The Sun & Moon

18

"Alright, here we go," Phastos called getting everyone's attention.

The group moved in to see what he'd come up with. He made a few last minute touches then nodded and gestured proudly to his creation.

"You made us bracelets?" Kingo questioned, his confusion displayed on the others' faces as well.

"So here's a little Celestial 101," Phastos began to explain, "Celestials are the most powerful energy generators in the universe. When Arishem made us, he imbued us with infinite cosmic energy to keep our bodies regenerating. The bracelets, in theory, shut down our regeneration process causing a build up of cosmic energy."

As he spoke, an image of Arishem appeared to go along with his speech. The others still couldn't make sense of his plan though.

"Then what?" Iridessa asked.

"Well if the Deviants can absorb our energy, what if we could absorb each others?" he asked in response.

Their eyes widened as the realization hit them.

"If I can connect us all and one person takes on the accumulated energy of the rest, they could become immensely powerful," Phastos summarized moving his hands around to form a new image, "Forming...a Uni-mind."

He did not get quite the response he was expecting. A few of them were nodding. The others just stared up at the image of all of them connected to form a glowing brain.

"Uni meaning one, mind meaning mind," he added in hopes to clarify.

"Oh, no we got that part," Kingo replied, "It's just stupid."

"Terrible name," Sprite agreed nodding.

"We'll brainstorm—oh wait! Brainstorm!" Kingo exclaimed.

Iridessa and Makkari snickered as Druig smirked. Phastos glared at them irritably.

"No, it's my invention," he huffed, "We're calling it the Uni-mind."

Kingo held up his hands in surrender though he still didn't agree. Phastos looked to Sprite challengingly. She rolled her eyes and nodded her consent as well.

"So suppose Druig can put Tiamut to sleep," Makkari asked, "Then what?"

"We find humans a new home on another planet," Sersi answered.

"Are we building a big ship too?" Sprite snarked making Ikaris chuckle beside her. "Take two of each animal too?"

"You know what's never saved the planet before? Your sarcasm," Phastos huffed.

Iridessa stepped forward trying to dissipate some of the tension. "She does have a point though. Space colonization can take decades. Even with our help, humanity can't just be transplanted like that. We need to think this through more."

A few murmurs of agreement rang out.

"What if we accidentally kill Tiamut?" Kingo then questioned, worry filling his eyes, "We could be responsible for billions of lives not created. Boss, am I right?"

Everyone looked at him in confusion. He was looking at Ikaris though. Slowly, their attention turned to the Eternal who was standing beside Sprite. His face remained devoid of emotion despite the fact that they were all looking at him. Iridessa frowned. Something about his lack of response was disquieting. Everyone was waiting for him to share his opinion.

"Ajak chose Sersi to lead us," he finally said, "Sersi should decide."

The attention switched to Sersi. She shrank back a bit at the sudden attention.