CHAPTER II

This time, instead of the alarm, a slow dawning of light drew Kira toward wakefulness.

She opened her eyes. At first no concern troubled her; she lay where she was, feeling calm and rested, content to wait. Then she saw the cat sitting by her feet: a whitish-grey Siamese with ears half-flattened and eyes slightly crossed.

The cat hissed and jumped down to the deck.

“Kira, can you hear me? … Kira, are you awake? ”

She turned her head and saw Falconi sitting next to her. The skin around his mouth was green, as if he’d been sick, and his face was drawn and hollow-eyed. He smiled at her. “Welcome back. ”

With a rush, her memory returned: the Wallfish, FTL, the Jellies, the Staff of Blue …

Kira let out a cry and tried to bolt upright. Pressure around her chest and arms stopped her.

“It’s safe, ” said Falconi. “You can come out now. ” He rapped a knuckle against her shoulder.

She looked down and saw a featureless sheath of black fibers encasing her body, holding her in place. Let me go! Kira thought, feeling suddenly claustrophobic. She wrenched her shoulders from side to side and let out another cry.

With a dry, slithery sound, the Soft Blade relaxed its protective embrace and unwound the hard shell it had formed around her. A small cascade of dust slid from her sides and onto the floor, sending grey curlicues into the air.

Falconi sneezed and rubbed his nose.

Kira’s muscles protested as she levered herself off the mattress and carefully sat upright. She had weight again: a welcome sensation. She tried to talk, but her mouth was too dry; all that came out was a frog-like croak.

“Here, ” said Falconi, and handed her a water pouch.

She nodded, grateful, and sucked on the straw. Then she tried again. “Did … did we make it? ” Her voice was rough from disuse.

Falconi nodded. “More or less. The ship has a few service alerts, but we’re in one piece. Happy New Year and welcome to 2258. Bughunt is just ahead. ”

“Bughunt? ”

“It’s what the Marines are calling the star. ”

“Are there … are there any Jellies or nightmares in the system? ”

“Doesn’t look like it. ”

Relief, then, that they’d managed to beat the aliens. “Good. ” Kira realized the Bach concertos were still playing. “Computer, music off, ” she said, and the speakers fell silent. “How long, since…”

“Since we arrived? Uh, thirty minutes, give or take. I came right over. ” Falconi licked his lips. He still looked queasy. Kira recognized the symptoms; recovery after cryo was always a bitch, and it only got worse the longer you spent in the tube.

She took another sip of water.

“How are you feeling? ” he asked.

“Okay. … A bit strange, but I’m okay. You? ”

He stood. “Like twenty kilos of shit stuffed into a ten-kilo sack. I’ll be fine, though. ”

“Have we picked up anything on the sensors, or—”

“You can see for yourself. The system was definitely inhabited at one point, so there’s that. You didn’t send us nowhere. I’m going up to Control. Join us there when you can. ”

As he walked to the open doorway, Kira said, “Did everyone make it? ”

“Yeah. Sick as dogs, but we’re all here. ” Then he left, and the door swung shut behind him.

Kira took a moment to gather her thoughts. They’d made it. She’d made it. Hard to believe. She opened and closed her hands, rolled her shoulders, gently tensed muscles throughout her body—stiff from the past few days of hibernation, but everything seemed to be in working order.

“Hey, headcase, ” she said. “You in one piece? ”

After a brief pause, Gregorovich answered. Even with a synthesized voice, the ship mind sounded sluggish, groggy: “I was in fractures before. I am in fractures now. But the pieces still form the same broken picture. ”

Kira grunted. “Yeah, you’re fine. ”

She tried to check her overlays … and nothing came up. After two more tries, she blinked, but she couldn’t feel the contacts Vishal had given her. Nor could she feel them when she touched the tip of a finger against her right eye. “Crap, ” she said. The Soft Blade must have removed or absorbed the lenses sometime during the past few weeks of her long sleep.

Eager to see the system they’d arrived in, she dressed, splashed some water on her face, and hurried out of the cabin. She swung by the galley to get some more water and grab a pair of ration bars. Chewing on one, she climbed up to Control.

All the crew was there, and the Entropists too. Like Falconi, they looked haggard: hair tousled, dark circles under their eyes, and a hint of nausea in their expressions. Sparrow looked the weakest, and Kira reminded herself that the woman had gone through surgery before entering cryo.

Everything that had happened in 61 Cygni seemed distant and hazy now, but Kira knew that from the point of view of the crew, they had just left the system. For them, it was as if the last three months didn’t exist. For her, the months were far more real. Even when in her artificial slumber, she’d retained a sense of the passage of time. She could feel the hours and days stretching out behind them, as tangible as their trail through space. 61 Cygni was no longer an immediate experience. And Adra before that even less so.

The inevitable accumulation of time had dulled the once-sharp pain of her grief. Her memories of the deaths on Adra still hurt, and always would, but they seemed thin and faded, drained of the vividness that had caused her so much anguish.

Everyone glanced at her as she entered Control, and then they returned their attention to the holo projected over the central table. Filling the holo was a model of the system they’d just entered.

Kira leaned against the edge of the table as she studied the image. Seven planets nested around the small, dim star: one gas giant and six terrestrial. The rocky planets were crammed in close to the star. The farthest one out orbited at only. 043 AU. Then there was a gap and a sparse asteroid field, and the gas giant at. 061 AU. Closer to the star—Bughunt—a second, thinner band of debris occupied the space between the second and third planets.

A chill of recognition crawled down Kira’s spine. She knew this place. She’d seen it before, in her dreams, and more; her other flesh, the Soft Blade, had walked among those planets many times in the far distant past.

With recognition, she also felt vindication. She hadn’t imagined or misinterpreted where they needed to go, and the Soft Blade hadn’t deluded her. She’d been right about the location of the Staff of Blue … assuming it was still in the system after all these years.

The Darmstadt and the Wallfish were both marked in the holo with bright icons, but Kira also saw a third icon, near the Markov Limit, which—because of the low mass of the star and the compact orbits of the planets—was about two days’ thrust at 1 g from Bughunt (assuming one intended to slow to a stop; otherwise it would only take a day and a half).

“What’s that? ” she said, pointing at the icon.

Falconi said, “The Darmstadt dropped a relay beacon as soon as it popped out of FTL. That way, if something happens to us, we might still be able to get a signal out. ”

Made sense, although it would take a long time to get a signal back to the League. The faster an FTL signal, the weaker it was. One strong enough to make it all the way to 61 Cygni in a coherent form would be even slower than a spaceship like the Wallfish. She’d have to check the numbers, but it could be years before the signal arrived.

Falconi gestured at the holo. “We’re picking up evidence of structures throughout the system. ”

Even under the Soft Blade, Kira felt goosebumps erupt across her body. Finding the xeno and now this? It was what she had dreamed about when she was a kid; of making discoveries as big and important as the Great Beacon on Talos VII. The circumstances weren’t what she would have wished for, but even so—if humanity survived the war with the Jellies and the nightmares, the things they could learn!

She cleared her throat. “Any currently … active? ”

“Hard to tell. Doesn’t seem like it. ” Falconi zoomed in on the band of debris between the second and third planets. “Check this out. Gregorovich, tell them what you told me. ”

The ship mind answered directly: “The composition of the flotsam seems to indicate it’s artificial. It contains an unusually high percentage of metals, as well as other materials that, based off albedo if nothing else, cannot be natural in origin. ”

“All that? ” said Kira, amazed. The amount of stuff was staggering. There was an entire lifetime’s worth of study here. Several lifetimes’.

Hwa-jung altered the view of the holo as she studied it. “Maybe it was a Dyson ring. ”

“I didn’t think any material was strong enough to make a ring that big, ” said Vishal.

Hwa-jung shook her head. “Does not have to be a solid ring. Could be lots of satellites or stations put all around the star. See? ”

“Ah. ”

Nielsen said, “How old do you think it is? ”

“Old, ” whispered Gregorovich. “Very, very old. ”

An uncomfortable silence filled the room. Then Trig said, “What do you think happened to the aliens here? A war? ”

“Nothing good, I’m sure, ” said Falconi. He looked at Kira. “You’re going to have to tell us where to go. We could spend forever wandering around, looking for the staff. ”

Kira studied the projection. No answer jumped to mind. The xeno didn’t seem willing or able to tell her. It had helped them find the system; now it seemed they were on their own.

When she had been silent for a while, Falconi said, “Kira? ” He was starting to sound worried.

“Give me a minute. ”

She thought. Most of the memories the Soft Blade had showed her of the staff had seemed to take place on or around one of the planets in the system. A brownish planet, with bands of circling clouds …

There. The fourth planet. It had the color, it had the clouds, and it was in Bughunt’s habitable zone, if just barely. She checked: no evidence of an orbiting station. Oh well. That didn’t mean anything. It could have been destroyed.

She highlighted the planet. “I can’t tell you the exact location, but this is where we should start. ”

“You sure? ” Falconi asked. She gave him a look, and he raised his hands. “Okay, then. I’ll let Akawe know. What are we searching for? Cities? Buildings? ”

She continued the list for him: “Monuments, statues, public works. Basically anything artificial. ”

“Got it. ”

The walls seemed to twist around them as Gregorovich adjusted their course.

“Captain, ” said Nielsen, getting to her feet. If anything, she looked worse than before. “I’m going to…”

He nodded. “I’ll let you know if there’s news. ”

The first officer crossed her arms, as if cold, and left the control room.

For a minute, no one else talked as Falconi had a one-sided conversation with the Darmstadt. Then he grunted and said, “Alright, we have a plan. Kira, we’re going to feed you images of the planet’s surface. We need you to look at it, see if you can figure out where to land. The planet is tidally locked with Bughunt—they all are—but maybe we’ll get lucky with the side facing us. Meantime, we’re going to head for the asteroid belt. Looks like there’s plenty of ice flying around, so we can crack some hydrogen and refill our tanks. ”

Kira looked at Vishal. “I’ll need a new set of contacts. The suit disappeared mine on the way here. ”

The doctor pushed himself out of his chair. “Come with me then, Ms. Kira. ”

As she followed him to sickbay, Kira couldn’t help feeling a sense of unease and displacement at how far they were from the League. Not only that, it was alien territory, even if the aliens were long dead.

The Vanished, she thought, remembering the term from the Jelly ship. But vanished to where? And were the makers of the Soft Blade members of the Jellies or the nightmares or some other, older species?

She hoped they would find the answers on the planet.

In sickbay, Vishal gave her another set of contacts, and she said, “Can you print up another few pairs? I’ll probably lose these on the way back. ”

“Yes, yes. ” He bobbed his head. “Do you still need your nose to be reset, Ms. Kira? I can do it now. Just—” He held his hands parallel and made a short jerking motion. “—schk and it will be done. ”

“No, it’s okay. Later. ” She didn’t want to deal with the pain at the moment. And besides, she felt a certain reluctance to do anything to fix her nose, although if asked, she couldn’t have said why.

Back in the galley, Kira made herself some chell, and then she sat at one of the bench tables and inserted the contacts. Fortunately, all of the data from the previous pair had uploaded into the ship’s servers, so she hadn’t lost anything.

She made a note to back up everything in at least two different places.

Once connected, alerts marking incoming messages from both Gregorovich and the Darmstadt’s ship mind, Horzcha Ubuto, appeared in the corner of her vision. Kira opened them to find a collection of telescopic images of the fourth planet—or “planet e, ” as it was labeled—from both ships. Appended to the first set was a note:

If you need a different type of imaging, just ask. —Horzcha Ubuto

Then Kira settled in to study the surface of planet e. There was a lot to study. It was 0. 7 the diameter of Earth and nearly the same density. That meant water. And possibly native life.

She felt sure the planet had a proper name, but no sense of it came from the Soft Blade.

The pictures she had were mostly from the dark side of the planet. Only a sliver of the terminator between night and day was visible from their current position. The terminator was the most likely place for a city or installation of some kind, as it would be the most temperate area, balanced between the scorching heat of one side and the frigid cold of the other.

The near side of the planet was brown and orange. Vast canyons scraped the surface, and blackish patches marked where Kira thought giant lakes might lie. Ice crusted the poles, more away from the star than toward.

The ships’ telescopes weren’t the largest—neither the Wallfish nor the Darmstadt were scientific vessels—and given the distance, the resolution of the images wasn’t the highest. But Kira did her best, examining each one for anything that seemed familiar.

Unfortunately, nothing struck a chord. There was evidence of habitation (helpfully outlined for her by Gregorovich and Horzcha Ubuto): faint lines that might be roads or canals along a section of the northern hemisphere, but nothing notable.

She lost herself in the images, barely paying attention to her surroundings. When she went to drink the chell, it was already cold, which annoyed her. She sipped at it anyway.

The door to the galley scraped open, and Trig entered. “Hey, ” he said. “Did you see what Gregorovich found? ”

Kira blinked, slightly disoriented as she cleared her overlays. “No. What? ”

“Here. ” He bounced over to her table and activated the built-in display. An image popped up of what appeared to be part of a space station, now broken and abandoned. The shape of it resembled no human-made structure. It was long and jagged, like a length of natural-grown crystal. The station obviously hadn’t spun in order to create a sense of weight for its inhabitants. That meant either they had artificial gravity or the aliens hadn’t minded spending their time in zero-g.

“Well, ” said Kira slowly. “I think we know one thing. ”

“Yeah? ” said the kid.

“It sure doesn’t look like the ships the Jellies or the nightmares are building these days. Either they’ve changed styles, or—”

“Another species. ” Trig beamed, as if this was the best piece of news ever. “The Vanished, right? The captain told me. ”

“That’s right. ” She cocked her head. “You’re enjoying this, huh? ”

“Because it’s cool! ” He poked at the display. “How many alien civilizations do you think are out there? In the whole galaxy, that is. ”

“I have no idea. … Where did Gregorovich find the station? ”

“Floating in the Dyson ring. ”

Kira drained the last of her chell. “How’s your wrist, by the way? ” The kid didn’t have a cast anymore.

Trig rolled his hand in a circle. “All better now. Doc says he wants to see me again in a few weeks, real time, but other than that, I’m good to go. ”

“Glad to hear it. ”

The kid went to get some food, and Kira returned to studying the survey images of planet e. There was already a new batch waiting for her.

The work wasn’t so different from the prep they’d done before arriving at Adrasteia. Out of habit, Kira found herself scanning for evidence of flora and fauna. There was oxygen in the atmosphere, which was encouraging, and nitrogen too. Thermal imaging seemed to show what might be areas of vegetation near the terminator line, but as with all tidally locked planets, it was difficult to be sure given the screwy atmospheric convections.

While she worked, the crew came in and out of the galley. Kira exchanged a few words with them, but for the most part, she kept her focus on the pictures. Nielsen never appeared, and she wondered if the first officer was still ill from cryo.

New pictures kept tumbling in, and as the spaceships grew closer to planet e, the resolution improved. Mid-afternoon, ship time, Kira received a message from the Darmstadt saying:

Of interest? —Horzcha Ubuto

Attached was an image from the southern hemisphere that showed a complex of buildings secreted in a fold of protective mountains, smack-dab in the middle of the terminator. At the sight of it, Kira felt a chill of ancient memories: fear, uncertainty, and the sadness born of regret. And she saw the Highmost ascend a pedestal, bright in the dawn everlasting—

A small gasp escaped her, and Kira felt a sudden certainty. She swallowed hard before opening a line to Falconi. “I found it. Or … I found something. ”

“Show me. ” After studying the map, he said, “Seems like I keep asking this, but—are you sure? ”

“As I said before we left: as sure as I can be. ”

“Okay. I’ll talk with Akawe. ” The line clicked dead.

Kira made herself another cup of chell and warmed her hands around it while she waited.

Not ten minutes later, Falconi’s voice sounded over the intercom throughout the ship: “Listen up, everyone. Change of plans. We have a destination on planet e, courtesy of Kira. We’re going to do a burn straight there and drop off Kira and a team to check out the location while the Wallfish and the Darmstadt continue back out to the asteroid belt to refuel. It’ll only take four or five hours to reach the belt, so the ships won’t be too far away if we’re needed. Over and out. ”

Kira returned to Control and stayed there for the rest of the afternoon, watching as new discoveries continued to pop up on their screens. There were scores of artificial structures throughout the system, both on the planets and in space: monuments to a lost civilization. None appeared to have power. By the gas giant floated the hull of what looked to be a ship. By planet e, a cluster of junked satellites parked in what would have been a geostationary orbit if the planet hadn’t been tidally locked. And of course, there was the Dyson ring (if that’s what it was), which seemed to be filled with technological relics.

“This place—” said Veera.

“—is a treasure house beyond compare, ” finished Jorrus.

Kira agreed. “We’ll be studying it for centuries. Do you think these were the aliens who made the Great Beacon? ”

The Entropists inclined their heads. “Perhaps. It very well could be. ”

Dinner that night was a subdued, informal affair. No one bothered cooking; everyone’s stomach but Kira’s was still in a delicate state from cryo. As a result, it was prepackaged rations across the board, which made for a monotonous, if healthy, meal.

The Marines still didn’t join them. Nor did Nielsen. The first officer’s absence was conspicuous; without her quiet, steady presence, the conversation around the tables was sharper, more hard-edged.

“Tomorrow, ” said Vishal, “I would like to see you, Ms. Sparrow, for a checkup. It is necessary to make sure your new organs are working well. ”

Sparrow bobbed her head in an imitation of Vishal and said, “Sure thing, Doc. ” Then an evil little grin spread across her face. “Just using this as an excuse to get your hands on me, aren’t you? ”

Color bloomed on Vishal’s cheeks, and he stuttered. “Ms.! I would—That is, no. No. That would not be professional. ”

Trig laughed through a mouthful of food. “Ha! Look, he’s blushing. ”

Sparrow laughed as well, and a faint smile appeared on Hwa-jung’s broad face.

They continued to tease the doctor, and Kira could see him getting more and more frustrated and angry, but he never snapped, never lashed out. She didn’t understand it. If he just stood up for himself, the others would knock it off, or at least back off for a while. She’d seen it plenty of times before on the mining outposts. Guys who didn’t punch back always ended up getting picked on more. It was a law of nature.

Falconi didn’t interfere, not directly, but she noticed how he unobtrusively steered the conversation in a different direction. As they took up another topic, Vishal sank back in his seat, as if hoping no one would notice him.

While they talked, Kira went to the Entropists, who were hunched over a bluish, oblong-shaped object on their table, turning it over as if trying to find a key or a latch to open it.

She sat next to Veera. “What is that? ” she asked, indicating the object. It was the size of both her fists combined.

The Entropists peered at her, owlish under the hoods of their robes. “We found this—” said Jorrus.

“—on the ship of the Jelly, ” said Veera. “We think it is a—”

“—processor or control module for a computer. But to be honest—”

“—we are not entirely sure. ”

Kira glanced back at Falconi. “Does the captain know you have this? ”

The Entropists smiled, mirroring each other’s expression. “Not this specifically, ” they said, their voices coming in stereo, “but he knows we salvaged several pieces of equipment off the ship. ”

“May I? ” asked Kira, and held out her hands.

After a moment, the Entropists relented and allowed her to take the object. It was denser than it looked. The surface was pitted slightly, and there was a smell of … salt? to it.

Kira frowned. “If the xeno knows what this is, it’s not telling me. Where did you find it? ”

The Entropists showed her via footage from their implants.

“The Aspect of the Void, ” said Kira. The English translation tasted strange on her tongue; it was accurate, but it failed to capture the feel of the Jelly original. “That was the name of the room. I didn’t go in there, but I saw the sign. ”

Veera carefully took back the oblong object. “What, in this instance—”

“—does the word void refer to? Likewise, what does—”

“—the word aspect? ”

She hesitated. “I’m not sure. Maybe … communication? Sorry. Don’t think I can help you any more than that. ”

The Entropists dipped their heads. “You have given us more than we had previously. We shall continue to ponder upon this matter. May your path always lead to knowledge, Prisoner. ”

“Knowledge to freedom, ” Kira replied.

When dinner was over, and people were dispersing, she contrived to get a moment alone with Falconi by the sink. “Is Nielsen alright? ” she asked in a low tone.

His hesitation confirmed her suspicions. “It’s nothing. She’ll be fine tomorrow. ”

“Really. ” Kira gave him a look.

“Really. ”

She wasn’t convinced. “Do you think she’d like it if I brought her some tea? ”

“That’s probably not a good id—” Falconi stopped himself as he dried off a plate. “You know what? I take it back. I think Audrey would appreciate the gesture. ” He reached up into a cupboard and removed a packet. “This is the stuff she likes. Ginger. ”

For a moment Kira wondered if he was setting her up. Then she decided it didn’t matter.

Upon fixing the tea, she followed Falconi’s directions to Nielsen’s cabin, trying to keep the liquid from sloshing too much in the two safety cups she carried.

She knocked, and when there was no response, knocked again and said, “Ms. Nielsen? It’s me, Kira. ”

“… Go away. ” The first officer’s voice was strained.

“I brought you some ginger tea. ”

After a few seconds, the door creaked open to reveal Nielsen standing in burgundy pajamas and a pair of matching slippers. Her normally immaculate hair was tied back in a shoddy bun, dark rings surrounded her eyes, and her skin was pale and bloodless even beneath her spacer’s tan.

“See? ” said Kira, and held out a cup. “As promised. I thought you might like something hot to drink. ”

Nielsen stared at the cup as if it were a foreign artifact. Then her expression eased, if only slightly, and she accepted it and moved aside. “Guess you’d better come in. ”

The interior of her cabin was clean and tidy. The only personal effect was a holo on the desk—three children (two boys and a girl) in their early teens. On the walls, overlays created the illusion of oval, brass-framed windows looking out upon a vista of endless clouds: orange, brown, and pale cream.

Kira sat on the lone chair while Nielsen sat on the bed. “I don’t know if you like honey, but…” Kira held out a small packet. The movement of the clouds kept catching her eyes, distracting her.

“I do, actually. ”

While Nielsen stirred the honey into the tea, Kira studied her. She’d never seen the first officer so frail before. “If you want, I can get you some food from the galley. It won’t take more than—”

Nielsen shook her head. “I wouldn’t be able to keep it down. ”

“Bad reaction to the cryo, huh? ”

“You could say that, ” said Nielsen.

“Can I get you something else? Maybe from the doctor? ”

Nielsen took a sip. “That’s very thoughtful, but no. I just need a good sleep, and I’ll be—” Her breath hitched, and a spasm of pain knotted her face. She bent forward, putting her head between her knees, her breath coming in ragged gasps.

Alarmed, Kira darted to her side, but Nielsen held up a hand and Kira stopped, uncertain what to do.

She was just about to call for Vishal when Nielsen straightened. Her eyes were watery, and her expression was tight. “Dammit, ” she said in an undertone. Then, louder: “It’s okay. I’m fine. ”

“Like hell you are, ” said Kira. “You couldn’t even move. That’s more than just cryo sickness. ”

“Yes. ” Nielsen leaned back against the wall behind the bed.

“What is it? Cramps? ” Kira couldn’t imagine why the other woman would have her periods turned on, but if she did …

Nielsen uttered a short laugh. “I wish. ” She blew on her tea and took a long drink.

Still on edge, Kira returned to the chair and studied the other woman. “Do you want to talk about it? ”

“Not particularly. ”

An uncomfortable silence developed between them. Kira took a drink of her own tea. She wanted to press Nielsen harder, but she knew it would be a mistake. “Have you seen all the stuff we’ve found in the system? It’s amazing. We’ll be studying it for centuries. ”

“As long as we don’t get wiped out. ”

“There is that small detail. ”

Nielsen peered at Kira over the top of her cup, eyes sharp and feverish. “Do you know why I agreed to this trip? I could have fought Falconi on it. If I’d tried hard enough, I could have even convinced him to refuse Akawe’s offer. He listens to me when it comes to things like this. ”

“No, I don’t know, ” said Kira. “Why? ”

The first officer pointed at the holo of the kids on the desk. “Because of them. ”

“Is that you and your brothers? ”

“No. They’re my children. ”

“I didn’t know you had a family, ” said Kira, surprised.

“Grandchildren, even. ”

“You’re joking! Really? ”

Nielsen smiled a little. “I’m quite a bit older than I look. ”

“I never would have guessed you’d had STEM shots. ”

“You mean my nose and ears? ” Nielsen touched them. “I had them fixed about ten years ago. It was the thing to do where I lived. ” She looked out the window overlaid on the wall, and her gaze grew distant, as if she saw something other than the clouds of Venus. “Coming here to Bughunt was the only thing I could do to help protect my family. That’s why I agreed to it. I just wish … Well, it doesn’t matter now. ”

“What doesn’t? ” said Kira, gentle.

A sadness settled over Nielsen, and she sighed. “I just wish I could have talked with them before we left. Who knows what it’s going to be like when we get back. ”

Kira understood. “Do they live at Sol? ”

“Yes. Venus and Mars. ” Nielsen picked at a spot on her palm. “My daughter is still on Venus. You might have seen, the Jellies attacked there a while back. Fortunately it wasn’t close to her, but…”

“What’s her name? ”

“Yann. ”

“I’m sure they’ll be fine. Of all the places they could be, Sol is probably the safest. ”

Nielsen gave her a don’t bullshit me look. “You saw what happened on Earth. I don’t think anywhere is safe these days. ”

In an attempt to distract her, Kira said, “So how did you end up on the Wallfish, then—so far away from your family? ”

Nielsen studied the reflections in her cup. “Lots of reasons. … The publishing company I worked for declared bankruptcy. New management restructured, fired half the staff, canceled our pensions. ” Nielsen shook her head. “Twenty-eight years spent working for them, all gone. The pension was bad enough, but I lost my health coverage, which was a problem given my, ah, particular challenges. ”

“But isn’t—”

“Of course. Basic access is guaranteed, as long as you’re a citizen in good standing. Even sometimes if you’re not. But basic coverage isn’t what I needed. ” Nielsen glanced at Kira from the corner of her eyes. “And now you’re wondering just how sick I am and whether it’s contagious. ”

Kira raised an eyebrow. “Well, I assume Falconi wouldn’t have let you on board if you were carrying some deadly, flesh-eating bacteria. ”

The other woman nearly laughed, and then she pressed a hand against her chest and made a pained face. “It’s not that dire. At least not for anyone else. ”

“Are you—I mean, is it terminal? ”

“Life is terminal, ” said Nielsen dryly. “Even with STEM shots. Entropy always wins in the end. ”

Kira raised her cup. “To the Entropists, then. May they find a way to reverse the time-ordered decay of all things. ”

“Hear, hear. ” And Nielsen clinked cups with her. “Although, I can’t say the prospect of life unending appeals to me. ”

“No. It would be nice to have some choice in the matter. ”

After another sip and another pause, Nielsen said, “My … condition was a gift from my parents, believe it or not. ”

“How so? ”

The first officer rubbed her face, and the true depths of her exhaustion became evident. “They were trying to do the right thing. People always are. They just forget the old adage regarding the problem with good intentions and the road to Hell. ”

“That’s a rather cynical view. ”

“I’m in a rather cynical mood. ” Nielsen straightened her legs out on the bed. It seemed to hurt. “Before I was born, the laws on gene-hacking weren’t as strict as they are now. My parents wanted to give their child—me—every possible advantage. What parent wouldn’t? ”

Kira instantly grasped the problem. “Oh no. ”

“Oh yes. So they packed me full of every known gene sequence for intelligence, including a few artificial ones that had just been developed. ”

“Did it work? ”

“I’ve never needed to use a calculator, if that’s what you mean. There were unintended side effects, though. The doctors aren’t quite sure what happened, but some part of the alterations triggered my immune system—set it off like a pressure alarm in a dome that’s been ripped open. ” Nielsen’s expression became sardonic. “So I can calculate how fast the air is rushing out without having to check my math, but there’s nothing I can do to keep myself from asphyxiating. Metaphorically speaking. ”

“Nothing? ” Kira said.

Nielsen shook her head. “The doctors tried fixing the conflicts with retroviral treatments, but … they can only do so much. The genes changed tissue up here, ” she tapped the side of her head. “Delete them, remove them, or even just edit them and it could kill me or mess with my memories or my personality. ” Her lips twisted. “Life is full of little ironies like that. ”

“I’m sorry. ”

“It happens. I’m not the only one, although most of the others didn’t make it past thirty. As long as I take my pills, it isn’t too bad, but some days—” Nielsen winced. “Some days, the pills don’t do much of anything. ” She picked up her pillow and wedged it behind her back. Her tone was bitter as arsenic: “When your body isn’t your own, it’s worse than any prison. ” Her eyes flicked toward Kira. “You know. ”

She did know, and she also knew dwelling on it wouldn’t help. “So what happened after you got laid off? ”

Nielsen drained the last of her tea in a single gulp. She put the empty cup on the edge of the desk. “The bills started piling up, and … well, my husband, Sarros, left. I don’t blame him, not really, but there I was, having to start all over again at sixty-three. …” Her laugh could have cut glass. “I don’t recommend it. ”

Kira made a sympathetic noise, and the first officer said: “I couldn’t find a job that suited me on Venus, so I left. ”

“Just like that? ”

The steel inside Nielsen came to the fore again. “Exactly like that. I spent some time moving around Sol, trying to find a steady position. Eventually I ended up at Harcourt Station, out by Titan, and that’s where I met Falconi and talked him into bringing me on as first officer. ”

“Now there’s a conversation I would have liked to hear, ” said Kira.

Nielsen chuckled. “I may have been a bit pushy. I practically had to force my way onto the Wallfish. The ship was a bit of a mess when I arrived; it needed organizing and scheduling, and those have always been my strong points. ”

Kira toyed with the extra packet of honey she’d brought. “Can I ask you a question? ”

“It’s a little late to be asking for permission, don’t you think? ”

“About Falconi. ”

Nielsen’s expression grew more guarded. “Go ahead. ”

“What’s the story behind those scars on his arms? Why didn’t he get them fixed? ”

“Ah. ” Nielsen shifted her legs, trying to find a more comfortable position. “Why don’t you ask him yourself? ”

“I wasn’t sure if it was a sensitive subject. ”

Nielsen stared at her with an overly direct gaze. Her eyes, Kira noticed for the first time, had flecks of green in them. “If Falconi feels like telling you, he will. Either way, it’s not really my story to share. I’m sure you understand. ”

Kira didn’t press the issue, but Nielsen’s reticence only increased her curiosity.

After that, they spent a pleasant half hour chatting about the intricacies of living and working on Venus. To Kira, the planet seemed beautiful and exotic and dangerous in an alluring way. Nielsen’s time in the publishing industry there had been so different from Kira’s profession, it made her consider the vast array of personal experiences that existed throughout the League.

At last, when Kira’s cup was empty and Nielsen seemed in relatively good cheer, Kira stood to leave. The first officer caught her by the wrist.

“Thank you for the tea. It was very nice of you. I mean it. ”

The praise warmed Kira’s heart. “Any time. It was my pleasure. ”

Nielsen smiled then—a genuine smile—and Kira smiled in return.

Back in her own cabin, Kira paused in front of the mirror by the sink. The dim, ship-night lighting cast heavy shadows across her face, which made the kink in her nose stand out in high relief.

She felt the crooked flesh; it would be easy to fix. A hard jerk would return it to normal, and then the Soft Blade would heal her face the way it should have the first time.

But she didn’t want that, and now she understood why. The xeno had erased every mark on her body, every bump and line and freckle and odd bit of jiggle. It had removed the physical record of her life and replaced it with the meaningless coating of fibers that retained no stamp of experience. So much it had taken from her, she didn’t want to lose more.

Keeping a crooked nose was her choice, her way of reshaping the flesh they shared. It also served as a reminder of past sins, ones she was determined not to repeat.

Flush with that determination, as well as a surfeit of images from the system they’d arrived at, Kira threw herself down and—even after three months of mostly hibernating—fell asleep.

She and her joined flesh—not a grasper but a giver—walked as witness behind the Highmost among the field of ill-shaped growths: cancerous intentions that bore poisonous fruit. And the Highmost raised the Staff of Blue and said a single, cutting word: “No. ”

Down the staff then came, struck the heaving earth. A circle of grey expanded about the Highmost as each mutated cell tore itself apart. The stench of death and putrefaction smothered the field, and sorrow bent the Highmost.

An earlier fracture: one of her siblings stood before the assembled Heptarchy in their high-arched presence chamber. The Highmost descended to the patterned floor and touched the Staff of Blue to the blood-smeared brow of her sibling.

“You are no longer worthy. ”

Then flesh parted from flesh as the other Soft Blade flowed away from the staff, fleeing its power and leaving the body of its bonded mate exposed, vulnerable. For there was no denying the Staff of Blue.

Another disjunction, and she found herself standing beside the Highmost, upon the observation deck of an enormous starship. Before and below them hung a rocky planet, green and red with swarms of life. There was a wrongness to it, though—a feel of threat that made her wish she was elsewhere—as if the planet itself were malevolent.

The Highmost raised the Staff of Blue once again. “Enough. ” The staff angled forward, a flash of sapphire light sent shadows streaming, and the planet vanished.

In the distance, well past the planet’s previous location, a patch of starlight twisted, and with it twisted her stomach. For she knew what the distortion heralded. …

Kira woke with a pounding heart. She stayed under the blankets for several minutes, reviewing the memories from the Soft Blade. Then she rolled upright and put a call through to both Falconi and Akawe.

As soon as they answered, she said, “We have to find the Staff of Blue. ” Then she told them of her dream.

Falconi said, “If even only part of that is true—”

“Then it’s even more important we keep the Jellies from getting their tentacles on this tech, ” said Akawe.

The call ended, and Kira checked their location: still on course for planet e. It needs a better name, she thought. At the current distance, and without magnification, the planet was still just a gleaming dot in the ship’s cameras, no different from the other, nearby dots that marked the rest of the system’s closely packed planets.

During the night, the ship minds had found even more structures scattered about Bughunt. The system had clearly been a base for long-term settlement. Kira glanced over the newest discoveries but saw nothing immediately revelatory, so she put them aside for later study.

Then she checked her messages. There were two waiting for her. The first—as she’d half expected—was from Gregorovich:

The dust from your alien companion is clogging my filters again, meatbag. – Gregorovich

She replied:

Apologies. I didn’t have time to clean yesterday. I’ll see what I can do. – Kira

No matter; you’ll likely just make a mess of it. Leave your door unlocked, and I shall send one of my tricksy little service bots to sweep up your leavings. Would you like your sheets turned down as well? Y/N – Gregorovich

… No thank you. I can manage just fine myself. – Kira

As you wish, meatbag. – Gregorovich

The other message was from Sparrow:

Let’s do this. Cargo hold; I’ll be waiting. – Sparrow

Kira ran a hand over the back of her head. She’d been expecting to hear from Sparrow. Whatever the woman had in store for her, it wasn’t going to be easy, but Kira was okay with that. She was curious to find out if her efforts with the Soft Blade were going to pay off. If nothing else, interfacing with the xeno ought to be easier now that she was fully awake and properly fed.

Kira fetched her morning chell from the galley and then headed down to the hold. The Marines were there, prepping their gear for the upcoming trip to the surface of planet e. The squad greeted her with nods and grunts and even a salute on the part of Sanchez. Whether it was their military augments or their natural constitutions, Kira didn’t know, but none of the men looked as drained from cryo as the crew of the Wallfish.

As promised, Sparrow was in the small gym hidden within the racks of equipment. She was chewing gum while doing painful-looking crunches on a mat. “Rehab, ” she said in response to Kira’s querying look.

After finishing her set, Sparrow rolled onto her knees. “So? ” she said. “Three months. Were you able to keep up with your training? ”

“Yes. ”

“And? How’d it go? ”

Kira knelt as well. “Good, I think. It was hard to tell at times, but I tried my damnedest. I really did. ”

A crooked little smile cut Sparrow’s face. “Show me. ”

So Kira did. She pressed and pulled and ran and otherwise performed all the exercises Sparrow asked of her … while also shaping and reshaping the Soft Blade the whole time. To Kira’s satisfaction, she did well. Not perfect. But very close. She never lost control of the xeno to the point where it stabbed or lashed out; at the most, it formed a few studs or ripples in response to the stresses imposed on her body. And she was able to form intricate shapes and patterns with its fibers. It felt as if the organism was working with her, not against her, which was a welcome change.

Sparrow watched with focused intensity. She gave no praise and showed no sign of approval, and when Kira continued to meet her demands, she merely asked for more. More weight. More complexity with the Soft Blade. More time under tension. More.

At last, Kira was ready to call it quits. She felt that she had done quite enough to demonstrate her new skills. But Sparrow had other ideas.

The woman hopped down from the bench where she was sitting and strode over to where Kira was standing by the weight rack, panting and sweating. She stopped only centimeters away: too close for comfort.

Kira fought the urge to step back.

“Make the most detailed pattern that you can, ” said Sparrow.

Kira was tempted to argue. She resisted, though, and—after thinking—willed the Soft Blade to imitate the fractal it had shown her on more than one occasion. The surface of the suit rippled and deformed into an almost microscopically detailed design. Holding it in place wasn’t easy, but then, that was the point.

Kira sucked in her breath. “Okay. What else do—”

Sparrow slapped her cheek. Hard.

Shocked, Kira blinked, tears forming in her left eye, the side Sparrow had hit. “What the—”

Sparrow slapped her again, a bright, icy shock that sent stars shooting across Kira’s vision. She felt the mask start to crawl across her face and the Soft Blade start to spike out, and with a mighty effort, she held it in place. It felt as if she were holding a high-tension wire with a metric ton of weight at the other end, pulling her forward, threatening to snap.

She set her jaw and glared at Sparrow, now knowing what the woman was up to.

Sparrow grinned—an evil little grin that did nothing but piss off Kira even more. It was the sadistic superiority of the expression that really got to her.

Sparrow slapped her a third time.

Kira saw the blow coming. She could have ducked or flinched or protected herself with the Soft Blade. She wanted to. She also could have struck back with the suit. The xeno was eager to fight, eager to stop the threat.

A moment’s lapse, and Sparrow would have been lying on the floor, blood oozing from a half-dozen different wounds. Kira could see it in her mind.

She took another breath and then forced herself to smile. Not an angry smile. Not an evil smile. A flat, calm smile that said, You can’t break me. She meant it, too. She and the Soft Blade were working together, and Kira felt a solid sense of control, not only over the xeno, but herself.

Sparrow grunted and stepped back. The tension in her shoulders slacked. “Not bad, Navá rez. … Not bad. ”

Kira allowed the pattern to melt into the surface of the Soft Blade. “That was really fucking risky. ”

A quick laugh from Sparrow. “It worked, didn’t it. ” She returned to the bench and sat.

“And if it hadn’t? ” In the back of her mind, Kira couldn’t help but feel a sense of triumph. She really had made progress on the way to Bughunt. All those practice sessions alone in the dark had been worth it. …

Sparrow clipped a bar attachment to the weight machine. “You’re going dirtside tomorrow to poke around an alien city, looking for some scary-ass alien superweapon. Shit could go sideways real fast, and you know it. If you couldn’t handle a little something like this”—she shrugged—“you shouldn’t leave the Wallfish. Besides, I had confidence in you. ”

“You’re crazy, you know that? ” But Kira smiled as she said it.

“Nothing new there. ” Sparrow started to do pulldowns on the weight machine, using fairly light weight. She did a set of ten and then stopped and hunched over, eyes screwed shut.

“How’s your recovering going? ” Kira asked.

Sparrow made a disgusted face. “Well enough. The doc kept me at a slightly higher metabolic rate than normal in cryo, which helped with the healing, but it’s still going to be another few weeks before I’m rated to get back in an exo. And that really burns me. ”

“Why? ” said Kira.

“Because, ” said Sparrow, massaging her side, where she’d been injured, “I can’t fight like this. ”

“You shouldn’t have to. Besides, we’ve got the UMC with us. ”

Sparrow snorted. “You grow up on a colony or what? ”

“Yeah. What’s that got to do with it? ”

“Then you ought to know you can’t off-load responsibility on someone else. You have to be able to take care of yourself when shit goes down. ”

Kira thought about that for a moment as she put away the weights she’d been holding. “Sometimes we can’t, and that’s when we have to rely on other people. That’s how societies work. ”

Sparrow sucked her lips against her teeth in an unpleasant little smile. “Maybe. Doesn’t mean I have to like being disabled. ”

“No, it doesn’t. ”

As they left the hold, they passed by the Marines, and Kira greeted them as she had on the way in. The men started to reply, but then they saw Sparrow and their expressions grew cold.

Tatupoa jerked his chin toward her. His tattoos gleamed like sapphire wires amid the shadows cast by the storage racks. “Yeah, we looked you up. Just keep walking, gas-head. We don’t need your like around here. ”

“Private! ” barked Hawes. “That’s enough! ” But he avoided looking at Sparrow, same as the others.

“Yessir. ”

Sparrow kept walking and didn’t react, as if she hadn’t heard. Confused, Kira kept pace with her. Once out in the hall, she said, “What the hell was that about? ”

To her surprise, Sparrow leaned with one hand against the wall. The shorter woman looked as if she were going to be sick. Somehow Kira doubted it had anything to do with cryo.

“Hey, are you okay? ” said Kira.

Sparrow shivered. “Oh yeah. Blasting on full jets. ” She ground the heel of her free hand against the corners of her eyes.

Not knowing what else to do, Kira said, “How did they figure out who you are? ”

“Service records. Every ship in the fleet carries a full set of ’em, aside from the black bag, spec-ops grunts. Bet they ran my picture through the files. Wouldn’t be hard. ” Sparrow sniffed and pushed herself off the wall. “You tell anyone about this and I’ll kill you. ”

“The Jellies might get to me before then. … What’s gas-head mean? Nothing good, I guess. ”

A bitter smile twisted Sparrow’s mouth. “Gas-head is what you call someone you think deserves to be spaced. The blood boils off, turns to gas. Get it? ”

Kira eyed her, trying to read between the lines. “So why you? ”

“Doesn’t matter, ” Sparrow muttered, straightening up. She started to walk away, but Kira stepped in front of her.

“I think it does, ” Kira said.

Sparrow stared her straight in the eyes, jaw muscles working. “Get out of my way, Navá rez. ”

“Not until you tell me, and there’s no way you can force me to move. ”

“Fine, then I’ll just sit here. ” And Sparrow dropped into a cross-legged position.

Kira crouched down beside her. “If you can’t work with the Marines, I need to know why. ”

“You ain’t the captain. ”

“No, but we’re all putting our lives on the line here. … What is it, Sparrow? It can’t be that bad. ”

The woman snorted. “You have a seriously faulty imagination if that’s what you think. Fine. Screw it. You want the truth? I got kicked out of the UMCM for cowardice before the enemy. Spent seven months in lockup as a result. There, you happy? ”

“I don’t believe you, ” said Kira.

“The specific charges were abandonment of my post, cowardice in the face of the enemy, and striking a commanding officer. ” Sparrow crossed her arms, defiant. “That’s why gas-head. No Marine wants to serve with a coward. ”

“You’re not a coward, ” said Kira, earnest. “I’ve seen you in combat. Hell, you went right after that little girl like it was nothing. ”

Sparrow shook her head. “That was different. ”

“Bullshit. … Why do I think the whole ‘striking a commanding officer’ is the real cause of this? ”

With a sigh, Sparrow let her head fall back against the wall. The impact of skull with plating produced a thud that echoed up and down the hall. “Because you think too damn much, that’s why. His name was Lieutenant Eisner, and he was a real asshole. I got transferred to his unit during the middle of deployment. This was back during the border war with Shin-Zar, see. Eisner was a shit officer. He kept getting his unit into trouble in the field, and for whatever reason, he seemed to have it out for me personally. Kept riding me no matter what I did. ” She shrugged. “After one of our ops went tits up, I’d had enough. Eisner was using some bullshit excuse to chew out my gunner, and I went over and told him off. Lost my temper and ended up popping him in the face. Gave him a real doozy of a shiner. Thing is, I’d been posted to guard duty and I’d left my watch, so Eisner had me brought up on cowardice before the enemy. ”

Sparrow shrugged again. “Seven years of service down the drain, just like that. Only stuff I got to keep were my augments. ” And she made a muscle with her arm before dropping it.

“Shit, ” said Kira. “Couldn’t you fight the charges? ”

“Nah. It happened out in the field during combat operations. The League wasn’t going to ship us back for an investigation. The footage showed me leaving my post and hitting Eisner. That was all that mattered. ”

“So why don’t you go in there and explain? ” said Kira, motioning toward the hold.

“Wouldn’t do any good, ” said Sparrow. She stood. “Why should they believe me? Far as they’re concerned, I’m hardly better than a deserter. ” She slapped Kira on the shoulder. “Doesn’t matter anyway. We don’t need to like each other in order to do our jobs. … Now, are you going to get out of my way or not? ”

Kira moved aside, and Sparrow limped past, leaving her alone in the corridor.

After thinking for a long minute, Kira climbed up the center of the ship and made her way to Control. Falconi was there, as she expected, and Nielsen too—looking far better than she had the previous day.

She and the first officer exchanged companionable nods, and then Kira went over to the captain and said, “Any news? ”

“Not at the moment. ”

“Good. … I have a favor to ask. ”

He looked at her, wary. “Is that so? ”

“Will you come with me to the planet? ”

Falconi’s eyebrows rose fractionally. “Why? ” Across the room, Nielsen paused reading something on a display to listen.

“Because, ” said Kira, “I don’t want to be down there all alone with the UMC. ”

“You don’t trust them? ” said Nielsen.

Kira hesitated a second. “I trust you more. ”

Falconi let her hang for a few seconds, and then he said, “Well, today’s your lucky day. I already arranged things with Akawe. ”

“You’re going? ” said Kira, not quite believing.

“Not just me. Trig, Nielsen, and the Entropists too. ”

The first officer sniffed. “Just what I wanted to do on a Sunday afternoon. ”

Falconi grinned at Kira. “There’s no way I’m coming this far and not getting out to see the sights. ”

The knowledge eased Kira’s concern somewhat. “So Sparrow, Hwa-jung, and Vishal are going to stay on board? ”

“Exactly. The UMC are bringing their own doc. Sparrow still isn’t cleared for duty, and Hwa-jung doesn’t fit in our exos. Besides, I want Hwa-jung on the ship in case anything goes wrong. ”

That made sense. Kira said, “Who’s taking the exos then? ”

Falconi jerked his head toward Nielsen. “Her and Trig. ”

“That’s not necessary, ” said Nielsen. “I’m perfectly capable of—”

The captain didn’t give her the opportunity to finish. “Yes, you are, but I’d rather have my crew in armor for this trip. Besides, I’ve never cared for exos. Too restrictive. Give me a plain old skinsuit any day of the week. ”

The rest of the day passed in a mood of quiet intensity. The crew bustled around, preparing for the descent to the planet, while Kira reviewed the procedures for preventing contamination while in an unknown (and potentially life-bearing) alien environment. She knew them by heart, but it was always good to read them again before the start of an expedition.

Ideally they would have spent months, if not years, studying the planet’s biosphere from a distance before daring to put an actual human on the surface, but given the circumstances, that was a luxury they couldn’t afford. Still, Kira wanted to reduce the chances of contamination—in either direction—as much as possible. The planet was an incredible source of information; it would be a crime to infect it with a set of human microbes. Unfortunately, even the most thorough decontamination couldn’t remove every foreign body from the surface of their equipment, but they’d do the best they could.

After some thought, she drew up a list of recommendations: best practices for protecting the location and themselves, based off her professional experience. She sent the list to both Falconi and Akawe.

< These are going to be a real pain in the ass, Navá rez. Running through decon twice? No touching of an object without express permission? Walking single file? No CO2 venting? The UMCN already has its own set of protocols for dealing with this sort of situation, and they’re more than adequate. – Akawe>

< No, they aren’t. We’ve never found a location like this before. We can’t screw this up. Future generations will thank us for it. – Kira>

< First we have to make sure there are future generations. – Akawe>

He continued to grumble, but after some more discussion, he agreed to implement her guidelines during the landing mission. < But that’s all they are, Navá rez, guidelines. Shit happens in the field, and you have to adapt. – Akawe>

< As long as we make an attempt to preserve the site. That’s all I’m asking. – Kira>

< Roger that. – Akawe>

Kira returned to examining the images Gregorovich and Horzcha Ubuto were collecting of planet e, as well as the rest of the system. She didn’t learn much, but she kept at it, hoping to spot something else that might help them find the Staff of Blue.

Dinner, when it came, was a friendlier, more energetic affair than the previous one. Nielsen was there, and though everyone was somewhat on edge about the upcoming trip, a sense of optimism pervaded the air. It felt as if they—and humans in general—were finally going to be able to make significant progress against the Jellies.

Most of the conversations revolved around what they might or might not expect to run into on the planet, as well as the best pieces of equipment to take. Room on the UMC shuttle would be limited, so they had to choose wisely.

Sparrow, as Kira expected, was disgruntled at being left behind on the Wallfish (Hwa-jung didn’t seem to mind either way). To which Falconi said, “When I don’t have to worry about you ripping your stomach back open, then you can climb into an exo, and not a moment sooner. ”

Sparrow conceded the point, but Kira could tell she was still unhappy. To distract her, Kira said, “So I’m curious; is Sparrow your first or last name? You’ve never said. ”

“I haven’t? ” Sparrow took a sip of wine. “Imagine that. ”

“Her name is just listed as Sparrow on her ID, ” said Falconi, leaning toward Kira.

“Really? ” said Kira. “You only have one name? ”

A twinkle appeared in Sparrow’s eyes. “Only one that I answer to. ”

I bet the Marines could tell me for sure. But Kira wasn’t about to ask them. “What about you, then? ” she said, looking at Trig.

The kid groaned and buried his head in his hands. “Aww, man. Did you have to ask? ”

“What? ” Around the room, the rest of the crew grinned.

Vishal plopped his cup down on the table and pointed a finger at Trig. “Our young companion here has a most interesting name, yes he does. ”

“Trig’s just a nickname, ” said Sparrow. “His real name is—”

“Nooo, ” the kid said, his cheeks reddening. “My aunt had a weird sense of humor, okay? ”

To Kira, Vishal said, “She must have; she named the poor child Epiphany Jones. ” And everyone but Trig laughed.

“That’s a … unique name, ” Kira said.

Falconi said, “It gets better. Tell her how we found Trig. ”

The kid shook his head as the rest of the crew tried to talk at once. “Come on! Not that story. ”

“Oh yes, ” said Sparrow, grinning.

“Why don’t you tell me yourself? ” said Kira. The kid wrinkled his nose.

“He was a dancer, ” said Hwa-jung, and nodded as if she’d shared a great secret.

Kira gave Trig an appraising look. “A dancer, huh? ”

“On Undset Station, around Cygni B, ” Vishal added. “He was making a living performing in a bar for the miners. ”

“It wasn’t like that! ” Trig protested. The others tried to break in, and he raised his voice to be heard over the clamor. “Not really, honest! My friend worked at the place, and he was trying to find a way to attract business. So I came up with the idea. We put some Tesla coils on stage and used them to play music. Then I rigged up a skinsuit to work as a Faraday cage, and I stood between the coils and caught the lightning bolts with my hands, arms, that sort of thing. It was awesome. ”

“And don’t forget the dancing, ” said Falconi, grinning.

Trig shrugged. “So I danced a bit. ”

“I wasn’t there myself, ” Nielsen said, putting a hand on Kira’s arm. “But I heard he was very … enthusiastic. ” Despite his obvious embarrassment, Trig seemed somewhat proud of the first officer’s praise, humorous though it was.

“Oh, he was, ” said Vishal. “He was. ”

Taking pity on the kid’s discomfort, Kira changed the subject: “What kind of music did you play? ”

“Mostly scramrock. Thresh. That sort of thing. ”

“So why’d you leave? ”

“Didn’t have any reason to stay, ” he mumbled, and downed the rest of his water.

A somber mood quelled the conversation. Then Falconi wiped his mouth with a napkin and said, “I know what you need. ”

“What? ” said Trig, staring at his plate.

“A religious experience. ”

The kid snorted. Then his lips curved with a faint, reluctant smile. “Yeah. Okay. … You might be right. ”

“Of course I’m right, ” said Falconi.

With newfound enthusiasm, Trig scraped the rest of his food into his mouth, chewed, and swallowed. “I’m going to regret that, ” he said, smiling as he got to his feet.

“Don’t hurt yourself, ” said Hwa-jung.

“Go on, eat the whole thing this time, ” called Sparrow.

“Video! Take video, ” said Falconi.

“Just make sure you wash afterward. ” Nielsen grimaced slightly.

“Yes, ma’am. ”

Confused, Kira looked between them. “A religious experience? ”

Falconi picked up his plate and carried it to the sink. “Trig has an uncommon love of hot peppers. While back, he picked up a Black Nova off a wirehead on Eidolon. ”

“I take it a Black Nova is a kind of pepper. ”

Trig bounced on his heels. “Hottest one in the galaxy! ”

“It’s so hot, ” said Sparrow, “they say you’ll see the face of god if you’re idiot enough to eat one. That or you pass out and die. ”

“Hey now, ” Trig protested. “It’s not that bad. ”

“Ha! ”

“Have you tried it? ” Kira asked Falconi.

He shook his head. “I prefer not to wreck my stomach. ”

She eyed Trig. “So why do you like it so much? ”

“Well, uh, if you don’t have enough food, hot sauce really helps, you know? Cuts the hunger. That’s what got me into peppers. That and I kinda like the challenge. Gives me a sense of control. It doesn’t even hurt after a while, and you just feel like, whee! ” Trig rolled his head, as if dizzy.

“Helps with hunger, huh? ” Kira was starting to understand.

“Yeah. ” Trig took his dishes to the sink and then hurried out of the galley. “Wish me luck! ”

Kira took a sip of her chell. “Should we wait? ” she asked, looking at the others.

Falconi activated the holo-display on his table. “If you want. ”

“A while back, Trig mentioned there were food shortages on Undset Station. …”

A frown settled onto Sparrow’s sharp face. “If that’s what you want to call it. Royal fuckup is more like it. ”

“Oh? ”

“Yeah. Way I understand it, the sublight transport that was supposed to resupply Undset from Cygni A broke down, went off course. No big deal, right? The station had a hydro bay plus plenty of extra food stockpiled. Only problem was—”

“Only problem was, ” said Falconi, looking over the gleaming holo, “the quartermaster had been cutting corners, pocketing the difference. Less than a third of the food was actually there. And most of it was rotten. Faulty seals or something. ”

Kira winced. “Oh shit. ”

“You can say that again. By the time they realized how bad the situation was, the station was nearly out of food, and the replacement tug was still a few weeks out. ”

“Weeks? Why so long? Cygni B isn’t that far from A. ”

“Bureaucracy, time it took to gather the supplies, prep a ship, et cetera. Apparently they didn’t have any FTL transports set up at the time so they had to do it sublight. It was a whole collection of screwups. ”

Sparrow chimed in, “From what Trig’s said, things got real bad on Undset before the new transport showed up. Supposedly, they ended up spacing the quartermaster and the station commander. ” And she nodded as if sharing a great secret.

“Thule. ” Kira shook her head. “How long ago was this? ”

Sparrow looked over at Falconi. “What, about ten, twelve years? ”

He nodded. “Sounds about right. ”

Kira picked at her food, thinking. “Trig would have been pretty young, then. ”

“Yup. ”

“No wonder he wanted to get off Undset. ”

Falconi returned his attention to the holo. “Wasn’t his only reason, but … yes. ”

They were still in the galley forty-some minutes later when Trig strutted back in. His cheeks were bright red; his eyes swollen, bloodshot, glassy; and his skin shiny with sweat, but he looked happy, almost euphoric.

“How’d it go, kid? ” Sparrow asked, leaning back against the wall.

He grinned and puffed up his chest. “Awesome. But sheesh, my throat burns! ”

“I can’t imagine why, ” Nielsen said in a dry tone.

The kid started toward the kitchen area, and then stopped and looked at Kira. “Can you believe we’re actually going to get to explore alien ruins tomorrow?! ”

“You’re looking forward to it? ”

He nodded, serious but still excited. “Oh yeah. But, well … I was wondering, what happens if they’re still around? ”

“I’d like to know that too, ” Nielsen murmured.

In her mind’s eye, Kira again saw the Highmost sweep the Staff of Blue downward, and a dark and miserable planet vanish from the sky. “We hope they’re in a good mood. ”

Trig’s final question lingered in Kira’s mind as she returned to her cabin: What happens if they’re still around? What indeed? She checked on the ship’s progress in her console—course unchanged, planet e now brighter than any of the visible stars—and then lay on the bed and closed her eyes.

Tomorrow’s worries would have to wait for tomorrow.

She slept, and this time no memories intruded.

A persistent beeping roused her.

Annoyed, Kira forced her eyes open. In the holo, she saw the time displayed: 0345. Fifteen minutes until departure.

She groaned and rolled out of bed, feeling every second of missed sleep. Then it occurred to her that she’d forgotten to set an alarm. Was Gregorovich responsible for waking her?

As she dressed, Kira opened a new window and sent a single line to the ship mind:

Thanks. – Kira

A second later, a response arrived:

De nada. – Gregorovich

It paid to be courteous with ship minds, especially if they were anything less than sane.

Still groggy, Kira ran through the ship and climbed toward the nose of the Wallfish. The ship hadn’t stopped thrusting, which meant the shuttle had yet to arrive. Good. She wasn’t too late.

She found the crew—along with the Entropists and the four Marines in power armor—at the top of the ship, by the airlock.

“About time, ” said Falconi, and tossed her a blaster. He was wearing a skinsuit, helmet included, and his oversized grenade launcher, Francesca, was slung across his back.

“Is the shuttle close? ” Kira asked.

As if in response, the thrust alert sounded and Gregorovich said, “Initiating docking maneuvers with the UMCS Ilmorra. Please secure yourself to the nearest handhold, seat belt, and/or sticky pad. ”

Vishal saw her yawning and offered her a pill of AcuWake. “Here, Ms. Kira. Try this. ”

“I don’t think—”

“It may not help, but I think it is worth trying. ”

Still doubtful, Kira popped the capsule into her mouth. It burst between her teeth with a sharp, wintergreen tang, strong enough to make her nose tingle and her eyes water. Within seconds, her exhaustion and mental haze began to dissipate, leaving her feeling as if she’d had a full night’s sleep.

Astonished, she looked back at the doctor. “It worked! How did it work?! ”

A sly smile graced the doctor’s face, and he tapped the side of his nose. “I had a suspicion it might. The medicine, it goes straight into the blood and then to your brain. Very quick, very difficult for the Soft Blade to stop without hurting your brain. And it is supposed to help, yes, so maybe the xeno knows not to interfere. ”

Whatever the explanation, Kira was grateful for the chemical assistance. She couldn’t afford to be sleep-deprived right then.

Then all sense of weight abandoned her, and bile filled her throat.

Docking was swift and efficient. The UMC shuttle approached the Wallfish head-on so both ships were safe from radiation within the cones of their shadow shields. They made contact, nose-to-nose, and a light shudder passed through the Wallfish at the touch.

The joined airlocks rolled open. A Marine poked his head through on the other side. “Welcome aboard, ” he said.

Falconi gave Kira a crooked smile. “Time to go poking around where we don’t belong. ”

“Let’s do this, ” she said, and jumped into the Ilmorra.

CHAPTER II

A CAELO USQUE AD CENTRUM

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