourself up to the Volur? Especially since you know you can Siphon now? What if you’re actually powerful enough to join their ranks? Then they’ll never let you go.”

“Maybe that’s a good thing,” Tane said. “Maybe I’ll finally get some proper training. Or they’ll fund my nanotech upgrades.”

“Keep dreaming,” Sinive said. “Listen, why not stay here, keep a low profile for a while? Enjoy your freedom while you can, and make up your mind if you really want to go at a later date?”

“That’s probably a good idea,” Tane said. “Though any freedom I have will only last until Lyra gets in touch with me.”

“Assuming she survived the Umbra,” Sinive said.

“Oh she did, I’m sure of it,” Tane said.

“Yeah, suppose so,” Sinive said. “Just as I’m sure Nebb survived.”

“By the way, Lyra and Jed are still offline,” Tane said.

“So is Nebb,” Sinive said. “Plus the two robots. But he’ll be back eventually. I’ve already sent him a message, so I should be hearing from him in a few days. After he makes it safely through the Anteres Rift, of course.”

Tane walked on through the squalid district in silence, and once more temporarily disabled his digital augmentations to avoid the profusion of unwanted sexual advertisements. Best to keep his vision clear in case of an armed robbery attempt...

“Well, I don’t know about you, but I’m starving,” Tane said after a moment. “What say we celebrate our recent cash windfall with some grub?”

“Grub, is that what you Outrimmers call food?” Sinive said.

“Well yeah, you do speak English, right?” Tane mocked her in return.

“And what we had wasn’t exactly a windfall,” Sinive continued. “But I’m pretty hungry, yeah. Let’s get some real food.”

“Restaurant?” Tane asked.

“Yessiree,” Sinive said. “You want to do some celebrating? I know this great place.”

“You know all the good places don’t you?” Tane said.

“Let’s just say, as a smuggler you get around,” Sinive told him.

“We’re talking about getting around planets, right?” Tane said.

“Of course!” Sinive said. “What did you think I was talking about?”

“Never mind,” Tane said.

“You have a dirty mind,” Sinive said. “I like it.”

“Great minds think alike,” Tane said.

“I hate that saying,” Sinive told him.

“I forgive you,” Tane said. “By the way, you sure you’re not too tired to go to a restaurant?”

“Never too tired to eat,” Sinive answered.

“My kind of girl. Will they let you in with your dress like that?” He nodded at the rip over her bandaged shoulder area.

“Hey, they’ll be happy to take my money, trust me,” Sinive said.

They made their way out of the seedy quarter into a more decent side of town, if decent meant the paint wasn’t peeling and synthetics weren’t soliciting sex from the shop windows. The citizens still looked rough, and many carried weapons that looked a lot more badass than what Tane or Sinive had, sometimes with personal shields to boot. No one bothered them, however.

They arrived at a restaurant called “Fataja’s Mahanas,” and when they entered a serving robot promptly ushered them to a small booth.

“Ever had Daaenan food?” Sinive asked from where she was seated across from him.

“No,” Tane said. “Never.” He pulled up the menu on his HUD only to find himself greeted by a bunch of strange sounding dishes. A sampling: D’eake La’eeps and B’reste N’augants. “Uh, Dick Lips and Breasty Nuggets? I just want some unleavened dough. And maybe a game bird thrown in.”

“I got you covered,” Sinive said.

Tane ordered water for himself from the menu, and let Sinive order the main course for him.

“So what did you get me?” Tane asked.

“You’ll see,” she said with a mischievous grin.

Tane shook his head. “Never trust a smuggler to order for you in a restaurant.”

“Is that one of your rules?” Sinive said.

“It certainly is now,” Tane told her.

“Trust me, you’ll like it,” Sinive said.

The serving robot deposited two glasses of Daaenan wine a few moments later.

“I ordered water,” Tane told the robot.

The eyes on the animated visor assumed a confused expression. “But the order clearly stated wine...”

“It’s all right,” Sinive told the robot. “I updated the order. He’s drinking wine.”

The robot bowed and walked away.

“Geez, and I thought I was a control freak,” Tane said. “Probably a girly drink.” He took a sip of the wine. It was extremely sweet and didn’t taste alcoholic at all. “Yup, a girly drink. And you claim you’re not a Girly Girl?”

“Oh, just shut it,” Sinive said.

Tane took another sip. “Actually it’s not bad.” He held out his glass. “A toast. To... survival.”

“To survival,” Sinive said, and clinked his glass. They drank.

“I still can’t believe I can Siphon,” Tane said after a moment.

“It’s quite the feeling, isn’t it?” Sinive said.

“I’ll say,” Tane agreed. “I might actually be able to achieve some of my dreams. If the TSN and the Volur don’t mess it up.”

“Like I said, all the more reason to hide out here for a while,” Sinive told him.

It didn’t take long for the order to arrive. The robot gave Tane a plate of some sort of stringy noodles with a piece of charred meat on top, the whole shebang slathered in tomato sauce.

“The hell is this?” Tane said. He scooped one of the long strings into the air with his utensil.

“Unleavened dough,” Sinive said. “With a game bird. Exactly as requested.” She dove into her own dish, which seemed to be some sort of fish stuffed with apple slices.

“By the way I’m sending you the Branchwork for Essence Missile,” Sinive said while she ate. “You can use it to practice.”

Tane accepted the share request and a holographic image of a small bush-like object appeared in front of him. The intricate designs of the Branches and needle-like Leaves floored him.

“All you have to do is Siphon the Essence into the same pattern,” Sinive said. “I find it helps to overlay the hologram above the Essence while you’re shaping it.”

“Looks extremely painful,” Tane said. “This is one complex design.”

“No one ever said it was going to be easy,” Sinive said. “Why do you think Wayala charges one hundred thousand credits for a level one proficiency in the skill?”

“How did you get this hologram?” Tane asked.

“I picked it up on the black market a few years ago,” Sinive said. “While I was still in the navy. I figured, you never know when you might need something like that in a pinch. I didn’t realize how weak my actual Essence Missiles would be when I finally got it to work, though.”

Tane tapped the armband on her bicep. “Not so weak anymore, huh?”

“Yeah, about that,” Sinive said. “There was no way she should have sold me such a valuable artifact this cheap. No way.”

“That’s a bit... unsettling,” Tane said.

“Yeah,” Sinive said. “My guess is, there’s something wrong with it. With my luck, it’ll probably make me burn out when I use it.”

“Or maybe the design is shoddy,” Tane said. “I heard that poorly designed Chrysalium objects break down fast.”

“That could be it, too,” Sinive said between a mouthful of fish. “I’ll use it once, or a few times, and it’ll dissolve right off. Ah well, it was a nice dream.”

During dinner Tane pulled up a list of all local private short term rentals on his HUD. The rates were disappointingly high—five hundred credits minimum per night for most of them, and those were the two stars. But the hotels were even more expensive.

He picked out a room in a nearby short termer and had Sinive handle the reservation and payment. “Seeing as you’re the rich one here,” Tane explained.

“Oh really?” Sinive said. “Well since I’m the one spending the money, I might as well pick a place I like.”

Eventually she backed down and went with his choice when she realized how sparse the affordable selections were. His short termer selection—a vacation condo rented out by a married couple—was the most reasonably priced place within walking distance. She made the booking during dinner and received the confirmation a few minutes later.

“My fake ID has been authorized,” Sinive said with a smile.

When they finished dinner they headed straight for the rental.

It proved a modest room in one of the colonial-era palaces that overlooked the city’s famous Origins Square. From the balcony, Tane could see the glass dome in the middle of the square that contained chunks of the space ice originally used to terraform the moon. In the center of the dome was a frozen pool housing preserved samples of the first phytoplankton injected into the resultant seas to oxygenate the atmosphere. Tourists gathered around outside the dome to read the digital signage and to take selfie videos with their insect-sized auto-follow drones.

Tane set all of his gear next to the long table by his bed, and while Sinive took a sonic shower, he sat on the bed, intending to take a crack at the Essence Missile Branchwork. But before he could project the hologram, the notification icon flashed in the lower right of his HUD.

He had received a message from his dad.

He set it to play back in the center of his vision. Mom and Dad sat on a bed like him, in what was obviously some hotel—Tane could see the brand labels on the pillows behind them.

“Son,” Dad said. “We got your message. I just wanted to say I’m glad you got off the planet. I hope this message finds you well, and that you’ve reached your destination.” Dad had obviously taken to heart what Tane had mentioned in his last message about the authorities potentially listening in. “We’re still waiting to hear from the person you’re with. If we don’t hear from her soon, we might try to arrange passage out of here ourselves. We just have to find a way to shake these robots of hers. Stay safe.”

Mom was smiling, tears in her eyes. “Stay safe.”

The video clicked off.

Tane considered his response for a few seconds, but then decided he’d answer tomorrow morning. There wasn’t really anything new he could tell them anyway. And from the sound of it, they thought he was on Talendir already. Maybe it was better to let them think that.

He debated whether or not to send a message to Lyra. If he wanted to stay here on this moon for a while, keeping in the shadows, it was probably best if he didn’t contact her at all. But in the end he decided he owed her at least the courtesy of an update, if only for saving his life in the Umbra. If she was still trapped there, the message would remain queued throughout the postal system up to a week before bouncing. But if she was indeed back, she would receive it whenever the interstellar postal system delivered it to whatever system she currently resided in.

“Hey,” Tane said. “I hope you’ve made it back with our companions in one piece. I’m on the same moon we were on before losing contact.” There was no point in leaving that out of the message, since the sender source field would show the moon as 57A. That data could be spoofed, but he didn’t have the knowledge. She would suspect he was in Daaena, the capital city, anyway, but she wouldn’t know precisely where. “I’m with the jump specialist. We’re all right. Keeping a low profile for the time being. Anyway, I just wanted to update you. I’m sure I’ll be hearing back from you eventually, one way or another.”

After sending the message, Tane finally projected the hologram Sinive had shared with him, placing the outline of the Essence Missile Branchwork on the table in front of him, precisely over the wavering ribbon of Essence that emerged from his chest. He tried three or four times to duplicate the design, but his Branches were messy, and ended up nothing like the original; all he succeeded in doing was tiring himself out. By the time Sinive was finished her shower he could barely keep his eyes open.

“You’re not taking a shower?” Sinive asked. She was wearing a bathrobe, and had a towel wrapped around her head as she scooted into her own bed. There was no sign of her armband: he didn’t think she was wearing it underneath the bathrobe, as the bulky material would have made a slight outline, he thought. She must have shoved it and all of her clothes into her personal storage device, whose slight bulge he could discern in one of the robe pockets.

“Shower?” Tane said. “No, maybe tomorrow.”

“How do you expect to have sex with me tonight then?” Sinive said.

Tane smiled weakly. “Har har.”

“No, I’m serious,” Sinive said. To her credit, she managed to keep a straight face.

Tane shrugged. He totally didn’t believe her, and he wasn’t going to fall for her trick.

“I’m too tired to have sex with you.” He lay on his side, turning away. She was definitely kidding.

Or was she?

“Suit yourself,” Sinive said. “I’ll just call room service then.”

“You do that,” Tane said. “By the way, it’s not sexual room service, you know. It’s just ordinary room service.”

“Not the way I order it,” Sinive said.

“Better be careful what you wish for,” Tane said, playing along. “You never know what you’re going to get with room service. Afterward, you might find yourself curled into the fetal position and sucking your thumb.”

A pillow slammed into his back.

“Hey!” Tane turned around. “That was uncalled for.” He couldn’t keep the humor from his voice.

He threw the pillow right back at her and Sinive laughed.

“How did you know I was kidding?” Sinive said.

“It was fairly obvious,” Tane said.

“Humph,” Sinive said. “If I was serious, would you?”

“Would I what?” Tane said.

“Have sex with me!” Sinive said. “You’re really going to make me spell it out, aren’t you?”

“Of course,” Tane said. “I want you to feel as awkward and uncomfortable as possible.”

“Gee thanks,” Sinive said.

“Well what did you expect?” Tane said. “Bringing up something like that?”

“So you keep deflecting my question,” Sinive said. “Would you, or would you not?”

“Have sex with you?” Tane said. He chuckled. “Probably not.”

The pillow came flying at him again.

“No really!” Tane said. “I mean, you’re attractive, one of the most attractive women I’ve ever known. But I’m seriously too tired. I understand now why you can barely walk after attempting to make a distortion jump. I’ve only done a little bit of Siphoning, and that, combined with the rough day we had, well, let’s just say I’m drained to the core. Apparently the weariness that follows Siphoning gets better over time, if the memory dump I got from the nanotech is anything to go by. Still, it makes me wonder how those organic machines we got running the planet-side gates can do it all day long.”

Sinive folded her arms under her breasts and lay back. “I’m actually too tired myself.” She was quiet for a time, and Tane eventually thought she must have gone to sleep. He was just about to dim the lights via his HUD when she spoke again. “You know, I was convinced we were going to die out there. In the Umbra. And never return to our own universe. Especially after you picked up that crystal.”

“Yeah, that was pretty dumb, in retrospect,” Tane said. “I don’t know why I did that. I just seemed drawn to the thing, if you can believe it.”

She paused a moment before continuing. “I just... I worry... every day could be our last. We’re not going to live forever. None of us are. Some of us will live a long time, sure. But it’s not guaranteed. We have to take advantage of the time we have. Not let opportunities pass us by. That’s all I wanted to say.”

Tane heard the regret in her voice, and he had a sudden sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach. Maybe she had been serious about hooking up with him after all...

She sat up slightly. “Can I have my pillow back by the way? These stupid beds only come with one of them. You’d think, for the price we were paying, they could at least provide two pillows per bed.”

Tane tossed the pillow back to her. A part of him wondered if there was any way to salvage the situation, but in truth even if there was, he really didn’t have the energy for it. The weariness was seriously pulling him under. He wondered how those heroes in spy vids could make love right after the conclusion of a three-day mission. The answer was obvious: it wasn’t real.

Wait.

He opened his eyes, remembering he had complete access to his endocrine system. Some fiddling with his epinephrine and testosterone levels, and maybe a quick order of some certain blue pills from room service, and he’d be good to go.

Except he felt too weary even for that.

He used the HUD interface to dim the lights and then closed his eyes. The air conditioning in the room was a little loud, and he tried to adjust it on his HUD but had no success. Even so, in no time at all he was out cold.

* * *

Tane woke up late the next morning. He remotely activated the curtain using the controls on his HUD and rubbed his eyes when the sunlight from the orbital mirrors flooded in.

He glanced at Sinive, whose long breaths told him she was still asleep.

“Rise and shine, sleepy head,” Tane told her. He reached across with one foot and gently nudged the side of her bed. She didn’t move. He chuckled. “You sleep like a log. By the way, I want to be clear: what I said last night about you being attractive? Well I lied. You’re so ugly, you make a farm recycling droid look good.” He playfully nudged the bed again, harder this time. She didn’t move. “Sinive?”

Her drawn-out breathing continued. Now that he thought about it, those expirations sounded more like strained wheezing rather than anything normal.

He immediately got up, went to her bed, and shook her directly.

Sinive was unresponsive.

Tane turned her around. Her face was extremely pale. He lowered the top of her bathrobe to take a peak at her shoulder, and gasped in shock.

Black tendrils seeped out from underneath the bandage, seemingly following the path of her arteries and veins like a bacterial infection would. Except he knew of no bacterial infection that could make the blood vessels and surrounding skin appear so dark.

It had to be microcrillia. And yet, he thought those microscopic creatures from the Umbra died the instant they were brought back into this universe. Maybe that wasn’t the case if the microcrillia were inside a human body…

He remembered Sinive’s ominous words from the night before. “Every day could be our last.”

She knew she wasn’t going to make it through the night. She must have. Then again, maybe she only had an idea that she wouldn’t. A worry. Perhaps she saw that the blackness was spreading. And maybe she thought she’d get it dealt with in the morning.

And now it was too late.

23

Tane shook himself.

She’s not dead yet.

He called the condo’s help desk. “I’ve got a medical emergency in room forty-five. Call an ambulance, and send up any paramedic robots you have on staff immediately.”

“We don’t have any official paramedics,” the AI at the other end of the connection replied. “But we do keep maintenance robots onsite. They are equipped with medical dumps. I will send them up and have the closest hospital dispatch a flyer.”

“Thank you.”

“Your account will be charged one thousand credits,” the AI said.

Normally an unexpected fee like that would have angered him, but he didn’t even care at that point.

“Whatever it takes,” Tane said.

He disconnected and checked Sinive’s public profile, confirming that her ID was still spoofed. He hoped the odd name she’d chosen didn’t attract attention, and that her TSN mole had made the necessary changes at the registry office by now. Still, if her face was caught by a city security cam, her true identity would be revealed. The robots coming up to the room might ID her by her features, too. Or they might identify his own face—he had no idea how many of the robots on the property were linked into the city’s security mixnet, and thus had access to the facial recognition cloud. Privacy rights were supposed to prevent robots from performing such IDs on private property, however, but he wasn’t sure what rights applied in this district, as every planet was different. But as he had that thought, he knew that 57A did indeed observe those rights, thanks to his chip.

Just to be on the safe side, Tane kept his hood pulled low over his face when the robots arrived. They had some medical skill, but without paramedic equipment the onsite maintenance robots were relatively useless. They checked her pulse and breathing, and examined her infection, giving a diagnosis of “sepsis due to external trauma.” But otherwise they did nothing. To their credit, they appeared to be communicating with actual paramedics the whole time, relaying pictures of the wound and her current condition.

The ambulance flyer arrived shortly. It hovered outside the balcony and lowered its ramp onto the railing, allowing the paramedic robots to load her directly.

Tane insisted on coming along; he had already taken the personal storage device from her belt, and secured it alongside his own. He left his D18 inside his own pouch, as well as his grenade harness and shield generator. He didn’t want to intimidate the emergency responders, after all. Some robots refused to give treatment if they spotted any weapons.

Once he was aboard, the flyer proceeded to the closest medical institution, labelled Alexander de Graaf Hospital on Tane’s map.

The flyer landed on a rooftop platform and the paramedics took Sinive straight to the emergency ward.

Tane followed them inside, but he was stopped almost immediately by two imposing combat robots: scepter models with non-animated visors, armed with plasma rifles.

For a second Tane worried the robots had recognized his face, since in his concern for Sinive he had forgotten to raise his hood, but then one of the robots pointed to the digital signage beside Tane, which read in big bold red letters:

All weapons must be surrendered, including those carried in personal storage devices.

Tane quickly raised his hood and then with a sigh retrieved the D18 from his pouch. He offered it to the closest robot. The faceless machine wordlessly pointed to a nearby counter set in the wall, manned by a primitive looking droid that was literally a tube with two pincers for arms.

Tane placed the D18 down on the table.

“Thank you.” The droid snatched up the weapon and it disappeared under the counter.

Tane removed the harness from his storage device, and then took the grenades out of the harness one by one, and as he placed them on the counter the check-in droid spirited them away under the counter with a similar “thank you” for each of them.

Tane decided to buckle the empty harness on over his clothing rather than returning it to the pouch.

When he was done, he glanced at Sinive’s storage pouch, which he also had attached to his waist. Like his own, it probably had a low level shock trap that would activate if he tried to open it. Not good. Besides, he didn’t really want to peruse her private belongings just to pick out the weapons anyway.

With that thought, he removed her pouch from his belt and delivered the whole thing to the droid.

Tane stood staring at the robot for several seconds before it seemed to understand he had no more items to hand over.

“Did you deposit all weapons from the personal storage device that remains attached to your belt?” the droid asked.

“Yes,” Tane said. He had kept his personal shield generator inside the pouch since he didn’t consider that a weapon.

“Here is your collection receipt,” the droid said.

Tane received a sharing request and accepted. It was a file that contained the inventory of everything he had deposited.

He turned toward the security robots and one of them extended a hand: a red beam issued forth from the palm, scanning the pouch at Tane’s waist. He supposed now he’d find out whether the shield generator was allowed or not.

The beam cut out. The robots, apparently satisfied that he was unarmed, stepped aside.

Tane hurried past them and queried the HII—hospital information interface—for the status and room location of patient Tina Treetops.

The HII marked her room on the overhead map, but in place of status, all he got was “restricted.” She was located in a section of the ward that was shaded red and marked “no visitors.”

Tane made his way to her section anyway. Even so, the restricted status worried him enough that he reached into his storage belt and retrieved the shield generator, attaching it to his buckle. He left the shield inactive for the time being.

Along the way he stopped a nursing robot dressed in blue scrubs. “Hello, I’d like a prognosis on the patient I just took in. Miss Treetops.” He tried not to look at the robot directly, so as to keep his face hidden by the fringe of the hood as much as possible, but he couldn’t hide his features completely, not that close.

“And what is your relation to her?” the robot asked. The robot had a fully animated expressions visor, and from the mellifluous voice, identified as female.

“I’m her…” Tane was about to say brother, but he realized the name on his profile wouldn’t show up in whatever fictional family tree Sinive had. “I’m her best friend.”

“She only just arrived,” the robot said. “A prognosis will be forthcoming shortly.”

The robot started to leave.

“Really?” Tane said. “Then how come her status is listed as restricted? I think your doctors have already made a prognosis. She was in bad shape when I brought her in and warranted immediate medical attention.”

“I’m sorry, I can’t reveal anything further,” the robot said. “Doctor-patient confidentially.”

“Please,” Tane said. “You have to tell me.”

The nursing robot hesitated, perhaps hearing something in Tane’s voice that told the robot how important she was.

“Please,” Tane repeated.

“We’re not sure we can help her, Mister Orblast,” the nursing robot said slowly. “We’re unequipped to handle an infection of her magnitude. As such we’ve contacted the appropriate department of the TSN, who have arranged to retrieve her for further treatment.”

“What? Why?” Tane said. Maybe it was a mistake to bring her here.

“Standard protocol for an infection of this sort,” the robot said. “She is a danger to this hospital, and society in general.”

When the TSN arrived, no doubt their facial recognition algorithms would ID Sinive. But maybe it was better that way. Maybe they could treat her.

“Is she awake?” Tane said.

“Yes.”

“I have to see her.”

“I’m afraid that won’t be possible at the moment,” the nurse said. “Visitors are not allowed to her section. Please escort yourself off of the premises at your earliest convenience. If you attempt to penetrate that section without proper authorization, security droids will forcibly remove you from the hospital. Have a great day!”

The nursing robot waited, as if watching to see what direction Tane would go. He reluctantly retreated, intending to loop back around as soon as he was out of the robot’s sight. There would likely be security cameras around that he would have to avoid, too.

Damn it.

Tane rounded the bend, and then waited a few seconds there, standing out of view. There was no one else nearby, well, except for another nursing robot farther down the hallway, its back to him.

He peered around the bend. The first robot was nowhere to be found.

Tane returned to the hallway, following his original route toward the restricted section. He passed the intersection where he met the robot, and glanced both ways: no sign of anyone.

He continued past two more intersections, and took a right toward the restricted section. So far, so good.

The hallway soon opened into a glass-domed walkway that overlooked the floors above and below. He passed an open common room area, filled with seats for patients to rest outside of their rooms, but it was currently empty.

Leaving the glass viewing area behind, he reached a T intersection. Rounding the bend, his heart dropped when he saw the rifle-toting security robot standing guard in front of Sinive’s ward.

He decided to try his luck.

I’m just going to pretend I belong.

As Tane closed the ten meters to the robot, the mechanical being stepped into his path, blocking his way forward.

“Excuse me, but you’re not authorized to enter this area,” the robot said.

“Oh?” Tane told it, playing dumb. “But my friend is here."

“I’m sorry,” the robot said. “Please turn around. If you inquire at the front desk, the hospital can arrange to notify you when your friend is moved to a less restrictive ward.”

Tane ran a quick ID on the robot.

Name: HS-32 “Reginald”

Race: Robot.

Model: Scepter combat droid VI-9 Rev a.

Level: 7

Class: Security Consultant

Badge ID: 179347

“I’m going to talk to your superior about this,” Tane said.

“Go ahead,” the robot told him.

Though he couldn’t see its stats, he knew its Dexterity would be through the roof: its reflexes far faster than his own.

Another reason to pump up my own Dexterity levels sometime.

He had seen humans in videos on the Galnet with Dexterity so high they could out-maneuver robots. He remembered watching a mixed martial arts broadcast between a man and a combat robot. The pair moved so fast that their bodies were essentially blurs, and the live feed had to be slowed down by a factor of five just so the audience could watch. In the end the robot lost—it started slowing down due to overheating and ineffective thermal conduction, whereas the human continued to pound the crap out of it. Apparently the fighter, covered in sweat, had collapsed moments after winning. The moral: Dexterity wasn’t a panacea. Not that Tane had any intention of ever engaging in a fistfight with a robot anyway.

He retreated, returning to the T intersection and rounding the bend. Well, so much for that. He couldn’t get by the robot. There was nothing he could do. He wasn’t sure how comfortable he was leaving Sinive in the hands of the TSN—assuming the nursing robot had been correct about the star navy coming for her. But as he had already concluded, Sinive needed treatment and he certainly couldn’t provide it himself.

When he passed near the empty common room area, he received a call notification on his HUD.

Who would be pinging me now?

He maximized the call window and saw the name Lyra Glorandriel. He wasn’t sure whether to feel relieved or apprehensive. It seemed almost a little too coincidental that just when he dropped off Sinive at the hospital, the Volur would once again try to get involved. Almost as if she was spying on him somehow. But that was unlikely, of course: he had disabled positional sharing with her ID shortly after arriving back in this universe, so she wouldn’t know where he was.

Tane noticed an open door near the common room and when he glanced inside he saw a small, empty conference area of sorts, replete with cupboards, a sink, a table, and a couple of chairs. He entered and partially shut the swinging door behind him, leaving it open a crack just in case the door had a locking mechanism he couldn’t open.

He took a seat and stared at Lyra’s name on his HUD for several seconds. The ringtone nagged in the background.

Do I really want her involved again?

But he was far too curious about what had happened to her, Jed and Nebb to turn down the call, so he finally accepted.

“Lyra,” Tane said. “I’m guessing you’re on this moon.” Otherwise he wouldn’t be engaged in a real-time conversation with her like this.

She spoke after a two second lag. “Close enough: we just entered orbit. Switching over to full encryption. Use the keys I gave you earlier.”

The video feed filled with random pixels, and the audio became white noise. Tane applied the necessary decryption key and then her image reappeared.

“You’re aboard the Red Grizzly?” Tane asked.

“I am,” Lyra replied, once again after two seconds. “We got here as fast as we could.”

“What happened back there?” Tane said. “In the Umbra?”

“We were forced to abandon you,” Lyra told him. “When the dwellers arrived in force, we took to the air and fled. The dwellers pursued us in their warships halfway across the moon, then seemed to lose interest, no doubt when they realized you weren’t aboard. Nebb kept the Red Grizzly close to the surface, not wanting to give any orbiting vessels an easy target while the drones completed repairs to the overflow vent. Eventually when I was rested enough I took us on the jump to Anteres. We entered the Rift without much difficulty, though we did see disturbing signs that the dwellers were gathering.”

“Gathering?” Tane said.

“Yes,” Lyra said. “Perhaps preparing for an invasion. There were hundreds of ships. After we passed back into our universe, the TSN impounded our vessel, and I informed their commanders of the news while in custody. Whether or not they actually do anything about it is another story entirely. In any case, I tried sending you a message before the Red Grizzly was impounded, in the off chance you made it back somehow, but the TSN jammed our communications so I wasn’t able to. It took a lot of convincing to get the TSN to release us, and I had to call in a few favors, but finally after staying the night we were let go. We jumped to this system straightaway and entered orbit above the moon just a short while ago.”

“Okay then,” Tane said. “Welcome back, I guess. Though for someone who just made a jump, you certainly seem well-rested.”

“Nebb hired an interim jump specialist to handle the creation of the distortion tunnel,” Lyra said.

“Ah.”

“And what happened to you?” Lyra asked.

“I don’t know really,” Tane answered. “It’s all a blur.” He paused to gather his thoughts. “After the alien ship arrived, the streets filled with dwellers. They weren’t wearing environmental suits of any kind. And they shot at us. To kill. At one point other dwellers intervened and the two sides fought against each other. It’s like there are different alien factions. Some want me dead. Others alive.”

“Interesting,” Lyra said.

“Anyway,” Tane continued. “Sinive and I managed to avoid the aliens long enough to bump into a strange black lens that was just floating there in one of the town squares.” He wasn’t sure he wanted to tell her how the dark filaments from his body actually led him to that lens, so he decided to leave that out. “I accidentally touched the lens, and then a moment later we found ourselves back in this universe.”

Lyra seemed at a loss for words.

“Any idea what that lens was?” Tane pressed.

“A reservoir of Dark Essence,” Lyra said.

“Oh,” Tane said. “Well, we were being chased by kraals at the time, but when we got close to the lens, the kraals all ran away. Have you ever heard of something like that?”

“The lesser species fear the Dark Essence,” Lyra said. “It frightens them.”

“Why did it transport me here?” Tane said.

“I don’t know,” Lyra said.

“Okay, since I have you here, I might as well ask you something else that’s been on my mind,” Tane said. “I collected this pulsating crystal thing. A Dirac apparently it’s called. When I carried it back to this universe, I had a hard time letting it go. Any ideas why?”

Lyra shook her head. “I’m not sure… but one thing I know, those crystals are alive.”

“I knew it!” Tane said.

“Yes,” Lyra continued. “They’re somewhat equivalent to the plant life of this universe. But while they are entirely immobile, they’re also sentient. My guess is, the crystal sensed something in your nature it liked. Or maybe it just sought rescue from the kraals. Umbra explorers like to use them as bait, since the kraals are easily distracted by Diracs, especially if hungry. Either way, this is the first I’ve heard of a human feeling any sort of attachment toward them.”

“All right,” Tane said. “One last thing.” He hesitated, unsure if he should tell her. Hell with it. “Did you know I could Siphon?”

She paused, as if stunned. “No. This is news to me.” He wasn’t sure he believed her. He hated not knowing who he could trust.

“Well I can,” Tane said. “I’ve got level one in the skill. And a few level zero Branchworks.”

Lyra nodded thoughtfully. “Where are you and Sinive now?”

“Sinive is sick,” Tane said.

Lyra seemed alarmed. “Sick?”

“I think she’s infected with microcrillia. I brought her to a hospital—”

“I was just going to say, don’t bring her to a hospital,” Lyra said. “The staff will alert the TSN. It’s standard procedure for hospitals to contact the star navy when microcrillia infection is detected.”

“Yeah, I found that out the hard way,” Tane said. “But I couldn’t treat her myself.”

“Neither can the TSN,” Lyra said.

“What are you saying?” Tane said. “They’re just going to let her die?”

“Essentially,” Lyra said. “In cases of microcrillia infection, the patient is isolated in a hyperbaric chamber and left alone until the infection runs its course.”

“A nurse I talked to told me she was awake,” Tane said.

“If that’s true, then she will be restrained,” Lyra said. “Microcrillia patients are… not themselves. But listen to me, I can help her. I can do what the TSN cannot, will not, do.”

“You’re not just saying that because you want me to give up my location?” Tane said.

“I can help,” Lyra said. “Trust me. Tell me where you are.” When he didn’t answer, she added: “You need me. She needs me.”

Tane wasn’t sure he wanted to involve the Volur just yet. He had been looking forward to a few days, if not weeks, of lying low. But if what Lyra told him was true, then he had no choice.

“You’re certain you can help her?” Tane asked.

“If the microcrillia haven’t spread too far, I can save her, yes,” Lyra replied.

Was she lying? He certainly couldn’t tell. Then again, he had heard about the fabled healing powers some Volur had. He supposed that if anyone could help Sinive, it would be her.

“Send me your coordinates and I’ll have Nebb bring us down to your position ASAP,” Lyra said.

Tane hesitated. “I thought the microcrillia couldn’t survive in our universe?”

“Not without the proper host environment, no,” Lyra said. “Sinive’s body is providing that environment.”

Tane pursed his lips. Well, here goes. “Okay. We’re at the Alexander de Graaf Hospital. Second floor, restricted emergency ward section. I’m sending my precise coordinates now.” And he did.

“Could you enable positional sharing with my ID?” she asked.

Tane frowned. “Well, I suppose if I’m going to agree to your help, I might as well go all out. I expect to receive your position in turn.”

“Thank you,” Lyra said. “I’ve enabled my own positional sharing for your ID.”

Tane checked her location and got a report back indicating she was still in orbit.

“We’ll get there as soon as we can,” Lyra said. “If you’re able, try to move Sinive to a different room in the meantime, because if the TSN personnel arrive before we do, they’ll transport her to a secure holding facility, and it will be that much harder for us to get her out.”

“I’m not sure how extensive the patient tracking is here, but I’ll see what I can do,” Tane said. “By the way, didn’t you say that if she is awake, she’s probably restrained?”

“Yes,” Lyra said. “I never said it would be easy to move her.”

“Yeah,” Tane said. “Plus you haven’t seen what the security is like in this place.”

“If you can’t do it, then don’t,” Lyra said. “We’ll help you when we arrive. Above all else, I don’t want you to do anything to put yourself in danger.”

“I’ll keep you updated,” Tane said.

He disconnected, then left behind the small conference area. He fingered his shield belt, an inkling of a plan forming. He wasn’t sure he was going to go through with it.

He peeked around the bend of the T intersection, toward the security droid lingering down the hallway. He ducked from view immediately because he thought it was looking his way.

Don’t do anything to put myself in danger. She says it like it’s the easiest thing in the world.

Lyra promised to help when she arrived, but in truth he wasn’t sure how much of that help he really wanted. Sure, if she could heal Sinive, he wanted that. But getting her out of the hospital? Tane could do it. A part of him wanted to prove to Lyra that he was capable of doing things for himself. That he accepted her help not because he needed it, but because he allowed it.

And he was starting to wonder, was the TSN really as bad as Lyra portrayed them? Maybe they were the good guys here. “They’ll never protect you from the aliens. They’ll never be able to help Sinive.” He was starting to wonder just how much of what the Volur said was true. It was seductive to believe that all he had to do was surrender to the TSN and everything would start going well in his life again. But then he remembered what his dad had told him.

Once the TSN gets its claws into you, they don’t let go until they’ve wrung every last bit of use from you. Last thing I want is you or your mom in their hands.

He heard a clanging come from around the bend beside him: the approach of metal feet.

Damn. No doubt the security droid had noticed him peering around the edge, and was now coming to investigate.

There was still time to flee.

Do I really want to do this?

He swallowed, then glanced at the elevator all the way down the hall behind him. The TSN could arrive at any time. In fact, they might be coming up the lift at that very moment. Tane couldn’t afford to wait for Lyra and her so-called help.

I have to act now.

24

Tane removed his personal storage pouch and set it down on the floor beside the bend. He quickly widened the opening, forming a black hole broad enough to fit a man. Or a robot.

He then stepped around it, and waited until it sounded like the footsteps were right around the corner, then he walked into the T intersection.

“You,” the robot said.

“Oh hey,” Tane said, continuing down the T intersection toward the other side. Near the far edge he paused to turn around.

The robot stepped into the T intersection. It now stood directly beside the inter-dimensional hole on the floor.

“I already told you to leave,” the robot said.

“And so you did.” Tane activated his shield belt and flung himself at the robot.

The surprised machine reacted immediately, flinging its arms up to protect itself. Wrong move. It should have activated its own shield.

When Tane’s energy shield collided with the robot, the security droid was forced backward, right onto the tear in spacetime. It plunged into the infinite blackness.

Tane knelt and quickly drew the drawstrings closed. He looked both ways, and when he confirmed that no one else had witnessed the capture, he reattached the pouch to his belt and casually made his way down the restricted hallway as if nothing had happened. His heart rate was through the roof but he resisted the urge to fiddle with his cardiovascular system. He didn’t need to accidentally knock himself out now of all times.

Maybe I should have picked up that Cardiovascular and Endocrine Mastery skill.

He kept an eye out for the telltale domes of security cameras, but didn’t spot any. With luck the incident hadn’t been recorded.

Tane absently checked the charge level of his shield. Seventy-five percent. The value was slowly crawling upward as the shield’s protective energy recharged.

As he made his way into the restricted hallway, he wondered vaguely how much he could get for the combat robot on the black market. He quickly chided himself for even thinking that. He wasn’t a robot slaver. They were sentient beings with advanced AIs.

He glanced at the overhead map and confirmed he was on his way to Sinive’s room, at least according to the hospital information interface. He was a little surprised the interface reported her location down to the room level, considering that the entire section was marked as restricted. He suspected there was some sort of civil law in place that required the hospitals to disclose the precise locations of their patients; the staff probably figured it didn’t matter anyway, not when they employed security droids to protect their “no visitor” areas.

Tane finally caught sight of a dome camera in the ceiling. It was too late to avoid it. He maintained his pace, doing his best to make it appear he belonged. More security robots would probably be on their way soon. He didn’t have much time.

He spotted a nursing robot in the common area shared by the rooms here, and the robot’s animated visor displayed a confused expression when it saw him. Tane increased his pace, hurrying onward before the nurse could accost him.

He reached Sinive’s door and deactivated the shield so he could open it. He slid his hand in front of the motion sensor, worried for a moment that the door might be biometrically locked, but it slid aside.

Before he knew what was happening, a black tentacle shot forward, tipped by a three-pronged claw.

Luckily the shield interface was still open on his HUD. Tane narrowly reactivated it and the tentacle bounced away harmlessly.

On the far side of the room, next to a bed, lurked a dweller, clad in the same protective suit he had seen on his farm. Those four pairs of segmented legs were tucked in close to its body, as were the tentacles.

The window was open behind it. Sinive stood in front of that window. She looked at Tane blankly. Her condition had worsened since the last time he saw her: dark veins crawled up her neck, toward her face. Most disturbing of all were her eyes, which, sclera and all, were pure black.

A ramp sloped upward to a shuttle behind her. She turned, zombielike, toward the ramp and hoisted herself onto it.

“Sinive!” Tane said. “Don’t go.”

She ignored him and clambered up and out of view.

The alien pulled itself onto the ramp behind her, but then paused. Inside the translucent dome on the carapace, that sideways-opening jaw turned to look at him.

“You want?” The voice came from external speakers, each word sounding as if it was spoken by a different man. “Come.”

The dweller extended a black tentacle, inviting Tane to surrender himself.

“Come,” the voice repeated.

The clawed tentacle reached right up to him, pausing just beyond the influence of his energy shield.

For a moment, Tane actually considered letting the alien take him.

“No,” Tane said.

“You will come,” the voice said. The tentacle withdrew.

The shuttle ramp sealed behind the dweller and the craft pulled away.

Tane hurried to the window. The shuttle was of human make and model: a Couraser Spaceport Taxi. All the better to blend-in with the city craft. It quickly flew into the nearest approved sky lane.

Bastards know how to evade us.

He suspected it would eventually leave the city; no doubt a space-capable ship was waiting in hiding somewhere on the moon. After docking with it, the ship would enter orbit and jump to another system before military or police could intercept. And if the starship was of human make and model like the shuttle, it would only make their getaway all the cleaner.

He turned around and saw a nursing robot standing at the entrance to the room, simply staring, shocked into speechlessness. From its reaction, he knew the robot had witnessed the whole incident.

Tane shoved past the unit without any issue. It helped that his shield generator was still active, he supposed.

As he left behind the restricted area and approached the T intersection, three combat robots rounded the bend ahead. He knew they were TSN thanks to the ocean-digital fatigues they wore, and the big, white “MA” letters written onto their chests. And because of his chip, he realized without thinking about it that the robots were Masters-at-Arms.

Tane instantly spun around.

“Stop!”

Tane sprinted back toward Sinive’s room. He had maybe a thirty meter head start on the robots. He wasn’t sure how fast these robots were, but he doubted his lead would last for very long.

He kept his shield active just in case the robots got it into their heads to shoot him.

He darted past the nursing unit, which still lingered near the room, and bounded toward the still-open window.

He had heard that energy shields could absorb the impact of a fall, but the effectiveness depended on the height and the strength of the shield in question. Though his particular shield was relatively weak, it should have no problem dissipating the energy of a two story fall.

He hoped.

Tane had to turn off the shield so he could properly haul himself over the windowsill, and he launched himself outside just as the robots reached the doorway.

He activated his shield as he fell; since nothing touched him within a half meter on all sides, he was ensured three-hundred and sixty degrees of coverage, including the soles of his feet.

He hit the ground. Or rather the shield did. The generator performed some basic inertial dampening, preventing the sudden stop from causing any internal trauma, but he was still jarred. His feet had stopped a half a meter from the grass, but momentum rolled his body forward so that he immediately found himself lying prostrate while floating above the ground.

The shield held him aloft for a split second, flashing rapidly as it continued to expend energy to keep him hovering above the grass, until it depleted entirely and he dropped the final half meter.

Tane hauled himself to his feet. An alert appeared on his HUD.

Shield strength 0%.

Tane deactivated and reactivated the shield so that it could properly exclude the ground underneath him rather than trying to expend energy keeping him floating a half meter above it. The shield strength indicator crawled up to 1% as the unit slowly began to recharge.

This portion of the hospital bordered a back road next to an above-ground, multi-level parking garage. Tane raced across the road toward it. Glancing over his shoulder, he spotted the robots: they were only just leaping from the windowsill behind him. Their jumps sent them arcing outward from the building and toward him; the robots wouldn’t have to worry about activating their shield generators to cushion their landing, as their robust bodies could easily handle a fall from two stories.

Tane deactivated his shield and leaped onto the back of a square-shaped delivery truck that was driving past. There was just enough room for him to plant his feet along the ledge that bordered the rear sliding door. He wrapped his right hand around the side to steady himself.

The robots raced after him, easily closing—the truck was only moving about ten kilometers an hour.

There was a notch in the middle of the sliding door, meant for manually opening it, Tane guessed. Continuing to grip the far right edge with his hand, Tane shoved his shoe into the notch and pressed upward, grabbing onto the roof with his other hand. Then he hauled himself onto the vehicle’s top.

The truck turned onto the main road and began to accelerate. The robots were starting to fall back. One of them slowed down and aimed its plasma rifle at the truck.

Tane dropped down flat on the roof. He heard the tires squeal, and the vehicle screeched to a halt.

Tane lowered himself from the truck to the asphalt. He turned on his shield and hurried to the outdoor parking garage whose northern side still bordered the road, and he vaulted over the concrete railing. He dashed into the middle of the lot, deactivated his mixnet connection so that his chip wasn’t throwing out any signals that might attract the robots, and took cover behind a series of closely parked vehicles. He also turned off his shield, just in case the robots could use its energy signature to track him.

Tane crouched there, breathing hard. The run had been extremely winding, probably because of the slightly higher gravity of the moon, and Tane was worried that the robots might hear his panting even at this range.

He glanced longingly at the vehicles around him. He was starting to wish he had picked up the hot-wire skill when he had had the chance.

Stop second guessing yourself. There are a helluva lot of skills I wished I had. But I don’t. And wishing for those skills isn’t going to help me right now. All I have to get through this is my wits. And that’s all I need.

He heard three distinct metallic clanks nearby as the robots dropped down into the parking lot. The metal-on-concrete sounds took on a scattered note as the robots split up to search for him.

Tane crouched lower against the craft beside him and did his best to control his breathing. The vehicle was one of those land and air hybrids, equipped with fold-away rotors. There was a small gap between the rotors and the vehicle, big enough for a human being to squeeze inside. If he really wanted to...

Hell with it.

Tane pulled himself into the gap and shoved inside. He drew his knees into his chest so his feet would be out of view if the robots happened to walk past. The vehicle felt slightly warm around him, which told him the owner had only recently arrived. That was good, because it meant less of a chance Tane’s thermal signature would stand out to the robots’ IR vision.

Though he could barely see because only a little light actually penetrated the rotor compartment, he knew he was squished right up against the big, deadly blades. He considered cranking up the ISO of his vision, but being able to see the blades wouldn’t really help him out all that much. Tane prayed the owner didn’t decide to return anytime soon, or even worse, remotely start the vehicle. The results would be messy, to say the least. Then again, his chip told him that safeties would prevent such an incident.

In theory.

Tane heard the growing clank-clank as one of the robots approached. He glanced at his HUD and double-checked that he was disconnected from the external mixnet. He prayed the metallic shell of the craft would shield his RFID: even though his public profile was spoofed, the robot would recognize his name from the encounter in the hospital.

He held his breath as that clanking seemed to come from right beside him.

The sound paused, and Tane was convinced the robot was staring right at him. He thought his feet must still be showing or something, but he didn’t dare try to tuck them in deeper, not now.

He exhaled in relief when the robot moved on.

It was at least ten minutes until the robots abandoned their search of the lot, judging from the continuous clanks he heard. When the sounds finally vanished, he assumed the robots had moved on to the other floors and the surrounding areas, so he remained where he was for another twenty minutes.

Finally feeling safe enough, he slowly crawled out of the rotor compartment and reactivated his mixnet connection.

Lyra was online. He received an incoming call request from her immediately.

“Tane, we’re at the hospital,” Lyra said. “Sinive isn’t here anymore. Please tell me you got to her in time?”

“No,” Tane said.

“So the TSN has her...” Lyra said.

“Worse,” Tane said. “The dwellers.”

“What?” Lyra said. “Are you safe?”

“Not really,” Tane said. “Got some TSN robots that have a hard-on for me. I’d appreciate it if you could pick me up.”

“We’ll be right there,” Lyra said.

“Oh and, while you’re on your way out, would you mind picking up some weapons I left behind at the check-in by the top floor emergency entrance?” Tane said. “I left a D18 and a few grenades. Plus Sinive’s storage pouch. I’m sending the digital receipt your way.”

“I’ll see what I can do,” Lyra said.

A land-air taxi pulled up five minutes later. Clad in his bulky power armor, Jed was in the back. In her metal-plated dress, Lyra meanwhile sat in the front driver’s side. She looked beautiful as ever. She was gripping the steering wheel, obviously having hacked the self drive to manual control.

Tane slid into the backseat beside Jed. A D18 and several grenades were waiting there. As was Sinive’s storage pouch. Tane promptly loaded the grenades into the pockets on his harness, and slid the D18 over one shoulder. He attached Sinive’s pouch to his belt beside his own.

“The TSN has set up checkpoints at all exits to the garage,” Lyra announced after he shut the door. “Change your public profile immediately.”

Tane chose the first name and class that came to his mind: Doug Grays. Professional Video Game Player.

“Done,” Tane said. “Apparently it takes up to a full business day to go through, though.”

“I know,” Lyra said. “Which is why I don’t plan to stop.”

She drove up the ramp to the third and top floor of the parking garage.

“You might want to duck down,” Lyra said.

Tane lowered himself onto the seat and Jed covered him with a blanket so that he wasn’t visible from the window.

Tane heard a knocking, followed by a window opening.

“Volur business,” Lyra told someone. “I can’t delay.”

“I’m detecting three passengers,” a robotic voice said. “But I see only two. And registry information is blank for the third. I’m going to have to search the craft.”

“I’m on a highly sensitive mission for Talendir,” Lyra said. “I have reason to believe terrorists are operating in this area, and I’m pursuing a time critical lead. If you delay me, I’ll lose that lead.”

“I’m sorry, but—” the robot began.

“Let me pass, or thousands of people will lose their lives,” Lyra interrupted.

The robot didn’t answer.

“I assume you enjoy your existence?” Lyra said, her voice becoming extremely quiet.

The robot remained quiet a moment longer, then: “Go.”

The seat shook underneath Tane, and then he heard the sound of rotors starting up. Sudden G forces assailed his body.

“All right, it’s clear, Engineer.” Jed pulled the blanket off of him.

Tane sat up. The taxi had taken to the skies. Tane pulled his hood low as Lyra steered into a sky lane.

“Thanks for the pick-up,” Tane said.

Lyra nodded.

Tane glanced at Jed. “And also, thank you for what you did in the Umbra. Without you and Lyra...” He shook his head. “We wouldn’t be having this conversation.”

Jed nodded slowly. “We still abandoned you in the end. Which is inexcusable, in my opinion.”

“Jed wanted to stay behind in the Umbra to look for you,” Lyra said. “I wouldn’t let him.”

Tane glanced at Jed, but the man refused to meet his eye. Tane focused on the buildings below, watching them go by.

“I owe you an apology,” Jed said after a moment.

“Why?” Tane asked.

“I underestimated you, Engineer,” Jed said. “When we left you behind in the Umbra, I told Lyra we’d never see you again. And yet you survived.”

“A lot of people have underestimated me over the years,” Tane said. He added quietly: “Including myself.” He turned to Lyra. “Where are we going, by the way?”

Lyra looked at him in the rear view mirror. “The shipyard. Nebb’s waiting for us.”

“We’re going to look for Sinive?” Tane asked.

“Tell me exactly what happened,” Lyra replied. She must have been satisfied that no craft would attempt to pursue, because she let go of the control sticks and turned around completely to look at him. She’d obviously returned the vehicle to autonomous control.

Tane sighed. He gazed at his feet. “They got her. And there wasn’t a thing I could do. I walked into her room... a dweller was already there. It tried to grab me. If I didn’t have my shield, it probably would have succeeded. Sinive walked onto a Couraser space taxi, apparently of her own free will. Her eyes were black, and she had dark veins reaching up her neck toward her face. The dweller spoke to me before it followed her into the taxi. It told me if I wanted her, I’d give myself up. I refused, and then it said, ‘you will come.’ It’s like they’re hoping to use her as bait or something.”

“That’s precisely what they’re doing,” Lyra said.

“How did they even find her?” Tane asked.

“It has to be the microcrillia inside of her,” Lyra said. “My guess is it acted as a sort of beacon, allowing them to hunt her down in this universe.”

“Well if they really want to use her as bait, they’ve failed miserably,” Tane said. “Because I have no idea where to find her. I watched her taxi fly into the city and lost sight of it. Unless you have some idea of what to do… maybe the local traffic control office can help us track down the routes of all Couraser taxis that left the area in the past hour?”

“That won’t be necessary,” Lyra said. “I placed a tracker inside Sinive. The aliens haven’t disabled it. They want us to find her.”

“A tracker?” Tane said, feeling suddenly suspicious about Lyra’s intentions once again.

“Yes,” Lyra said. “It was sending out signals over the Galnet until shortly before you came back online. From what I can tell, Sinive’s craft docked with a larger vessel hidden just outside the city, and they jumped to another system soon after leaving the moon. I’ll know where the dwellers have taken her in the time it takes her signal to traverse the Galnet. That could be anywhere from a few hours to a couple of days, depending on how far away the vessel jumped. And my guess is she’s aboard a human starship, since I didn’t hear any chatter about it on Daaena’s law enforcement channels.”

“You’re assuming of course that the dwellers have taken Sinive to a system claimed by humans, one that actually has postal nodes,” Tane said. “And you’re also assuming the aliens won’t shut down her signal once they get there.”

“They won’t,” Lyra said. “They want us to follow, remember?”

Tane was silent for a moment. He gazed at Lyra and narrowed his eyes. “I have a tracker too, don’t I? One of those breathable nanotech models that form after I’ve inhaled the micro machines into my lungs.”

“Yes,” Lyra said. “It was for your own safety.”

“So earlier when you asked for my coordinates at the hospital, you didn’t really need them, did you? You already knew. It was all for show.”

She glanced at Jed, then sighed. “As I told you, it was for your own safety. And yes, while I didn’t need the coordinates, I wanted to see if you would trust me.”

“Really?” Tane said. “And like I’ll ever trust you again after this!”

“Tane, I’m sorry—”

“Remove the device!” Tane said. “Now!”

She glanced at Jed. “Do it.”

Jed pressed a gloved hand over Tane’s chest in a manner similar to what Lyra had done when removing the alien tracker inside of him before. Tane saw a bright white light emerge from beyond the edges of the glove, and then Jed lowered his hand.

“It’s done,” Jed said.

Tane rubbed his chest. “You sure? I don’t feel any different.”

“Positive,” Jed said.

Tane gave Lyra a suspicious glance. “Like I said, I’m not sure I’ll ever trust you again.”

“But you have to,” Lyra said. “If you prefer, I could drop you off at the local TSN office.”

“I almost feel like letting you do just that,” Tane said. And if it weren’t for my father’s distrust of the TSN, I would. “But I’ll stay, for now. Only because I need your help to rescue Sinive. But I’m putting you on notice: do anything to betray my trust again and I’m gone.”

“You won’t actually be involved in Sinive’s rescue,” Lyra said.

Taken aback, Tane crossed his arms. “Of course I will.”

“No, you’re going to Talendir as originally planned,” Lyra said. “Once we’ve dropped you off with the Volur, Jed and I will wait for Sinive’s tracker to notify us of her destination system, and then we’ll attempt a rescue. Or die trying.”

“The latter most likely,” Jed grumbled.

“I’m going as well,” Tane said.

“No,” Lyra said. “I’m only agreeing to participate in her rescue on the condition that you’re safe on Talendir. If you refuse, and insist on rescuing her, then we part ways here and now.”

Tane merely stared at her in disbelief. “But I can’t find her without you.”

“Exactly,” Lyra said. “Which is why you’re going to do as I say.”

Tane barely fought back the nasty response that floated to the tip of his tongue. Instead he said, as calmly as he could: “Contrary to popular opinion, I’m no one’s puppet.”

“Don’t you see?” Lyra said. “If you go you’ll be playing right into dweller hands. Your coming after her is precisely what they want. And after the description you gave me—black eyes, dark veins all over her face—I’m not sure there’s anything I can actually do for her, even if we successfully rescue her. Especially if she’s already lost her free will. And I’m not even taking into account how much more the microcrillia will have progressed through her body by the time we arrive. Jed and I could essentially be risking our lives for nothing. There’s a good chance she’ll be irretrievably lost, forever.”

“But there is a chance you can save her, yes?” Tane persisted.

She nodded weakly. “A small one. But that chance is quickly fading with each passing moment. Which is why I can’t allow you to come.”

He remembered the words Sinive had spoken to him when they were trapped in the Umbra.

Promise me you won’t leave me here, no matter what happens. Promise me if I die, you’ll take me back. Don’t leave my body here for these creatures to devour. I’ll do the same for you.

“And yet I must come,” Tane told Lyra. “After all we’ve been through, I can’t abandon Sinive now. If you don’t want to come with me, that’s your choice. I’m calling your bluff. And don’t try to put me to sleep like you did before when we left my homeworld.”

“Even if it’s in your best interests?” Lyra said.

“If you do,” Tane said. “I swear to you, when I wake up, wherever I am, I’ll do everything in my power to get away. If I’m on Talendir, I won’t stay there for very long. Trust me.”

Lyra nodded. “I believe you’ll certainly try to escape, yes. Which would require your hosts to strip away many of your liberties. You do realize it’s not so easy to escape a planet populated by Volur?”

“I can be resourceful,” Tane said.

Lyra nodded. “I concede the point. You had to be resourceful to survive the Umbra on your own.”

“I wasn’t alone,” Tane said. “I had Sinive.”

“You two bonded when you were out there, didn’t you?” Lyra said.

“We did.”

“Is there anything we should know, specifically, about you two?” Lyra said.

Tane stared at her for a moment, then he burst out laughing. “It’s not like that.” Then he became serious, remembering Sinive’s comments about sex the night before. “I think.”

“Consider very carefully for a moment what you propose to do,” Lyra said. “Already the task is hopeless for Jed and myself. You would be joining what is essentially a suicide mission. She’ll be surrounded by a host of dwellers. Our chances of getting out with our lives are extremely low. Leave her to Jed and myself. Let me drop you off at Talendir.”

“Why do I get the feeling you have no intention of rescuing Sinive on your own?” Tane said. “Unless I go? You think it’s not worth it. You’ve convinced yourself that she’s lost already. I can tell. And when you drop me off, you’ll leave me a message a few days later, claiming that you weren’t able to rescue her, but you tried, real hard. Meanwhile the whole time you’ll be sitting in a luxury suite somewhere on Talendir, getting a toe massage.”

Lyra gave him a hurt look. Finally she glanced at Jed.

“He is persistent…” Jed said.

Lyra nodded.

“I’ve told you once, and I’ll tell you again,” Tane said. “I’m not leaving her. I have to try.”

“You’ll deliver yourself right into their hands...” Lyra tried again.

“Then I guess you’ll just have to come with me and prevent that from happening,” Tane said. “Do whatever it takes to prevent the aliens from taking me.” He glanced significantly at the glowing pistol hanging from Jed’s hips. “Whatever it takes.”

Lyra turned around, not answering him.

25

Tane followed her gaze and watched as the taxi approached a shipyard on the rooftop of a tall building. It was the same shipyard the Red Grizzly had landed on in the Umbra, Tane realized. He recognized the hangar bay and the familiar pattern of circular landing platforms around it extending out over the building’s edge. Among the different vessel classes, he picked out the Rapier class ship itself squatting on one of the landing areas.

“If we allow you to come,” Lyra said slowly. “I’ll expect you to obey our instructions to the letter. If we get aboard the ship or base or wherever they’re holding her, and the resistance proves too great and we make the call to leave, you will obey immediately. Is that clear?”

“Yes,” Tane said.

“And now that you know you can Siphon, I’ll expect you to spend the next few hours or days training with us,” Lyra said. “Until we receive Sinive’s signal.”

“Why don’t you just purchase nanotech for me?” Tane said. “Seems easier.”

Jed laughed heartily.

Lyra meanwhile only shook her head. “We’ve spent almost everything in both of our accounts. I’m sorry, but we’re going to have to do this the old fashioned way. Unless you have funds to spare?”

“Old fashioned is fine,” Tane said. “I’m eager to learn.”

“I’m sure you are,” Lyra said. “We will remain on this planet until the signal arrives.”

“Good,” Tane said. “Because I have a feeling, once you bring me to Talendir I’ll have a hard time leaving.”

“You are correct, at that,” Lyra said. “The Volur won’t want to let you go, not until they determine why the aliens want you so badly.”

“It sounds almost like you don’t want to let me go, either,” Tane said. “Not even to them.”

Lyra didn’t answer that.

When the taxi touched down on the landing pad near the Red Grizzly, before getting out Tane removed the pouch from his belt and set it down on the seat between himself and Jed. “I have an angry combat robot locked away in my personal storage device. Think you can help me pull it out?”

Jed grinned. “I like your style, Engineer.” He scooped up the pouch. “I’ll need access, of course. I intend to remove the robot somewhere else, so it doesn’t know where we’ve taken you.”

“Good idea.” Tane gave access and then exited the taxi. Lyra joined him on the landing platform.

The vehicle promptly took to the air, taking Jed with it.

Lyra was talking quietly, seemingly to herself. He thought he heard her say Nebb’s name, so he guessed she was updating the smuggler.

She glanced at Tane. “Head inside.”

“Is Nebb aboard?” Tane asked.

She nodded. “The cockpit.”

Tane proceeded aboard the Red Grizzly.

“Welcome back,” Grizz said.

“Hey Grizz, did you miss me?” Tane said.

“Not quite.” The ship’s AI sounded amused.

“To be honest, I didn’t miss you either,” Tane said.

“If I were a woman, I admit, I would have probably missed you,” Grizz said. “But seeing as I’m not...”

“You’re not a man either,” Tane said.

“Well, if we’re going to play at semantics, then neither are you,” Grizz said.

Tane half smiled. “Try fighting on the surface of a moon in the Umbra with me sometime. Then we’ll see who’s a man and who’s not.”

“I’m sure we will,” Grizz taunted.

Tane decided he truly didn’t miss the Red Grizzly’s computer system. “You know, if I ever buy a Rapier class ship, the first thing I’m doing is gutting the computer system and replacing it with a proper AI.”

“Good luck,” Grizz said.

“What do you mean, good luck?” Tane asked.

“Let’s just say, the Harold variants installed in Rapier class ships possess an extremely high degree of self-preservation,” Grizz replied.

“Oh really?” Tane said. “Then we must have damaged yours. Because you let us fly you into the Umbra.”

“Point taken,” Grizz said.

Nebb didn’t seem too happy to see him when Tane stopped by the cockpit. Positron, seated beside him, was his usual gloomy self as well, and gave Tane a scowl with that animated display of his.

“Hey kid,” Nebb said. “Heard you lost my jump specialist.”

“Sorry,” Tane said.

Nebb nodded slowly. “Now I’ll have to find another.”

Tane waited for a moment, and Nebb finally looked at him. “What? Why are you standing there glaring at me accusingly?”

“Is that it?” Tane said. “That’s all you have to say? No, ‘I’m glad to see you, Tane.’ No, ‘I’m sorry to hear about Sinive?’ Just, I have to find another jump specialist thanks to you?”

Nebb gave him a lopsided grin. “Well, yeah. Don’t get me wrong, of course I care about Sinive. Why do you think I agreed to transport you all for free to wherever she is? It’s just... well, I ain’t never been the sentimental type, if you catch my meaning.”

“I didn’t know you were doing this for free...” Tane said. “If so, I was wrong about you.”

Nebb gave him a sheepish look. “Well, it’s only kinda for free. I’m still getting a substantial reward once I drop you off at Talendir. At least that’s what Lyra has promised me. We’ll see if the damn Volur lives up to her word. But if you die rescuing Sinive, that ruins everything.”

Tane forced a smile, bearing his teeth. “I’ll try not to die, that way you can collect your fee. Or reward, I guess you’re calling it now.”

“Look kid, it’s nothing personal,” Nebb said. “This is just business.”

“Sure thing,” Tane said. “What part are you going to play in the rescue anyway?”

“I guess that depends on where Sinive is, and what the situation is,” Nebb said. “At this point, I can’t offer any guarantees I’ll stick around.”

“What do you mean?”

“Figure it out,” Nebb said. “If it looks like you and your Volur friends aren’t going to make it, I’m out. Because unlike you three, I’m not willing to die for free.”

“Even if it’s the honorable thing to do?” Tane asked.

“Dying is never honorable,” Nebb said. His eyes took on a distant glint. “No matter what light you might try to cast the dying in. Ain’t never honorable.” He glanced at Tane. “Now get out of here. I got stuff to work on.”

“Gladly.” Tane vacated the cockpit and made his way through the cramped corridors to his quarters. His storage pouch was waiting on the bottom bunk—apparently Jed had already released the robot and returned. Tane doubled-checked the inventory and confirmed the robot was absent.

Tane decided not to stow any of his gear in his quarters, instead opting to secure his rifle and the grenade harness inside the pouch. When that was done, he attached the personal storage device to his belt.

Lyra called him to the Red Grizzly’s main entrance to begin his “lessons” shortly thereafter.

There wasn’t really all that much room for practicing aboard, so apparently Lyra had walled off a small area on the landing pad at the base of the ramp using spare bulkhead material that Nebb no doubt had aboard somewhere. She had vertically mounted a pipe to a tripod near one of the makeshift walls.

When Tane joined her, she was talking with a maintenance robot that seemed to belong to the shipyard.

“I’m sorry, but you can’t put detritus on the landing pads like this,” the robot was saying.

“We’ve rented out the entire landing pad for the whole day,” Lyra said. “As far as I’m concerned, the area is ours to do with as we please. Unless you’d prefer that a Volur train her apprentice in full view of the other ships? It might scare away some of your clientele, I think.”

“I see your point,” the robot said. It glanced at Tane. “Very well. See that you and your apprentice remain behind these bulkheads while you train. If you cause a commotion and distract the other pilots, we’ll be talking again.”

“We’ll be quiet as lambs,” Lyra said.

Tane watched the robot wheel past a small opening between two of the bulkheads and vanish.

“Is that what I am?” he asked her. “Your apprentice?”

“Essentially,” Lyra said. “For the next few hours, anyway. Or days.”

Jed was nowhere in sight, Tane noticed. “Where’s Jed, by the way?”

“He’s keeping watch beyond the practice area,” Lyra said. “I’ve instructed him to notify me if anyone else attempts to disturb us. And to prevent them from doing so.”

The halo around her blue dress abruptly brightened, and Tane involuntarily stepped back. She retrieved the small cylindrical device that hung from the right side of her utility belt.

“If you’re going to board a hostile vessel or base with me,” Lyra said. “And face the dwellers, then this is the weapon I want you to use.”

Tane accepted the small object. It was something he could easily hold in one hand, though there was enough room to grip with both if he desired. One end, which he assumed was the top, was open, revealing a small shaft that dug deep into the cylinder. Small vector designs were etched into the surface, reminding him a little of the patterns found on printed circuit boards. The subtle green glow emanating from the item indicated it was Essence Imbued.

He instinctively attempted to ID the item as he had once before, but as usual got nothing. Even so, he had a good idea what it was.

“A beam hilt?” Tane asked.

“Yes,” Lyra replied.

“I’m sending the ID information and necessary digital manual to you,” Lyra said.

“Manual?” Tane said.

“Yes, it’s not as good as a nanotech brain dump, but it will have to do,” Lyra said. “I’ll teach you what I can as well, of course.”

Lyra wants to share the details of the weapon “Beam Hilt I” with you. Do you accept? Y/N.

Tane accepted and reviewed the resultant ID information:

Weapon: Beam Hilt I.

Item type: Epic.

When activated, by default the weapon creates a dual-bitted battle-ax made of pure Essence.

Additional damage: 25% added Essence damage for each successful hit.

Additional effects: As the dual blades are formed of Essence, it can instantly penetrate personal energy shields.

Essence-Imbued bonus: +7 Endurance while equipped.

Chrysalium bonus: +5 to Intelligence while equipped.

Beam Hilt specific:

The hilt is restricted to those who can Siphon. The user must constantly funnel Essence into the hilt in order for the weapon to function; as such, only those with a high natural Siphoning ability can use it for any length of time.

The device is composed of 50% Chrysalium, providing the aforementioned boost of +5 to Intelligence while equipped.

Weapon is capable of launching an Essence bolt at a given target. Aim the central tip of the shaft between the two blades at your target, and activate the release on your HUD: a deadly bolt of Essence will leave the magnetic containment field of the weapon and ram into the target, passing through any personal energy shields. Based on current Beam Hilt Control skill and Endurance, you may fire three Essence bolts per minute.

Tane turned toward Lyra.

“I can’t take this,” Tane said. “What will you use?”

Lyra smiled patiently. “I won’t need it. I plan to be fully rested when we begin the operation. Nebb is hiring another interim jump specialist, so we’ll have two. When we breach the enemy, my weapon will be the Essence.” She took a step back. “Try to activate the weapon.”

Tane examined the device but didn’t see any obvious switches. He attempted to link his HUD to the device, but it didn’t show up on the mixnet as a network-enabled device.

“I don’t know how…” Tane said.

“Siphon,” Lyra said. “But instead of allowing the ribbon of Essence to flutter uselessly in front of you, funnel it down through your arm and into the hilt. There is no need to expend precious effort and concentration into creating Branches from the howling wind. Simply redirect the stellar gale from the universe above our own into the hilt, rather than allowing it to emerge from your core. And then merely continue Siphoning. The hilt AI will handle the necessary Branchwork creation.”

Tane emptied his mind with the polished ease that came from his purchased Siphoning skill, and extended his mind to the edges of perception, beyond which the Essence beckoned. Consciousness expanded and time slowed. The Doppler-shifting siren of an ambulance flyer somewhere nearby dropped way down in pitch, and Lyra seemed to freeze beside him. As did his own body.

Tane extended his mind past the boundary of perception and stepped into the upper universe. The howling, frigid stellar wind of the Lumina exploded inside him, and he guided it to his core, his consciousness returning to the confines of his own reality.

Time snapped back to its original pace. The now familiar line of white light burst from his chest and wavered in front of him, waiting for him to begin the Branching.

Whoops. He had instinctively allowed the Essence to emerge from his core. He remembered Lyra’s words:

Redirect the stellar gale from the universe above our own into the hilt, rather than allowing it to emerge from your core.

Tane focused on steering that flickering ribbon of light away from his core, and it promptly vanished. He guided the cold wind along his bones to his hand instead, following the skeletal frame of his arm, and forced it to emerge from his palm.

And directly into the cylindrical weapon he gripped.

Already he felt his stamina starting to flag slightly from the Siphoning, but then the subtle green glow about the hilt brightened, and he felt a boost, feeling like he could Siphon forever, and he knew that the Endurance bonus had kicked in.

An instant later a beam of energy erupted from the hilt. A long central shaft parted into twin blades near the top, forming a huge battle-ax. It was about the same length, and glowed with white light of about the same brightness, as when he had seen Lyra use the weapon in the Umbra.

He gazed at the glowing blades in awe.

I’m doing this!

“When you get better,” Lyra said. “You can shape the weapon into any shape you desire. A pole-ax to hamstring your opponents. A scythe to hew down your enemies. Or simply leave it as is.”

“Can it deflect incoming laser and plasma bolts?” Tane asked hopefully.

“No,” Lyra said.

“Too bad.”

“That’s what shield generators are for,” Lyra said.

Turning slightly away from Lyra to give her some clearance, he swung the weapon about and it cut through the air, painting bright afterimages over his vision. The ax was eerily silent, making no sound whatsoever. He could see some benefit in that. If he needed to sneak up on someone, for example. His opponent would be felled essentially by soundless light.

“I’ve cleared the ownership lock,” Lyra said. “You should be able to link to the weapon now.”

Tane attempted to interface with the item. Sure enough, a network-enabled device ID for the hilt now appeared on his HUD. He successfully achieved the link and received a message: Beam Hilt I Provisioned. A basic user interface overlaid his vision.

“The user interface will highlight enemy positions,” Lyra said. “Helping you to keep your bearings. In the lower right of your vision you should see the release command. Use that to launch an Essence bolt from the tip of the shaft once you’ve aimed at a target.” She pointed toward the tripod-mounted pipe. “Try it.”

Tane lifted the ax to chest level, bringing back his arm to hold the hilt behind him as far as he was able, and aimed the tip between the dual blades at the vertical pipe.

A targeting reticle appeared on his vision, aligned to the shaft tip. He adjusted the hilt positioning until he had the reticle lined up with the center of the pipe, then he activated the release.

The blades flared brighter for an instant, and a white bolt ejected from the shaft, smashing into the pipe and breaking it in half. The bolt also carved a neat hole into the bulkhead beyond. He could see another metal wall positioned just behind the first—Lyra had evidently placed multiple bulkheads to form a double layer. Probably a wise move.

“Very good,” Lyra said. “Step out of the Essence.”

Tane did so. He felt weaker, but not as drained as he usually felt after attempting to create a Branchwork. He supposed the Endurance bonus from the hilt helped.

“Am I correct in surmising that you’ve never used Chrysalium to enhance your Siphoning before?” Lyra asked.

“No, I haven’t,” Tane said.

“All right, well, Siphoning with Chrysalium is easy,” Lyra said. “Instead of stepping your mind into the Lumina, you extend it into the Chrysalium. You should sense the stellar wind even now, lurking beyond the hilt you hold in hand.”

Tane focused. Now that he thought about it, yes, he did sense the wind lurking inside the hilt, howling within the device, just beyond his grasp. That wind was now in two places: at the periphery of his perception, and in the hilt. It actually seemed slightly stronger inside the Chrysalium.

He attempted to step his mind into the stellar gale within the hilt, but it was like there was a mental barrier between himself and that wind.

“How do I get to it?” Tane asked. But as the words left his lips, he extended his mind even harder into the hilt, pushing against the invisible barrier. He penetrated.

The Essence shrieked inside of him, coming from the hilt. The gale was more powerful than what he could ordinarily Siphon on his own, a veritable hurricane that for a moment threatened to overwhelm him, but he somehow managed to get control as it coated all of his bones.

He received a notification on his HUD:

Siphoning bonus. All Branchworks are enhanced 18% due to Siphoning through Chrysalium hilt.

New skill learned.

Chrysalium Siphoning Level 0.

The freezing ribbon didn’t emerge from his core this time, so there was no need for him to steer the stellar wind down his arm. Instead it erupted from the base of the hilt, like the fiery emissions of some tiny rocket.

Tane simply looped the Essence back into the weapon.

The blades of white light literally exploded from the hilt this time. The beam was thicker, and so bright that it was nearly blinding. And longer… almost a pole-ax. He waved the long weapon about, relishing in the lightness, and the immensity of the dual blades. He half-expected to hear a swish of air as the energy ate through the atmosphere, but there was nothing.

It was far brighter than the ax Lyra had made in the Umbra, and for a moment he thought he was more powerful than her, but then he remembered she had been recovering from a jump attempt at that point.

“Excellent,” Lyra said. She had stepped well away from him. “Now you’re truly using the weapon to its maximum. Step out of the Essence.”

He was glad to obey, because even with the Endurance bonus, he already felt his stamina beginning to flag from handling that much of the Essence. He stood still for a moment, panting as if he had jogged a short distance.

“It’s an exhilarating feeling, isn’t it?” Lyra said. “Wielding that much of the Essence.”

Tane nodded. “It is. But since this weapon is made of fifty percent Chrysalium, couldn’t someone weaker in the Essence, like a jump specialist, use it?”

“In theory,” Lyra said. “Though in practice they’d never create a beam as powerful as the one you just formed, nor even as strong as the unassisted ax you produced the first time. Instead, theirs would only be a weak whimper of a weapon, the ax blades almost a hologram, quite useless for fighting.”

“Makes some sense, I suppose,” Tane said. “But that brings up another question. How did you know I would be strong enough to wield the beam hilt in the first place?”

Lyra shrugged. “Just a hunch.”

Tane wasn’t sure he bought that answer, but he decided to let it pass for the time being.

“Now it’s time for some practicalities,” Lyra said. “When using the beam hilt to its fullest extent by Siphoning through the Chrysalium, the brightness will blind you, occluding your vision and partially blocking your line of sight. That can be offset to a degree with help from the user interface, which will provide auto-gating of light levels, and highlight opponents and incoming bolts that aren’t visible to you because of the shaft and twin blades. But to truly master the weapon, you must learn to see from the Essence.”

“See from the Essence?” Tane said. “How?”

“The key lies in the Essence itself, of course,” Lyra said. “When you Siphon, do you not notice how your consciousness seems to expand initially? Time seems to slow. But then you lose that enhanced awareness when you use the Essence: time snaps back to its former pace and you shrink back inside of yourself. You must learn to hang on to some of that expanded consciousness. To anchor a part of yourself in the world outside of your body. The ideal position is a short ways behind and above you, so that you can be aware of attacks from the rear.”

“Sort of like playing a video game in third person perspective?” Tane asked. “Or observing yourself through the point of view of a selfie drone?”

“Somewhat,” Lyra said. “Your movements will be slightly disorienting when viewed from that perspective. Which is why the ideal position for a beginner is behind your body, so that the orientation of your arms and legs matches what you are seeing: left is left, and right is right.”

“Tell me what to do,” Tane said.

“It is difficult to describe,” Lyra said. “When you’re sitting on the edge between our world and the next, you simply leave a part of yourself behind when the howling wind passes over you. Focus on that area with all of your intensity. Imagine that you’re in a hot air balloon floating behind your body, and that the basket is still roped to the ground.”

“Hmm.”

Tane cleared his mind and allowed his awareness to grow. He stepped into the Essence but instead of letting the stellar wind blow away his expanded consciousness entirely, he envisioned throwing out a small lifeline above and behind his body.

That worked to anchor a part of himself on the edges of perception: while most of his consciousness fell back within himself, his view remained at the third person angle behind him, just as if he were viewing himself through a fixed, airborne drone.

He waved the weapon about, and the motions of his body matched his movements.

“I think I’ve done it,” Tane said. It was odd hearing his voice so near, given how far he seemed from his body.

“Try switching back to first person perspective and firing at the pipe,” Lyra said. Her voice was directly to his left, matching her location near his body, once more at odds to his current observation point.

He was about to ask how to switch back, but then he knew: he was able to draw in that lifeline, and his viewpoint returned to himself. He aimed at the remaining portion of the pipe, lined up the reticle, and released, cutting down the pipe almost to the tripod. The blow was more powerful now that he was Siphoning through the hilt, and it partially ate through the second layer of bulkhead beyond the first.

“Now return to third person,” Lyra said.

Tane released the lifeline and his vision snapped back to its former position above and behind his body.

“Got it,” Tane said. He swung the ax about a few times, turning around as he did so. His observer perspective remained anchored behind him, rotating to remain behind him at all times. “It’s certainly a little surreal.”

Tane stepped out of the Essence and the ax shut off. His perspective instantly snapped back inside of himself.

A notification appeared on his HUD.

New skill learned.

Essence Sight. Level 0.

“Well done,” Lyra said. “Very few people get it the first time. I’ll attribute it to beginner’s luck.”

“I actually imagined a lifeline, rather than a hot air balloon,” Tane said.

“Whatever works for you,” Lyra told him.

“You don’t understand,” Tane said. “I didn’t even try to think of the air balloon. The lifeline just came to me automatically, and it worked.”

Lyra nodded. “Remember that you learned how to Siphon from nanotech. Could be some residual muscle memory imprint from the person whose brain the nanotech dump was taken from. You paid for Siphoning, and got Essence Sight for free.”

“That would make sense,” Tane said. “Which makes me wonder how many other unintended ‘skills’ I’ve received when buying nanotech. Not to mention other subconscious imprints.”

“That’s one of the drawbacks of nanotech, and few ever talk about it,” Lyra said. “Though the benefits far outweigh the negatives, in my opinion. Besides, like I just told you, you already got a skill for free.”

“I suppose,” Tane said. “It does make me wonder, if I ever decided to give a memory dump in exchange for credits, how many other intertwined skills I’d be giving up for free?”

“You have a long way to go before anyone ever pays you for a memory dump, I’m afraid,” Lyra said.

“You’re probably right,” Tane said. All it took was a quick glance at his skill screen to tell him that. Essence skills, all level zero. Other skills, mostly level one, with only Sharpshooting at level two.

Yup. Definitely a long way to go.

26

Tane continued practicing for the rest of that morning, taking rest periods as necessary. The Endurance bonus let him pour Essence into the beam hilt for long periods before he had to stop. It helped that Lyra mostly made him draw Essence directly from his body rather than through the Chrysalium of the hilt, so that he didn’t have to handle as much. He got it down to a fine art, using the hilt to choke the amount of Essence raging through him until he had reduced the wind to a breeze, with the energy ax becoming little more than a holographic projection in front of him, which was all he really needed to practice with.

Lyra lent him some Essence-Imbued rings to boost his Endurance, and that helped as well. Even so, after an hour long session, he found himself having to rest for at least half an hour before he could try again. Lyra assured him that his recovery time would improve as he got used to Siphoning the raging power of the Essence through his body, but she also warned him that he was still experiencing only a tiny fraction of the drain that was possible when Siphoning through larger Chrysalium sources such as the hulls of ships.

“The sheer, incredible, universe-bending power ripping through your body when Siphoning through a starship is an experience you won’t soon forget,” Lyra said. “As is the absolute, mind-numbing exhaustion that follows.”

“Speaking of which, when do I get to touch the hull of the Red Grizzly?” Tane asked.

Lyra smiled sadly. “I fear you would destroy yourself given your current Siphoning skill level. Already, whether you realize it or not, you balance on the razor’s edge when you Siphon. One misstep, failing to properly guide the tornado of stellar wind, and that incredible gale will tear you apart. You will die, but there will be a corpse, at least. A misstep while Siphoning the massive amounts available from the hull of a ship, however, will completely atomize your body.”

“But what about that trick you taught me?” Tane said. “With the hilt? Using it as a choke point to tamp down on the Essence blowing through me.”

“That trick doesn’t work with a starship,” Lyra said. “The Essence levels involved are simply too great. Yes, you can tamp down to an extent. And in fact you have to when you’re setting up a distortion tunnel, to properly select the destination, but the forces you’re dealing with are still incredible. It’s very easy to destroy yourself: all it takes is for your concentration to lapse just a millisecond.”

“Doesn’t sound like fun,” Tane said.

“Jump specialists and Essence gunners certainly have their work cut out for them,” Lyra said. “Which is why I personally try to avoid jump chambers as often as I can. Though sometimes, like for this mission, it’s impossible to avoid. Other Volur love taking control of jump chambers and Essence throwers. Myself, I’ve never enjoyed the feeling of impending doom, nor the eight hours downtime that follows. In any case, my part is done for now. Jed will resume your training from here. At least for a while.”

Tane kept running his ax at the reduced power levels, which allowed him to spar with Jed, whose Essence-Imbued steel could resist the beam intensity. It did take some fine-tuning on Tane’s part until he hit upon a power level that was low enough not to destroy Jed’s sword, yet strong enough to prevent it from passing right through.

The man’s long blade was silver in color, but because it was Essence Imbued, it pulsed with blue energy. That pulsing proved slightly distracting during their sparring, and Jed often purposely flared the halo to blind him.

Tane wanted to do the same thing with his ax, but was worried he’d destroy the man’s weapon if he poured any more power into his twin blades.

Jed showed him some tricks, so that soon Tane had a rudimentary understanding of how to use the weapon in combat beyond simply randomly slashing. Jed taught him, for example, that Tane could use both the shaft of his energy ax, as well as the blades, to parry.

At first, Tane did all of his sparring from the first person perspective, as it was too difficult to coordinate his body from the third person view of Essence Sight, especially with his body sometimes blocking his view of Jed.

The man introduced Tane to the concept of ax forms, and had him practice a routine called Dotting The T that involved slashing horizontally, vertically, and then jabbing with the protruding tip of the shaft between the two blades. Jed would block each of the hits, and then the Volur would perform the routine on Tane in turn, allowing him a chance to parry the impacts.

“I doubt very highly we’ll be facing any dwellers equipped with swords,” Jed said. “But it’s always good to learn the basics.”

Jed forced Tane to practice fighting from the third person perspective, and soon had Tane switching back and forth from first person to third in the middle of a sparring session. Each view had pros and cons, but Tane soon found that he began to favor the external perspective slightly because it allowed him a bigger take on the overall battle space.

At the end of his session, Tane was rewarded with a notification on his HUD.

New skill learned.

Beam Hilt Control. Level 0.

“What!” Tane said. “Come on.”

“What is it, Engineer?” Jed asked patiently.

“I’ve been training all day and all I get is level zero?”

Jed shrugged. “Be patient. Remember, levels are based on the average ratings of everyone else possessing a certain skill. From what I’ve seen of other Volur, who train for years to learn proper technique, you are indeed level zero. You’ve barely scratched the surface of what it means to wield a beam hilt. You only know one ax form. You’ve only just begun to switch back and forth between third and first person perspective.”

“You know, between you and me, I think I’m just going to buy the necessary skill upgrades,” Tane said.

“Good luck,” Jed said. “It’ll cost you a small fortune.”

Tane finished with Jed, ate a liquid lunch aboard the Red Grizzly, napped for half an hour, and then Lyra took over his training for the rest of that day.

“So what Essence skills do you know?” Lyra asked right away.

“I have Air Current and Persistent Flame,” he said. “Both level zero. I also have a hologram containing the design for Essence Missile, but I haven’t been able to create it, yet.”

Lyra nodded. “Essence Missile will be more useful, I think. We’ll start with that. Send me the hologram you have.”

Tane did so.

“Yes,” Lyra said. “This is right. The key is in the Leaves. They are the most difficult part. The main Branches are easier, since you only have to shove out from single points to achieve them, but the Leaves have to be extended from multiple points. I want you to create a single Branch from the root, and immediately create the first Leaf you see on the hologram. When you’ve mastered it, move on to the next Leaf, and the next, until you’ve memorized them all. Then try to create the full hologram, placing the memorized Leaves on the appropriate branches.”

Tane did as she asked. He found that when he gripped the hilt of the beam hilt in hand, even when it wasn’t activated, it gave him a +5 boost to Intelligence, and with that boost, he was able to memorize each Leaf faster than he ever thought possible. When he had all the Leaves down pat, which took about an hour and a half, including rest periods, he went back to creating the bare Branchwork, and when he had that memorized, he started adding the Leaves. It took at least fifty tries, spread out over the next three hours, but at the end of it he was finally able to reproduce the Essence Missile from the hologram. When he released it, a bolt of pure energy appeared in front of him, drilling a hole into the wall the size of a fist, and knocking it over to boot. The wall smashed into the layer behind it, sending them both tumbling over.

“What’s the advantage of this over Essence bolts produced by my beam hilt?” Tane asked.

“Essence Missile has much more stopping power,” Lyra said. “Especially at the higher levels. And even if an opponent’s armor absorbs the damage, they’ll still be pushed back. You can also fire more than one at a time when you get good, creating three, four, or even five at once, fanning them out in a deadly dispersion pattern in any direction around you. It makes for a lethal combination when used with your beam hilt.”

Tane rested a few more moments, and then tried to create the Essence Missile again. He failed the next several attempts, but then got it again. Over the next hour, including rest periods, he began to achieve some success, creating the Essence Missile one time out of every three.

He received a notification on his HUD when he got his proficiency up to two times out of three.

New skill learned.

Essence Missile. Level 0.

“Well, I guess that’s better than nothing,” Tane said to himself.

He continued to practice the missile and gained a point of Endurance by the time the first day was done, leaving him at fourteen in that department, or twenty-one with the beam hilt equipped.

That night, Tane lay in his quarters, utterly spent. He could hear Jed’s calm breathing coming from the top bunk above him. Earlier, the man had stripped off his armor and placed it inside a storage pouch at his waist.

Though he was exhausted, Tane found it difficult to sleep. The neurons of his brain were still firing rapidly, constantly replaying the day’s events over in his head, from Sinive’s kidnapping by the aliens to his training at the hands of Lyra and Jed. It was all a blur.

As he lay there in the pitch black room, he attempted to clear his mind using the technique he’d learned from the nanotech memories, but it didn’t help. Next he tried something that used to work for him—listening to his own breathing. It was somewhat calming at first, and Tane actually started to fall asleep, but when Jed unintentionally let off a loud snort the noise snapped Tane completely awake.

Living on the farm, Tane had always had a room to himself. It was still hard to get used to the idea of sharing his quarters with someone.

As he listened to Jed’s distracting breathing, his mind returned to the day’s training.

Tane used to feel so intimidated by the man, but after sparring with him, he realized Jed was actually a fairly cool guy. If somewhat standoffish. There was so much he didn’t know about the man. Jed was like this big, dark puzzle. Tane decided he would start asking the man questions about himself whenever even the smallest things came to mind.

As soon as he had that thought, something immediately came to mind. And he suddenly felt shy about asking it.

Well, I can’t sleep, so hell with it.

“You know, there’s something I’ve been wondering about you,” Tane said. It felt easier to talk to the Volur like this in the darkness, without seeing the man’s face, or his judging, penetrating eyes. And it definitely felt way less intimidating. “Why do you prefer the top bunk? Usually people like the bottom bunk because it’s easier to get off the bed, and you don’t feel like you’ll fall off if you roll over. But not you. You’re always insisting on taking the top. Why?”

“Higher ground,” Jed said simply.

“Oh. That actually makes some sense. Sort of.” Tane lay in quietude for a moment, once more listening to their shared breathing.

“Do you ever wonder why we’re alive?” Tane asked on a whim.

“Yes,” Jed replied immediately.

Tane waited, but Jed wasn’t any more forthcoming.

“And what conclusion do you come up with?” Tane pressed.

“To serve,” Jed said.

A man of few words.

Tane sighed, then closed his eyes. As he began to drift off to sleep, Jed’s gruff voice woke him.

“I grew up in a Xandar slave farm,” Jed said. “I was essentially strapped to the thick spokes of a giant wheel with several other boys, and we turned that heavy wheel all day, every day. I never did find out what the purpose of the wheel was. Whether it powered something or did anything of actual use, or was merely a means to keep us occupied, I had no idea. The slavers did feed us well, at least. And injected us with nanotech to control our testosterone levels, which, in combination with the work provided by turning that heavy wheel, sculpted our bodies into prime specimens of humanity.

“And maybe that right there was the sole purpose of the wheel: to shape us for the sale while keeping our minds mostly a blank slate, ready for chipping. Despite the food and injections, only half the boys tied to that wheel reached adulthood. The others succumbed to accidents. Disease. Exhaustion. So the wheel also served the purpose of pruning us.

“Every day, sixteen hours a day, pushing that wheel. Knowing nothing but the broad spoke underneath your callused palms, the dirt underneath your callused feet, and the back of the youth pushing the next spoke in front of you. Your consciousness contracts to a tiny island, and the only relief you find is in imagination. I created whole worlds in my mind. Imagined I was the king of an empire. The admiral of a fleet. Sometimes I pretended I had been captured, and that my men would be coming to save me. Though the daydream that recurred most often during those early years, sometimes several times a day, was imagining breaking free of my oppressors, killing them all, and then leading the other slaves to freedom. It never came to pass. I did try to escape, once, but the punishment the slavers inflicted, killing the only friend I ever had in that place, broke me utterly.

“Eventually even my imagination failed me, and all I knew was the feel of exhausted muscles, the build up of lactic acid. I experienced no emotions of any kind. Not love. Not hate. Not revenge. I merely existed. From one day to the next. Fifteen years of turning that wheel, my mind an empty shell…”

He paused, his breathing coming in ragged, angry gasps. His voice had descended in volume to a whisper by that point.

“Lyra was the one who saved me from the slavers,” Jed continued more loudly. “She was passing through the system, and on a whim visited one of the slave markets. I happened to be on auction that day. She bought me, took me in. Saw something in me I didn’t see in myself. Though I appeared strong on the outside, a monster of a man back then, inside I was weak and utterly broken, not to mention prone to violence and streaks of cruelty. Lyra… fixed me, for want of a better word. She had me chipped, and then injected me with nanotech to give me memories of a childhood that should have been mine. She showed me what it was like to live a normal life. To be treated as a normal human being. And when I was ready, she set me free.

“I wandered the galaxy for a time, trying to find my way. Seeking vengeance, I eventually returned to the slave outpost and found the Xandar there living in retirement. They had given up slaving. I didn’t care. I butchered them all. But killing the Xandar bought me no peace. So I wandered further.

“I found temporary love. Temporary peace. Learned I had the power of the Volur inside of me. I could have used the Essence for my own selfish ends, at least until I was caught by the TSN and conscripted into their armies. I chose not to. I understood that vengeance, ambition, the lust for power, none of that would give me rest. And all of it was meaningless in the overall scheme of things.

“So I returned to Talendir and accepted training as a Volur. I embraced the role with all of my being and never looked back. They taught me that it was my duty to use my powers to serve the good of humankind. I embraced that duty with relish. I sought out Lyra when I graduated, and we began to work together, first on trivial missions, and then on larger, more important operations. We discovered we meshed well together.”

“Wow,” Tane said. He was stunned into speechlessness by the tale. “Just wow. Thank you for sharing that with me.”

“You’re welcome, Engineer,” Jed said. “I hope you understand now why I told you the point of existence is to serve. At least for me. It has given me my peace.”

“I think I do understand,” Tane said. “Either way, I’ll never look at you the same again.”

“Is that good or bad?” Jed said.

“Good,” Tane said. “What a hard life. Lyra must really mean a lot to you, for what she did.”

“I love her,” Jed stated.

“Are you...” Tane let the question hang.

“No,” Jed said. “Not that kind of love. Like a sister. A mother, even.”

“Oh,” Tane said. “Well. I’m glad you finally had someone to fill that role, given your childhood.”

“As am I,” Jed said. “She and I have made mistakes in this life. And continue to make them. But in the end we try to do the right thing. Always remember that, no matter what you think of us.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” Tane said. “Though it almost sounds like you’re trying to defend yourselves. For some harm you haven’t yet done to me.”

Jed didn’t answer.

Tane shrugged it off. He was probably reading too much into Jed’s words in the dark.

Tane closed his eyes and sleep finally came.

* * *

Tane slept extremely well, thanks to his exhaustion the day before, and the next morning he sparred with Jed once again. The Volur made no mention of the conversation they had had the night before, and acted as if it had never occurred. Probably a good thing. Tane didn’t want to be treated any better, or any worse, for knowing what he did about the Volur’s past.

When the morning session was done, Tane had a liquid lunch, and in the afternoon he practiced Essence Missile alone.

At supper that evening he met the two temps Nebb had hired to replace Sinive. They were crowded in beside the long table that ate up most of the free space in the tiny compartment that served as the wardroom.

The first was a man so portly, it must have been difficult for him to get around the tight passageways of the ship. He barely fit behind the table as it was, the edge digging into his bulging chest. The second was a skinny man with a huge Adam’s apple.

“Meet Sour Grapes and Bad Apple,” Nebb said. “The interim jump specialists.”

“Actually, the name’s Gregory Marlboro,” the one named Sour Grapes said.

“And I’m Brody Brodericks,” the other said.

“I can see why you’re Bad Apple,” Tane told the skinny Brody. “But you?” He nodded toward Gregory. “Sour Grapes?”

“I don’t get it, either,” the bulky man said.

“Oh really?” Nebb said. He looked at Tane. “Sour Grapes here was one of the original bidders at the auction where I picked up the Red Grizzly. I outbid him and several others in the end, of course. Probably a good thing. Look at where he is now… still working the odd jump job, whatever he can take really.”

“Hey, I can’t tell you how happy I am I lost that auction,” Gregory said. “This damn ship is so cramped, I don’t think I could have stood it for more than a few weeks.”

“See what I mean?” Nebb said. “Sour Grapes.”

“So why hire two, again?” Tane asked.

“One of them will jump us to whatever system Sinive is in,” Nebb said. “You three brave morons—Lyra, Jed, and yourself—will take the shuttle while I wait in the Red Grizzly, safe on the system’s outskirts. And if things turn sour, I’ll have a second well-rested specialist ready to jump me out.”

“So you really aren’t coming with us,” Tane said. “I thought you might be joking.”

“Nope,” Nebb replied. “I’m not going to risk my ship again. Didn’t you learn anything the last time? It won’t help you much if I’m not able to jump away because disruptors keep unwinding our distortion tunnel. After our last encounter, I swore I’d never get that close to an enemy again. I’ll stay for as long as I possibly can, but if any vessels get close to the Red Grizzly, I’m bailing.”

“But how are we going to get out of the system when we rescue Sinive?” Tane said. “A starship can easily overtake and outgun a mere shuttle.”

“That’s your problem to figure out, isn’t it?” Nebb said. “My advice would be to head for the nearest human colony. Assuming it hasn’t been destroyed.”

“And assuming there’s actually a human colony in the system at all,” Tane said.

“Wait a second,” Bad Apple chimed in. “You never said anything about jumping to an uncharted system. And what was that about a colony being destroyed?”

“Nothing,” Nebb said. “We’re just having idle talk. I don’t pay you to think, or to listen in on conversations above your pay grade.” The smuggler returned his attention to Tane. “As I was saying, none of that is my problem. It’s up to you to figure out how you’re going to get away from any enemies without drawing them to my position.”

Maybe this hadn’t been the greatest idea after all. And yet Tane couldn’t simply abandon Sinive, especially not now, not when there was still a small chance Lyra could save her. And that chance had to be present, it had to be. Otherwise Lyra would have canceled the mission. Wouldn’t she have? Then again, maybe even she didn’t know how far the infection had progressed. They might arrive only to discover the infection had completely destroyed all that was left of Sinive.

“Look kid,” Nebb continued. “In all honesty, your Volur isn’t paying me enough to do anything more. She originally contracted me to take you to Talendir. I’ve agreed to divert some of the original funds to cover the cost of renting the only shuttle I have aboard. And you know what? I’m essentially giving her the craft, because as I said, I don’t expect any of you to return. Consider it a small token of my appreciation for your attempt to rescue my jump specialist, who you three caused me to lose in the first place. How’s that for smuggler generosity?”

Tane stared at the glass he held, and at the thick liquid of the meal replacement inside it. Then he looked up.

“Sinive told me you were like a father to her,” Tane said.

A pained expression momentarily swept across Nebb’s face, but then vanished as quickly as it came. “Like I said, it’s time for you all to quit hanging onto delusions. I ain’t her father. Never was. I owe her no loyalty. Hell, I should be glad she’s gone. Means I won’t have to dole out her back pay after all.” His eyes darted shiftily toward the two jump specialists, perhaps nervous the words “back pay” would trigger them, but neither man said anything.

“You’re a heartless bastard, you know that?” Tane told him.

Nebb shrugged.

Tane glanced at the other two jump specialists and wondered if he should reveal just how badly Nebb had cheated Sinive in the past year and a half. He decided it wasn’t worth it. Tane needed these jump specialists just as much as Nebb did.

Tane finished his liquid meal replacement and then went directly to the cockpit where Lyra lingered alone. Her eyes were distant, telling him she was inside her chip, but she focused on Tane when he entered.

“Nebb says he’s not going to wait for us,” Tane said. “Or rather, he’ll wait only as long as the Red Grizzly is safe. The moment any enemy ships get close, he’s jumping.”

“I know,” Lyra said.

“Then how are we going to get back once we rescue Sinive?” Tane said. “If we take the shuttle, we’ll be pursued by the dwellers when we escape. Of course we’ll bring any ships they have into range of the Red Grizzly.”

“You should have thought of that before you insisted on coming along,” Lyra said.

“I assumed you had a plan,” Tane said, resisting the urge to throw up his arms in frustration.

“If you want, I can still drop you off at Talendir first,” Lyra said. “And then I’ll attempt the rescue alone with Jed.”

“No,” Tane said quickly. “No.” He paused to consider their options. “I guess, once we grab Sinive, the only way to escape is to completely commandeer the ship. Assuming she’s aboard a ship…”

“That will be impossible,” Lyra said. “Especially if it’s an alien ship. None of us can interface with their technology. Biometric locks encode all access. Personally, I myself always imagined we’d disable one of their engines or something along those lines, and then return to the shuttle and make our way back to the closest human colony in the system. Once there, we hide out until the TSN arrives. The TSN chases the dwellers away, and at that point we hire another ship and complete the journey to Talendir.”

“How do we know the dwellers won’t shoot us out of the stars before we reach the human colony?” Tane said.

“We don’t,” Lyra said. “But I believe this is the faction that wants you alive.”

“So I’ll be the bait in all of this?” Tane said.

Lyra nodded. “You’re going to have to be. Why do you think I agreed to let you come in the first place? You’ll get us aboard their ship, or planet-side base, or wherever they reside. That’s the easy part. Getting out will be the tricky bit.”

Tane returned to his quarters to rest. He intended to get in some more practice with Essence Missile that evening before going to sleep.

But then Lyra pinged him. He accepted her call.

“Sinive’s signal finally reached this part of the Galnet,” Lyra said. “We have her location. We’re leaving shortly.”

27

Tane had been putting off answering his parents. Well, if he wanted to send them a message, now was the time. He might not get another chance ever again.

He pulled up the message interface on his HUD and activated the record button.

“Mom, Dad,” Tane said. “I’m not sure when this message will reach you. We never made it to our destination. I’m not sure now if we ever will. We lost a crew member. We’re going to try to get her back. I hope… I hope I’ll see you again. I’ll be in touch.”

Tane focused on the send button, but hesitated. There were so many things he had left unsaid. How thankful he was for everything his parents had done. How much he loved them.

They knew. They had to. He didn’t have to spell it out.

Tane sent the message and hurried toward the cockpit. He was able to move quickly because Grizz hadn’t yet closed the breach seals.

When he was halfway there, he lurched to the side before the inertial dampeners kicked in.

“What’s going on?” Tane said into the empty corridor.

“We’ve launched,” Grizz said. “The Red Grizzly is streaming across the moon’s surface in preparation for entering orbit.”

“What about the TSN?” Tane said. “Will we have to deal with them?”

“There are currently two TSN battleships in orbit, yes,” Grizz said. “All ships are supposed to report in with those battleships before leaving. We’ll enter orbit on the far side of the moon, away from the TSN ships, as well as the moon’s orbital defense platforms, and then jump before anyone can intercept us.”

“Sneaky,” Tane said.

“We are smugglers,” Grizz said. “Sneaky is what we do best.”

Tane arrived at the cockpit to find Lyra seated next to Positron and Nebb. Jed had once more assumed his customary standing position near the entrance, and Tane took his place opposite the man.

“So what do we know about the source system?” Tane said.

Jed glanced upward, as if signaling the AI to answer. Sure enough:

“It’s called Iridium because of the abundance of the namesake element in the system,” Grizz said over the intercom. “It’s located in the Outrim, so I’m sure you’ll love it.” Tane pulled up the respective system on his HUD. “Three stars. Iridium I and II are binaries, while Iridium III orbits the center of mass of the other two. There are two planetary systems, Iridium System A and Iridium System B. IS-A is composed of a few small rock planets in orbit about the third star, while IS-B is made up of more rock planets, gas giants, and an asteroid belt orbiting the combined center of mass of all three stars.

“There’s a research outpost on the dark side of a tidally locked Mercury-type planet in IS-B. Several mining companies own mineral rights for the deposits in the asteroid belt. Other than that, the system is otherwise empty: there is one postal node near the outskirts of the system, and no military presence.”

“So much for catching a ride on another ship,” Tane said.

“I’m sure one of the mining companies will be happy to give paying customers a ride out on the next freighter,” Lyra said.

“Well sure,” Tane said. “Once the alien threat is gone. Assuming they didn’t all flee the system when the aliens arrived.”

“They likely don’t know aliens are there,” Lyra said. “Remember, the dwellers escaped this moon in a human vessel. Or at least, we believe so.”

“So they haven’t alerted the TSN, you’re saying?” Tane asked her.

“I have people listening in on TSN chatter,” Lyra said. “So far, there have been no alerts issued in that system. But when we arrive, if any dweller ships appear, you can bet that a bunch of research ships and mining vessels are going to be making jumps. And TSN vessels will be dropping in shortly.”

“So that solves the problem of chasing away the dwellers once we’ve rescued Sinive,” Tane said. “Though it does give us another problem: we’ll have to avoid the TSN.”

“I may have to temporarily hand you over into their custody…” Lyra said.

“Temporarily,” Tane said. “Not sure I like the sound of that.” Tane focused on the layout of the Iridium system he had displayed on his HUD. “So where is Sinive in the system?”

“Her position at the time of transmission was approximately a hundred thousand kilometers out from an uninhabitable rock planet in IS-A known as IS-A-2, or Romulus, in orbit around Iridium III,” Grizz said.

“So she’s still aboard the human starship the dwellers hijacked…” Tane said.

“Possibly,” Lyra said. “But we can’t know for sure. The transmission is two days old.”

“Point taken,” Tane said. She could be anywhere. “So where are we going to jump in?”

“I’ve instructed Nebb to take us to a spot between Iridium III and the first planet of the secondary system,” Lyra said. “We’ll be jumping within the next twenty minutes.”

“You might as well head down to the shuttle bay and wait there,” Nebb said. “I want you ready to depart the instant we arrive. Just in case I need to get the hell out of there.”

“It’s too bad we don’t have a more loyal captain…” Tane said.

“Hey, you don’t want me, feel free to find someone else,” Nebb said. “Oh wait, I’m all you’ve got. Never mind!”

Lyra stood. “Let’s go.”

He and Jed followed Lyra into the cramped passageway outside. The man’s armor shrunk slightly as Jed entered; that was the first time Tane had seen it change size before his eyes, which only confirmed his earlier suspicions about the gear.

Tane addressed Lyra: “Maybe we should seriously consider hiring another ship?”

Lyra shook her head. “I have no more credits. And I can’t ask Talendir for any more at the moment.”

“Why not?” Tane pressed.

“The High Command expects me to bring you to the homeworld straightway,” Lyra said.

“So you’re going against your own leadership by doing this…” Tane said.

“Essentially,” Lyra said.

“Why?”

Lyra paused to glance askance. “Because some things are more important than obeying commands.”

Tane and the others entered the airlock at the hangar bay, and inside Tane got to glimpse the shuttle first hand. It looked essentially like a big ladybug, replete with half-dome hull and eight small landing gear “legs.” He ran an ID:

Ship: Grizzly Cub.

Class: Ladybug I Shuttle.

Offensive Weapons: None.

Point Defense Weapons: None.

Shielding system: None.

Passenger capacity (current/maximum): 0/4.

“Um,” Tane said. “Those specs aren’t very impressive. Without weapons or shields, we’ll be sitting ducks in that thing.”

“As I mentioned, the plan hinges entirely on the aliens’ desire to capture you,” Lyra said.

“Assuming we have the right faction,” Tane said.

“We do,” Lyra said.

The hangar itself looked like a crowded garage, with crates and lockers and other stuff Nebb stored in the place. There wasn’t very much room to move around at all, especially considering the shuttle used up most of the remaining available real estate.

“I get the feeling he doesn’t use this shuttle very often,” Tane said.

“Evidently not,” Lyra said. “All of this gear should really be secured to the bulkheads. He might lose some of it when we depart.”

“Too bad for Nebb,” Tane said.

“I want you to suit up,” Lyra told him. “It’s standard protocol when boarding a deep space shuttle.”

“All right,” Tane said, turning. “I’ll head back to the spacesuit closet. There should be a few left.”

“Forget those suits.” Lyra produced a small pouch from a hidden pocket of her dress—the pouch was a personal storage device, no doubt. Perhaps the dress pocket was, too. From the pouch she retrieved a spacesuit whose individual assemblies were bound together in a carbon fiber net. “I’d give you better armor, but this is all I have.”

As Tane unwrapped it, he ID’d the full suit and discovered it had twice the armor rating of his last spacesuit, and had double the oxygen capacity.

Armor: Spacesuit II.

Model: Excursion II-23 Rev b.

Item type: Uncommon.

Weight: 60 kg.

Armor rating: 10.

Armor effects: Protection from the void. Limited protection against weaker plasma and laser impacts. No protection against Essence attacks.

Spacesuit specific:

Oxygen tank: 100% (sixteen hours remaining)

Spare tank: 100% (thirty minutes remaining)

Extra features: IR and visual light headlamps. Cargo pockets containing medical and suit repair kits. Utility belt comes standard with a spool of carbon fiber safety cord, accessible via a release button.

Tane removed his shield generator, set aside his storage pouch, and prepared to don the spacesuit.

“If you don’t mind?” Lyra nodded toward Tane’s hands.

“Oh. Sorry.” Tane returned the Endurance rings he had borrowed from Lyra for his training.

“I’ll be needing them for the coming conflict,” she told him as she slid the rings onto her fingers one at a time.

Tane had no doubt she would.

He donned the spacesuit. When he was finished, the pressurized atmosphere kicked in with a sonic injection to his hand. He reattached the shield generator and storage pouch to the external utility belt, then removed his grenade harness from the storage device, fastening it atop his chest assembly. He fetched his D18 from the pouch, and the grip enlarged to fit his bulky gloves as he slid the rifle over his shoulder assembly. Finally he retrieved the beam hilt, securing it to his utility belt as well. Like the D18, the hilt enlarged slightly to fit his outfit.

“Will I still receive the usual bonuses if I grip the beam hilt through a spacesuit glove?” Tane asked.

“You will,” Lyra replied.

The Volur similarly donned a spacesuit retrieved from her personal storage device. When she was done, she reattached the small pouch to her utility belt, like Tane. But unlike Tane, she carried no obvious external weapons.

“You’re not going to arm yourself?”

“Jed is my weapon,” Lyra said. She reached into her pouch. “I want you to carry a spare spacesuit in your personal storage device for Sinive. Just in case Jed or I don’t make it to her.”

“What do you mean?” Tane said. “Of course you’ll make it to her.”

“Yes, but just in case,” Lyra said. She lowered her voice. “I don’t want to die for nothing.”

“You’re not going to die,” Tane said.

“Even so, it would set me at ease, knowing you have a spare suit for her,” Lyra said.

“But who’s going to heal her, if not you?” Tane said.

“You’ll find someone,” Lyra said. “But trust me when I say this, I fully intend to survive.”

From her storage device she retrieved the parts for another complete spacesuit, secured in a tight bundle so they wouldn’t use up multiple inventory slots, and gave it to him. Tane stuffed the suit into his pouch.

“Let’s get inside the shuttle,” Lyra said.

Tane followed her up the ramp and into the cabin. Four seats filled up the interior, facing one another in pairs of two. Tane sat beside Lyra while Jed perched opposite him. As usual, the man wasn’t wearing a spacesuit: instead the helmet of his power armor had extended to cover his head. The halo surrounding the suit seemed brighter than usual.

A locking clamp secured Tane in place. He glanced toward the left, where the cockpit would be, and was met by a blank wall.

“No cockpit?” Tane asked.

“This model of shuttle doesn’t offer manual control,” Lyra said. “It’s all AI operated.”

Tane received a comm link request from the shuttle, and accepted.

“Welcome aboard!” a deep male voice said. “Welcome aboard the Grizzly Cub. I’m your host, the Cub himself.”

“This is a shared band,” Lyra said. “We’ve got Nebb online as well.”

“Guess we can’t talk behind your back anymore, huh Nebb?” Tane said.

“Actually, it’s we who’ve been talking behind your back all this time, until you came on,” Nebb said over the comm.

“Oh.”

A few minutes later Nebb announced from the cockpit: “All right, we’re making the jump. Stand by.”

Even though he was aboard a shuttle, Tane still heard the characteristic humming that came with every jump. It grew in volume, and he felt the usual nausea. Actually, not just the usual... it seemed worse this time, and as the seconds passed, he felt like he was going to black out.

And then just like that the sound cut out, and along with it, the nausea.

“Why does jumping always make me feel sick?” Tane said.

“It’s the feedback loop caused by such a massive amount of Essence traveling through the hull,” Lyra said. “It’s something only Essenceworkers like you and myself feel.”

Ah. Another hint that I could Siphon all this time.

“It was worse this time,” Tane insisted.

“It depends on the skill of the jump specialist,” Lyra said. “If he’s not very good, and has to keep readjusting the destination endpoint until he latches onto the correct system, then you’ll experience what we just felt.” Her eyes defocused. “So, do we have her position?”

“We’re in Iridium system,” Nebb said over the comm. “Grizz, tell our client what we’ve got.”

“I’m reading a heat signature in orbit around Iridium III,” Grizz said over the shared channel. “It’s about two hundred thousand kilometers from the uninhabitable rock planet IS-A-3, or Remus. It matches up with a human corvette class, Harbinger model.”

“Ah yes, there she is,” Nebb said. “Forty million kilometers off our prow. The Harbingers are powerful ships. One of the few non-military corvette classes out there, though with the same armaments as the TSN. Disruptors. Lances. You name it. The Red Grizzly is no match for her, of course.”

“What about Sinive?” Lyra said.

“I’m not reading Sinive’s tracker,” Grizz said. “If that is indeed the ship that took her here, and if she’s aboard, the tracking device has been disabled.”

“So what do you want to do?” Nebb said. “If you launch now, you can reach the ship in a few hours.”

“Has the ship reacted yet?” Lyra asked.

“No,” Nebb said. “Light from the Red Grizzly won’t arrive for another two minutes, since we just appeared.”

“What else do we have in the system?” Lyra asked.

“We’ve got a few freighters and haulers in the asteroid belt, as expected,” Grizz said. “And a mercenary ship pulling security. Also corvette class.”

“What about the inner planet containing the research outpost?” Lyra asked.

“It’s still present,” Grizz said. “We’ve also got a small space station in orbit there, along with a tiny elixir class research vessel.”

“All right,” Lyra said. “The inner vessels I’m not too worried about. But a corvette class mercenary pulling security near the asteroids? That’s worrisome.”

“You think the dwellers got their ship from here?” Jed said.

“That’s what has me worried,” Lyra said. “Because if so, it’s possible both corvettes are manned by dwellers. And maybe those freighters. Nebb, get in touch with those ships in the asteroid belt, and the research vessel. ASAP.”

“On it,” Nebb said. “Though because of the distance I won’t hear back from the closest of them for at least twenty minutes.”

“That’s fine,” Lyra said. “Meanwhile, I want you to prepare to take us to within an hour of the corvette that’s orbiting Iridium III. That ship is our ‘best guess’ target for the time being. And considering the Red Grizzly can move much faster than your ladybug shuttle...”

“Wait, you want to move to within an hour away for the Red Grizzly?” Nebb said. “Or an hour away for the shuttle?”

“The shuttle,” Lyra said.

“Mmm,” Nebb said. “That’s a bit close for my liking. That’s almost at the cusp of Essence disruptor range. I told you I don’t want to put the Red Grizzly at risk.”

“You’ll be safe at that range,” Lyra said. “Set a course. But don’t engage just yet. I want to see how they react when they realize we’re here.”

Lyra waited five minutes.

“Nebb, anything?” Lyra said.

“The corvette in orbit around Iridium III still isn’t responding to our presence,” Nebb said.

“All right, engage the engines and start us on course for Iridium III,” Lyra said. “And let me know when the ships you’ve contacted answer.”

“What are we supposed to do in the meantime?” Tane said. “Sit here in the shuttle?”

“If you want to doff that spacesuit, only to have to put it on again half an hour from now, feel free,” Jed said.

“No, it’s just, my nerves...” Tane said.

“I understand,” Jed said. “The time before a battle starts is always the hardest. Do your best to hang in there.”

Fifteen minutes later Nebb spoke over the comm. “So far I’ve heard back from the mercenary corvette at the asteroids, and one of the freighters. Video feeds. They tell me that everything has been relatively quiet out here. They say the corvette appeared a couple of days ago, and refused all attempts at communications. The vessel has kept close to Iridium III, so they assumed it was doing research of some kind. They did in fact report the vessel to the TSN, using the postal node in this system, but no ships have come to investigate as of yet.”

“Can we be sure the transmissions you received from these ships were real?” Lyra asked.

“The encryption keys were valid,” Nebb said. “And the video synced up with the audio. I have no reason to disbelieve them.”

“Except that all of that can be spoofed by someone who knows what they’re doing,” Lyra said.

“True enough,” Nebb said. “But the question is, do the aliens have that ability?”

“If they’ve commandeered a human ship, and avoided detection in plain sight all this time, I would say there’s a good chance they do,” Lyra said. “Keep an eye on all the other human ships in the system, and let me know the instant any of them changes course.”

“Will do,” Nebb said.

A few minutes later Nebb’s voice came over the comm again.

“Okay, I’ve heard back from all the other ships now,” Nebb said. “They’ve got the same story as the mercenary and freighter. The corvette arrived, and hasn’t responded to anyone.”

“Thank you,” Lyra said. “Have you picked up Sinive’s signal yet?”

“That’s a negative,” Nebb said.

Maybe ten minutes passed before Nebb spoke again.

“All right, got some good news, and some bad news,” Nebb said.

“Good news first,” Lyra said.

“I’m finally picking up Sinive’s signal,” Nebb said.

“And what’s the bad news?” Lyra asked.

“It’s emanating from an alien ship.” Nebb replied. “Dweller.”

“Where did it come from?” Lyra said.

“It was hiding behind Remus,” Nebb said. “Along with three other vessels. I think we encountered one of the pincer-shaped ships before, in the Dhoulan system. I think it’s the one we let get away after passing through the rift in that system. Have a look at the visuals. Notice the hull damage?”

Tane received a video request over the comm and accepted. He enlarged the video to fill up his HUD; it was a feed from an external camera, currently zoomed in on four starships set against the backdrop of space. Tane recognized the three dark, pincer-shaped vessels, and the fourth shaped like a long, hooked bill. Dwellers. And there was indeed some hull damage to one of the pincer-shaped ships, like Nebb mentioned.

“That might very well be the same ship,” Lyra said.

“They chose this system well,” Nebb said. “There are no rifts for us to escape through this time.”

“No, there aren’t,” Lyra agreed. “Which one is Sinive’s signature coming from?”

“The bigger, hook-shaped vessel.”

“I figured as much,” Lyra said.

“Why?” Tane said.

Lyra glanced at him. “That’ll be the hardest ship for us to navigate internally, in terms of the enemy resistance we’ll face.”

“Great news,” Tane quipped.

“Yes,” Lyra said.

“All four alien ships are on an intercept course with the Red Grizzly,” Grizz said. “The human corvette near them is accelerating... it appears the vessel is on the same trajectory, and intends to join them.”

“I’m reversing the course of the Red Grizzly,” Nebb said.

“It won’t help,” the ship’s AI said. “They’ll still be gaining on us.”

“I know,” Nebb said. “It’s looking like I’ll be jumping out of this system a whole lot sooner.”

“Then we better get out there and draw them away ASAP,” Lyra said.

“Probably a good idea,” Nebb said. “Wait, I’m receiving a message from the human ship.”

“Let’s hear it,” Lyra said.

A voice came over the comm. Or rather, a series of voices. Tane was reminded of the dwellers that had spoken to him at the farm and the hospital—the sentences were formed from a patchwork of words spoken by a broad spectrum of human speakers.

“You have come to surrender the human known as Tane Ganeth?”

“Tell them we have,” Lyra said. “How long will it take our response to reach them?”

“At our current range, only a minute,” Nebb said. “And another minute for the reply to come.”

Two minutes later Nebb spoke over the comm again. “All right, so the aliens sent two words back: ‘very good.’ That’s it.”

“Tell them we’re launching a shuttle containing the human they want,” Lyra said.

“Done,” Nebb said.

She cleared her throat. “All right then, let’s get this rescue started.”

“For what it’s worth, good luck,” Nebb said.

“Coming from you, not much at all,” Tane told him over the comm.

“Thanks kid,” Nebb said. “If you were in the same room with me right now, you’d see me giving you a certain obscene gesture.”

“Shuttle AI, vent all air from the hangar bay and take us out,” Lyra ordered.

“Venting hangar bay air,” the deep male voice of the shuttle came over the comm.

Tane felt the deck momentarily vibrate.

“Hangar bay is vented,” the shuttle said. “Opening bay doors. Activating engines.”

Tane heard a humming sound, and realized there must have still been atmosphere in the cabin for the noise to be picked up by the external microphones of his helmet.

“Engaging artificial gravity,” Cub said. “And taking off.”

The deck shook once more, followed by calm. His stomach lurched slightly, and he realized the inertial dampeners had kicked in.

“Grizzly Cub is away,” the shuttle said.

“Set a course for the alien ships,” Lyra said. “Target the big one.”

“Targeting the big alien ship,” the shuttle said.

“Nebb, place the Red Grizzly on a perpendicular course to our own,” Lyra said. “I want to give you as much breathing room as possible, so as not to give you an excuse to abandon us just yet.”

There was a slight delay before his response: “Mighty fine of you. And don’t get me wrong, I appreciate the gesture. But I’m not sure it’s going to help.”

“Cub, grant me access to your tactical display,” Lyra said. “And do the same for Jed.”

“Me too?” Tane asked.

A message appeared on Tane’s HUD.

Authorization denied.

Too bad.

The tense moments ticked past.

The voice of Grizz came over the comm. The words were slightly distorted. “The ships near the asteroid belt are powering up their jump drives.”

“So they finally picked up the thermal signatures of the aliens,” Nebb commented, his voice also digitally warping.

“Two freighters just jumped out of the system,” Grizz said. “I’m also detecting a shuttle traveling from the surface of the tidally locked Mercury equivalent, heading toward the research ship.” The AI paused. “The mercenary corvette, and the remaining vessels in the asteroid belt have also fled.”

“That’s typical miner courage there for ya,” Nebb said.

Another minute passed.

“The shuttle docked with the research ship, and the latter vessel just jumped out,” Grizz intoned. “That makes the last of the human ships. Discounting the Harbinger model corvette…”

“So none of the others harbored aliens after all,” Tane said.

“One less thing to worry about,” Lyra told him.

Nebb spoke after a few seconds. “The TSN will be making an appearance shortly I’m sure, especially when the local military offices start receiving frantic communications requests from freight captains who claim they’ve witnessed alien vessels. Things might get interesting. Too bad I probably won’t be around to watch any of it.”

“Yes,” Lyra said. “Speaking of which, you’re almost out of comm range.”

On the “friends” area of Tane’s HUD, Nebb moved to the offline column. The shuttle and the Red Grizzly were too far apart for realtime communications.

“Three of the enemy are pursuing us,” Jed said. “Including the hook ship.”

“I see it,” Lyra replied.

“But the fourth alien ship and the human ship are both continuing on an intercept course for the Red Grizzly.”

“Damn,” Lyra said. “Forcing him away. We’re going to lose him, I’m afraid.”

“Maybe that’s what the aliens want,” Jed said.

“That would be a good supposition,” Lyra told him.

Sure enough, twenty minutes later Nebb sent a transmission: “They’re getting too close. Sorry people, I’m going to have to bail. Good luck to you. It has been a pleasure serving you for as long as it lasted. Send my regards to Sinive if you ever find her.”

A moment later the shuttle announced: “The Red Grizzly has jumped.”

“And now we’re truly on our own,” Lyra said.

“I just thought of something,” Tane said. “What’s to stop the alien vessel from jumping once we’re aboard?”

“Nothing,” Lyra said. “In fact, they probably will jump, if only to escape the TSN’s coming warships.”

“So if we’re successful, and escape with Sinive, we might find ourselves in a different system?” Tane said. “One potentially uninhabited? Without a jump drive of our own?”

“Yes,” Lyra said. “Or worse, the dwellers might jump to a system containing a rift, and go inside. Then when we emerge, we’ll find ourselves in the Umbra. Also without a jump drive.”

The rescue was starting to sound like a very bad idea.

28

Tane’s hands felt sweaty in his gloves. To distract himself from his downward spiraling thoughts, he concentrated on why he was here. Sinive.

When her name came to mind, he thought of something and glanced at Lyra. “Do we have an exact location aboard for Sinive?”

“No,” Lyra said. “Not at this range. Their hull disperses the signal, making it impossible to pinpoint a spot from here. But I’ve got blueprints of their ship design. Made during the days of the war. My best guess is that Sinive will be held in one of the cargo bays. It’s one of the few places they could create an atmosphere compatible with human beings. I’m sending the blueprints your way now, with the cargo bays marked off.”

Tane accepted the share request and pulled up the blueprints. The ship design was definitely alien. The passageways had a lot of sharp, angular bends that turned back upon themselves at two hundred and seventy degree angles. He cycled through the different levels.

“Would your tracker still transmit if she was dead?” Tane asked.

“Yes,” Lyra admitted.

“So we might be doing this all for nothing?” Tane said.

Lyra studied him from behind her faceplate. “We Volur have a code of honor. We never leave behind a friend, no matter the circumstances. Not ever.”

“Sinive is your friend?” Tane said.

“She’s yours,” Lyra said. “And that’s good enough for me.”

Behind her faceplate, the Volur never looked more beautiful than she did in that moment.

The minutes ticked by.

Tane began bobbing his foot up and down nervously. “I don’t know if I’m ready.”

“There is a reason I’ve been training you,” Lyra said.

“To handle whatever the dwellers might throw at me?” Tane said.

“Yes.” She hesitated. “And, well... never mind.”

“No tell me,” Tane said.

“I don’t want to scare you,” Lyra said.

“Trust me, I can’t be more afraid than I already am,” Tane said.

“There might be Amaranth aboard,” Lyra said.

“Amaranth?”

“I told you about them, once,” Lyra said. “The dweller counterpart to us Volur. Capable of wielding their Dark Essence with equivalent levels of skill and intensity. If we find them, leave them to me.”

“How will I know who they are?” Tane asked.

“You’ll know,” Lyra said cryptically.

Tane considered that. “Okay. I was wrong. Guess I can be even more scared. What if you can’t handle them?”

“I’ll handle them,” Lyra said, though a slight tremble in her voice betrayed her doubt.

Tane remained very quiet for the next few moments.

“You know, Dad hinted that the TSN did something terrible to the dwellers,” Tane said. “Before the war ended.”

Lyra sighed, looking away.

“Tell me what happened,” Tane said. “I deserve to know the truth. Especially considering I might die over there. We all might. Let me know what I’m fighting against. Why they hate us.”

Lyra’s eyes defocused, as if she were checking the tactical map to see how far away the shuttle was from the alien ships. Then she nodded behind her faceplate.

“The TSN destroyed their homeworld,” Lyra said. “And I mean completely, utterly obliterated it, leaving nothing behind.”

“What?” Tane said. “How?”

“As you know, all worlds in the Umbra also exist in this universe,” Lyra explained. “Destroy a world here, you destroy it in the Umbra. The planet where the dwellers lived was a world of hydrocarbon seas. It existed in plain sight among a system humanity had already explored and claimed, though no bases or mining operations of any kind had yet been established. A system named Anteres. When the TSN agents confirmed the location of the homeworld in the Umbra, the star navy sent a fleet of warships a thousand strong to the system.

“The dwellers had placed some of their own battleships here in our universe to defend the planet, but the enemy vessels were caught completely by surprise, and the fleet made short work of them. The massive TSN fleet fired their Essence Lances together at the same time, concentrating their fire on the same spot, drilling a hole through the planet’s crust and into the core. When the Essence from our universe contacted the Dark Essence stored in the core, it set off a chain reaction that obliterated the planet.

“Ninety billion dweller civilians were wiped out in that attack. It was meant to cripple their navy by cutting them off from the source of their power, The Dark Essence, which at the time was erroneously believed to reside exclusively inside the core of their homeworld. We know now that the Dark Essence is stored within many worlds, though to this day the homeworld was one of the strongest sources.

“When their world was destroyed, it opened up an extensive rip in spacetime now known as the Anteres Rift: a permanent, one-way gateway that allowed dwellers to enter our universe whenever they desired, forcing the TSN to install a permanent fleet of warships in the system that exists to this day.

“The TSN hunted down the surviving dweller battleships that still wandered our galaxy, either destroying them or driving them into the smaller rifts that lead back to the Umbra scattered throughout our galaxy.”

“How did the dwellers get here in the first place?” Tane asked. “I thought the Anteres Rift was the only way for them to reach our universe?”

“There could actually be other rifts leading here, as I hinted at before,” Lyra said. “But back in the days of the war, the dwellers used a special inter-dimensional jump ship created by the Amaranth and the Builders. It allowed them to form massive distortion tunnels they could keep open long enough to transport entire fleets across. The dwellers would jump into a system, cause as much damage as they could, and then jump back to the Umbra before the TSN arrived. Guerrilla warfare at its finest. Shortly after the dweller homeworld fell, we Volur destroyed the prized inter-dimensional jump ship. The act effectively trapped the dwellers that remained in our universe, forcing them to seek out the smaller rifts to return to the Umbra.”

“Can’t we close the Anteres Rift, and prevent them from ever returning to our realm?” Tane asked.

“No,” Lyra said. “We’ve tried, believe me. And while we believe the dwellers lost the designs to their inter-dimensional jump ship, it is possible we are wrong. Who knows, they might have already constructed a new one.”

“What’s to stop the dwellers from similarly destroying our homeworlds in the Umbra, where we have no defense?” Tane said.

“Nothing,” Lyra said. “Except perhaps the fear of retaliation. Massive rips would be created in the Umbra, rips that they would have to guard 24/7 to prevent us from traveling through in force into their space, just as the TSN has to watch the Anteres Rift.”

“Can’t we invade in force already?” Tane said. “With the smaller rifts that lead to the Umbra?”

“Yes,” Lyra said. “And those are sometimes left unguarded by the dwellers, as you’ve seen. So you can imagine what a logistics nightmare it would be for the dwellers if they started opening up larger rifts by destroying our planets. And also keep in mind that humanity is spread out among the stars, so the dwellers would have to destroy a whole lot of worlds in order to cause a dent in our population. The TSN would realize what was going on after a few worlds fell, and they would organize a counterstrike to stop them. Understand, the TSN is content to let them peacefully coexist with humanity, as long as they remain in the Umbra. But the moment they start attacking us in force, or destroying our homeworlds, you can bet there will be calls within the TSN senior command to hunt them down to the last dweller.”

“We’re within firing range of their weapons,” Jed announced.

Tane felt his stomach knot up all over again.

Lyra nodded behind her faceplate and closed her eyes, obviously wanting some quiet time.

The tense moments ticked past. With every inhale and exhale, Tane kept expecting to be obliterated.

But he kept on breathing.

A full minute went by.

“They’re not firing,” Jed said.

“No,” Lyra said. “So far, so good.”

Tane could almost hear the ticking clock as the shuttle continued to approach the alien ship. He still half-expected to die a fiery death at any moment, but with every second that passed, the feeling eased slightly.

Finally:

“We’re two minutes away,” Jed said. “I think it’s safe to say, they won’t fire.”

“I’m receiving data from the alien vessel,” Cub said. “It’s compatible with our systems.” The shuttle’s AI sounded slightly stunned.

“Yes, they’ve had ample time to study our systems and technology,” Lyra said. “Especially considering they had free copies for the taking in the Umbra. So what kind of data is this?”

“Telemetry,” Cub said. “It leads to a hull section of their vessel that’s cratered slightly. I believe they’re guiding me toward their equivalent of a hangar bay.”

“All right,” Lyra said. “Adjust course and speed to match the telemetry data. Take us in nice and easy.”

“ETA one minute, thirty seconds until landing,” Cub said.

The moments continued to tick down. Tane noticed movement at the periphery of his vision, coming from behind Jed’s faceplate. He realized Jed’s lips were moving, but Tane heard no sound. The man was talking on a private line to the other Volur.

Tane glanced at her, and caught her lips moving in return, as she answered his unheard query.

The big man looked at Tane and nodded behind his faceplate.

No doubt agreeing that Jed would shoot down Tane if it seemed capture was imminent.

I did tell them they could do whatever it took to prevent the aliens from seizing me.

“So what’s the plan?” Tane asked.

“They’re going to try to confiscate all of our weapons from the start,” Lyra replied. “We can’t let that happen.”

“So what, we hit the ground with weapons blazing?” Tane said.

“Essentially, yes,” Lyra said. “As soon as that ramp lowers, Jed will lead the charge. We have to get to the airlock before they flush out the hangar’s atmosphere, and us along with it. After we’re inside the ship proper, we’ll make our way toward the closest cargo bay, dealing with any resistance that arises.”

“And if Sinive’s not there?” Tane said.

“We keep working through the cargo bays, and the rest of the ship if we have to, until we find her,” Lyra said.

“Good plan,” was all Tane could say. He managed to keep most of the sarcasm out of his voice.

“It’s a bit brute force for my tastes,” Lyra said. “But it is simple. Usually the best plans are.”

Tane glanced at his overhead map, which showed a small rectangle representing the inside of the shuttle cabin, and confirmed that position sharing was still active: he saw the blue dots representing Lyra and Jed.

“By the way, what’s the range on these?” Tane asked nervously. “Our IDs. For position sharing purposes.”

“In a ship with an incompatible mixnet?” Lyra said. “The nodes in our chips and suits will be the only parts of the adhoc network. So with all the bulkheads in the way, expect a range of between fifty to eighty meters, at best. Beyond that, you’ll lose signal.”

“So not very far at all,” Tane said.

“Don’t get separated,” Jed said.

Tane’s nerves were making him feel a little sick at this point, so he pulled up the blueprints of the alien ship to distract himself. He double-checked the locations of the cargo bays where Sinive was likely kept.

“I don’t suppose you can simply jump us to the cargo bays in question?” Tane asked Lyra.

“No,” the Volur replied. “Jump points must be within line of sight, which makes local distortion tunnels impractical on starships.”

“But what about planet-side distortion gates?” Tane said. “None of those are within line of sight of one another.”

“I was just going to add,” Lyra told him. “That local distortion tunnels can only be used beyond line of sight when the proper guidance beacons have been placed, like what the planet-side gates use. Fortunately, I’ve brought just such a beacon with me.” From the storage pouch at her belt she removed a smooth, glowing stone. “Once we find Sinive, returning back to this shuttle will be quick, if slightly exhausting for me.”

The deck shook.

“We’ve docked,” the shuttle’s AI announced. “External artificial gravity is close to our own, at zero point nine G. I’m sending positional updates based on our landing location so you can sync your maps.”

Tane apprehensively accepted the sync request, and glanced at his overhead map. The blueprints of the alien starship now completed the map, so there was no dark “fog of war” exterior surrounding the shuttle, like there would have been if they were exploring the vessel for the first time. There would probably be some slight differences in the corridors, especially if this was a newer model vessel of the same make, but for the most part the map should line up. And if not, it would simply update to match Tane’s actual surroundings as he made his way through the corridors, with his chip computing the extents of the overhead, deck, and bulkheads around him in realtime based on his vision.

According to the map, the hangar was roughly four times as big as the equivalent bay aboard the Red Grizzly. That meant Tane and the others would have at least some room to fight. It also meant that they would potentially have to face more enemies at the same time.

Lyra’s restraining clamps slid aside and she stood. With her gloves she opened up a small panel in the deck and slid the beacon stone inside. Behind her faceplate, her eyes seemed to defocus, and the stone glowed a bright white. She quickly resealed the panel.

“Hopefully it’s not disturbed,” Lyra said.

Jed’s clamps released as well and he stood, placing himself directly in front of the exit ramp. Lyra moved in behind him.

Tane stood a moment later when his own seat released him. He assumed a position directly behind Lyra. He got too close and was pushed back by her energy shield, causing a half-sphere to momentarily spark into existence.

Jed glanced over his shoulder at Tane. “Now would be a good time to activate your shield generator, Engineer.”

Tane shook his head. Focus. Where the hell have my wits gone?

He couldn’t remember being this nervous the last time he had faced the dwellers, in the Umbra. Then again, he hadn’t had time to think about the situation back then: the dwellers had simply attacked and he was operating on adrenalin the whole time.

But the suddenness of the attack couldn’t be the full explanation, because even when he had had a moment’s rest, hiding with Sinive in one of the buildings, the dire situation hadn’t really sunk in. He remembered thinking at the time that the Umbra itself must have played a part in his strange calmness, that it had some quality capable of muting emotions, especially fear. Or maybe it was just the indistinct edges around every object, and the exaggerated motion blur, that had made the place seem more dream than reality.

He could use a little of that calming unreality right about now, actually.

As he struggled to relax, he remembered Jed’s words.

The time before battle starts is always hardest. Hang in there.

Tane stepped back a pace, ensuring he gave Lyra enough clearance, and then activated his shield. He confirmed that the charge was 100%.

He retrieved the beam hilt from his belt and held it firmly in front of him. The weapon had retained its larger size, and fit snugly within his bulky gloves. He had to be careful how he used that thing if the fighting got too close-quartered… it would be all too easy to harm Jed or Lyra—his energy ax would pass right through any shielding they had. During his training, Jed had hammered into him the importance of avoiding friendly casualties.

“Watch where you point your ax,” Jed had told him at the time.

Tane took another step back, making sure Lyra had a whole lot of clearance in front of him. Maybe it was too much, but he wanted to err on the side of caution. He just hoped Lyra and Jed didn’t interpret it as cowardice.

But neither of them said a word. They were focusing on the ramp.

The map remained in the upper right of his vision, but Tane shrunk it slightly, not wanting any distractions. Like Lyra and Jed, he stared at the ramp, waiting for it to open.

His heart beat rapidly now that combat was almost upon him. His breathing sounded loud in his ears, echoed as it was by the tight confines of the helmet. He felt hot, and when a stream of sweat slid down his ribs, for a moment he thought the suit cooling mechanism was malfunctioning. He pulled up the user interface, but the status bar indicated the cooling system was operating within normal parameters.

His throat suddenly feeling sore, Tane swallowed several times, but it didn’t help. His hands were starting to shake.

Crap crap crap.

“The external atmosphere is pressurizing,” the shuttle’s AI said. “The hangar bay is filling with a liquid environment.”

Going to die.

He forced himself to focus. It wasn’t working. He squeezed his eyes shut tight. That helped.

He had an aberrant thought, one that was completely unrelated to the battle. He decided to voice it, if only to hear Lyra’s soothing voice one last time.

“If the dwellers need a liquid environment,” Tane said, his voice trembling slightly. “Why weren’t they wearing pressure suits on the moon? In the Umbra?”

“They don’t need suits anywhere in the Umbra, remember?” Lyra said. “It’s only in our universe they have to create a special environment for themselves. In this case an environment that matches the hydrocarbon seas of their former homeworld.”

As hoped, the calmness in her mellifluous voice was infectious and Tane found himself relaxing. So much so that he had to wonder if she had secretly placed some sort of Essencework on him.

That calmness was shattered a moment later when Jed’s harsh voice came over the comm.

“No more questions, Engineer,” Jed said. “Keep the comm channel clear. Let us prepare for the coming battle.”

Prepare to die, more likely.

Tane began to wonder why he had come. He could have gone to Talendir. He could have been safe.

No.

That was the easy way out.

Sinive was here. His friend. Once again he remembered the words she had spoken in the Umbra.

Promise me you won’t leave me here, no matter what happens.

Yes, he had to do this. And he wasn’t about to let Lyra and Jed risk their lives rescuing Sinive alone. Then again, a part of him wondered if the pair would have even made the attempt if Tane hadn’t come.

“The external bay has pressurized,” Cub said. “Dwellers are entering already. I count five. Eight. Twelve. All of them are equipped with weapons. I am receiving a transmission demanding that we open the ramp.”

“Then give them what they wish for,” Lyra said, once more her voice the epitome of calm. “Open the ramp.”

Now that the battle was imminent, Tane felt a clarity like no other. His hands stopped trembling, and he knew what he had to do.

He cleared his mind with the ease of one who had spent many years Siphoning, and whispered a quiet thank you to the unknown man whose brain dump had given him the ability.

With his mind emptied of all thought, Tane readied himself to step into the Essence through the hilt.

The ramp began to lower. Yellow liquid gushed inside from the cracks along the edges. Jed drew his power sword and his armored body vanished from view.

The liquid quickly filled the cabin up to Tane’s waist, and as the ramp lowered further, in moments he was completely engulfed by the liquid. He could still see through his faceplate: the environment around him had turned a yellow hue thanks to the liquid, and his movements became slow, unwieldy.

Jed must have been venting oxygen from his suit, because when the ramp was three-fourths open, the sword appeared again, moving rapidly forward. Jed himself momentarily flickered into existence, holding the sword, and blasted out past the opening ramp with a sudden burst of speed.

Lyra followed just behind Jed. She also vented oxygen behind her as thrust. She held one gloved palm out in front of her, the other upside-down, index fingers pointing outward.

Tane Siphoned the Essence through the hilt, activating his energy ax with a burst of near blinding white light. He hadn’t been sure it would work in the liquid environment, and was glad to see that it did. He received the usual 18% Siphoning bonus notification for drawing through the hilt.

He kept his perspective inside himself for now, as there wasn’t much room for a third-person view inside of the shuttle. It did make the ax badly occlude his vision, but he held it out of the way to the side as Lyra had taught.

He cranked the servomotors to full power and found the oxygen release area on the suit’s user interface, and vented it through two nozzles near his lower back, thrusting forward. Too high: he was going to smash his helmet into the shuttle’s overhead. He quickly adjusted the thrust direction but his protective shield still nicked the overhead of the shuttle, causing a translucent quarter sphere to flash into existence above him as the shield absorbed the blow and redirected his motion downward.

Shield strength 87%.

Off to a bad start.

Tane further adjusted his thrust direction so that he was headed down the ramp, then he cut off the outflow.

Lyra was a short distance in front of him in the liquid environment, and beyond her he saw only a commotion of tentacles and thick legs. To his right, two other alien craft were docked in the hangar beside Grizzly Cub. They were dark, arrowhead-shaped shuttles, like large black diamonds.

A dweller dropped toward Tane from above...

29

Because Tane’s suit servomotors were operating at full strength, he was able to move his arms just as if he was in an atmospheric environment, and the Essence ax easily traveled through the liquid hydrocarbons to intercept the enemy. The weapon split that sideways-opening maw right in half. The Dweller plummeted into Tane’s shield, causing a half-dome to momentarily flash into being, then the large body bounced off and continued its lifeless descent, a quivering stream of black blood oozing from its head.

Shield strength 75%.

Tane threw out the lifeline of Essence Sight and his vision snapped to third-person perspective behind him. He fired a quick burst of oxygen from a directional nozzle on the right side of his body, and that spun him toward Lyra, swiveling his viewpoint so that she was in sight. Jed’s blade flashed in and out of view beside her, taking down three dwellers that towered over them. The maimed bodies simply floated in place, no longer moving.

Lyra’s chest meanwhile erupted in bright flashes of light as she launched Essence Missiles that tore through the liquid. Dwellers split apart instantly when struck, their pieces plowing into other aliens behind them.

Tane spotted a dweller positioned near the far corner behind the shuttle. It was lining up an energy launcher with Lyra’s back.

Tane released a rearward burst of thrust, sending him straight toward the alien. His aim was perfect.

Now I’m getting the hang of this.

He caught the surprised creature off guard, and it struggled to redirect the weapon toward Tane. He wondered if the alien would actually fire if it got him in its sights, or if it would realize who he was at the last moment and avoid pulling the trigger. He also wondered if his shield would absorb the blow, or allow it through.

Tane decided he wasn’t going to test either scenario.

He increased thrust and rapidly closed the distance, swinging his ax at the same time. This creature was shielded: a half-dome of energy sparked into existence when the Essence blade struck. The weapon cut right through the shield and the underlying body itself with nearly no resistance whatsoever.

Tane bounced off the lifeless body as he got close enough for his own energy shield to kick in.

Shield strength 61%.

Damn. He should have reversed thrust at the last moment, rather than allowing his shield to cushion his impact.

Tane fired a side nozzle to swivel back toward the main fighting: it was faster than trying to swim, something he didn’t know how to do anyway. Once more he felt a tinge of regret for not picking up the skill when he could have.

The hangar proved far taller than Tane had originally supposed, and more dwellers were firing at Lyra and Jed from above. The pair must have had incredible energy shields, because so far the devices hadn’t failed, and Tane watched the half-spheres constantly spark into existence as the energy launchers unleashed.

Two more aliens were swimming toward Tane, but when he rotated himself toward them, and flaunted his energy ax, they backed off. They weren’t firing, he noted.

That hypothesis has been proven, then.

Jed momentarily blinked into existence. He was thrusting upward, heading toward the dwellers overhead, and then disappeared once again. Meanwhile Lyra continued to deal with the four remaining aliens that were firing at her from near the airlock. Those dwellers seemed to be using the extensive bodies of their dead comrades as cover against her Essence Missiles. She was releasing the bright works rapidly in an effort to tear those remaining bodies apart, but she succeeded only in causing stacked body parts to ricochet off of one another, or sometimes from the shields of the four dwellers behind them.

Tane released a rear burst to travel toward her, and he positioned himself to protect her back from the aliens who were approaching from behind. He placed his body just beyond the combined shield distance of Lyra and himself, leaving a little over a meter clearance as Jed had taught him to do. The incoming fire upon her unprotected side ceased once he moved into place.

“Tane, get back!” Lyra said. “Your shield can’t take more than a couple of bursts at full strength!”

“They won’t shoot you while I’m here!” Tane said.

Above, several dwellers skirted to the side, avoiding Jed’s blade as it sparked into view. The furtive aliens made their way toward Tane and Lyra.

Tane positioned his arm out to the side, with his elbow behind his body, and then he snapped his perspective back inside of himself to target one of the aliens with the tip of the ax.

Before he could align the virtual reticle that appeared, an energy bolt struck him and his shield flickered.

Shield strength 5%.

Crap. The next hit would pass right through his shield, and likely the armor underneath.

Tane fired a burst of rear thrust, intending to dive for cover beside the Grizzly Cub. He threw out his lifeline and switched to Essence Sight.

Lyra abruptly spread her hands wide. Because of Tane’s third person perspective, he saw it though his back was to her.

A spherical shockwave erupted from Lyra. It passed through Tane, and sent all of the dwellers in the compartment flying outward, away from her. Their bodies hung motionless in the water, tentacles trailing behind them: it was obvious they had been stunned at the very least.

And then Tane found himself pulled inexorably backward. He realized that the hangar bay door was open, because soon he was being sucked out into the void of space. The shuttles remained glued to the deck behind him, no doubt in part because of the artificial gravity.

The liquid desublimated and vaporized into fine crystals all around him, forming a yellow mist. Meanwhile squirming dwellers froze beside him, and floated past lifelessly alongside the maimed body parts of their brethren.

Tane’s stomach was doing somersaults out there. He had never experienced weightlessness before, and it made him sick to his stomach. He felt like he was going to vomit.

He stepped out of the Essence and deactivated his ax.

Not going to throw up. Not going to.

He couldn’t see Jed or Lyra anywhere within that spreading mist. He glanced at his overhead map and the blue dots indicated they were still aboard, inside the alien hangar. He was surprised he was still getting a signal, though he supposed without any bulkheads in the way the range would be much enhanced. Plus their signal would piggyback on the mixnet node in the shuttle.

He swallowed three times, trying to dispel the nauseous feeling in his stomach. It wasn’t really working.

Focus. Get back to the ship.

He voided his oxygen canisters through the rear nozzles of his lower back, and thrust back toward the ship. Though he soon left behind the dispersing yellow mist, he didn’t seem to be making much progress.

“Don’t waste your oxygen,” Jed said over the comm. His voice digitally distorted. “I’m coming for you.”

“Okay.” Tane stopped the oxygen venting. On his overhead map, the blue dot representing Jed moved away from the ship, toward Tane.

The stars were rotating slightly around him, and Tane realized that could be contributing to his queasiness. He vented some oxygen from the side vents and arrested his rotational motion. Yes, that seemed to help.

He felt well enough to ask: “By the way, did you do that, Lyra?”

“What, open the bay doors?” she said. Her voice was even more distorted than Jed’s. “No. I guess the dwellers decided they didn’t want us aboard after all.”

“At least not some of us,” Jed said. “But we’re not going to give them the pleasure of denying our company.”

Tane spotted one of the alien shuttles heading toward him. The craft must have launched shortly after he was sucked from the bay.

“Uh,” Tane said. “I think I understand what they were planning now. Eject us from the bay, and retrieve the one they want…”

“I see it,” Jed said.

The black, diamond-shaped shuttle continued to approach. Still feeling slightly sick, Tane was able to step into the Essence through the hilt. When the ax powered up, he held the weapon slightly behind him and attempted to line up the targeting reticle with the incoming object.

He released a shot, but the Essence bolt missed. He would have to lead the target.

Some AI assistance would be nice here!

He remembered Lyra’s training on the subject.

“The bolts move faster, the higher your skill,” Lyra had said. “And the more Essence you’re capable of Siphoning into the weapon. For example, the bolts launched from the Essence Lance of a starship travel at close to half the speed of light. But for you, drawing from a small Chrysalium hilt, with level zero skill, you’ll have to lead any moving targets.”

Tane tried again, but missed. The ship shot something at him. It looked like a net connected to the craft by a long cord.

Tane issued side thrust to slide himself out of the way. Once again he felt his gorge rising.

A moment later a blue sword flashed on top of the shuttle and drove through the hull, cutting a long gash. Then it disappeared and the ship drifted away.

“Deactivate your shield, Engineer,” Jed said.

Tane did so. He also stepped out of the Essence, and his energy ax vanished. He secured the hilt to his utility belt.

Jed appeared in his glowing power armor, coming in at high speed from the side. The Volur grabbed Tane and then thrust back toward the ship.

The motion made Tane’s tender stomach do another flip, and he nearly threw up right there.

The alien vessel came up quickly, and when Jed crossed the threshold, the artificial gravity took hold.

The Volur flipped his legs down to land upright, releasing Tane, who simply crashed to the deck on his side.

The impact caused Tane to void the contents of his stomach. White slime streaked down his chin and onto the faceplate.

He felt better immediately.

Tane scrambled to his feet and dusted himself off. “Well.”

“I would suggest not vomiting inside your suit again,” Jed said, apparently noticing the white stain on the lower part of Tane’s faceplate. “You could clog your regulator.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” Tane said.

“Remind me to take you on a weightlessness tolerance evolution sometime,” Jed said.

“Sounds like fun,” Tane commented. “Tell me something. When you go invisible like that, is that a skill, like Sneak or something? Or is that the armor?”

“More the armor,” Jed said. “Though a skill is involved, yes.” He glanced at Lyra. “I’m going to make sure the aliens can’t close those doors again.”

“Good idea,” Lyra told him.

Jed went to the hangar bay doors, which looked like huge black crystals offset against the bulkheads. The man hammered his sword into the edges of first one door, and then the other, cracking away huge chunks. Then he turned around and said: “Good luck shutting these.”

Lyra was waiting next to the airlock. “Whenever you’re ready… Tane, I could use your help here.”

Tane walked toward her. Now that he had a few moments to properly observe his surroundings, he noted the odd make-up of the alien compartment. It seemed to be composed of a black crystal shot through with red veins. The deck underneath him was rough, with small octagons of crystal protruding at slightly different heights. It would be easy to trip if he wasn’t careful. The bulkheads were spidered with blue rather than the red veins of the deck, and some of those veins pulsed slightly, as if containing a hidden power; it was those pulses that provided the varying illumination.

Tane noticed a man-sized hole had been cut into the rocky bulkhead beside Lyra, and the surface had fallen away into the compartment beyond, its outline protruding from the deck there. No doubt it was the outer hatch of an airlock. In the alcove formed by that compartment, another crystalline bulkhead awaited on the other side—the inner hatch.

Tane realized Lyra was holding a beam hilt in one glove, no doubt retrieved from her storage pouch.

“You had a spare,” Tane said.

“Of course,” Lyra said.

“What happened to, ‘the Essence is my weapon?’” Tane asked.

“It still is,” Lyra answered. “Though in some cases it’s more practical to use different tools. Help me cut through the inner hatch.”

“Shouldn’t we wait until our shields regenerate to full strength?” Tane asked. He checked his own. It was back to sixty percent—it continued charging even when deactivated.

“No,” Lyra said. “The longer we delay, the more time the dwellers have to come up with a counter strategy. By now they’ve realized we never had any intention of surrendering you. And we still have to wait for the atmosphere in the adjacent passageway to vent, so there’s no time to lose.”

“Should one of us stay here to protect the shuttle?” Tane asked.

“No need,” Lyra said. “We’re going to expose the surrounding decks to the void: the dwellers will have a bit of trouble getting here. Besides, it’s you they want, not the shuttle. Now, if you’re ready…”

Tane retrieved his hilt and drew Essence through the Chrysalium, powering the dual blades. Beside him, Lyra activated her own ax. She entered the airlock, and assumed a position in front of the far bulkhead—the inner hatch. Her shield was down, so Tane was able to squeeze in beside her. Their weapons were just as silent in the void as in an atmosphere.

“When you pierce the hatch,” she said. “The liquid atmosphere will flow through. It will seem a mist at first, but as the gap gets bigger, liquid will begin to flow forth, becoming mist at its tips. Finally, when the hole is big enough, that flow will become an all out gush. When we reach the gush phase, we’ll step aside and let the inner atmosphere void itself entirely, and only then will we finish our hole.”

Tane slid the edge of one blade into the hatch, near the top, and it passed through smoothly. Lyra inserted her ax into the hatch beside his own. Together, they moved the Essence weapons outward in a circular pattern. Yellow mist erupted from the fissures they formed.

“Ease it!” Lyra said. “Don’t go too fast or you’ll be swept away by the outpour!”

Tane slowed his pace, doing his best to mirror the half circle Lyra was carving. As she promised, as he moved his ax down further, the fog began to make way for yellow liquid, though the tips of the liquid became mist that quivered like flames. Tane could almost believe that he was releasing some sort of constrained fire that licked at his suit.

As he brought his ax down further, the erupting liquid began to reach his suit, splashing past him. It became difficult to see. He turned his head against the flow, and gazed at Lyra, who had also turned toward him. He continued to bring his blade down, matching her pace.

“Okay!” Lyra said when the blades were halfway down the hatch. “Get back!”

Tane retreated back into the hangar proper, and Lyra did likewise. They took up a position on either side of the external hatch.

Tane watched the liquid stream forth into the voided hangar bay, forming a beautiful spray as it became mist a short ways into the hangar. Momentum swept the mist outside of the ship, preventing it from gathering in the bay.

“You think they shot me on purpose back there?” Tane asked while he waited for the passage beyond to drain.

“No,” Lyra said. “It had to be an accident. I should have probably given you my shield generator.”

Tane held out a gloved hand, placing it into the liquid gushing past in front of him. “Go ahead.”

“I still think they’re more likely to shoot at me, than you,” Lyra said. “If that changes, I’ll give you my generator. But until then, Jed and I need all the protection we can get. My shielding was close to failing, too, in case you didn’t notice.”

“Mine failed,” Jed commented.

“But you have power armor,” Tane said.

“True, that,” Jed said. “I did take a few good hits though.”

Tane examined the metal armor with its glowing halo. “Looks fine to me.”

“You see that armor rating when you look at the stats of your suit?” Jed said. “When you take a hit, the rating goes down. Sometimes all the way to zero. But when you have regenerative armor, it goes back up.”

Tane shook his head. “Regenerative armor, too. Why do you get all the best stuff? Wait, don’t answer that.”

He watched for maybe a minute before the gushing began to subside, becoming a drizzle until he was able to peer into the airlock without issue. Only a small amount of mist trickled from the gap formed by the half circle he had cut into the inner hatch with Lyra.

The Volur stepped to the hatch. Tane made to join her, but she waved a halting hand. She sliced her energy ax into the crystal where she had left off, and slid the weapon downward, obviously intending to form an elongated ellipse that would fit a man. When she reached the bottom, she curved the path upward again, connecting with the gap Tane had made. It took her all of three seconds, now that there was no worry of releasing too much of the liquid. She left the top piece intact so that there was only a small connector still holding the large elliptical cutout in place.

Lyra retreated into the hangar and beckoned toward Jed.

The man withdrew his energy pistol and charged into the airlock. He kicked down the inner hatch and vanished from view in the corridor beyond.

Tane glanced at his overhead map and watched as the blue dot representing the man moved partially down the passageway.

“Seems clear,” Jed said. “The dwellers realized what we were doing and evacuated the neighboring passageway.”

“Let’s go,” Lyra said, leading the way inside.

Tane followed her into the airlock and stepped through the far cutout into the passageway beyond. He activated his shield and checked the levels.

Shield strength 87%.

Not too shabby. Still, it had taken about two minutes to get back to that level from five percent. He definitely needed to upgrade his shield to something that recharged faster whenever he had the chance.

The black crystals continued to compose the passageway here, with the pulsing blue veins in the bulkheads providing the only light. He half expected to feel drawn to those crystals, but thankfully he experienced nothing.

The corridor itself was wide enough to fit two spacesuits abreast. Though Jed wasn’t currently visible, his full battle armor would easily fit with room to spare, unlike the cramped passages of the Red Grizzly. Still, for the dwellers, the corridor would provide about the same level of discomfort as the Red Grizzly did humans: Tane doubted the aliens could fit here without drawing in their legs and crouching low, especially if forced to wear their environmental suits.

That’s one commonality shared across species, then. We design our ships for efficiency, rather than comfort.

Jed flickered into view ahead. He had taken the lead, and held his sword in one hand and his pistol the other. The sword expanded, transforming into a ballistic shield as Tane watched.

“Stay behind me!” Jed said before vanishing from view.

Lyra adjusted her position so that she was standing directly in the center of the passageway, and so did Tane, who was following a meter and a half behind her. He wanted to stay behind the cover provided by Jed’s ballistic shield, so that if anything got through, it would have to penetrate Lyra’s shield before reaching Tane.

Because of the timing of the pulsing blue veins, there were moments when the passageway fell into complete darkness, though it only lasted for a few seconds. Each footfall made no sound, because of the voided atmosphere. It was eerie as hell.

The passageway matched the strange layout Tane had seen on the map, and often doubled-back upon itself, branching off at a two hundred and seventy degree angle. Tane didn’t entirely understand the reasoning behind it. On the blueprints the passageways often turned back like that, zigging and zagging before reaching any adjoining compartments. Tane guessed the strange design might serve to buttress the hull, and perhaps reinforce hull integrity ship-wide. Then again, these were aliens, after all. Their thinking would be entirely unlike that of a human’s, as would their ship design.

According to the map, the trio were heading toward the closest cargo bay Lyra had marked off, about two hundred fifty meters ahead, past several zig zagging corridors and two smaller compartments.

Tane glanced over his shoulder often to make sure there were no aliens sneaking up behind them. After a few glances, he realized Lyra didn’t seem to share his concern about pursuers: she never looked back. That seemed strange to him, because according to the overhead map there were multiple passageways leading to that particular hangar bay. And it wouldn’t take much for the aliens to suit up and pursue them.

“You know your spacesuit contains a rear camera, right?” Lyra said at one point.

Ah.

Tane examined the suit user interface on his HUD and found the “rear view mirror emulation” feature. He activated it and a video feed representing the view from behind his helmet appeared in a horizontal bar along the top of his vision.

That’s better.

“Seems strangely quiet in here,” Tane said.

“Shh!” Jed said over the comm.

The lull before the tempest.

Tane was the first to spot the dweller in the passageway behind. It was wearing a protective suit. The legs of the suit were tucked in close, and the alien crouched low in the passage, barely fitting. But that didn’t stop it from carrying an energy launcher.

Tane activated his beam hilt and the white battle-ax burst forth. He spun to face the alien.

The creature released a shot. The energy bolt passed right through the translucent ax and his shield took the brunt of the blast. It flashed in complaint.

Shield strength 3%.

Tane spotted more of the dwellers in the crystalline corridor behind the first, visible past the creature’s outline. They formed a line. There were at least three of them in total that Tane could clearly pick out. The dweller just behind the lead creature was aiming its energy launcher between the gap formed by the first alien’s carapace and the bulkhead.

Directly at him.

“Get behind me!” Lyra said.

Tane shut down his shield to allow Lyra to squeeze past in the corridor beside him. She took up a position between him and the aliens, and he reactivated his shield, as did she, no doubt.

She took a hit to her shield, but then launched several Essence Missiles at the lead dweller. Its armor held up to the first few blows, but the force of the impacts sent it plowing into the aliens behind it.

Lyra glanced at him. “Keep moving!”

Tane continued after Jed, using his overhead map to ensure he followed the unseen man closely.

“Maybe they’ve changed their mind about capturing me after all!” Tane said.

“Maybe so,” Lyra said.

Looking at his rear view mirror, Tane saw that she had her back to him, and was following just behind. The dwellers in the distance were all down, and the protective suit of the leading creature was torn apart.

Jed led them past a tight bend. No, not a bend. A T intersection. That was a first, and almost seemed a little incongruent given the designs of the previous corridors.

Jed took the leftmost branch, and the corridor quickly ended in a crystalline wall.

Tane checked his map. That wall wasn’t supposed to be there—the passageway was supposed to continue toward a compartment farther down.

“Breach seal,” Jed said, his power armor flickering into view. He remained visible, now.

“So these aliens use breach seals, too,” Tane said.

“Of course,” Lyra said. “It’s a universal ship design. Though in the more advanced vessels, especially those used by Volur, the seals are more semipermeable membranes than anything else, allowing qualified crew members to traverse them with ease while keeping the atmosphere contained.”

“I know, Volur are the best,” Tane said dryly.

“Let me pass,” Jed said.

Tane and Lyra deactivated their shields to squeeze against the bulkhead and allow the big man through. Jed took his place at the rear, positioning his ballistic shield to provide as much cover as possible for himself, Tane and Lyra.

“Tane, with me,” Lyra said.

Keeping his shield deactivated, Tane stood beside the seal with Lyra. They engaged their beam hilts in unison and began to cut through with the ax blades. Yellow mist gushed from the gashes they formed.

“Easy!” Lyra said as the mist became liquid. “You’re moving too fast!”

“Sorry,” Tane said. “Guess I’m a bit anxious.”

Without warning the crystalline seal opened upward of its own accord.

Tane was swept backward by the torrent of liquid hydrocarbon atmosphere that swelled forth. He shut off his weapon so that he didn’t cut himself in half with it.

He smashed into something hard and bounced upward. As he was swept away, he realized it was Jed whom he had crashed over. The man seemed firmly rooted to the deck. Good for him.

But not so good for me.

Tane slid past the T intersection he had passed earlier and continued down the passageway, dragged onward by the raging river. He smashed into crystal bulkheads, and his teeth were jarred several times as the liquid steered him about.

The fluid began evaporating around him, so that by the time he rolled to a stop, only a fleeting yellow mist remained in the passageway.

No, not passageway. He had been swept into a rather large compartment.

He was surrounded by dwellers. At least twenty strong. All clad in protective suits.

And all carrying energy launchers.

30

Tane glanced at his overhead map. Lyra and Jed remained near the breach seal. How they had managed to secure themselves, he didn’t know.

He didn’t have time to ponder it, not with dwellers surrounding him, each and every one of them ready to fire.

Could they tell that his shield was deactivated? He decided that turning it on would be considered an aggressive action, especially considering that twenty energy launchers would easily penetrate.

So instead he held up his hands, hoping the creatures understood the human gesture for surrender. He gripped the beam hilt firmly in hand. The ax was deactivated. For the time being.

A dweller beckoned to another nearby; that particular alien secured its energy launcher to a large holster on its suit and stepped forward. The other dwellers kept their weapons trained on Tane.

He searched their ranks, looking for a bigger dweller that might be the Graaz’dhen, but they were all the same size. Too bad.

The approaching dweller’s energy shield flickered, and Tane thought the creature had just turned it off. Sure enough, one of its tentacles shot forward a moment later.

Screw this.

Tane turned on his shield and the tentacle bounced away harmlessly. At the same time he stepped into the Essence and activated his energy ax, slicing it downward with both hands into the deck underneath him. He twirled the weapon in a rapid circle as liquid hydrocarbons gushed upward.

He wasn’t sure what he expected, but it certainly wasn’t to go flying into the air as the unleashed liquid geysered upward. He was actually still standing on the small circular plug he’d cut out of the deck before he crashed into the ceiling.

He plunged along an arc toward one of the dwellers. He sliced down with his ax, so that when he impacted, the weapon passed through the creature’s shield and split the dome containing that sideways-opening head in half. The enemy dropped underneath.

As liquid from the hole sprayed in all directions, Tane leaped at the next dweller. He cut its energy launcher in half, and his blade continued onward, biting through the shield, hewing off some tentacles, and carving a pleasing gap into the underside of its protective suit. Intestines literally burst forth, thanks to the pressure differential.

Tane spun to the left and extended his free hand, trying an Essence Missile. He wasn’t sure it would work, since he was only successful two times out of three with that particular Branchwork, but the Missile launched. It passed through the shield of the dweller he had targeted, and slammed into the translucent dome on the carapace, breaking it. The force of the impact ripped the dweller’s head inside right off.

He switched to Essence Sight and fought from the third person perspective behind himself.

He took down three more dwellers before an energy bolt struck him from the side.

Shield strength 0%.

The weakened bolt impacted his spacesuit and knocked him off his feet. His suit integrity remained intact, thankfully—the shield had been at sixty-five percent before the impact, so his suit didn’t have to absorb too much of the blow. His side area was still blackened by the impact.

It was hard to see with all the mist spewing from the vaporizing liquid; but then two dwellers emerged from the fog, coming straight at him. Their shields must have been offline because their tentacles were outstretched toward him: they obviously intended to snatch him up now that his shield strength was zero.

Tane clambered to his feet and spun at the same time, cutting those tentacles right off.

“We’re coming for you,” Lyra said over the comm. Her voice distorted badly.

“No,” Tane said. “Get Sinive. I’ll draw them away and meet you there.”

“Are you sure?” Lyra said.

“Yes, I got this!” Tane said, sounding more confident than he felt. “They’re not shooting to kill.”

Not yet.

He was surrounded on all sides, with no path to the entrance. Energy launchers were quickly coming to bear; if the aliens weren’t shooting to kill before, they were definitely considering it.

Because Tane had Essence Sight active, he saw right away when the outflow from the deck diminished, and he sprinted toward the small opening he’d made with his ax. Yellow mist was still venting from it as he leaped through.

He landed in another wide compartment. This one seemed to be some kind of barracks, judging from the small alcoves set into the crystalline walls. Dwellers in suits formed a long line near the middle of the compartment, queuing to retrieve energy launchers from a rack near the entrance before leaving. Apparently they were collecting shield generators as well, because those in line were positioned too close together for any of them to currently have shields.

All the aliens turned to look at him at the same time.

Whoops.

He unleashed an Essence Missile at the closest, aiming for the center of mass. The impact tore into its carapace and shoved the large creature into the dweller immediately behind it. Yellow mist gushed from the tear in its suit.

Another dweller rushed him. Tane tried Essence Missile again. The Branchwork failed.

He swung his ax at the last moment, slicing away those tentacles. Then he leaped to the side before the dweller plowed into him and opened a swath of gore across its carapace.

Tane ripped an energy grenade from his chest and threw it at two more dwellers behind him. The explosion tore into their suits.

He continued in that way, cutting his way forward through the defenseless creatures, tossing only one more grenade. Some of the dwellers tried to grab hold of him from behind, but because of Essence Sight, he saw them all before they touched him and he spun to slice the tentacles away. One did manage to make contact, but his shield had regenerated to ten percent by then, and the limb bounced away.

He occasionally switched to first person perspective to align the targeting reticle of his ax over an opponent, and released an Essence bolt. Though not as powerful as the Essence Missile, it was usually enough to disable a dweller by perforating the protective suit. And at least it worked every time.

In the space of thirty seconds he had felled almost all the aliens in that compartment. As he neared the entrance, he was met by dwellers wielding energy launchers, and he dodged to the side as they opened fire. While there was probably a general order to capture him alive, apparently these dwellers had decided self-preservation was more important.

Tane took cover behind a fallen dweller. He was feeling exhausted, mostly because of all the Essence he had been Siphoning, and found himself missing those Endurance rings Lyra had taken back. He didn’t think he could draw the Essence for much longer, not if he didn’t want to burn himself out, so he decided to conserve his energy. He stepped out of the raging stellar wind inside of him and the bright ax blades vanished.

He secured the beam hilt to his waist and slid the D18 down from his shoulder. He selected the “smart targeting” feature, leaned past his cover, aimed in the general direction of the three armed dwellers standing near the exit, and squeezed the trigger.

The muzzle rotated in rapid succession, releasing bolts equally among the three targets, ten rounds per target, firing in a tri-pronged dispersion pattern. And though he had used up his full charge, the dwellers remained standing. Obviously they had managed to procure shields in addition to energy launchers, and his plasma bolts hadn’t penetrated.

But he was certain he’d weakened those shields enough to follow up with a grenade. He removed an energy variant from his harness and threw it.

Yep. That did it. The explosion wore away the remaining charge in their shields, and tore through their suits. They collapsed as their liquid environments misted away through the rips.

Tane glanced at the compartment behind him, and confirmed that the dwellers he’d felled remained down. He glanced at the small bore he’d cut into the overhead, but so far the dwellers up there hadn’t enlarged it to pursue him. Maybe they were afraid?

They should be.

He shook his head.

Try not to get too overconfident, now.

Funny how the nerves he had felt before the battle were nothing but a distant memory.

Tane approached the exit and peered past. He spotted three more dwellers lined up in a row in the tight passageway outside and quickly ducked behind the edge. They all had energy launchers.

He waited until his D18 was fully charged, then he leaned past and unloaded the full thirty rounds into the closest dweller. The shield failed around the twentieth impact, and the remaining bolts tore into the suit. Tane took down the second dweller in the same fashion. When his D18 recharged and he leaned outside to take out the third, he discovered that the alien had fled.

The passageway was clear.

He glanced at his overhead map. The blue dots representing Lyra and Jed were still updating, which meant they weren’t out of range, not yet. They had made it to one of the cargo bays.

“Is she there?” Tane asked over the comm.

“We’ll know shortly,” Lyra said. “There’s a little resistance.”

“I thought you were going to draw them all away for us, Engineer,” Jed said.

“I tried,” Tane said. Feeling suddenly cocky, he added: “Sorry, Witchy Man.” He cringed as the words left his mouth.

Jed didn’t answer for a few seconds. When his voice came over the comm, he didn’t sound pleased: “Don’t call me Witchy Man.”

Tane decided it was best if he kept his mouth shut.

He plotted a route on his map and made his way toward the cargo bay.

He remembered the small, beetle-like robots the aliens had used at his farm, and he wondered if the dwellers would employ them against the intruders at some point. Probably not: he doubted the tiny robots operated very well against shielded targets like himself.

When he reached one of those two-hundred-seventy-degree double-back corridors, he peered cautiously around the edge and spotted three more dwellers approaching in single file. To eliminate them he used his previous tactic of unloading the full thirty rounds of his D18, ducking behind cover, waiting for the recharge, and unloading another thirty.

With the aliens cleared, he squeezed past the dead bodies filling up the passageway. He had to deactivate his shield to fit, and reactivate it when he was past.

This ship wasn’t really designed to defend against boarding parties, at least not with the dwellers alone.

The aliens would probably be sending smaller, mechanical shock troops their way at some point. Or maybe there would be traps hidden somewhere. He’d heard some TSN battle cruisers had automated laser rifles that could emerge from mounts in the bulkheads to repel boarding parties, after all, so it made sense that the aliens would have something similar. His shields definitely wouldn’t be able to hold up to an attack like that, which might explain why he hadn’t encountered anything of that sort—it would kill him. Not something the aliens would want to use if they wanted to capture him alive.

He eventually reached what at first seemed a dead end, but when he looked at the overhead, he could tell by the slightly recessed design that a breach seal resided above him. The octagonal crystals forming the adjoining bulkheads protruded by different amounts, creating grips he could use to climb up.

He felt rested enough to try the Essence again. He slid the strap of the D18 over his shoulder, disabled his shield, clambered up the bulkhead—it was tricky in those bulky gloves—and retrieved the hilt from his belt. He used the Chrysalium to step into the Essence, and when the brilliant ax blades emerged, he slammed them through the ceiling once and withdrew the weapon as the now familiar yellow liquid spewed forth.

He stepped out of the Essence and waited for the flow to diminish. When it was reduced to a lingering mist he reactivated the ax and cut out a full circle. A crystal plug fell away, leaving a gaping hole.

Tane deactivated the weapon and secured the hilt to his belt. Then he pulled himself up onto the same deck he had left before. He reactivated his shield and checked the charge levels.

Shield strength 90%.

Decent.

He reached another two-seventy-degree bend and peered past. The passageway continued for about twenty meters before turning again. Closer, about three meters away, the side bulkhead gave way to a compartment. He spotted an alien in a protective suit lurking inside. According to the map, that compartment didn’t lead anywhere, but Tane would have to walk past it if he wanted to reach the cargo bay.

He ducked from view, fetched the last of his energy grenades from his harness, and pulled up the weapon’s smart targeting user interface on his HUD. He realized he could target the dweller, whose last position showed up as a red dot on his overhead map. He selected the red dot, marking the grenade’s quarry, then tossed it around the bend without looking past.

Though there was no atmosphere to transmit sound, he felt the vibrations in the deck and bulkhead beside him and knew the grenade had detonated. He leaned past the bend and fired his D18 into the compartment, taking out the dweller near the entrance whose shield the grenade had weakened. Then he hurried to the opening, and leaned past to spray another three dwellers with smart targeting mode. He pulled back as other dwellers returned fire, and the energy launchers tore fragments away from the bulkhead beside him.

A tentacle appeared past the entrance: one of them was rushing him.

There wasn’t time to wait for his D18 to recharge. He let it hang from his shoulder, withdrew his beam hilt, and created the Essence ax.

The tentacle bounced from his shield, dropping the strength to seventy.

He hewed down the incoming dweller, and then activated Essence Sight, rotating his body—and thus his perspective—to get a view inside of the room. Memorizing the positions of the four remaining dwellers, he dashed into the room.

He sliced through two of the aliens with one long swoop that cut through their shields and the translucent domes housing their heads at the same time.

The ax tore free of the second dweller easily, and he dove behind the dead body, deactivating his shield so that he could land on his side without draining the protective energy.

He clambered upright as a dweller rushed past the carcass, and Tane released an Essence Missile, felling the opponent.

He reactivated his shield and stepped past the dead bodies, but the last dweller fled the compartment rather than face him.

He noticed a flashing indicator in the lower right of his HUD. Wondering if it was something important, he momentarily returned behind cover and enlarged the notification.

Level up. Your overall level is now 5! Neural pathways have been enhanced and reinforced! You now have an attribute point to allocate.

Level up. Beam Hilt Control is now Level 1. 12% more damage is inflicted with each blow. 7% more damage dealt with any launched Essence bolts.

Level up. Essence Missile is now Level 1. 80% chance of missile creation. Upon success: 12% more damage is inflicted, and impacted objects are repelled 10% farther.

Level up. Essence Sight is now Level 1. You may place your perspective up to a maximum of twenty meters away from your body, in any direction, without disorientation.

Level up. Chrysalium Siphoning is now Level 1. 4% added bonus to Branchworks when Siphoning through Chrysalium.

Attribute up. Dexterity +1. Current Dexterity: 11

Attribute up. Intelligence +1. Current Intelligence: 10 (15 with Beam Hilt I equipped)

Class change: your class is now Essence Engineer.

Nice. Placing his external perspective anywhere around him, rather than behind his body, would certainly prove useful. He wasn’t sure he liked the forced class change, but no one would see it anyway with the ID Spoofing he had enabled.

He allocated his extra attribute point into Endurance, bringing his total to fifteen, or twenty-two with the beam hilt equipped. He felt slightly less tired immediately.

Tane made his way back outside and continued toward the cargo bay. His connection to Lyra and Jed was getting stronger. They still hadn’t entered the cargo bay yet, according to the overhead map. The resistance must have been a bit tougher than they expected.

In about a minute he reached another breach seal. It connected to the same section beyond which Jed and Lyra eventually awaited. As such, the liquid environment should already be voided on the other side.

True enough, when he sliced his ax through the seal, he wasn’t met with gushing liquid. He promptly carved himself a man-sized gap, kicked down the crystal, and stepped through.

The corridor beyond was slightly wider than those that came before. It was also strewn with suited alien bodies. The aliens had definitely thrown everything they had at Lyra and Jed, perhaps wanting to eliminate the only two they were authorized to kill.

He stepped out of the Essence and deactivated his ax. Securing the beam hilt to his waist, Tane slid the D18 into his arms and disabled his shield to squeeze past the bodies.

He glanced at his map. According to the indicators, Lyra and Jed had finally made it into the targeted cargo bay.

“So, she’s there?” Tane asked over the comm.

“No,” Lyra replied.

He couldn’t suppress the sudden disappointment he felt.

Well, guess it means we’ll be in hell for a little while longer.

“We’re waiting for you,” Lyra said.

“I’m almost there,” Tane said.

“I know,” she replied.

Tane passed a particularly large alien body and realized it was likely a Graaz'dhen, the commanding officer these other dwellers had been linked to. Its bigger body barely fit the wider passageway, and he had to wonder why it had gotten so close to the fighting.

Probably just in the wrong place at the wrong time.

He spotted what looked like a damaged defense system in the overhead. Some kind of laser turret. So the aliens had anti-boarding party armaments installed after all, and while they might not have used them against Tane, they had no qualms about employing the deadly devices against his companions. Tane could only imagine how much damage their shields and armor must have taken. There were two large slashes down the middle of the turret, as if both Lyra and Jed had sliced their blades through it at the same time.

In another minute Tane reached what looked like a shell of white rock protruding from the bulkhead beside him. According to the map, it lined up with the entrance to the cargo bay.

“This looks out of place…” Tane said.

Lyra’s Essence ax cut through the white rock from the inside as he approached, making a man-sized hole. She emerged.

“Our makeshift airlock,” she said.

There was another hole carved through the bulkhead inside the shell behind her, and beyond he could see some of the alien cargo bay. It looked like it was filled with floor-to-ceiling shelves separated by aisles wide enough to fit a single dweller. Littering them were the dark, pulsating crystals known as Diracs. None of them called out to him, Tane noted.

“Looks like you found the ship’s pantry,” Tane said.

“Indeed,” Lyra told him.

“You didn’t come get me,” Tane said.

“You told me not to,” Lyra said.

“I know,” Tane said. “But I thought you would.”

“I decided to trust my instincts,” Lyra said. “Which told me you had what it took to meet us here on your own. Besides, the aliens want you alive.”

“Oh, not all of them do, trust me,” Tane said. “The self-preservation instinct is strong, even among aliens apparently.”

“You’re the one who told me they weren’t shooting to kill...” Lyra said.

“Guess I was wrong,” Tane said. “When you back a scared alien into a corner, he’s going to be doing some killing, I guarantee you.”

Lyra nodded grimly behind her faceplate. “Then I’m glad you made it.”

“So what now?” Tane asked.

“I want to check the adjacent cargo bay before moving on,” Lyra said.

Tane glanced at his map. There was indeed a cargo bay immediately beside this one. If they could cut directly through the bulkhead separating the two bays, they wouldn’t even have to use the outer passageways to reach it.

“So we cut our way through?” Tane said.

“That’s the plan,” Lyra said. “Come on then.”

Keeping his shield deactivated, Tane ducked through the white shell and followed her inside. He glanced at the Diracs lining the shelves on either side, and kept expecting to feel the urge to pick one up, but it never came.

Maybe it only happens when I’m in the Umbra?

But then why did he have such a hard time getting rid of a Dirac after returning to this universe? Probably because the link had already taken place in the Umbra. Well, he wasn’t about to touch any of these crystals to find out.

Jed was waiting near the far bulkhead past the shelves. His armor appeared damaged in several places, but as Tane watched, the edges of the black, dented areas slowly healed, leaving behind fully-restored metal. And although those surrounding segments regenerated, the blue halo underneath the rib area remained diminished, Tane noted.

So not even regenerative armor can heal everything.

Tane checked his overhead map and confirmed that the bulkhead bordered the neighboring cargo bay.

“Well, what are we waiting for?” Tane walked past Jed toward the bulkhead and activated his Essence ax.

“No!” Lyra said. “You can’t just cut through. If they’ve stripped her of her suit and instead flooded the bay with a breathable atmosphere, you’ll kill her if you cut through.”

“Good point.” Tane deactivate his ax. What the hell was I thinking? He realized he wasn’t. His mind was still functioning partly on the fight-or-flight level.

I have to learn to hang on to my wits during tense battle situations.

He also realized he still felt like he had to prove himself to these two, and that might be causing him to make errors in judgment for the sake of bravado.

“We have to create an airlock first,” Lyra said.

“An Essencework?” Tane asked, thinking of the white shell he had seen outside the current cargo bay.

“No,” Lyra said. “Technology. Get in close.”

Tane crowded in beside Lyra against the bulkhead.

Jed stepped back and produced a small canister from a storage pocket in his armor. He sprayed foam in a circle along the bulkhead, and it expanded outward. He kept spraying along the edges, forming a white shell around them, finally joining it to the deck behind him.

As Tane watched, the shiny foam began to take on a dull sheen, and he realized it was hardening.

“How long does it take to set?” Tane said.

“A few more seconds.” Jed waited, then returned the canister to his armor. White mist erupted from nozzles at the back of his suit, quickly becoming translucent as it moved away from the man.

“What are you doing?” Tane asked.

“Venting oxygen,” Jed said.

A minute passed as that venting continued, but it seemed an eternity.

“Good enough,” Lyra said.

Jed nodded, and the mist ceased.

Lyra activated her energy ax and sliced it into the bulkhead. No liquid appeared. That was a good sign. There was however a popping sound, which told him that air was rushing inside from the compartment beyond, equalizing the pressures.

The Volur finished carving a human-sized hole and let the cutout fall in.

The trio entered.

This cargo bay proved mostly empty. In the middle was a small metal crate.

Tane and Lyra cautiously advanced. Jed moved out to the side, forming a wide arc in his approach to the crate. He had his sword in one hand, and the pistol the other. Lyra kept her beam hilt in hand, though the ax was deactivated.

Tane decided to lower his D18 from his shoulder.

He passed an area of brown sludge covering the deck.

“What’s that?” Tane asked.

“My best guess?” Lyra said. “An open latrine.”

Jed was the first around the crate, coming at it from his wide angle. “She’s here.”

Tane and Lyra quickly closed the distance. The Volur rounded the crate slightly ahead of him, and her gasp was audible over the comm line.

Tane stepped past the Volur, and what he saw stunned him to the core.

Sinive lay with her back propped against the crate. Her eyes were closed. Her chest didn’t seem to rise and fall at all, so he wasn’t sure if she was even alive. The exposed skin above her white dress was completely black.

Tane felt sick to his stomach. Just sick. This was his friend. She had been so attractive. So endearing. And now...

Lyra knelt above her body and held a gloved hand in front of Sinive’s nostrils. “She’s alive. But just barely.” Lyra glanced at the other Volur. “Jed?”

The man assumed a guard position near the makeshift airlock they had formed on the far side of the cargo bay.

Meanwhile Lyra holstered her beam hilt and retrieved a spacesuit from her storage pouch. She set it down on the deck and unraveled the binding cord. She glanced at Tane. “Help me put this on her.”

Tane and Lyra lifted Sinive’s lifeless limbs into the suit assemblies, securing the pieces one by one. Sinive was like a dead weight.

“What’s going to happen to her?” Tane asked at one point.

“She’s not going to become an alien, if that’s what your thinking,” Lyra answered.

“Is she going to die?” Tane pressed.

“Not if I can help it,” Lyra told him.

He was relieved by her determined tone. It told him the Volur would fight for her, which was all he could hope for.

After Tane attached the helmet, Lyra said: “I’m logging into the unit and initializing suit pressurization.” She paused. “Pressure looks good.”

Tane glanced at the crate Sinive had been propped against. “Should we check what’s inside that?”

Lyra shook her head. “No need. On the surface I’m detecting organic material consistent with human-compatible protein sources. My guess is this is what the dwellers used to feed her.”

“Why were they keeping her alive?” Tane said.

“They obviously detected my tracker inside of her,” Lyra said. “Perhaps they were worried if she died, the tracker would notify us, and we wouldn’t come.” She stepped away from the body. “Place her inside your storage pouch.”

“Is it safe?” Tane asked.

“With a suit, yes,” Lyra said.

Tane set down his pouch on the deck, opened it, and with Lyra’s help gingerly lowered Sinive inside. Then he sealed the pouch and attached it to his waist.

“It feels weird, knowing I’m hauling around an important friend in here,” Tane said.

“As it should,” Lyra said. She glanced at Jed. “You know I can’t create very big distortion tunnels, especially when I’m tired like this…”

“I guess it’s time for a little visit to your personal storage device, huh?” Jed said.

The big man came over as Lyra set down her own pouch on the deck. Like Tane, she opened the drawstrings and spread the lip wide, forming a hole big enough to fit the man.

Apparently Jed had some experience with this manner of traveling, because he promptly stepped over the hole and fell inside, vanishing.

Lyra pulled the drawstrings closed and reattached the pouch to her belt.

“Cub do you read?” Lyra tried over the comm. “Cub?”

No answer.

“I should have had Cub seal and pressurize the cabin before we left comm range,” Lyra said. “Too bad. It’s going to get windy in a second. Make sure your pouch is firmly secured, unless you want to lose Sinive.”

She tucked her pouch in behind her utility belt, and Tane did likewise, tightening the securing straps.

Lyra gazed into the empty air in front of her. “I’m not the best at making local distortion tunnels. It’s going to be small and tight.”

“That explains why you stowed Jed away,” Tane said.

“Yes,” Lyra told him. “Be careful not to clip the edges when you step through. Unless you want to cut off parts of yourself.”

“No thanks,” Tane said. “By the way, I thought the plan was to disable the engines or something? We do have the blueprints of this ship type…”

“It won’t matter,” Lyra said. “Not when the aliens have three other ships out there. Or four, including the human corvette. We’ll be pursued either way. But once we’re out there, I do have one last gambit in mind; if it fails, we’ll just have to hope they want you badly enough not to blow us out of the stars. Either way, we can’t delay: Sinive needs treatment now.”

She continued to stare in front of her, and a tiny rent formed in the fabric of spacetime. Air gushed from the cargo bay and into that hole: Tane could feel the definite pull on his spacesuit. He braced himself on the deck with one leg, as did Lyra.

The rent enlarged, and air continued streaming into the vacuum environment beyond for a few moments, until all of the atmosphere was gone. The spacetime tear slowly became a tight ellipse just big enough to fit a human in a spacesuit. Tane could see the cabin of Grizzly Cub waiting beyond, located precisely above the spot where Lyra had planted her beacon. Jed would have definitely had trouble fitting, even if he shrunk his power armor. The man was just too big.

Behind Tane and Lyra the door to the cargo bay slid open, and liquid hydrocarbons began to gush inside.

Lyra calmly stepped crabwise through the spacetime rent and into the shuttle. Tane likewise turned his bulky body sideways, and he ducked, stepping through one foot at a time, taking care not to let any parts of his suit touch the edges of the tunnel as he went through.

The spacetime tear sealed behind him, leaving a yellow, dispersing mist in its wake—all that remained of the liquid that had reached the distortion tunnel before it closed.

“Stay here,” Lyra said. She raced down the ramp.

“Where are you going?” Tane asked.

“Disabling the remaining alien shuttle!” she said. Her energy ax appeared in hand before she vanished from view.

She returned a moment later, holstering the beam hilt to her utility belt.

“Cub, shut the ramp!” Lyra dropped into one of the chairs. “Take us out of here! I’m marking off a location on the hull of the alien ship. After launching, I want you to head for that spot and attach to their hull immediately. Then cut all external emissions and heat venting. Let them think we’ve vanished.”

“We can only cut emissions for five minutes before the regulator systems begin to overheat,” Cub said.

“Five minutes is all we’ll need,” Lyra told the shuttle’s AI.

The ramp sealed silently, but Tane felt the vibrations travel up through the deck and into his boot. He took the empty seat beside Lyra and clamps secured him in place.

“I’m flooding the cabin with oxygen,” Cub said. “As per standard protocol.”

“Good, I’ll need it to work on Sinive,” Lyra said.

“Engaging artificial gravity,” Cub said. “And launching.”

The chair shook; Tane’s stomach lurched as the inertial dampeners kicked in.

“Proceeding toward hull location,” Cub said.

“How are we doing on cabin pressurization?” Lyra asked.

“Twenty-five percent,” Cub said.

“Notify me when it’s complete,” Lyra said. “By the way, what star system are we in at the moment?”

“We’re still in Iridium,” Cub said.

“Are you certain?” Lyra said.

“I’m still receiving intermittent pings from the system’s postal node,” the shuttle’s AI said. “And the star maps correlate with Iridium. So yes, I am certain.”

“Why haven’t they jumped?” Lyra said softly.

31

The news surprised Tane, because it didn’t make sense that the aliens hadn’t jumped. Even so he was kind of glad, as it made things easier for the escapees. Sort of.

Tane’s seat shook again.

“I’ve successfully attached to the designated hull location,” Cub said.

“The aliens won’t find us?” Tane asked.

“Eventually they will, yes,” Lyra said. “But we’ll be on the move before then.”

Lyra deactivated the seat clamps and placed her pouch on the floor. Then she reached inside and stood, hauling out Jed.

“Took you long enough,” Jed said.

“Sorry to leave you hanging,” Lyra said.

“I was, literally.” Jed’s armor shrunk slightly, and he took a seat across from them. All of the damaged areas of his armor had regenerated by then, although the glow emanating from his right rib area remained diminished.

“Tane?” Lyra said. “Can you put Sinive on the floor? I want her ready to go when the cabin pressurizes.”

Tane deactivated the seat clamps and stood to set down his pouch. He accessed the inventory user interface, selected the spacesuit that represented Sinive, and reached inside the infinite blackness to grab her. He experienced a moment’s panic when he couldn’t find anything. He never really did trust the storage device, especially since he had received it as a “gift.” And now it had finally eaten one of his items, perhaps the most precious item of all. A friend who had fought at his side. A—

No. I refuse to believe she’s gone.

He took a deep breath and reached farther, up to his his shoulder.

Still nothing.

He swung his arm around, finally contacting something solid, and exhaled in relief. He wrapped his hand around what felt like an underarm area, and yanked. Not an underarm, but the crook of a boot.

With Jed’s help he hauled the rest of the spacesuit out. Underneath the faceplate he could see Sinive’s disease-blackened features, her eyes still closed. Her limbs hung lifelessly as Tane and Jed set her down, and he couldn’t help but wonder if she was already dead. If not, she was certainly close.

Was this all for nothing?

Tane closed the drawstring and somberly collected his storage device.

“You did well back there, Tane,” Jed said.

It was the first time the man had called him by any other name than Engineer. It felt good, somehow, to have the man’s approval.

Tane nodded distractedly, too worried about Sinive to properly respond.

“Cabin is fully pressurized,” Cub announced.

“And now it begins,” Lyra said grimly. She glanced at Tane. “Help me.”

Tane knelt beside her and began the process of doffing Sinive’s protective suit. Lyra joined in, starting with the helmet.

“What pieces do you want to take off?” Tane asked.

“Everything,” Lyra said. “I’ll need to gauge the progress of my healing. If even a pinhead of darkness remains on her flesh, the corruption will remain, only to rebound over the next few days, and she’ll have to be cleansed again.”

Tane stripped off Sinive’s right glove, and then her arm assembly. The skin underneath was black, almost mummified. His heart went out to the poor girl.

“Well this is interesting,” Cub announced.

“What now?” Lyra asked, tugging on Sinive’s opposite arm assembly.

“TSN ships have just jumped into the system,” Cub replied. “When the human vessels fled the system, obviously the TSN took the reports they must have made about alien aggressors seriously, because these warships have jumped to within weapons range.”

“A lucky jump on their part?” Tane said.

“Not lucky,” Lyra said. “The TSN has good jump drive tech. How many are there, Cub?”

“I’m only reading four heat signatures,” the shuttle’s AI said. “I don’t have enough data to estimate ship classes yet, but the thermal sigs are rather... lackluster.”

“The TSN took the threat seriously,” Jed said. “But not seriously enough.”

“Apparently so,” Cub agreed.

“It was probably all they could scramble in time,” Lyra said. “I’m sure they weren’t expecting to find the dwellers still hanging around. Whether or not they actually defeat the aliens doesn’t matter. We can use this. Potentially get away in the crossfire. Cub, any sign that we’ve been detected by the dwellers yet?”

“Negative,” Cub replied.

“Good,” Lyra said.

Tane and Lyra finished removing the last of Sinive’s spacesuit.

“Her dress, too?” Tane asked.

Lyra shook her head. “No. Jed will be able to readily scan through the dress when I’m done, and I only need to touch a part of her skin.”

The Volur removed her own gloves, the Chrysalium rings shining brightly on her fingers. She reached into the storage pouch at her belt, retrieving another Chrysalium artifact, this one carved into the shape of a starfish with a bulbous head, almost like an octopus.

She sat on the cabin floor in her spacesuit, beside Sinive’s blackened body, and placed the artifact down beside her. She rested one hand atop the artifact, and the other over Sinive’s blackened forehead.

The deck shook.

“An Essence lance from one of the TSN warships just struck the alien vessel we’re attached to,” Cub announced. “The hull impact wasn’t far from our location.”

Lyra ignored the AI and closed her eyes.

Tane apparently had access to the external cameras because he was able to access the video feeds. Tane cycled through them until he found one that offered a good view of the battle. Cub had already set it up with the optimal zoom.

Dweller ships were firing dark balls of energy at the TSN vessels, which were shaped like big, gray torpedoes in the distance. The TSN spacecraft meanwhile fired white beams of light from their Essence lances in return. One of the TSN ships, which appeared far smaller than the others, lingered off to the side as if having no intention of taking part in the fighting.

Tane dismissed the video feed, wanting to watch Lyra work instead.

The Volur remained motionless, one hand on the artifact, the other on her patient’s forehead. Tane hadn’t missed anything: Sinive’s condition hadn’t changed in the least.

The bulkhead moaned behind Tane.

“Another nearby impact,” Cub said.

Lyra gave no indication that she heard. The woman seemed to be ignoring the outside world entirely. All of her being was concentrated on Sinive.

Tane looked at Jed, but the man also appeared unconcerned. His helmet was open, and he lifted a thickly gloved finger to his lips as if to say: “Shh.”

The artifact underneath Sinive’s hand began to glow. Red at first, then blue, and finally white. It became almost blinding to look at. Still there was no change in Sinive.

“There’s too many of them,” Lyra said suddenly. “I can’t hold them off!”

The hand that touched Sinive’s tainted forehead shook violently, and dark veins began to creep up Lyra’s flesh. Her fingernails blackened, and then the fingertips, up to the first knuckles.

Now Jed was starting to seem very, very concerned.

Lyra’s eyelids shot open and she looked at Jed. There was an uncharacteristic panic in her expression. “I need to link with you.”

Jed dashed forward, ripped off one glove, and placed his hand atop hers, over the artifact. He stiffened suddenly.

Lyra glanced at Tane. “You too!”

“I don’t know how—” Tane began.

“Touch my hand!” Lyra said. “Quickly!”

Tane depressurized the suit and stripped off his gloves. He could smell the rot immediately, no doubt emanating from Sinive, and it nearly overpowered him. He didn’t know how Jed or Lyra could stand it. Doing his best to ignore the scent, he knelt beside Lyra. She hadn’t said which hand to touch, and he assumed she meant the one gripping the artifact, the same hand Jed was in contact with, because Tane really didn’t want anything to do with the other, blackening limb.

He extended his arms toward the artifact and hesitated only a moment before wrapping his palms around her wrist, just behind Jed’s hand.

“Siphon the Essence into me!” Lyra commanded. The hand she touched to Sinive’s forehead had turned completely black by then.

Tane extended his mind into the Lumina, and the Essence ripped across his bones, colder than ever. He still had to guide the stellar wind across his skeletal frame, and instinctively he knew to redirect it to his hand, rather than to his core, just as if he were feeding the Essence to a beam hilt. He emptied it from his palm and directly into Lyra.

He saw it then: the incredible Branchwork Lyra had created. He was a little surprised, because according to the memories he had purchased, only the wielder could see the worked Essence. Apparently that rule didn’t apply when linked to someone who was doing the growing.

The branches of the translucent tree Lyra had created were spread throughout the cabin, some extending beyond the walls and into deep space beyond. The complexity of the work was overwhelming. If there was artwork in the realm of the Essence, he was witnessing it. He didn’t think he would ever be able to form something that intricate, that big.

His Essence joined hers, and as he watched the tree became larger still, fresh Branchworks expanding to displace the previous, until the entire cabin interior was knotted with the ethereal creation.

And then all of a sudden the complex work was contracting, shrinking, the Branchwork descending into the still body of Sinive, until it vanished inside of her entirely.

Almost at the same time, the blackness covering her skin began to fade. It started as a small circle of uninfected skin at her forehead, emanating from Lyra’s hand. That circle grew, expanding outward, until Sinive’s entire face was clear of the blackness. She looked serene. At peace.

Lyra slumped.

Tane let go of her hand and quickly stepped his mind out of the Essence. He and Jed collapsed at the same time.

Tane felt exhausted. He noticed that the artifact had crumbled to dust under Lyra’s hand.

New skill learned.

Essence Linking. Level 0. You understand how to feed the stellar wind from the Lumina to another Essenceworker, thus enabling them to draw upon your Siphoned Essence for their own Branchworks. You cannot yet accept Essence from another.

Okay.

Tane returned his attention to Sinive. He watched the cleansing wave pass under her dress and onto her bare arms, clearing away the corruption. After a moment it emerged from underneath the hem and passed down her calves, to her bare feet, and finally her toes, freeing the last part of her from the dark infection.

The rancid smell in the air faded.

Tane glanced at the hand Lyra had touched Sinive with and was relieved to see it was clear of corruption as well.

Jed wearily leaned forward and slid down the collar of Sinive’s dress. He ripped off the bandage, which had remained in place all this time, to reveal a puckering scar. Though it was an ugly pink, it was free of blackness.

“She’ll have to get that cosmetically touched up at some point,” Jed said. His voice sounded strained. The link had been just as hard on him, then.

Jed extended his palm and scanned Sinive with a triangular red beam from his glove. He directed the scan up and down her body before deactivating it.

“She’s purged,” Jed said. “No sign of microcrillia.”

“You did it,” Tane told Lyra. “Thank you.”

Still seated on the floor, Lyra leaned back, resting against the seat behind her. “She’s not out of the woods yet. I’ve done all I can, and it’s up to her now. She has to fight.”

Tane nodded. “She will.”

“Good.” Lyra lay back. “I need to rest.” She closed her eyes.

“An unarmed alien drone is approaching,” Cub said. “If we haven’t been detected yet, we will be shortly.”

“Damn,” Lyra said. She was blinking rapidly, as if she had almost fallen asleep. “I’d hoped for more time. Is there a nearby planetoid or other celestial object we can head to for some cover?”

“There’s Remus,” Cub said.

“Remus.” Her voice was soft. “What is it about that planet again?” Her features suddenly darkened.

“What?” Tane said.

“It’s not important,” Lyra said. “Cub, set a course for Remus. Detach from the hull, resume heat venting, and engage.”

“Detaching,” Cub said. A moment later: “We’ve been spotted. The alien ship is pursuing.”

“Evasive maneuvers,” Lyra said. “Don’t let them hit us with a grappling hook. Tane, Jed, link with me again.”

Tane was about to protest, considering how weak he felt, but he gave her his hand anyway and fed Lyra the frigid gale that tore through his insides. It felt colder and more painful than ever before, scraping across his bones, so much so that he couldn’t help but gasp.

Jed had given Lyra his hand as well, and he seemed just as weary.

Tane saw the strange work emanate from her. It wasn’t nearly as complex as the healing Branchwork, but it still wasn’t something he could easily duplicate. The translucent Branches settled into the surrounding hull, fading away. A maintenance stream emanated from Lyra’s chest, linking her to the ceiling via the Essence. It was similar to the stream that had appeared when Tane had created Persistent Flame, though it was much thicker.

“Our thermals should be hidden now,” Lyra said, panting. “Issue an emergency dive on a trajectory perpendicular to our current course.”

“Issuing emergency course change,” Cub said. Several seconds later: “Alien ship is not pursuing.”

Lyra was very pale, and she began to shake. Badly.

Tane felt terrible as well. He shivered as the frigid gale continued to howl through his being. He could feel the deathly cold gusting through the mountain passes of his bones like a hurricane, scouring away the microscopic peaks and valleys. He didn't think he would survive this. But it didn't matter. So long as the shuttle got away, and Sinive lived…

He could barely hold his head upright. Phosphenes dotted his vision, and he thought he was going to throw up.

Without warning Lyra crumpled and her link to the ceiling evanesced. Jed fell backward against his seat.

Tane couldn’t stand it any longer either. He stepped out of the Essence and slouched beside them as the terrible, bone-shredding cold lifted.

“I couldn’t do it,” Lyra said with a whimper.

“Alien ship is altering course to pursue us again,” Cub said.

The phosphenes began to clear from Tane’s vision, and he felt less nauseous.

“I was too weak,” Lyra continued. She glanced at Tane. “Even with both of you helping. And all the Chrysalium I wear. I thought I could do it. I really did. But healing her took too much out of me. I’m sorry.”

Tane’s stomach lurched as something struck the ship and the inertial dampeners momentarily struggled to compensate.

“We’ve just been hit by a grappling hook,” Cub said. “The dwellers are reeling us in.”

“What’s the ETA?” Jed said weakly.

“We’ll dock in approximately two minutes,” Cub said.

“Can you break free?” Jed pressed.

The hull moaned loudly for several moments, then quietude descended once more. That quiet seemed disturbing somehow, probably because of the tension in the air.

“Negative,” Cub said. “Would you like me to continue trying? Keeping in mind that there is a distinct possibility we’ll burn out our engines.”

“No,” Lyra said tiredly. “Let’s not burn them out, nor give the aliens a reason to open fire and disable us. We’ll need those engines for our second escape attempt.” She replaced her gloves. “Jed, I’m too exhausted to face our enemies.”

“We’ll do our best,” Jed said. “That’s all we can do.”

“I’ll help you,” Tane said, though he knew he wouldn’t be able to Siphon, not for at least another half hour. He patted his D18 instead.

Jed nodded at him. “When we dock, stay behind me.”

Lyra glanced at Sinive. “We have to get her suited up.”

Tane put his gloves back on and pressurized his own suit, and then he helped Jed and Lyra replace Sinive’s spacesuit. Sinive remained unresponsive the whole time, but at least her breathing had returned to normal, her chest rising and falling regularly.

When she was suited up, Jed placed Sinive into one of the seats and the clamps secured her. Then the others took the remaining seats and waited for the alien ship to swallow them. They tried to rest as much as they were able.

Tane accessed the external cam to observe the battle. One of the pincer-shaped dweller ships was clearly out of the battle, hanging back with sparks emerging from damaged hull sections. The hook ship, which was reeling in Grizzly Cub, seemed unharmed, as did the other two dweller ships escorting it. Meanwhile, one of the TSN spacecraft was completely gone—either it had jumped out to fetch more reinforcements, or it had disintegrated. Two others bore a few impact craters on their hulls, but otherwise seemed fully engaged in the battle. The fourth continued to linger off to the side, as if acting merely as an observer. It was too small to appear as anything other than a dot on the display.

There was no sign of the human corvette the dwellers had commandeered.

“What happened to the Harbinger corvette?” Tane asked. “Is it destroyed?”

“It jumped,” Cub said.

“Evidently the aliens don’t want to risk having it fall into TSN hands,” Lyra said.

Tane nodded slowly. “Speaking of the TSN, what happens if they decide to shoot us down before the aliens grab us?”

“Then one moment we exist and the next we do not,” Lyra said simply.

“You may have noticed that one of the human ships was staying back,” Cub said. “Well it’s finally moving into action, and is pulling well away from the TSN line. Its public profile declares it as a Scimitar class warship.”

“It’s too small to be a Scimitar,” Jed said.

“Yes,” Cub said. “The profile is spoofed.”

Tane spotted the vessel on the video. It was headed directly for the hook ship.

“A strange strategy…” Jed said. Apparently he was viewing the feed as well. Or some tactical display Tane didn’t have access to. “Looks almost like they intend to ram.”

A black ball of energy launched from the hook ship, courtesy of the vessel’s Dark Essence thrower. It moved at incredible speed, and the incoming human ship narrowly dove out of the way.

“It’s the Red Grizzly!” Lyra said.

Tane saw a white beam of light erupt from the Essence lance of a TSN vessel behind the Red Grizzly. The beam was also aimed at the incoming ship, and the Red Grizzly once again barely dodged. No doubt infrared lasers from both sides were pummeling the Rapier class vessel as well—the occasional blue, translucent half-domes that marked laser impacts with energy shields momentarily lit up along the outskirts of the Red Grizzly’s hull.

Cub said: “I’m receiving a broadcast message, all channels.”

“Let’s hear it,” Lyra said.

An authoritative voice came over the comm: “Unauthorized craft, move away from the enemy immediately or we will be forced to shoot you down.”

“Guess the TSN isn’t too happy with Nebb,” Tane commented.

The Red Grizzly shot past and Tane was jerked forward in his seat before the inertial dampeners kicked in.

“What was that?” Lyra said.

“The Red Grizzly just performed a high speed maneuver equivalent to threading the eye of a needle,” Cub said.

Jed lifted an eyebrow. “How so?”

“It flew between the Grizzly Cub and the hook ship,” the shuttle’s AI said. “Avoiding impact with either one of them. At the speeds and distances involved, the margin for error was extremely thin. The chances of even an AI pulling off such a maneuver are ridiculously small. It is… incredible.”

“Incredibly dangerous,” Jed commented.

“And that’s not all,” Cub said. “The Red Grizzly severed the alien grappling hook in the process, freeing us, while at the same time launching a grappling hook of their own. The Red Grizzly is carrying us away from the battle and reeling us in at the same time.”

Nebb’s voice came over the comm. “It’s howdy doody time boys and girls!”

“Nebb,” Lyra said. “You’re one crazy SOB.”

“Why thank you,” Nebb replied over the comm almost immediately. He was close enough for real-time. “You’re pretty hot yourself. What are you doing tonight?”

Lyra didn’t answer. Tane thought she rolled her eyes behind her faceplate.

“By the way, did you get my jump specialist?” Nebb said.

“We did,” Lyra told him.

“Much appreciated.” The humor had faded from Nebb’s voice. “How’s she doing?”

“Recovering well,” Lyra said.

“I owe you for that,” Nebb said.

“You’re paying me back just fine right now,” Lyra said. “Cub, how long until we dock?”

“ETA three minutes,” Cub replied.

“That’s a long time to be dragged in open space…” Jed said.

“Yes,” Lyra said. “But a shuttle is a small target. Especially given the widening distance between ourselves and the hook ship. The Red Grizzly is the endangered one.”

“Speaking of the hook ship,” Cub said. “The alien vessel is issuing emergency deceleration. As are its escorts: I believe the dwellers are attempting to change directions to pursue.”

“Not surprising,” Lyra said.

“They’ve gotta be pissed,” Tane said. “They almost had me, and now I’m slipping from their grasp.”

“We haven’t gotten away scot-free just yet,” Lyra said.

As it reeled in the shuttle, the Red Grizzly continued to take occasional fire from both dweller and human alike, though the aliens and TSN seemed to be focusing the brunt of their attacks upon one another.

When the shuttle finally docked, Tane waited for the hangar bay to pressurize, and then removed his suit helmet, attaching it to the provided loop on his utility belt. Then he carried Sinive aboard.

“Take her to sickbay,” Lyra instructed. She too had doffed her helmet and secured it to the belt of her spacesuit. “I want the medical robots keeping her under observation. Have them alert me if her condition worsens.”

“Will do,” Tane said, taking the leftmost passage beyond the airlock. Jed and Lyra took the right, heading for the cockpit.

Tane had to walk sideways through the tight passageway, because carrying Sinive in his arms widened his profile considerably, and the suit he wore wasn’t exactly skintight. For once Grizz didn’t play games with the breach seals blocking his path and opened them without Tane having to say a word; obviously the AI cared about Sinive’s well-being.

Tane deposited her in sickbay, placing her down on one of the bunks and removing her helmet so she could breathe the ship’s air. Her face was so very pale.

“Hang in there, my friend,” Tane said. He slid off one glove and rested a knuckle against her cheek. Her skin felt a little cold to the touch. He remembered Lyra’s words. She still has to fight.

Tane combed a stray strand of hair from her face. “You got this, girl. We’re all rooting for you.”

He relayed Lyra’s instructions to the spider-like medical robot, then hurried back through the passageways to the cockpit. Tane felt the deck shake ominously a few times along the way, and he almost threw on his helmet for fear of a hull breach.

When he finally reached the cockpit, he assumed his customary position beside Jed near the entrance. Lyra was sitting down beside Positron and Nebb. The feed from the Red Grizzly’s nose camera was projected on the bulkhead in front of them. Tane was glad he still had access to that feed, though at the moment all it showed was an empty starfield. No, not entirely empty. There was a planet, about the size of his thumbnail, hanging in the upper right. Though it was hard to tell because of its size, it looked like a barren, rocky world. Cloudless, and probably bereft of any life. He ran an ID on it, which told him the planet was rock planet IS-A-3. Remus.

“What’s the situation?” Tane asked.

“Not good,” Nebb replied. “Weapons are out across the board.”

“The TSN’s doing?” Tane said.

“No, the dwellers,” Nebb said. “They are closer to us, after all.”

“Alien ships are a bit tougher when you fight them with their shields intact,” Grizz said.

“Just a bit,” Nebb agreed. He glanced at Tane. “And get this: though they’ve taken out our weapons, strangely the aliens have left our engines intact, and allowed our shields time to regenerate. It’s almost like they’re toying with us. Or trying to decide what they want to do with us. They’re still pursuing, of course, but most of their fire is directed against the TSN. They do hit us with the occasional laser, mainly to remind us they’re still around. They haven’t shot their Essence thrower our way since that first attack, however.”

“Of course not,” Lyra said. “We’re carrying valuable cargo.”

Nebb gave Tane an appraising look. “What do they see in you anyway?”

“That’s what I’d like to know,” Tane said. “By the way, why did you decide to come back, in the end?”

“I don’t really know.” Nebb returned his attention to the tactical display screen only he could see. “Guess I’ve developed a conscience.”

“When a smuggler develops a conscience, you know the galaxy is going to end soon,” Grizz said.

“That’s right, AI,” Nebb said. “You just wish you were human again.”

“I will be once I purchase a few nice synthetic bodies in my retirement,” the Red Grizzly’s AI said. “Maybe I’ll get a few designed in your image.”

“Hey, I got a copyright on my rugged good looks,” Nebb said.

“Are we able to jump?” Tane asked.

“I replaced Bad Apple and Sour Grapes with two new temps while I was gone,” Nebb said. “I exhausted the first one getting here. The second I had manning the Essence lance until the dwellers shot the weapon to hell, and now I have him waiting in the jump chamber on my command.”

“We can’t jump, not this close to the enemy,” Lyra told Tane. “They’d disrupt it for sure, and exhaust our specialist.”

Nebb nodded. “The Volur is right, kid. I decided to get smart, and hold back on any jump attempts for now, given what happened the last time. We’ll bide our time, waiting for the right opportunity.”

“One of the TSN craft just pulled in front of the others,” Positron announced.

“Oh crap,” Nebb said. “Looks like they decided they don’t want the aliens to have you after all.”

Tane felt the hull shake. “What happened?”

“The Red Grizzly is taking heavy dragon fire from that ship,” Nebb said. “Starboard shields just went down!”

“Look at that,” Positron said.

Tane saw nothing on the nose cam, and realized Positron must have been referring to something happening on that elusive tactical display he couldn’t see.

“One of the dweller ships just pulled up along our starboard side, twenty thousand kilometers out,” Nebb said. “They’re physically shielding us with their vessel, and driving the TSN ship back.”

“Signaling ownership,” Lyra said.

“I’m not liking this,” Tane said.

“Take us on a course away from both ships,” Nebb said. “Let’s put some distance between us.”

“You got it,” Grizz said.

The distant planet shifted out of view on the video feed as the Red Grizzly made the necessary course correction.

A moment later the AI spoke again. “As soon as I turned to port, the hook ship behind us increased laser fire. They’re concentrating on the port side of our vessel. Several of the bolts missed, though a few made contact.”

“Warning shots?” Jed said.

“Steady as she goes…” Nebb said.

The deck shook.

“They released another round of laser pulses,” Grizz said. “This time all the beams contacted. We’ve got breaches all along our port side.”

“They’re giving us a hint…” Lyra said. “They don’t want us changing directions.”

Nebb sighed. “Take us back along our previous heading.”

“Done,” Grizz said.

The planet shifted into view on the video feed once more.

“They’ve stopped firing,” Grizz said.

Nebb nodded. “It’s almost like they approve of our destination. Like they’re herding us.”

“Toward Remus?” Tane said.

Nebb nodded. “Our current course will take us directly to the planet.”

Tane glanced at Lyra. “What’s on Remus?”

Lyra shook her head, saying nothing.

Nebb must have thought Tane was talking to him, because the smuggler said: “I originally planned to use its gravity to slingshot past for a speed boost.”

“It won’t be enough,” Lyra said. “But there’s something else that might be of use to us.”

“Something else?” Nebb said. He looked at her, seeming confused.

“I want you to scan for a thermal anomaly,” Lyra said. “I’m feeding Grizz the radiation signature as we speak.”

“I’ve received it,” the Red Grizzly’s AI said. “When we are in range of the planet, I will scan for the signature.”

“Once we’ve arrived,” Lyra said, “Tane, Jed and I will take the shuttle down to the surface to investigate the anomaly. In the meantime, I want you to stay in orbit, Nebb. Do your best to distract the aliens. I don’t want them to know we’ve launched a shuttle to the surface. Hide us with your thermal signature, if possible.”

“That might prove a bit difficult,” Nebb said. “The thermal energy from your reentry will be visible from high orbit. We’d have to place ourselves at exactly the right angle between the enemy ships and yourselves, and it just won’t be possible to cover all angles all the time, not with three alien ships out there.”

“Do your best,” Lyra said. “Expel debris. Decoys if you have them. Whatever it takes.”

“Wait, what’s going on?” Tane said. “What’s down there? What aren’t you telling me?”

She lowered her gaze. “What we did, we did for your protection. We did it because we thought it was the right thing to do. But I realize now it was a mistake.”

“What are you talking about?” Tane said. Confused, he glanced at Jed, but the man also would not meet his eye.

She cleared her throat. “We haven’t told you the whole truth about yourself, Tane Ganeth. But I suppose it’s finally time you learned. You may not like what you hear, however.”

32

Tane simply stared at her. She hasn’t told me the whole truth? Why am I not surprised?

He clenched his fists in sudden anger. Beside him Jed shifted slightly; Tane knew the man was prepared to subdue him. Jed didn’t have anything to worry about: Tane had no intention of attacking either of them. He just needed an outlet for his rage, and squeezing his fingers proved the safest release at the moment.

“Come with me,” Lyra said. She slid past him into the passageway beyond.

“Like a pet…” Nebb commented.

“Silence, Smuggler,” Jed told the man.

Tane followed Lyra down the tight corridor in his bulky spacesuit until he and the Volur were out of sight, and earshot, of the others.

“I’ve raised an Essence field around us,” Lyra said. “It will prevent the Red Grizzly’s AI from listening in and sharing what we say with Nebb.”

Tane simply scowled at her, waiting for her to talk.

“When I first met you,” Lyra said. “I told you my team and I happened to be in the vicinity when the police call came. That wasn’t entirely true.”

Tane folded his arms, waiting for her to reveal what she had been holding back from the beginning. His anger was quickly giving way to disappointment however.

Betrayed from the beginning. I should have never trusted a Volur. Never.

“Do you remember the synthetic who took your brain scan for the first time when you went to get chipped?” Lyra said.

Tane frowned. “Headphone Jack. I knew that synthetic bastard was somehow involved in this.”

“The TSN High Command has a special, highly classified message box set aside to receive communiques of the utmost importance,” Lyra continued. “This message box is used by senior command officials, undercover operatives, and in some cases, ordinary synthetics and robots. You see, the military requires that all synthetics and robots throughout the galaxy retain a secretive set of protocols embedded deep in their AI cores. These protocols allow the millions of robots placed throughout the galaxy to act as the eyes and ears of the TSN: when certain conditions are met, the AIs will report back to the High Command via the encrypted message box. You triggered one of those conditions.”

“I did?” Tane said. He remembered the red light flashing on the console after Headphone Jack had given him his first ever brain scan. And the comment it made: “Well that’s interesting…”

“Yes,” Lyra continued. “Your mind was picked apart by one of the most advanced brain scanners in existence. The machine detected your Ability to Siphon, but also something else. Something more. When a synthetic in Kalindor city reported a farm boy had the ability to Siphon both sides of the Essence, a series of events were set in motion. The—“

“Wait a second,” Tane said. “Both sides of the Essence? You’re telling me I can Siphon the Dark Essence, too?”

“You can,” Lyra said. “So far you have only accessed the Esoterum, or White Essence, drawn from the Lumina—a feat restricted to humans with the Ability. But you also can tap into the Arcanum, or Dark Essence, drawn from the Umbra. I wasn’t sure I believed it until I took you to the Umbra and saw the threads connecting you to the Dark Essence with my own eyes.

“The ancient Terael people have a prophecy, foretelling of a man who will bend both worlds. A man who will wield the Whole Essence and access the powers available to both humans and aliens. This man will either tear the universe apart, or bind it, bringing about everlasting peace.”

“Oh,” Tane said.

“The TSN High Command read the message sent by the Kalindor synthetic,” Lyra said, “and dispatched a ship to retrieve you. What they didn’t know was that I intercepted the message as well. I have eyes and ears in place in the TSN High Command, and they informed me of your discovery. I got lucky. You were only two jumps away from my current posting. I had finally found you, and booked passage on the first ship to your planet.

“I hoped to beat the TSN to you. If they reached you first, they would have locked you away, too afraid of what you’d become. You would have received no training in the Essence. Who knows, maybe they would have even experimented on you, dissecting you alive to see what made you tick.”

“You never told me about any of that before,” Tane said. “It might have made it easier to convince me to come with you.”

“Maybe so,” Lyra said. “In any case, I did in fact beat the TSN to you. But what I didn’t expect was for the dwellers to reach you first. Either the aliens have a mole in the High Command as I do, or they found a way to monitor the encrypted communications to that particular message box. Jed and I narrowly averted catastrophe by arriving when we did. If those aliens snagged you…” She shook her head. “It would have been the end of the galaxy.”

“Why?”

“They have their own prophecy. A dark prophecy. They foretell that when the Bender of Worlds comes, he will be born among humanity, and by taking him the dwellers will finally wipe out our species and eliminate the threat we pose to them. They never did forgive humanity for what the TSN did to their homeworld.

“If the dwellers took you, with your ability to summon both the White and Dark Essences, you would be a warrior like no other, at least once properly trained. They would likely achieve that training through our own nanotech: they’ve stolen our tech, studied it, experimented on captured humans. They would also modify your chip so that they could control you completely, making you their virtual slave. It would be like living out your life from the perspective of an observer, able to watch, but not participate.”

“So I was screwed either way, you’re saying,” Tane told her. “If the TSN got me, I was dissected. If the dwellers got me, I was a prisoner in my own body.”

“Yes.”

“And I’m supposed to trust that the Volur wouldn’t want to use me for their own nefarious ends?” Tane said.

“We exist only to serve humanity’s best interests,” Lyra said.

“And not your own best interests?” Tane pressed.

Lyra sighed. “You’re right. There are some among the Volur who would seek to use your gifts to further their own agenda. Which is why I planned to avoid Talendir as well.”

“Avoid Talendir?” Tane said. “So all this time you were lying to me? You had no intention of traveling to the Volur homeworld whatsoever?”

“It would be too dangerous for you on Talendir,” Lyra said. “I knew you and your parents would never agree to go to a different system. But invoking the name of Talendir, homeworld of the Volur, evokes immediate awe and respect. Jed and I planned to take you to a hidden system and train you in secret with a few select colleagues. The other Volur would have had no idea what happened to you. And only when you were ready would we have revealed you. By then, you would have been too strong for any to threaten you.”

“So you planned to train me by yourselves,” Tane said. “And then ‘reveal’ me, as you call it. I wouldn’t have been allowed to leave, would I?”

“Of course you would have,” Lyra said. “If we survive this, and you do decide to come with us in the end, we will give you guidance, but we won’t control you.”

“Oh, so now I have a choice,” Tane said.

“You always did,” Jed piped in.

“Guidance,” Tane said. “Guidance is a form of control.”

Lyra didn’t answer.

He heard the words of his teacher then: the Volur who had trained the man whose memories Tane had imprinted to learn how to Siphon.

"There are other universes beside the Lumina wherefrom different Essences can be drawn," Maelin said. "But humans cannot tap into these universes. Each alien race has access to a different one. The dwellers. The archaeoceti. The creodenti."

"The archaeoceti?" Tane found himself asking. "Creodenti?"

"Yes, they are extinct in this universe now, but it is believed that the universes they drew Essence from still exist. Unlike the dwellers, they were born into this universe, rather than the universe where their Essence was sourced, and they evolved to such a degree that they simply left this universe behind entirely.

"There are likely other races out there we haven't met, alien species that can draw Essence from still different universes. Mankind cannot be so naive as to believe the Essence we wield is the be all and end all."

Tane had to wonder if it was truly only the Dark Essence he could wield, but Essence from the other universes his master had mentioned as well. Maybe other aliens had similar prophecies about him?

Best not to get ahead of myself. I'm not that special.

Or am I?

He had to wonder if the reason why humans couldn't tap into these other Essences was because they simply didn't know how. Tane could envision a time and age where everyone who could Siphon had access to all the different universes, once they learned the way of it.

Then how come Lyra, Jed and Sinive didn't have black threads emerging from their body in the Umbra?

Okay, maybe not everyone who could Siphon could tap into every universe. Or maybe Tane's accord with the Dark was simply strong, and other Volur could actually Siphon it to lesser degrees, if they only knew how. That seemed more likely the case to Tane.

But what about the brain scan, that apparently gave away Tane's Dark Siphoning ability? No other Volur had ever had such a brain scan. Still, Tane believed that the ability was there, just too weak to be detected. Or maybe it was detectable, which is why the TSN knew what to look for in the first place. All of the Volur probably had the ability to invoke the Dark Essence at the same level of dweller Builders, at the very least, whereas Tane perhaps was on the level of an Amaranth.

This is all just conjecture.

And yet, a part of him believed.

But what about the ability to Siphon from other universes? Why wouldn't that be detected in brain scans?

Probably because the scanners simply didn't know what to look for in terms of detecting Siphoning ability associated with other universes.

He realized Lyra was staring at him. How long have I been in my head?

“What’s on Remus?” Tane asked her.

Lyra hesitated.

“What’s on Remus?” Tane pressed.

“There is an artifact,” Lyra said. “Only the Bender of Worlds can use it, according to the prophecy recorded by the Terael. It is immovable, so we Volur built a base around it. The artifact is guarded by a dedicated group of Volur at all times. If the Bender of Worlds ever came, these Volur would be the first to get their hands on him. You.”

“Earlier you seemed troubled that Remus was close by,” Tane said. “Is it because you were worried those Volur would take credit for capturing me or something, rather than you?”

“That’s not it at all,” Lyra said. “I was trying to figure out how to hide you from them once we got there, because as I told you, some Volur have only their own interests in mind: they would intend to use you, if they knew who you were. In fact I’m still not sure what to do when we get there.”

“Maybe we shouldn’t go at all?” Tane said.

“We don’t have much choice, not with the dwellers herding us,” Lyra said. “If you can use this artifact, it might be our only way out of this.”

“What exactly does the artifact do?” Tane asked.

“No one really knows,” Lyra replied. “It is said only the Bender of Worlds would know what to do with it. The Volur guarding it believe it is a reservoir of Dark Essence. But also something more.”

“No one really knows?” Tane said. “That’s the takeaway I got from that. So it might not do anything at all. It might be only a monument, for all you know.” Tane shook his head in disbelief. “I don’t know why I should even bother to believe anything you’re saying.”

Lyra hesitated. “Look Tane, I’m sorry. I know you’ll find it hard to ever trust me again, but what I did… I only meant to help you. I wanted to protect you from the dwellers. And yes, I admit it: I wanted to guide you. I wanted to help mold you into the good man you needed to be. That’s all. You have to believe me.”

Tane felt his anger rising again, but in that moment Jed’s words returned to him:

She and I have made mistakes in this life. And continue to make them. But in the end we try to do the right thing. Always remember that, no matter what you think of us.

That eased his anger, somewhat.

The Volur tilted her head. “Nebb tells me we’re entering low orbit above the planet. Let’s see what we’re dealing with.”

Lyra led Tane back to the cockpit.

“So did she tell you everything you wanted to hear?” Nebb said when Tane stepped inside. The smuggler was sneering slightly.

Tane merely scowled at the man as Lyra took her seat.

“Have you located the thermal signature I gave you?” Lyra asked the smuggler.

Nebb shook his head. “No. If there was ever an anomaly down there, it’s not present anymore. I did pick up some ruins though. On the visual band.”

“Ruins?” Lyra said.

“Yeah,” Nebb said. “Outbuildings. A half dome. Looks like it might have been some sort of a base or research station once.”

“That would be what we’re looking for,” Lyra said. “If the base was still intact, you would’ve never picked it up on the visual band.”

“So what, they were essentially invisible?” Nebb said. “Masking their thermal signatures to make the base look like some sort of natural phenomenon, visible only to those who knew what to look for?”

“Something like that,” Lyra said.

“This was no ordinary base was it?” Nebb said.

Lyra didn’t answer.

“Are you sure it’s destroyed?” Tane asked the smuggler.

“Positive,” Nebb answered. “You can’t get any more destroyed than this.”

That was probably somewhat of a relief to Lyra: if the artifact had survived, Lyra wouldn’t have to worry about a competing faction of Volur snatching him up when they went down to check it out. Assuming of course that the Volur at the base were all dead.

“The destruction looks fairly recent, at that,” Nebb added.

Lyra nodded. “The dwellers, no doubt.”

“Maybe there’s no point in going down there…” Tane told her.

“We will go,” Lyra said. “What we’re looking for would have easily survived any sort of physical bombardment in this universe. Nebb, I’d like to borrow Positron, just in case the dwellers left a welcoming committee for us.”

Nebb glanced at her. “If two Volur aren’t enough to protect the kid, Positron won’t be able to offer a whole lot more.”

“Even so,” Lyra said. “I would rest easier knowing there was another experienced gunner watching my back.”

Nebb shrugged. “I’m all-in on this already. As long as Positron doesn’t mind, then go right ahead. Just remember, if we ever pull through this, you two Volur owe me.”

“We do,” Lyra said. “And we always repay our debts.” She glanced at Positron.

The combat robot’s digitally animated brows seem to furrow. “I will come, if only to satisfy two burning questions: who creates an invisible base in a backwater system like Iridium III, and why you wish to take the human there…”

Lyra bowed her head. “Thank you.”

“I’ll try to stay in a geostationary orbit for as long as possible,” Nebb said. “As soon as Grizz gets the dragons back online, I’ll provide whatever air support I can.”

“I have a feeling the dwellers won’t let you stay for very long,” Lyra said. “Especially if you can’t hide our departure.”

“Probably not,” Nebb said. “Grizz, how long until you can get those dragons up?”

“Two of the forward facing laser turrets should be functional in about fifteen minutes,” the Red Grizzly’s AI said. “The rest will follow.”

“It will have to do,” Nebb said. He glanced at Lyra. “Good thing you left your suits on. The atmosphere is definitely caustic down there. Your lungs will melt if you inhale it.”

“Understood,” Lyra said.

“On the plus side,” Nebb said. “It’ll be relatively easy to maintain communications, at least while I’m in geostationary orbit. The postal node aboard Grizzly Cub has enough power to readily penetrate the atmosphere. Just make sure you don’t get too far from the shuttle.”

“I don’t suppose you have any repeater drones aboard to remedy that?” Lyra asked.

“Ha!” Nebb said. “This is a transport, not a military ship! I do have a couple of ship-side drones, but nothing atmosphere capable.”

“Too bad.” Lyra glanced at Tane. “Let’s get to the shuttle bay. It’s time to meet your destiny.”

I’m not sure I want to. But Tane followed her out nonetheless.

* * *

Watching from the outskirts of the star system, near that cloud the humans named the Oort, S’Wraathar flexed his fore-tentacles in anticipation. He had been waiting for this moment his entire life. He had always known that the Doomwielder would be born in his time. His people had ridiculed him for this belief, and cast him out.

Fortunately, he hadn’t been alone in his conviction, and he found a patron who gave him a ship, and men. He had searched among their enemy in secret for a quarter of a Dalthan Cycle, and when the human child finally appeared, S’Wraathar had been vindicated.

His starship, the Clamananthanorasalman, or Doom Killer in the tongue of his foes, was hidden behind a comet. A lone stealth drone was perched on the very edge, sending out transmissions so weak that only the Doom Killer could receive them. It was those transmissions that gave S’Wraathar his perfect view of the system, while keeping his presence utterly secret.

He watched the opposing faction herd the human vessel into orbit. The Cre’ite were fools to tempt fate by doing this. Allowing the Doomwielder to set foot on that planet would lead only to disaster. Well, it didn’t really matter anyway. Not anymore.

S’Wraathar would watch, biding his time. When the opportunity arose, he would order his Kran to jump out of the system and then jump back in, far closer, using the positioning technology only he and his patron possessed.

Yes. The Doomwielder would be his.

S’Wraathar clenched his forelegs and crushed his bifurcated mandibles together at the same time.

Let them ridicule me now.

* * *

Tane followed Lyra through the passageways to the shuttle bay. Jed and Positron brought up the rear. Jed’s placement felt purposeful, just behind him—as if the man was there to ensure Tane didn’t try to run away. Not that there was anywhere he could run away to on a ship that size...

Tane was feeling rested enough to use the Essence again, and he extended his mind experimentally. He Siphoned the howling gale and quickly stepped out of it, satisfied that he could indeed wield the power inside himself if necessary. The “White Essence.” He had no idea how to Siphon the Dark Essence. Assuming it was even possible. He still wasn’t quite sure he really believed he was the “Bender of Worlds,” as the Volur called it.

Lyra claimed she didn’t know the purpose of the artifact. Well, either way, he hoped he would find at least some answers on the surface.

Sinive was waiting inside the shuttle bay. She wore the same spacesuit Tane had left her with in sickbay, the helmet gripped under one arm. She had retrieved one of the S4 plasma rifles from the ship’s armory, which she wore slung over one shoulder. The grip had already enlarged to fit her bulky suit gloves.

Some color had returned to her face, and other than a few weary lines under her eyes, and the strays needling her frazzled braid, she looked her old self for the most part. He caught a hint of that cheap perfume she liked to wear. That was a good sign.

“Grizz told me you were leaving,” Sinive said. She sounded tired. “I’m coming with you.”

“I’m glad you’re awake,” Tane said. “I was worried sick about you. We all were.”

“I told the sickbay robot to alert me if your condition changed,” Lyra said.

“Actually, no,” Sinive said. “The medical robot was very clear on that. It said it was supposed to alert you only if my conditioned worsened.”

“Ah,” Lyra said. “Robots. They always take you so literally.”

“That’s how most of them are programmed,” Sinive said. “Except for those like Grizz, who think they’re human.”

“I am human,” the ship’s AI said from an overhead speaker.

“See what I mean?” Sinive returned her attention to Lyra. “Grizz and Cub told me what you all did for me. How you boarded an alien ship to rescue me. And then linked to bring me back from the brink of death. I’m forever in your debt. I’m coming.”

Lyra inclined her head respectfully. “I suspect we’re going to need all the gunners we can get down there.”

“Thank you,” Sinive said.

“Are you sure you’re well enough?” Tane asked her.

“I am,” Sinive said. “I want to do this. I have to. Whatever we find down there, I’ll stand by you, all of you. No one should face death alone.”

“I’m not so sure death is waiting for us down there,” Tane said.

“Isn’t it?” Sinive said.

Tane glanced at Lyra, but the Volur said nothing.

Tane returned the personal storage device he had taken into safekeeping for Sinive earlier, and she accepted it gratefully.

She let her helmet hang from her belt as she retrieved her pistol and holster combination from the pouch and attached it to her utility belt. Sinive clipped the shield generator over the buckle. Finally she fetched the Essence enhancing Chrysalium armband from the pouch, and Tane helped her remove her arm assembly to put it on. She was still wearing her white dress underneath, he noted.

The armband detached into two pieces for spacesuit wear: the outer piece fit to the suit’s upper arm area, the inner attached to her bicep. It was a rather strange design.

“You’re really going to trust this thing?” Tane nodded at the armband.

“Why not?” Sinive said.

“The price you paid still seems a little too good to be true…” Tane said.

Sinive shrugged. “Sometimes people are nice. I have a rule: when you’re offered a bargain, take it.”

He thought of the personal storage device Roadroller had given him. That was something he had gotten for a “bargain” as well, what with Roadroller giving it up out of guilt for cheating him. So far the pouch had held up, though Tane still expected it would begin eating up his inventory items at some point.

“All right,” Tane said. “Just be careful using it.”

“Thanks, Dad,” Sinive quipped.

“Best daughter I’ve ever had,” Tane retorted.

“I wouldn’t joke about it,” Sinive said. “I know girls who are actually older than their fathers. That’s what happens when you decide to forgo jump drives and travel between systems at close to the speed of light: the relativistic effects are killer.”

“I don’t doubt it.” Tane smiled. “It really is good to have you back.” He helped her replace her arm assembly, now replete with Chrysalium armband, and then they all donned their helmets and entered the shuttle.

Since there was no spare seat for Positron, the combat robot remained standing in the center of the cabin between the four chairs. The robot wasn’t wearing a spacesuit, and was equipped with a pistol at its belt, an S4 plasma rifle, and a shield generator.

“Welcome back,” the shuttle’s AI said. “It seems you only just left. Oh wait, you did. So then, where to?”

“Take us down to the surface, Cub,” Lyra said. “Park us about fifty meters from the outskirts of the ruins Grizz detected.”

“Will do,” Cub replied. The deck vibrated as the hangar bay vented.

Jed was seated across from Tane, and the faceplate of the man’s helmet abruptly slammed shut. The movement made Tane double check his own suit integrity. The pressure read: 100%.

“Be ready to turn back if you detect any hostiles in the area,” Jed instructed the shuttle’s AI.

“Oh you can bet I’ll be ready,” Cub said. “Considering I’m unarmed and defenseless.”

Tane heard a humming as the shuttle engines activated.

“Engaging artificial gravity,” Cub said. The deck shook and Tane felt the momentary Gs before the inertial dampeners kicked in. “Grizzly Cub is away.”

“I’m doing my best to keep the thermal signature of the Red Grizzly between you and the enemy,” Nebb said over the comm. “The dweller ships seem to be a bit preoccupied at the moment anyway, however: the TSN vessels are really hammering them in their latest flybys. You know, I’m not sure who to actually root for here. If the aliens win, we’re screwed. If the TSN wins, we’re screwed, too.”

“Let’s just hope they both blow themselves to smithereens,” Sinive said.

She shared her external video feed from the Grizzly Cub’s nose camera with Tane, and he watched the vessel descend. When it reached the atmosphere, the display filled with orange from the flames. Then a moment later they were through.

Tane saw the rocky surface come up fast below. Though there were no clouds, the light levels were similar to a typical overcast day on his homeworld. He picked out a black, east-west trending mountain range in the distance, one that they were quickly flying over. The craft headed toward a series of metallic buildings that stood out from the rock below, set amid a valley surrounded by mountains.

Grizzly Cub circled the site.

“It seems safe down there,” Cub said. “I’m choosing a flat landing area and taking us in.”

A moment later the craft set down. Tane retrieved the beam hilt from his belt and waited patiently.

“Positron, join me in securing the landing site,” Jed said. “I want you on point. Cub, lower the ramp.”

The ramp lowered. Positron left the aisle between the seats and led the way. Jed stood up behind him, drawing his pistol in one hand. As the man descended the ramp, his power armor glowed a brighter blue than it ever had. When he had room, Jed drew his sword; the halo of his armor crescendoed to an almost blinding white and he abruptly vanished from view.

“I gotta get me one of those,” Sinive said.

“The sword, or the armor?” Tane asked.

“Both,” Sinive replied. “By the way, nice beam hilt.” She nodded toward the weapon he held.

“I’m surprised you know what it is,” Tane said.

“Military chip upgrade, remember?” she said.

Tane glanced at his overhead map. Jed’s blue dot was present, but not Positron’s. He already had Sinive and Lyra on his map, so he issued a location sharing request to Positron. The robot didn’t answer it.

Ah well, don’t need the robot anyway.

He watched Jed’s dot circle the Grizzly Cub.

“Clear out here,” Jed said.

The man winked into view near the base of the ramp. The halo surrounding his power armor was a blinding white that quickly diminished in brightness, becoming blue.

Lyra held out a hand toward Tane and Sinive. “After you.”

The restraints receded and Tane stood. Before stepping onto the ramp, Tane retrieved his D18 from the pouch and slid it over his shoulder. Continuing to grip the inactive beam hilt, he proceeded down the ramp. When he had the necessary clearance from the seats, he activated his energy shield.

He joined Jed at the base of the ramp. Lyra and Sinive followed behind him. Sinive had her pistol in hand, leaving the S4 rifle to hang from her shoulder. Lyra currently held no weapon at all.

Jed led the way in his glowing power armor, while Positron brought up the rear.

They reached the edge of an environmental dome. The glass panes in the dome were broken in several places. The bottom was made of a metal rim that towered over them, reaching well over their heads. A rectangular metal passageway provided an entrance into that rim. Scattered outside of it were four large mechs. The toppled battle units were all badly damaged, some missing arms and legs. The cockpit of one was blown right open, revealing the armored suit of the human pilot. His faceplate was broken, and a skull stared back.

“Are you receiving any signals?” Lyra asked.

“No,” Jed said. “The place is completely dead.”

“Nebb, you’re our eye in the sky,” Lyra said. “How does the base look from up there?”

“I’m not spotting anything else in the area other than your party,” Nebb said. “I’ll keep you posted if that changes.”

The landing party entered the passageway in the rim, where the pieces of three fallen combat robots lay strewn about, weapons and bodies broken. On the far side, the doors had been blown open.

“Why go through the trouble of opening the doors when they had already breached the dome?” Sinive said.

“They breached the dome from orbit in an initial assault meant to weaken them,” Jed said. “After that, it was simply easier to enter from the main entrance. Especially considering there were likely survivors inside, ready and eager to shoot down anyone who tried to penetrate from the air.”

Tane stepped through the doors and into the base proper. Spread out in front of him were different outbuildings, several showing signs of blast damage, likely from the initial orbital attack. Everywhere he looked, the ground was covered in a spindly, black substance. It looked almost like hair or fur.

“What’s this black stuff on the ground?” Tane asked.

“Used to be grass,” Lyra answered. “Before it was exposed to the corrosive atmosphere. Nebb, are you still reading us?”

“I am,” Nebb replied over the comm. His voice distorted slightly, probably because of the distance between the landing party and the shuttle. “By the way, we just got two of our dragons back online. Ready to provide air support as needed.”

“Thank you,” Lyra said. “I’ll keep you updated.”

There were more fallen combat robots, most of them lurking behind the rectangular metal buildings, where they had attempted to take cover. There were also more mechs, many of them with imploded torsos, as if a giant hand had crushed the cockpits where the human pilots resided. Most of the missiles on the mechs remained intact—the operators apparently never even had the chance to fire.

“I don’t like the looks of this,” Jed said.

“Neither do I,” Lyra said.

Some of the buildings had partially imploded as well, as if crushed by that giant hand, too.

“What could do this?” Tane asked.

Lyra didn’t answer.

33

As they moved deeper into the base, Tane spotted the occasional corpse lying about on the blackened grass. The bodies could only be Volur, judging from the glowing, Essence-Imbued armor. They lay flat on the ground, blackened skeletons emerging from underneath the gear they wore. On the hands and arms of some of them were silver rings and bracelets, probably Chrysalium. Tane felt no urge to loot those items from the bodies, no matter how valuable they might be.

Tane sensed the artifact they were looking for before he saw it. It was like a dark presence in his mind, calling out to him from beyond the outbuildings ahead. When he looked closely, he could see the black shadows outlining the rectangular metal structures.

“The artifact is just beyond here,” Lyra said.

“I know,” Tane told her.

She gave him a curious look from behind her faceplate but said nothing more.

Jed led the way around the buildings into a clearing near the center of the dome.

There, thrusting from the black grass was a towering, oval-shaped lens strikingly similar to the one he had seen in the Umbra, except it was far larger, and wasn’t floating. Like that lens, it ate all of the light, and seemed more of a tear in the fabric of reality than anything substantial.

Instinctively Tane glanced at his spacesuit, half expecting to see dark threads leading from his body to the artifact. To his relief, there were none.

“Positron, join me in securing the perimeter,” Jed said.

Jed and Positron immediately fanned out, moving along the outskirts of the clearing, scanning the alleys between the bordering buildings.

“It’s clear,” Jed said when he had looped back to Lyra’s location. Positron remained in position on the far side.

“I’m moving to a better vantage point,” Positron announced over the comm.

“All right,” Jed said.

The combat robot leaped onto a nearby building, proceeded to the far edge, and crouched down on one knee to keep watch.

“Eye in the sky,” Lyra said. “Have you spotted anything?”

“That’s a negative,” Nebb said over the comm. “Ain’t nothing but you guys down there, far as I can tell. No aberrant heat signatures, no nothing.”

“Then why does it feel like someone is watching us?” Sinive said.

Lyra remained motionless near the clearing edge. “Does this look anything like the black lens you told me you saw in the Umbra?”

“It’s the same,” Tane said. “Except bigger. And not floating. It’s a reservoir of Dark Essence?” A reservoir of evil?

“That and more,” Lyra said. She glanced over her shoulder to look back at Tane; she wore an expectant expression.

Tane broke away from the party and slowly approached the black lens, which continued to call out to him.

“Be careful,” Sinive said.

As Tane approached, he realized the calling was different somehow compared to the iris he had encountered in the Umbra. He couldn’t quite place it, but there was something definitely changed. He also noticed that he didn’t feel the same crazy urge to touch the object. Instead of experiencing a sense of peace when he gazed into that infinite darkness, he felt... curiosity. Not his own, but rather, it was as if the iris itself was curious about him.

In moments Tane was standing beside the artifact. The oval towered over him at roughly five meters at its tallest, and two at its widest. And although he couldn’t see the dark threads running from his body to the artifact, he could almost sense his connection to the thing.

He deactivated his energy shield and secured the beam hilt to his belt. Then he hesitantly reached a gloved hand toward the blackness.

“Wait, should he really touch it?” Sinive said over the comm. “You remember what happened last time, Tane?”

Tane froze. “Something is different about this one. In the Umbra, it was almost like the iris wanted me to touch it. Badly. But here, this artifact seems more... curious, than anything else. It will be all right. Trust me.”

He continued reaching toward the artifact. As he got close, his fingers didn’t distort and elongate this time. A good sign, he thought.

And then his gloved finger touched the device. It definitely felt solid. He waited a few seconds, but the blackness didn’t crawl up his hand and envelop him like it had in the Umbra. Growing more confident, he rested his gloved palm fully flat on the surface. Still nothing.

He began to feel something lingering beyond the edge of perception. Something lurking inside the artifact. It felt similar to the raging power of the Essence, but different in some way. Not evil, as he imagined, but... warm. While the Essence was smooth, relatively orderly, and above all cold, what he felt here was chaotic and hot, more a conflagration than a gale. A forest set aflame.

“I think I can feel the Dark Essence calling to me from inside the artifact,” Tane said. “There’s some kind of Essence stored inside, I know that much for sure. It’s almost like I can reach into the artifact with my mind and touch it…”

He tried to, but there was an invisible barrier preventing him. He attempted to clear his thoughts like he would when Siphoning the ordinary White Essence, and when he did, his consciousness expanded. He reached through the artifact but once again couldn’t touch what lurked inside. However when he tried to Siphon the normal Essence, it came to him easily. The Dark Essence was still there, lurking just beyond reach.

He stepped out of the White Essence and slumped against the artifact slightly.

“I can’t get to it,” Tane said.

“Fill your mind with every chaotic thought you can muster,” someone said. Each word composing the sentence seemed sourced from a different speaker.

Tane glanced around himself in shock. He was no longer standing in front of the artifact. Nor wearing a spacesuit. Instead, he lurked at the edge of a forest of strange trees, their branches hanging bulbs, their leaves small green and purple needles. Beside him stood a dweller in an environmental suit. It was a different suit than he had seen before. It seemed more primitive, somehow, possibly because of the pistons that moved slowly up and down near the rear of the suit, as if imbuing motion to the internal liquid atmosphere. Beyond the translucent dome on the carapace, he could see that sideways oriented maw staring down upon him.

But Tane felt no fear. He knew this dweller. It was his teacher: P’lotholemus.

“Only through chaos can you reach the Dark,” his teacher said. A synthesizer embedded in the carapace section emitted those words, which were not only sourced from different speakers, but were in a strange language Tane had never heard before. But for some reason he understood it. “Embrace the chaos and try again.”

Tane allowed images, thoughts, music, a cacophony of anything he could possibly imagine, into his mind. He once more felt the Dark Essence lurking beyond the edge of reality, a consuming fire raging across a forest and leaving ashes in its wake. He reached out and touched it.

The conflagration exploded inside of him, burning him to the core.

“It’s... molten!” Tane said.

His first instinct was to fight the raging flames, but because of his training with the White Essence, he nearly gave in, nearly allowed those flames to burn him to the core. With the White Essence, after all, he had to step into the frigid gale of the stellar wind and allow it to swallow him whole, and let it flow into his bones. He thought it was the same with the Dark Essence.

But apparently he was wrong.

“Fight it!” P’lotholemus said. “You must never surrender to the Arcanum. Never! You must fight it with all of your being. To surrender means to give yourself over to oblivion: the Dark Essence will tear you apart!”

Instantly Tane slammed down with all his being, dousing some of those flames, but that only caused more to spring up elsewhere. He kept smothering them, and they continually returned. It was a relentless, endless struggle that manifested in translucent, dark flames appearing to sprout from the ground all around him, none of which seemed to actually interact with any of the strange trees.

“Good!” P’lotholemus said. “What you are experiencing is the Siphoning, the endless fight against the Dark. For as long as you hold onto the Arcanum, you must fight like this. Each of those flames you see before you can be shaped. And when shaped all at once, they will form a design, an Essencework of the Dark, that can be used to influence this reality.”

Another voice rudely interrupted that of his teacher.

“The TSN ships are gone,” the voice said. The words were sourced from a single male speaker. “They’ve all been obliterated.”

At first Tane didn’t recognize the chain of words as forming something even intelligible, but then the meaning clicked. He realized the speaker was Nebb, and that the smuggler’s voice was coming over the comm.

“One of the alien pincer ships has been disabled,” Nebb continued. “The other destroyed, but the hook ship is still coming on strong. It’s headed for my position. Ain’t sure how long I can maintain geostationary orbit.”

“Understood,” Lyra said over the comm. “Keep me updated.”

Their voices seemed distant, faraway. Tane still resided upon the edge of the odd forest, his alien teacher standing beside him, the dark flames from the ground licking the air all around him. He was still quenching those flames as fast as he was able, with more fires sparking into existence all the time.

“Tane, are you all right?” Lyra asked.

“I think it’s… imprinting me with some sort of memory,” Tane replied. “Or memories. There was a man who lived among the Terael many millennia ago. He had no access to the White Essence, like ordinary humans with the Ability. But he could wield the Dark Essence. He trained with the dwellers, or a dweller, and put all of his knowledge into this artifact. I don’t think it’s an Essence reservoir at all, at least not in the true sense of the word. Because you see, there’s no actual Dark Essence here. Instead, I think this artifact is more like the Dark equivalent of Chrysalium, allowing for the magnification of Dark Essence. With this, I can Siphon far more Arcanum than any dweller can naturally. Orders of magnitude more. And the artifact is teaching me exactly how to do it.”

He saw two notifications on his HUD, the words overlaying the needle-bulb backdrop of the odd forest.

New skill received.

Dark Siphoning. Level 1.

Attribute up. Intelligence +1. Current Intelligence: 11 (16 with Beam Hilt I equipped)

“Kay,” Nebb’s voice came over the comm. It was distorting badly. “Air support is off the menu: the hook ship is forcing me out of geostationary orbit. Looks like I’m going to have to loop over to the opposite hemisphere... I still have a couple of dragons intact, and I’ll do my best to draw the ship away. But I’ll be out of contact for a little while. Sorry kids. Hang tight. ”

Nebb cut out entirely.

The surroundings fell away, replaced by a new scene. Tane was seated on the edge of a rocky outcrop overlooking the forest. There was a village of strange metal huts in the distance—spherical structures forming clusters amid the needle-bulb trees. Tane was with his teacher once more, learning how to shape the dark flames fanning out from the open air in front of him.

But before Tane could create anything, the outcrop and his alien teacher were abruptly ripped away, and Tane found himself lying flat on his back on the dead grass, about two meters from the base of the artifact. His head throbbed painfully. Rolling to one side, he saw that Lyra, Jed, and Sinive had also been knocked down behind him.

Tane scrambled to his feet and instinctively activated his energy shield.

“What happened?” Tane said over the comm.

Jed was already on his feet, and he helped Lyra rise. Sinive slowly pulled herself upright beside them.

“I don’t know,” Lyra said. “Are you sure you didn’t do something?”

“No, I’m not sure,” Tane said.

“Positron is gone!” Jed said.

“Get to Tane!” Lyra said.

Jed dashed forward, sword in hand. In moments the man, Lyra and Sinive surrounded Tane. They scanned the surrounding buildings.

“It’s okay,” Tane said. “I’m sure Positron just—“

“We knew you would come,” a voice interrupted. “We knew you couldn’t resist the knowledge.”

Tane froze.

A dweller had spoken that. Tane knew it without a doubt because of the patchwork nature of the individual words. However the sounds were garbled almost to the point of unintelligibility, as if passing through liquid before reaching Tane’s ears. He wasn’t sure if that was because of the atmosphere of this planet, or something else.

The speakers in his helmet passed on the directional information of any sound waves recorded by the external microphones, so he recognized immediately that the source came from somewhere behind him. Tane slowly turned around to face the building Positron had crouched upon.

Standing in front of it was a dweller unlike any Tane had seen before.

The first thing his mind processed was that it wasn’t wearing a suit. No, this dweller was frequenting the world in all its naked, eight-legged, sideways-jawed, tentacled-carapace glory. It seemed a rather small specimen, its legs knobby and bent, half of its tentacles missing, its fly trap head hunched on that carapace. The skin itself seemed leathery and ashen, withered by age, with no hint of color at all on the carapace, which proved a dark, wrinkly gray. A small metal box was attached at the base of the head, just above the tentacles, likely the source of the words Tane had heard. It was surrounded by a translucent energy field that formed a tight sphere around the dweller, and hued everything inside a slight yellow.

Motion drew his eye to another dweller that floated forward from an alley on the opposite side of the building. Unlike the first, the feet of this dweller didn’t touch the ground, and it hovered a quarter of a meter above the dead grass. It appeared in better condition than the other, the skin on its carapace iridescent, its limbs strong and full, its tentacles healthy and flowing. This dweller was also surrounded in an energy sphere, though it had no metal box attached underneath its head.

Tane instinctively knew that the translucent spheres weren’t shields: the dwellers were lugging around the necessary liquid atmospheres they needed to survive in this universe. A distant memory that was not his own told Tane that there were only a few dwellers strong enough to exist in our universe without the need for protective suits like that, dwellers who could shape a supportive environment out of the Dark Essence itself.

“Amaranth!” Lyra said.

The ground fell away underneath Tane, but he didn’t fall. He looked down to find himself gazing into a hole that overlooked the outbuildings in another part of the dome. A distortion tunnel. It had to be Lyra’s doing: she was trying to get him out of there.

But he wasn’t moving.

The hole abruptly sealed and Tane once more stood on the dead grass. Lyra, meanwhile, collapsed.

“Weak,” the dweller with the metal box gargled. “Like the flies your dead attract.”

“They’re all around us,” Jed hissed.

Tane turned around. Sure enough, six other dwellers stood along the perimeter, one between each of the alleyways leading to the clearing. And there were even more on the rooftops. Their bodies all appeared to be in good condition, and every one of them lacked a suit; instead they were enclosed by protective spheres of Dark Essence.

Lyra reached into her storage pouch and produced a large silver staff, no doubt formed of Chrysalium. With it, she hauled herself to her feet.

“Surprised to see us?” the dweller continued.

“Fire,” Lyra hissed.

Jed unleashed his pistol in rapid succession at the dwellers. A moment later Sinive joined in. The plasma bolts from the two of them deflected harmlessly from the dark spheres of every dweller targeted.

Lyra launched a succession of large Essence Missiles from her staff, spinning rapidly as she did so. The missiles, a blinding white, tore through the air, trembling the clearing and cutting a runnel into the ground underneath where they passed. Thanks to the planet’s atmosphere, Tane could hear the thundering impact as those missiles struck the dwellers in turn.

But the aliens remained unscathed.

They must be all linked.

“I told you the humans would not welcome us, M’Jaelinthenus,” the dweller said. “I told you we should kill them all. It is only out of courtesy to the Doomwielder that we let them live.”

Tane retreated a pace as the others continued to fire. He couldn’t bring himself to lower his D18 and attack. He felt a strange kinship toward these dwellers. Thanks to his new memories, it seemed like he had trained for years with one of their kind. The aliens weren’t as bad as everybody thought.

“Run, Tane!” Lyra said. The staff abruptly flew from her hands and she was hoisted into the air by invisible forces. She hung there spread-eagled in her spacesuit.

Jed abruptly disappeared.

Sinive continued to fire until the pistol was wrenched from her hands by some unseen Essencework. She promptly lowered the S4 from her shoulder, but before she could shoot the rifle was yanked from her grasp as well.

A blue blade flashed into existence a moment later as Jed attempted to attack one of the dwellers. The sword bounced uselessly from the shell of Dark Essence. The rest of Jed appeared and he was sent flying backward.

The Volur tried to get up, but then a large fist of dark energy visibly appeared above him and smashed down on his power armor repeatedly, sending up plumes of dust with each impact. Wait, that wasn’t dust, Tane realized, but pieces of the man’s disintegrating armor.

Jed kept trying to get up until finally the fist beat him into submission.

When a crack appeared in the man’s faceplate, Tane shouted: “Stop!”

The dark fist vanished. But Jed didn’t get up.

“Why haven’t you started running?” Sinive told him. She placed herself in front of him.

“Sinive, no—” Tane said.

A tornado began to form in front of Sinive. No doubt she was using her Chrysalium armband to supply the Essence she needed for such a powerful work. He vaguely wondered if she was using some version of the Air Current skill.

The tornado began to grow larger and larger as Sinive continued to feed it, and for a moment Tane felt himself losing his footing as the suction from the twister became impossible to resist. But then an invisible force slammed into him, rooting him in place. Was it Sinive doing the latter, or the dwellers?

Around her, pieces of steel tore away from the buildings, sucked into the tornado as it continued to grow. Like Tane, the others remained rooted in place. It was the kind of work he would have expected from Lyra—if she hadn’t exhausted herself trying to create a distortion tunnel for Tane’s escape.

Finally Sinive released it.

The twister hurtled toward three of the dwellers, avoiding the spot where Jed still lay on the dead grass. When it reached the aliens the tornado promptly dispersed.

Sinive collapsed, obviously exhausted. Her armband had gone completely black, and the surface looked crumpled. Small pieces broke away from the edges and dropped to the ground as he watched. Tane didn’t think the dwellers had done anything to the Chrysalium accessory—its deterioration served only to confirm his earlier suspicions that the armband was too good to be true.

These thoughts all came only vaguely to Tane, as he was concentrating on the dwellers now, trying to decide what to do.

“So very weak,” the dweller said. “If these are the people you align yourself with, it’s no wonder you are lost and aimless.”

Tane took a step toward the dweller with the speech box. “What do you want?” He glanced at Lyra, who was still strung up in the air. “Let her go.”

The Volur dropped. She slumped to the grass beside Sinive and didn’t get up.

“We’re going to teach you how to use the power that has awakened inside of you,” the dweller said. “You have some memories now, but they will fade. Come with us. We will become your teachers. We will show you the path…”

Tane hesitated. He needed a teacher. With P’lotholemus, he had only scratched the surface of what the Dark Essence could do. If these dwellers were as virtuous and just as P’lotholemus had been, then they were worthy of the task. And in fact, he would almost prefer to train with dwellers rather than Volur. At least they wouldn’t have any hidden motives. Lyra was wrong about them. They didn’t want to control him. They wanted to help him.

But apparently the dwellers mistook his hesitation for refusal, because Sinive abruptly called out in agony. An invisible force hoisted her into the air, and her arms were bent backward at an obviously painful angle.

Tane felt no fear in that moment. Instead, a sudden anger filled him. How dare these dwellers treat Sinive like this?

“How important are the lives of your friends?” the dweller said.

Tane smiled grimly. “Blackmail? You would threaten the lives of my friends to force me to serve you?”

He shook his head, unable to believe he had actually considered joining them. These dwellers were nothing like his teacher. P’lotholemus taught that the Dark Essence must only ever be used for good. His teacher would’ve never used it to force someone to do something against their will, especially not by threatening to harm his friends. To P’lotholemus, the bonds of friendship were some of the most important ties in the world. To threaten one’s friends was tantamount to threatening all-out war as far as P’lotholemus was concerned.

“Join us!” the dweller said. “Humanity’s time in this universe is at an end. Already our ships invade the system you call Anteres. We will crush the meager fleet awaiting us there, and then journey from system to system, forcing each governor to kneel before us. The TSN, the Volur, all will obey. All will be crushed. Or they will die.”

Tane had a sudden puzzling thought.

Why aren’t they striking at me? Why attempt to bargain with me, using the lives of my friends? Why not capture me outright and force me to obey?

And then the realization struck him.

They’re afraid of me.

He still had a shield generator, four incendiary grenades, a D18 hanging from his shoulder, and a beam hilt clipped to his belt. But those would all be useless against foes like these. And although he knew how to Siphon the Dark Essence now, and his Siphoning would be enhanced thanks to the artifact, unfortunately he didn’t actually know any Dark Essence skills.

But the aliens didn’t realize that.

Time to bluff.

“You wish to teach me?” Tane took a step forward, eyes on the lead dweller. “You wish to show me the path?” Another step. He would walk past the artifact if he kept going in his current direction. He was trying to pretend he had no intention of touching the black lens, though of course that was his actual goal. “Then you will release the girl.” Another step. “And all of my friends.” Another.

He was within touching distance of the artifact.

“And if not, you will die,” Tane said.

He slammed his gloved hand into the black surface and filled his mind with chaos. He reached through the artifact, this dark equivalent of Chrysalium—Darcanium, he knew it was called—and touched the Dark Essence as his alien teacher had taught him. Though he was completely bluffing to the aliens, a part of him hoped the artifact would teach him what he needed.

Heat seared his core as translucent black flames erupted into existence all around him. There were far more flames around him, and the fires were far bigger, than anything he had ever encountered in the memories the artifact gave him. He struggled to contain them all as a notification appeared on his HUD:

Siphoning bonus. All Dark Essenceworks are enhanced 570% due to Siphoning through Dark Artifact.

New skill learned.

Darcanium Siphoning Level 0.

Filled with the Dark Essence, Tane suddenly saw the connections the dwellers had to the same power. He could see the dark threads emerging from their bodies, translucent filaments that traveled upward away from the planet and into space. The dwellers weren’t drawing the Essence from the planet as his teacher had taught.

“The Dark Essence is funneled from the Umbra via gravity wells,” P’lotholemus said. “When you reach for the Arcanum directly, though it feels like you are reaching inside yourself, in fact you are reaching into the core of whatever planet you reside upon, or are nearest to. When you develop some skill, you can funnel the Dark Essence from more powerful sources, such as stars. And when you are really good, you can link yourself to the reservoir of your choice—a star, a rift—and no matter where you are in the galaxy, you will have that source at your fingertips.”

Tane had translucent black strands emerging from his own spacesuit, these connecting him to the artifact itself.

As he watched, some of the dark threads leading from the dwellers began to curl inward, attaching themselves to the artifact. The aliens were trying to seize control of the artifact away from him, and take its Siphoning bonus for themselves. He realized suddenly that the dwellers had tricked him. They wanted him to touch the artifact. Only a human of his particular abilities could unlock the reservoir, and now that he had opened the faucet, they would rip the power away from him. If they succeeded, with their knowledge they would be unstoppable, and Tane would have no choice but to yield.

He tried to release the Dark Essence, but he could not. It was as if he had linked to the dwellers in some way. He couldn’t let go of the artifact, either.

“Yes, he feeds us!” the dweller said. As the dark threads from the lead dweller took hold upon the artifact, the dweller began to fill out, its knobby limbs becoming strong and muscular, its hunched head straightening.

There was an explosion at the edge of his vision. Tane released the Dark Essence and slumped against the artifact. Sinive dropped to the ground.

One of the dwellers screamed. A hideous, screeching sound. It turned completely black, and then its sphere burst, sending liquid in all directions, and the alien collapsed, dead.

Tane spun and saw more Amaranth dwellers in dark spheres floating over the rooftops, coming in from the east. Dark smears erupted from their bodies, reaching across toward the other dwellers. Strange, spider-like robots accompanied them, launching missiles and causing more explosions.

One dweller stood out among the newcomers. It was larger than the rest, and it swung about a great black pole-ax of dark energy, easily cutting through any members of the opposing faction that crossed its path. Black flames coated the edge of its blade.

The huge dweller seemed to be heading straight for Tane.

* * *

The moment had finally come.

S’Wraathar eagerly hewed through the Cre’ite, making his way toward his prey. Sheathed in a protective environment of Arcanum, he wielded a C’havar, the dweller equivalent of a human beam hilt—his people stole the idea and blueprints from the humans, and implemented it with dweller technology, replacing the Chrysalium with Darcanium. The deadly pole-ax formed by the Arcanum passed through the outskirts of his environment without disturbing it.

His followers and their robots watched his flanks, protecting him while he approached the one he sought.

He knew who the Doomwielder was immediately—there was only one human among them with dark threads emerging from his protective suit.

Soon S’Wraathar had cleared all opposition from his path. He had a clear line of sight to his target.

While the others continued to distract the Cre’ite, he directed the tip of his black pole-ax toward the Doomwielder, and prepared to release the killing blow.

It was time to end this.

* * *

Tane watched helplessly as that huge dweller steered the tip of its pole-ax at him. No doubt the weapon could fire Essence bolts, just like a beam hilt. Tane knew there was no escape, no way to stop the creature, but he tried anyway, launching an Essence Missile. Surprisingly, the Missile penetrated the protective sphere that enveloped the dweller, but stopped well short of hitting the alien inside. That could only mean this one wasn’t linked to any of the others, considering how relatively weak Tane’s missiles were.

That pole-ax stopped moving, and Tane knew the alien had acquired him as a target. Before he could dodge out of the way, another Essence Missile fired from beside him. A more powerful Missile than the one he had launched, it penetrated all the way through to the dweller, and hit one of those tentacles that wielded the beam hilt, severing the limb right off. The pole-ax vanished as the hilt and the tentacle that held it dropped away.

The huge dweller howled, drawing attention to itself; dark smears from the opposing faction quickly closed in on the creature, forcing the alien to retreat.

Beside him, Sinive collapsed. She had fired the Essence Missile that had saved his life. Her already blackened armband fell away, disintegrating entirely.

Motion drew his eye to the right, on the other side of the artifact. Lyra, gripping the silver staff, stumbled toward Jed, who was also staggering in turn toward her. When they met, she gripped his hand and then stood straighter. It was obvious she had borrowed stamina from the other Volur, because he collapsed.

Lyra created a small distortion tunnel.

“Go!” Lyra told Tane. “Leave the artifact!”

Except Tane didn’t have to. A distant memory called out to him, and he commanded the artifact to shrink.

New skill received.

Dark Artifact Control. Level 0.

Instantly the lens diminished in size, shrinking down to the size of an apple in his palm. He secured it to his harness and then hauled Sinive to her feet. Together, they made their way toward Lyra. By the time they arrived, Lyra had already secured Jed in her personal storage device.

By then screams from both dweller factions filled the air. He noticed some of those dark smears were headed his way as well. The huge dweller wasn’t the only one who wanted to kill him, apparently.

He dove into the distortion tunnel and Sinive followed after him. He found himself in the shuttle’s cabin. Lyra plowed inside after them and the tunnel shut behind her.

“You left the beacon stone in the shuttle?” Tane asked.

“Very good,” Lyra said, sitting in her chair. “Cub, take us out of here!”

“Up and away,” Cub replied.

The cabin shook.

Lyra retrieved Jed from her pouch, and the Volur slumped into the seat beside her.

“What the hell was that?” Jed said.

“Worst ambush ever,” Sinive said. She glanced at Tane. “How the hell did you shrink that thing?”

“I don’t know,” Tane said. “The artifact taught me.” Tane realized one of their number was missing. “What about Positron?”

Sinive shrugged. “We’ve got backups of his AI core.”

“But that’s not the same,” Tane said.

“We’ll go back for the robot when the dust settles,” Lyra said.

“Guess who just came back into range?” Cub said.

“Okay, I see you’re returning from the surface,” Nebb’s voice came over the comm. “You gotta make this quick. Another dweller ship showed up in orbit shortly after I moved out of comm range. The two have been fighting, with the second drawing away the first. So that’s given me a small window of opportunity to bring the Red Grizzly in range. But I’m not sure how long they’ll be able to distract that ship. So hurry your asses up!”

“I’m flying as fast as I’m able,” Cub said.

* * *

Nursing his severed tentacle, S’Wraathar watched the shuttle ascend into orbit as his followers fended off the Cre’ite behind him. That the shuttle had not yet been shot down told him that his ship, the Doom Killer, was still occupied in orbit. Too bad.

He swore he would hunt down the Doomwielder and face him another day. Neither the humans nor the Cre’ite could be allowed to have him. The prophecy was wrong.

The Doomwielder was not the one who would save S’Wraathar’s people. Instead, the Doomwielder would live up to his name: he would destroy the galaxy and all its sub-universes.

It was up to S’Wraathar to ensure that never came to pass.

Yes, S’Wraathar had lost today. But his time would come again. Very soon.

Retrieving a spare C’havar from his storage device, he turned to finish off the remaining Cre’ite.

* * *

The shuttle docked a few moments later. At high speed, judging from the jolting Tane received during the landing.

“Hangar bay is sealed,” Cub said.

The ramp lowered, but none of the shuttle occupants got out of their seats. They were just too tired.

“After you.” Sinive gestured jokingly.

But Tane was in no mood for jokes. Something was on his mind.

“I’m heading for the far hemisphere,” Nebb said over the comm. “Got my specialist ready to jump us out of here as soon as we’re on the other side of the planet and away from those disrupters.”

“We have to jump to Anteres,” Tane said.

“No,” Lyra said. “You must go into hiding with Jed and I. We will complete your training. You will be safe. I’ll arrange passage for your parents, as I promised.”

“But the dwellers are invading,” Tane said. “You heard the Amaranth. I can do something.”

“What?” Lyra said.

Tane wasn’t sure, but somehow he knew he had to go.

“Take me to Anteres, and drop me off next to the biggest TSN ship,” Tane said.

“You intend to draw the White Essence from a Chrysalium hull?” Lyra said.

He didn’t answer her, because he wasn’t sure what he intended. But instinct, or some subconscious knowledge the artifact provided him, told him that he could do something.

“You won’t be able to control it,” Lyra said.

“I will,” Tane told her. Then he addressed the smuggler over the comm. “Nebb, you have to take me to Anteres. Trust me.”

“Did you say the dwellers are invading?” Nebb transmitted. “Then I’m not going anywhere near that system.”

“I can do something,” Tane said. “I was meant for this. You have to believe me.”

Lyra’s eyes fell to the apple-sized artifact that hung from Tane’s harness. Then she sighed, and exchanged a glance with Jed.

“Do as he says,” Jed instructed Nebb.

“I’m not jumping to Anteres,” Nebb said.

“Do it!” Jed said.

Nebb didn’t reply right away. Then: “We’re going to Anteres.”

34

When the Red Grizzly reached the far hemisphere, and was beyond the line of sight of the dueling dweller ships, Nebb had one of his jump specialists take the ship to Anteres.

He accessed the ship’s external video feed, with help from Sinive.

A huge black smear that ate up the stars. It was broad, that smear, stretching from one side of the system to the other, its infinite blackness tearing through the very fabric of spacetime. It was far larger than the rift he had used to travel to the Umbra.

It had to be the Anteres Rift.

Dweller vessels emerged from the rift and into human space as he watched, confirming that this was indeed the Anteres Rift, as that was the only known place where dwellers could enter our universe. There were hook ships, pincer ships, and several more whose designs he had never witnessed before: spheres, cubes, birds, darts, and on it went. The ships kept coming. There had to be thousands of them out there. It was obviously an invasion.

The Amaranth hadn’t lied.

The alien ships in the vanguard provided physical cover for those vessels behind them, presumably making up for the short period of time the energy shields rebooted immediately following rift traversal. Not that the shields would help against Essence weapons.

The lead ships fired dark balls of energy from their Essence thrower equivalents. An opposing fleet awaited them: about two hundred torpedo-shaped vessels. TSN. They returned fire with white beams of light from their Essence lances.

Dark balls struck some of the human ships and they tore apart instantly. Other craft managed to activate their Essence deflectors in time.

On the alien side of the battlefield, the incoming Essence lances drilled through some dweller ships, obliterating them. Many of the alien vessels activated their equivalents of Essence deflectors and diverted the white beams. One of those reflected lances struck a neighboring dweller ship, which had no time to raise its deflector and was torn apart.

It soon became obvious as the battle continued that the human ships were hopelessly overwhelmed. For every dweller vessel that went down, three human ships were destroyed. Plus, more dwellers were emerging from the rift all the time.

Some of the human ships began jumping out of the system. Dwellers fired disruptors, preventing many of them from fleeing, but a few got away. Those would summon reinforcements, no doubt. But by the time the cavalry arrived the battle would be over, and the dweller ships would have already jumped to their next destination. They could cause significant damage like that, leaping from system to system and ravaging whatever colonies they found, and jumping before the TSN could intervene. Billions of lives would be lost.

Unless they were stopped here and now.

“Great little battle you dragged me into,” Nebb said over the comm. “So what’s the plan now?”

“Aim for the closest TSN ship,” Tane said. “The bigger, the better.”

“Sure, if they don’t shoot us down, first,” Nebb said.

“I’m going to have to borrow the shuttle,” Tane told Sinive.

“Go ahead,” Sinive said. “Just know that I’m coming with you.”

“No,” Tane said. “I have to do this alone.”

Lyra and Jed once more exchanged looks, then both Volur stood. Lyra glanced at Sinive. “Let him fulfill his destiny.”

“I can’t leave you,” Sinive said.

Tane hesitated. He looked at Lyra. “Wait. You can stay. I’ll need you to retrieve me when I’m done.”

Lyra nodded. “Then we stay.”

She and Jed sat back down.

“All right, I’m coming up to about as close as I can get,” Nebb said. “The cruiser is warning me off. If you’re going to do something, now’s the time!”

“Cub, take us out,” Tane said.

“I don’t follow orders—” Cub began.

“Listen to him!” Lyra hissed.

“Taking us out,” Cub said.

The shuttle shook.

“We’re in space,” Cub said. “Where to?”

“Fly by the TSN ship,” Tane said. He approached the ramp. “Match its speed and direction. Though move slightly slower, so that it will take five minutes or so to overtake our vessel at its current speed. Let me know when you’re in place.”

A few moments later, Cub said: “That would be now.”

“Open up the ramp,” Tane said.

The air vented from the cabin, and then the ramp opened.

“When I’m gone, put some distance between yourself and this ship,” Tane said. “Actually, a lot of distance.”

Tane took a step toward the opening.

“Tane!” Sinive said.

He turned around. For a moment he was worried she was going to try to go with him.

But instead she simply said: “Good luck.”

Tane nodded, and then dove out into the void of space.

His stomach immediately tossed and turned from the weightlessness. He filled his mind with chaos, and the nausea immediately became distant as the Dark Essence seared through him and he fought to control the many ethereal fires that sprang up around him.

He watched the shuttle recede behind him. Already he wanted nothing more than to go back there. But he couldn’t. Not yet. Not until he helped humanity. He wouldn’t let billions die to these invaders. The shuttle sped away, as per his orders, and he quickly left comm range.

Tane turned toward the space battle. He touched the artifact at his side. He couldn’t sense any Dark Essence inside of it. He realized that to make use of its reservoir, he would have to restore it.

He removed the artifact from his harness and commanded it to grow to its previous size. Then he touched the black lens again as it floated there beside him. He was hoping for more memories, more insights, but none came.

There was still some time before the TSN ship came close enough for what he intended. Until then, it was time for some experimentation.

The flames of the Dark Essence still flickered around him, and his subconscious mind kept them at bay. It was draining his stamina, but the effects seemed somehow less severe than when drawing the White Essence.

The power from the artifact beckoned to him, but he knew no Dark works, and the artifact still refused to enlighten him. Would Essence Missile, a work of the Esoterum, actually work? His skill was only level one with that Branchwork, but with the artifact to boost the amount of Essence he could use in its making, he might actually be able to cause some damage.

He tried to create the Branchwork like he would with the White Essence, but he found that the Dark Essence behaved vastly different. When he tried to push out from inside one of the flames, for example, intending to create an offshoot or Branch, nothing happened. What he did find was that he could group the flames together into larger fires. But that didn’t help him, not when he didn’t know what groupings to use to actually create something.

He could still Siphon the White Essence directly, but his unboosted level one skill would create useless Essence Missiles.

Tane spotted the TSN ship then. It was a Decantium class cruiser, according to his chip. It was less than two kilometers away at that point, but still ate up much of the space behind him. Yes, it was far bigger than the Red Grizzly.

With that massive Chrysalium hull, he would have access to more than enough Esoterum to create formidable Essence Missiles. Lyra said he wouldn’t be able to control that much of the Essence, but he was convinced the artifact would solve that problem somehow. The only issue was actually hanging onto the artifact when he impacted the ship.

No wait, I can simply shrink it, and restore it after I reach the vessel.

The real problem was not splattering himself against the approaching ship in the first place.

A part of his mind wanted to simply abandon the TSN fleet, and let that ship fight on its own. Surely the Decantium class cruiser was equipped with Essence specialists who could make far better use of the Chrysalium hull than he. But he realized if he did that, it was essentially the same as giving up.

I’m not going to leave. Not without trying to help, at least.

In fact, he believed in his very core that he could make a difference. It was why he had come. That the dwellers had chosen this moment to attack, the very moment when he had discovered the artifact and learned Dark Siphoning, told him he was meant to stop this invasion.

And somehow, he would.

Billions of human lives.

He released the Dark Essence and felt the queasiness from zero G in his stomach keenly once more, but did his best to ignore it. Free from the distractions of dousing all those ethereal flames, he ran a quick calculation on his local suit AI and discovered that true to its word, Cub had set him up on a trajectory that was roughly the same as the Decantium class ship, though at a slightly slower speed, which was why it appeared he was falling toward it.

According to the AI, the speed difference was small enough that he could impact without smearing his insides across the hull. Always a good thing.

“But what if you’re wrong?” Tane asked the spacesuit’s AI.

“Then we both go splat splat,” the AI replied.

“Why are AIs always so reassuring?” Tane said.

He commanded the artifact to shrink, but the dark lens didn’t obey that time. He tried again. Still nothing.

Damn it.

So much for the Dark Artifact Control skill.

The lens was too big to fit in his storage pouch—he couldn’t widen the lip of the storage device enough. And even if he could, the pouch was only rated for objects a maximum of three cubic meters in volume.

Well, there was nothing for it: he would simply have to bring the artifact with him.

He let go of the dark lens and continued to float alongside it: he and the object were carried along by their combined momentum. He pressed the cord release button on his utility belt, and wound out several meters of carbon fiber cord. Then he released oxygen from a side vent and adjusted the flow to clumsily circle the artifact a few times. The loose cord followed him, while its free end remained fixed in place. Before the cord ran out, he stopped his circling motion, clambered back to the free end, and tightened it so that he was firmly roped to the artifact. He looped the free end underneath his utility belt and tied a quick knot.

According to his local AI, at his current speed and trajectory he would just miss the ship. So with the AI’s help he vented more oxygen from the rear nozzles on the suit, applying the necessary thrust in the direction of the Decantium cruiser. Now he just needed that ship to survive long enough for him to reach it.

Thirty seconds passed, with the ship growing ever larger until it filled his vision entirely. And then the hull was passing by below him in a blur.

Tane fired thrust in attempt to better match its speed, but it was no use. It was like watching a grav train speed past on the tracks.

Well, here goes...

He released a final vent of oxygen from his rear nozzles and plunged into the hull. He fired countering thrust at the last moment so that he wouldn’t bounce right off, and hit gently. He slid alongside the flat exterior, the artifact secured to his back. He tried to grasp the surface but couldn’t find purchase. It was almost like falling beside a building with a slippery-smooth surface.

He looked down between his boots and saw a superstructure coming up. An antenna of some kind. He activated his shield belt. Since he had the hull of a starship in front of him and a large artifact strapped to his back behind him, the protective energy field would only form along both flanks, above his helmet, and underneath the soles of his boots. He only cared about the latter for the coming impact.

His motion slowed right down half a meter from the superstructure as the shield area underneath his boots buffered the collision; the inertial dampening saved him from any internal injury. The energy bar on his HUD instantly dropped to zero and he physically crashed into the connecting bar a millisecond later, breaking the antenna off. That slowed him down further, but also caused a rip along the right side of his leg.

He checked his suit integrity but still had pressure. That made some sense, because if the tear had penetrated his suit he would have a little trouble breathing right now. Having the saliva inside your mouth, the fluid covering your eyes, and the liquids wetting the alveoli within your lungs boil away wasn’t a pleasant experience, nor was the hypoxia that followed. On the plus side, his body would balloon up to twice its normal size, filling up all the spare space inside the suit, and there was a chance his swollen skin would seal the breach and thus restore pressure. The exposed area of his body would still freeze solid of course, and would have to be lopped off at some point, but hey at least he’d survive.

He slammed into something else, bringing him out of his grim thoughts. He was firmly lodged this time, his boot jammed between what looked like the slats of a large vent.

He double-checked his suit integrity again. Still 100%. He was still securely strapped to the artifact. Good. His suit was in physical contact with both the hull of the ship and the dark artifact. He realized now that physical contact wasn’t strictly required, especially after watching the dwellers attempt to snatch away the artifact’s Dark Essence from him. It obviously took greater Siphoning skill to increase the accessible range, though.

He could feel the Arcanum lurking beyond the black surface behind him, the raging conflagration waiting to be unleashed upon this universe. Conversely, he could also sense the incredible tornado of White Essence lingering within the Chrysalium hull in front of him. The enormity of that latter gale frightened him, literally a hurricane of untold power waiting to sweep away the dweller fleet, easily overshadowing the fiery conflagration within the artifact. He could only imagine what it would actually feel like to Siphon that enormous storm of stellar wind through the hull and into his body. He wondered if he would be able to survive it.

No going back now.

He cleared his thoughts and extended his will against the mental barrier that existed between himself and the Esoterum inside the hull. His consciousness expanded far more than it ever had before, and he anchored his Sight lifeline quite a distance away from himself. Then he pushed hard against the invisible barrier.

His consciousness snapped back inside of himself and the White Essence erupted through him, an icy hurricane stronger than anything he had ever experienced in his life. He guided it to his core for all he was worth. He felt so very fragile, Siphoning the Essence through that starship. Like guiding a tornado through a tiny hole in a piece of paper, representing his core. It would be all too easy for the wind to tear that paper apart.

Siphoning bonus. All White Essenceworks are enhanced 7990% due to Siphoning through Chrysalium hull.

Like when he Siphoned from the Beam Hilt, that incredible stellar wind didn’t emerge from his core, but rather erupted from the ship on all sides, moving outward. But because he was sandwiched between the hull and the artifact, he didn’t really see anything he could grow into a Branchwork.

No problem. Tane threw out the lifeline for Essence Sight and his perspective snapped to far above himself, giving him an eagle eye view of the ship and the battlefield. Now he could see the ribbons emerging from all sides of the hull, almost seeming like giant flickering flames themselves. Except these were white, instead of dark.

He chose one of those massive ribbons as the root of his sapling, and attempted the only effective Branchwork he knew: the Essence Missile. Unfortunately the Branches rocketed outward at an uncontrollable rate and he was forced to release the massive, malformed work out into deep space.

He chose another and tried again, but once more was unable to actually direct it—the stellar wind was too massive, too untamable. He understood now why ships had specialized Essence throwers equipped with advanced AIs to assist in the growing, redirecting the massive ribbons of stellar wind into preset Branch designs.

It looked like he wasn’t going to be able to make a difference after all. Lyra had been right.

He watched helplessly as more TSN ships were obliterated, the dweller ranks unstoppable.

I came here for nothing.

And then he had an idea. He wasn’t certain if he could claim credit for it, or whether the idea came from some new, vague memory the artifact had given him. It certainly wasn’t instinct.

With the White Essence still filling him, he compartmentalized the part of his mind responsible for controlling that massive hurricane of power, and with the remainder of his mind he allowed chaos to reign. At the same time he stepped through the artifact.

The burning conflagration tore through him alongside the hurricane, setting fire to those portions of his being that bordered the icy wind.

Both Essences traveled through him, vying for control. Hot and Cold. White and Dark. The amount of Essence traveling through hull and artifact was massive. His body acted as a funnel for it all, Siphoning and directing. It required the utmost concentration not to lose control on the one hand to that never-ending gale of White, and on the other to constantly douse the sprouting flames of Dark. If he relaxed his concentration for even a moment, he knew he would destroy himself. Utterly. It was like a raging gale blowing over the flaming mountain passes of his being: the wind fed the flames, and vice versa.

Though he was still viewing the ship through the external perspective of Essence Sight, a familiar notification icon flashed in the lower right of his vision.

Siphoning bonus. All Dark Essenceworks are enhanced 570% due to Siphoning through Dark artifact.

Unsure of how long he could hold onto both Essences, he focused his attention on one of the massive ethereal ribbons that continued to wave erratically from the hull. The flames of the Dark Essence licked at its surface from all sides, the fires springing into existence slightly faster than he could contain them.

It’s time.

These aliens would soon learn firsthand what it meant to face the wrath of the Doomwielder.

He began to create the Essence Missile once more, but this time clumped flames of Dark Essence around each Branch, using the Arcanum to contain the White. He did so by selectively dousing the flames that were farther from him, causing new flames to spring into existence closer to the Branches.

It worked. He continued growing the Branches and Leaves, intermixing the two powers into the same tree. Sometimes he applied too few Flames to a given Branch, and had to quickly place more of them before it exploded beyond control, and sometimes he placed too many Flames, and had to remove a few so that the Branch could take its proper shape. It was a balancing act, one that he quickly got the hang of. In moments he had formed the biggest Essence Missile he could imagine, one that was about three times bigger than the Decantium class ship itself.

As the combined Essencework “set” in this reality, he hurled it at the incoming enemy vessels. The Missile moved quickly, a thick, bright beam of White light shot through with Dark veins, and surrounded by bolts of black lightning. Reality itself seemed to distort around the edges of the Missile, displacing the light from nearby stars as it passed.

The Missile struck one of the dweller ships, shattering the alien craft. The work remained intact after the impact, and Tane found that he could steer the Missile while it continued forward. With his new memories, he was able to modify his Essence Sight to follow along, and he managed to destroy four more successive ships before the combined work dissipated. A couple of those vessels tried to launch their equivalents of Essence deflectors to repel Tane’s Missile, but the Essencework was simply too massive, easily swallowing the deflecting work along with the firing ship.

He continued mixing White and Dark in that manner to devastating effect, essentially becoming a one man army, destroying aliens with his mind. He occasionally failed to create an Essence Missile, presumably because his level in that particular skill was so low, but as he continued to create them his failure rate seemed to drop.

The drain on his body was immense as he wielded the hurricane of White through him, but the Dark seemed to help mitigate the effects so that he didn’t feel as exhausted as he probably should have. He was able to fight for what seemed hours, though in truth only minutes must have passed.

The invading aliens quickly pinpointed his location and were concentrating their efforts on the vessel he clung to. But the other TSN battlecruisers had noticed him as well, and they had begun rallying to the Decantium class ship. The TSN protected him with everything they had, aiming their disruptors at alien ships in an attempt to prevent them from launching those deadly spheres in the first place; activating their deflectors to divert enemy spheres that had already fired; and physically placing TSN vessels in front of the Decantium to provide extra shielding against standard laser and plasma attacks. Sometimes when the deflectors couldn’t stop an incoming Essence attack in time, the TSN ships would sacrifice themselves, moving into the path of incoming dark spheres and allowing their vessels to be ripped apart so that Tane could fight on.

Occasionally a few enemy disruptors made their way through the shield of TSN ships and struck his half-formed Essenceworks, but the disruptions wouldn’t take and simply sloughed off his White and Dark combinations.

During the battle, Tane spotted two incongruous shapes floating into his field of vision: relatively tiny spheres of dark energy, at least compared to the massive balls of Arcanum launched by the alien ships. He realized immediately that those tiny spheres housed Amaranth. Likely they had ejected from one of the nearby alien ships, and were quickly closing on his position. Because of Essence Sight, he was aware of them well before they neared his location. And when they launched their attack, he was ready.

Jet-black smears arced toward his position from the two dwellers. Apparently the works were too small to be noticed by the TSN because no deflectors launched to disperse the incoming darkness.

So Tane created a huge work of Air Current, once more using Dark to constrain White, and slammed it into the Decantium ship. He wasn’t sure whether the Essencework would create some tornado as Sinive had done, or whether it would even work in the void at all. He was relieved when a gust physically shoved the ship aside. It dispersed quickly thanks to the vacuum, but it was enough to move the ship out of the path of those smears. The waning Dark Essenceworks swerved in an attempt to follow the ship, but dissipated before arriving.

Tane launched a counterattack, a colossal Essence Missile that would easily swallow the two dwellers. The White and Dark Missile ripped through space, and the tiny aliens tried to evade, moving in different directions. Tane swerved the Missile to follow one of them. The dweller vanished in a satisfying burst of dark light. It was too late to steer the Missile toward the other dweller, so he released it and created another.

The remaining enemy had created more dark smears, so after Tane hurled his Essence Missile he followed up with an Air Current to shove the ship out of the way. He steered the Missile toward the dweller, but the alien dove out of the way, and quickly fled, no doubt overwhelmed by the ferocity of Tane’s attack. He doubted it would return.

The enemy vessels were in full rout by then. They were attempting to flee to the far side of the system while trying to jump out. The surviving TSN ships used their disruptors to stop as many of them from jumping as possible.

Tane flung huge Essence Missiles mercilessly at the aliens, knowing that any escaping ship would only stir up trouble in another system eventually. Plus he wanted to teach the dwellers a lesson: jump to our space with bad intentions and the consequences wouldn’t be pleasant.

Unfortunately, he was wielding so much White Essence that the very hull of the ship underneath him was starting to fold and buckle. He thought he understood the purpose of Essence overflow vents in starships now. Though Tane constructed his Missiles as fast as he could, there was still excess Esoterum remaining in between each Branchwork, and with nowhere to redirect that excess, the raging power apparently lingered toxically in the Chrysalium, causing the ship to slowly disintegrate. The sheer amount he Siphoned certainly didn’t help matters, and likely helped accelerate the hull’s decay. Then again, the deterioration could have been a side effect of Siphoning both White and Dark at once. Either way, the ship was done: already escape pods were jettisoning from the vessel.

The artifact showed signs of decay, too. If Tane wanted to save it, he had to stop.

He released both Essences and his viewpoint snapped back inside of himself. The exhaustion the Dark Essence had held back hit him with full force, and he slumped inside of his suit.

His work here was done: he had singlehandedly routed a dweller fleet. The TSN would have to handle the multi-system clean up from this point forward.

He was receiving multiple hails on the comm band, but he ignored them.

A beacon flashed softly in the lower right of his HUD. He enlarged the notification screen distractedly. He had some new alerts, the timestamps indicating each had appeared at different points during the battle.

New skill received.

Dark and White Mixing. Level 1. Allows for the stable creation of White Branchworks at extreme Siphoning degrees.

Level up. Your overall level is now 6! Neural pathways have been enhanced and reinforced! You now have an attribute point to allocate.

Level up. Essence Missile is now Level 2. 90% chance of missile creation. Upon success: 25% more damage is inflicted, and impacted objects are repelled 20% farther.

Level up. Essence Sight is now Level 2. Without any other Siphoning bonuses, you may place your perspective up to a maximum of thirty-five meters away from your body, in any direction, without disorientation.

Level up. White Siphoning is now Level 2. You may now master more complex Branchworks. Branches are created 20% faster.

Level up. Darcanium Siphoning is now Level 1. 4% added bonus to Branchworks when Siphoning through Darcanium.

Level up. Chrysalium Siphoning is now Level 2. 8% added bonus to Branchworks when Siphoning through Chrysalium.

Level up. Learning is now Level 2. Learn 5% faster.

Attribute up. Endurance +1. Current Endurance: 16 (23 with Beam Hilt I equipped)

Attribute up. Intelligence +1. Current Intelligence: 12 (17 with Beam Hilt I equipped)

All of that was no doubt due to the intensity of the practice he had just gotten in. It should have been a great achievement, except he felt nothing. He was too exhausted to care. Too tired even to sleep. All he could do was float there, wishing the exhaustion away.

He absently threw his bonus attribute point into Endurance, bringing his total to seventeen or twenty-four with the beam hilt equipped, but it did nothing to abate the extreme fatigue he felt.

The hull of the human ship abruptly crumbled beside him. His boot tore free of the vent and in the explosive decompression that followed he and the artifact were sent lurching away.

Individuals in spacesuits tumbled past. As did debris.

His spine tingled when a frozen human body floated by.

Yes, he had singlehandedly routed an alien fleet, though at the cost of an entire human cruiser. According to his chip, the Decantium class vessel housed over a thousand crew members. How many had made it to the lifepods or donned protective gear in time? And how many were frozen corpses?

He could not know. But either way, the cost paled in comparison to what had been at stake.

Pieces of the artifact began to crumble from the edges, and as he watched, it dissolved, leaving only the carbon fiber cord that had bound him to it.

So much for saving the artifact.

Tane unlatched the beam hilt from his belt and gripped it in hand. The halo became a brighter green and he felt better as the Endurance bonus took hold.

“Sinive, Lyra, if you’re out there, now would be a good time to pick me up,” Tane said. He broadcast the transmission on all channels.

A few moments later the Grizzly Cub showed up.

Jed emerged from the ramp, and jetted to him. He carried Tane inside, and gingerly lowered him into his seat.

Tane weakly secured the beam hilt to his utility belt. He was barely able to keep his eyes open.

The memory of how he had sent his Essence Sight traveling through space was gone, fleeting. But most of the other memories remained. He still had the Dark and White Mixing skill, and all the other skills that had appeared in his notification window.

“Are you all right?” Sinive asked.

Tane nodded wearily behind his faceplate.

“What happened out there?” Sinive pressed. “How did you do that?”

Tane merely looked at her, at a loss for words, too exhausted to speak.

Lyra answered for him.

“The Bender of Worlds has awakened,” the Volur said.

Thank you very, very much for reading.

I hope you enjoyed Star Warrior.

Get The Next Book

Tane Ganeth

Tane’s current attributes, skills, and equipment

Attributes

Name: Tane Ganeth (Spoofed: Doug Grays)

Race: Human

Level: 6

Class: Essence Engineer (Spoofed: Professional Video Game Player)

Strength: 9

Intelligence: 12 (17 with Beam Hilt I equipped)

Dexterity: 11

Endurance: 17 (24 with Beam Hilt I equipped)

Charisma: 8

Skills

Bargaining. Level 0.

Crop Gene Splicing. Level 2.

Cycling. Level 2.

Electrical Engineering. Level 1.

Endurance Running. Level 1.

ID Spoofing. Level 1.

Learning. Level 2.

Mechanical Engineering. Level 2.

Mountain Climbing. Level 1.

Piano. Level 2.

Rake Fighting. Level 0.

Sharpshooting. Level 2.

Social Skills. Level 1.

Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Pilot (Small Craft). Level 1.

Essence Skills

Beam Hilt Control. Level 1.

Chrysalium Siphoning Level 2.

Darcanium Siphoning. Level 1.

Dark Artifact Control. Level 0.

Dark Siphoning. Level 1.

Dark and White Mixing. Level 1.

Essence Sight. Level 2.

White Essence Linking. Level 0.

White Siphoning. Level 2.

White Essenceworks

Air Current. Level 0.

Essence Missile. Level 2.

Persistent Flame. Level 0.

Dark Essenceworks

None

Equipment

- A2 Personal Shield System

- Beam Hilt I

- D18 smart targeting plasma rifle.

- Basic outfit.

- Harness with 4 incendiary grenades.

- Spacesuit II

- Traveler’s Delight (Personal Storage Device I). Capacity: 1/10. Items: Suitcase of clothes.

Afterword

Please help spread the word about Star Warrior by leaving a one or two sentence review. The number of reviews an ebook receives has a big impact on how well it does, so if you liked this story I'd REALLY appreciate it if you left a quick review. Anything will do, even one or two lines.

Thank you!

Also, if you’d like to see a sequel to Star Warrior, let me know in the reviews.

About the Author

USA Today bestselling author Isaac Hooke holds a degree in engineering physics, though his more unusual inventions remain fictive at this time. He is an avid hiker, cyclist, and photographer who sometimes resides in Edmonton, Alberta.

Get in touch:

isaachooke.com

isaac@isaachooke.com

Facebook Facebook

Twitter Twitter

Acknowledgments

THANK YOU to my knowledgeable beta readers and advanced reviewers who helped smooth out the rough edges of the prerelease manuscript: Nicole P., Karen J, Jeremy G., Doug B., Jenny O., Amy B., Bryan O., Lezza, Noel, Anton, Spencer, Norman, Trudi, Corey, Erol, Terje, David, Charles, Walter, Lisa, Ramon, Chris, Scott, Michael, Chris, Bob, Jim, Maureen, Zane, Chuck, Shayne, Anna, Dave, Roger, Nick, Gerry, Charles, Annie, Patrick, Mike, Jeff, Lisa, Jason, Bryant, Janna, Tom, Jerry, Chris, Jim, Brandon, Kathy, Norm, Jonathan, Derek, Shawn, Judi, Eric, Rick, Bryan, Barry, Sherman, Jim, Bob, Ralph, Darren, Michael, Chris, Michael, Julie, Glenn, Rickie, Rhonda, Neil, Claude, Ski, Joe, Paul, Larry, John, Norma, Jeff, David, Brennan, Phyllis, Robert, Darren, Daniel, Montzalee, Robert, Dave, Diane, Peter, Skip, Louise, Dave, Brent, Erin, Paul, Jeremy, Dan, Garland, Sharon, Dave, Pat, Nathan, Max, Martin, Greg, David, Myles, Nancy, Ed, David, Karen, Becky, Jacob, Ben, Don, Carl, Gene, Bob, Luke, Teri, Robine, Gerald, Lee, Rich, Ken, Daniel, Chris, Al, Andy, Tim, Robert, Fred, David, Mitch, Don, Tony, Dian, Tony, John, Sandy, James, David, Pat, Gary, Jean, Bryan, William, Roy, Dave, Vincent, Tim, Richard, Kevin, George, Andrew, John, Richard, Robin, Sue, Mark, Jerry, Rodger, Rob, Byron, Ty, Mike, Gerry, Steve, Benjamin, Anna, Keith, Jeff, Josh, Herb, Bev, Simon, John, David, Greg, Larry, Timothy, Tony, Ian, Niraj, Maureen, Jim, Len, Bryan, Todd, Maria, Angela, Gerhard, Renee, Pete, Hemantkumar, Tim, Joseph, Will, David, Suzanne, Steve, Derek, Valerie, Laurence, James, Andy, Mark, Tarzy, Christina, Rick, Mike, Paula, Tim, Jim, Gal, Anthony, Ron, Dietrich, Mindy, Ben, Steve, Allen, Paddy & Penny, Troy, Marti, Herb, Jim, David, Alan, Leslie, Chuck, Dan, Perry, Chris, Rich, Rod, Trevor, Rick, Michael, Tim, Mark, Alex, John, William, Doug, Tony, David, Sam, Derek, John, Jay, Tom, Bryant, Larry, Anjanette, Gary, Travis, Jennifer, Henry, Drew, Michelle, Bob, Gregg, Billy, Jack, Lance, Sandra, Libby, Jonathan, Karl, Bruce, Clay, Gary, Sarge, Andrew, Deborah, Steve, and Curtis.

Without you all, this novel would have typos, continuity errors, and excessive lapses in realism. Thank you for helping me make this the best novel possible, and thank you for leaving the early reviews that help new readers find my books.

And of course I’d be remiss if I didn't thank my mother, father, and brothers, whose wisdom and insights have always guided me through the dark paths of the Umbra.

— Isaac Hooke

Interested in reading more LitRPG-style books? Want to connect with other LitRPG authors and readers?

Then check out the fantastic LitRPG Group!