Antares
Gods blast it was the first thought that ran through my mind as the Bridjiine floated casually into the room, and then, very uncasually and very angrily, announced that our lives depended on whether or not Eternity picked up a key.
"Alright," said Eternity, slowly moving her hand away from the shimmering blue key. Glancing around the room, I gauged the others' reactions as best I could. Elder looked pretty much the same as he always did - scared and surprised - so not much change there; Eternity looked calm (More or less); Rynn looked... well, outraged; and Seraph looked grave and determined. As for myself, I was fairly sure I looked highly nervous as I attempted to soundlessly cycle the aetherpistol gripped within my hands.
The Bridjiine's burning gaze examined us, sweeping and searching as she looked from person to person. "You three are new," she observed, jabbing three fingers at Rynn, Seraph and I. "Where did you come from?"
No one spoke, likely for fear of setting off a tantrum of fiery bombs.
The Bridjiine's eyes hardened. The flames that surrounded her began to pull toward Eternity, eagerly outstretching like a thousand comet trails of flames and wrath. "Tell me now," she snarled. "Or the Hyperian dies."
Cyan flashed at the back of the tunnel, and Daedalus stepped from nothing. He raised one hand, and a gyrosphere of blue light flared into existence above it. "Enough, Qiia! They found the key, by right they are allowed to claim it!"
The Bridjiine - who it occured to me I had not known the name of until now - whirled to face Daedalus. "If they take that key, this vault is over. If this is to be my last battle, why shouldn't I fight with whatever strength is left within me?"
Daedalus gritted his teeth. "Qiia," he said, his voice carefully controlled, to not show the anger that I knew lay just beneath the surface. "That was not the deal. Stand down."
Qiia pouted. "Fine," she said irately. She snapped her fingers, and the room darkened as her fiery presence dissipated.
"I am... sorry... about her," Daedalus said, brightening as he turned away from where the Bridjiine had floated and toward us. "Qiia is... powerful, but reckless. Arrogant. And... how do you say it? Whiny." the word sounded unfamiliar on his lips, as if he didn't use such descriptors very often. "Setella and Agatoe had no such problems. Setella is angered easily, but truly believes in her Guardianship, while Qiia eventually came to see it as a chore. A burden. Even a prison. Agatoe thought of the endless dark of the Height to be a good place to meditate and rise above the chaos of lightning, to channel his power and reach oneness. He was quiet and calm, whereas Qiia was loud and angry. Perhaps she will be better for it when this Vault is no more." he smiled and approached us. "Seraph Joy Everwish; Rynn Shiara Sunstreak; Antares Vholka Whitewater; Eternity Alisyn Timewind; and Eldernova Spectria Starfall..." with a grand flourish, both of the keys appeared in his hands before crumbling into nothing. In their place, heralded by a flash of blue, materialized a longer, more angular key with complete designs - one identical to the Key shown on the Starfinders' Site. He held it out to us and smiled widely. "You have earned your prize. Step forward, and claim the Key to the Paradise Navigator."
. . .
Eternity
I waved the Screen away and stepped forward, walking around the edge of the Trove and staring wide-eyed at Daedalus. "Seriously? That's it?"
Daedalus grinned. "Sorry, did you want me to make it harder for you?" he joked, startling me. Somehow I hadn't pegged him as a person who would make light of... well, anything. Especially from the way he spoke; no usage of contractions and complex vocabulary. "No, this is truly the end, Sentinel. This is the Paradise Key."
I took three more steps forward and lay my fingers on the surface of the Key that floated above his palm. This simple piece of carved metal had been the object of relentless questions and searches for twenty-thousand years. And we were the very first people to ever lay hands upon its sleek surface, to lay our gaze upon its radiant carvings.
I took it gingerly, as if it was made of acid. This Key was a part of history - a legendary artifact sought after so long and never found.
We had done it. The Paradise Key was ours.
Step one, complete.
"When you return to your ship, you will need to plug the Key into your navigation systems. It will direct you to the Paradise Vault," Daedalus said. "You will need the Key to open both the Vault itself and to open the Paradise Oversoul. Without it, the gate will not open."
"We understand," I said, speaking for the entire fireteam (And for Eldernova, who was not, in fact, part of the fireteam).
"Then I shall remove the Paradise Locks," said the Physomancer.
"What?"
"The jamming signature that blocked out your CTO," he said. "And also fried your communication network. Antares, you should give your remaining communicator to Eternity." Antares nodded and stated an affirmative, plucking the device out of his ear and tossing it across the room to me. Daedalus, in quick response, waved his hand, and a wave of blue light imploded forth, encapsulating the device and, indeed, shading the communicator's exterior a sapphire color before fading into nothingness.
"I just deactivated the Locks," Daedalus said. "You should be able to access your starship now, including but not limited to teleportation and communication. Stay as long as you wish, but know this Vault will cease to exist when you depart." With a final curtsy, the legendary Physomancer vanished into a pattern of diamond hexagons.
"Hold on," Eldernova said. "I know we don't have a lot of time, but if this is the first time anyone has ever seen the end of this place... I want to document it."
Thinking like a true Seeker. "No, no, I applaud that," I told him earnestly. "You should definitely do that."
I thought he was going to write something in the journal he kept in his satchel. Instead he pulled out a small, rectangular device and pressed a button on the bottom half of it. The glass sheet that covered most of its frontal face lit up, displaying the words Welcome, CEO Starfall. CEO? Right, he'd said he was CEO of Optical Aircraft... whatever that was. I realized then that I knew very little about him. I knew the fireteam would want some downtime when we got back to the ship - maybe I could talk to him about his life on Earth then. He pressed his thumb against the screen, and the welcoming face vanished, giving way to a page filled with opaque boxes set in the foreground, with an intricate geometric background. Small text lay beneath the boxes, presumably to organize them.
I remembered hearing legends about extremely old devices like this one - used thousands (If not tens of thousands) of years ago, by my ancestors:
A phone.
Eldernova tapped on one of the boxes, labeled Recording, and selected a smaller box displaying an image reminding me of a two-billion year old camera I'd once seen in a museum titled Camera v22.9. Instantly a new face filled the screen - a display not unlike a camera. One button for recording, slides for different types of photography, and options at the top for editing. Of course, contemporary photography was normally done using advanced forms of Screens, referred commonly to as Holos, but seeing this kind of device was... surreal. Had Earth used those, before its fall? Had Humans truly been so technologically inept?
This is exactly why you shouldn't get close, groaned my inner soldier irately. His race is worthless. He is worthless. He doesn't have time for you, and you shouldn't care about him in the first place.
Eldernova stepped closer to me and pressed a button on the camera app's upper slide, flipping the screen around so that it displayed what was happening behind the Phone instead of in front of its camera on the back. "Can you hold up the key for a moment?" he asked. I quickly obliged, and he hit the record button. The phone's screen flashed once, and then a picture, shown in relatively pathetic graphics, of the scene appeared.
I gaped at the phone. "Eldernova... That resolution... I mean..." I couldn't finish the sentence. It really was terrible.
Pulling open a Screen, I moved quickly from the Starfinders' League site and opened a Camera of my own. I quickly pulled the display, flipping the visual around much as Elder had done, and pressed the record button. Instantly, a high-resolution image of the Paradise Key appeared, with Elder's confused face and my smiling visage in the background. "There," I said proudly. "Hold your... device... up for a second, please. I think I can help."
He frowned, clearly not understanding, but held up his ancient device anyway. I quickly latched on to its electromagnetic signature and linked the two devices' data. With a simple tap, I sent the photo to his phone. It hummed an almost angry tune as it received it, the sound a touch longer than I would have liked, but it just as quickly died off.
Eldernova withdrew the phone and stared at it. "What did you do?"
I grinned. "I'll explain in more detail back on the Supernova. But in your terms... I texted you." the word felt foreign on my lips, in the worlds of the Multiverse all we ever used was messaged, or Dropped as the official term for Sphere Communication was. But I forced it past my throat and into airwaves all the same - Eldernova was trying to understand as best he could, and the least I could do was make it slightly easier for him. "Anyway. You got your photo, let's hurry up and go. We'll probably want to get some rest before we head for the Paradise Vault, so the sooner we get back aboard the Supernova, the better."
Antares nodded. "Yes, can we?"
Without speaking, I tapped the microphone button, and immediately Nocta's voice came through from the other end, worried and confused yet still as sardonic as ever. "Antares, you'd better not be dead."
Antares chuckled. "No, Nocta, I died, and this is my Echo speaking to you from the Echolands."
Nocta hissed. "Oh, yeah, thanks for that. Any chance I could get the Captain on the phone?"
I wanted to remind her that it was a communication relay device and not a phone, but it seemed like the wrong time. "Yes, I'm here," I said, answering her question before Antares could.
"Oh, good," Nocta said dryly. "You're not dead, after all. Am I to assume you need a lift?"
"Nocta, please believe me when I say that the loss of communication was not any fault of my own," I said, unperturbed by the jibe. "If you want to blame anyone, blame Daedalus. He set up this place," I went on, knowing full well that Nocta would disregard that and continue to snipe at me about it for at least a week. Assuming we even survived the next week. If I'd learned anything from my years of combat training on Hyperia, it was that survival was a temporary condition.
"Sure," Nocta said absently, and I could hear the subtle clicking noise of Nocta's fingers against the keys of an Array as she readied the Warpers to bring us up. "Alright, I have your signatures. Though Elder's is a bit weird. Archaic, almost ancient. What kind of communicator does he have?"
"A Cypremacy 3," said Eldernova.
Nocta howled in laughter. "Seriously? Oh gods... that's actually hilarious. Okay, you need a Screen. Talk to Arcturus whenever you get the chance, please, so I don't have to use a massively technologically advanced sensor to detect a cyberphone."
"Thanks, Nocta," Elder said. "That felt great."
"I'll be here all week," Nocta replied, and I could almost hear the smirk in her voice. Eldernova clenched and unclenched his fists multiple times before letting out a very quiet growl and shaking his head irritably.
"Whatever," he managed, his voice clearly an attempt to sound careless (It did not succeed). "Let's just go."
"Done," said Nocta, and I heard the click of a button from her end. After a moment, everything turned blue and splintered apart.
The battles in the Vault were over. The Key was found, and we were able to return to our ship to continue our quest.
But something continued to nag me at the back of my mind. The growl that Eldernova had uttered when Nocta had taunted him had sounded odd. Almost... not Human. If I was honest, it had (Though I might have been imagining it, it was nearly soundless; and as such, I couldn't completely judge) sounded... almost reptilian.
It had sounded...
Like a Dragon.
. . .
Eldernova
We spent the rest of the evening briefing Nocta, Arcturus and Helix (Who was mostly ignoring us and monitoring the Aetherdrive's supposed malfunction) on the events of the Vault. Once we'd finished explaining, Arcturus had begun filing a report, and Nocta had gone straight to bed. Helix had departed for the Aetherdrive deck itself to check its status, saying something about 'anonymous radar signals unidentifiable as MFS readings', and after monitoring some security reports, Seraph had followed Nocta back to their joint bedroom. That left only myself, Arcturus, and Eternity on the bridge of the MFS Supernova. We'd sat in silence for a while, though I longed to talk to Eternity, saying nothing and busying ourselves with preparing the ship for the Paradise Vault.
"So, Elder," said Eternity, breaking the silence about an hour later and waving away her Screen. "I wanted to talk to you about something; and I've meant to for a while. Thanks to your phone earlier today, I finally remembered." She said this with some degree of hesitation, a slightly color rising to her cheeks, but she pressed on. "It called you CEO Starfall. CEO is chief executive officer, at least for companies in the Multiverse. Did you own a company, back on Earth? I really would like to learn more about your past."
I winced. It was pretty painful to remember Earth... to remember the home that I lost. The home that was and couldn't ever be again. The home that was destroyed by my race's own hubris, its own greed. But, against my better judgement... I wanted to tell Eternity. I trusted her; trusted her not to laugh at my insecurity. That'd always been a weak point for me with girls back on Earth; that was part of why I'd never had a girlfriend - even when I was CEO of OA. "Alright," I said. "What... what would you like to hear about?"
"Just details," Eternity said. "Like, about your life in general. You're First Seeker now, and I prefer to know my officers." she of course was extremely professional about the subject - chalking it up to simple officer connectivity - but I could tell; could see it in her eyes that there was a reason beyond that. Now, I wasn't so arrogant to believe I knew what that reason was, but I was more or less sure that the other reason existed.
Right, details. Where to start? "I suppose I could begin with my family," I said, uncertain if that was what she wanted to know about. "My mother was named Lynn. Lynn Starfall. I... I never knew my father. Alaspakta seems to think that, because of my never knowing my father, I might be a Demigod."
Eternity opened and closed her mouth, gaping at me like a fish. "Wait, what? A Demigod? What Metaparent?"
"Neither he nor I know," Alaspakta said, from where I thought she'd been lying dormant on a desk next to my chair. She proceeded to explain exactly what she'd told me, back in the Height of the Nemesine Vault.
Eternity didn't seem fazed by much of it - most of it seemed to make sense to her, like two puzzle pieces finally clicking together in her head. But she was confused and questioning about my mother mentioning the Enetae Arra bond. "Only Dragons form those," she said. "I do not understand why your mother would have thought you could develop one. That simply doesn't make sense."
"Nothing makes sense to me," I said exhaustedly. "I remember my sister saying something about it to me, too; about Mom telling her that she would find her Enetae Arra one day."
Eternity looked at me with sudden interest. "You have a sister?"
My eyes started watering, and Eternity's eyes softened, the light of confusion entering them. "I... yes. Her... her name was Autumn." Was. That was the key word. "I... did have a sister. On Earth. I don't anymore."
Eternity's eyes looked sad, now, and a touch guiltier than they'd been before. "Oh. I'm sorry, I didn't... I didn't know."
"It's okay" I said, my voice coming out strangled. "I don't talk about it. I was going to leave with her... but she got lost behind. I... I couldn't save her." I could have, actually, if my goddamn security guards had let me fight the looters who'd taken her. I harbored deep hatred for those three men; hot spikes of fury seethed through my mind whenever I thought about them. For a few days, after we'd left Earth, I'd daydreamed about brutally murdering them. I hated them more than nearly anyone, the only people I felt deeper malice toward were the Directors of the UN; who'd abandoned us; who I'd fought so hard to expose yet failed miserably.
"I... I think I'm just going to go to bed," I decided, rising to my feet.
"Elder... if you need anything..." Eternity called after me, making my heart sting. I wanted to be by her side, and I simply couldn't right now. I wanted to be alone yet I wanted to be together, and I could not decide. My mind was a paradox, and I was slowly driving myself insane. "Your phone still has a private link to my Screen. If you want to talk... I'm here."
I ducked my head, turning back only a moment to cast a small smile her way. "I will."
With that, I left the bridge for my room, feeling as if my heart had just been dropped into a meat grinder.
. . .
Eternity
"So that seemed to go well," commented Alaspakta, only a few moments after Elder left the room. "I mean, really well, am I right?" I gave no reply, and if Alaspakta had lips, they would have curved into a frown. "Am I right, or am I right?" Again I said nothing, and Alaspakta's runes (likely involuntarily) gave a little red pulse. "I'm right."
"Can you stop talking?" called Arcturus's voice from his Shipmind seat, where he was busily studying scans of the coordinates that the Paradise Key had imparted upon us. "I'm trying extremely hard to focus, and nonsensical cynicism is hardly helping matters."
Alaspakta huffed, levitated off the surface of the desk she'd been lying atop, and shot off into the ship's corridors.
That settled it for me. "Arcturus, you have the bridge. I'm going to bed."
"Yes, Captain," said the Android absently. "I'll send my report on the coordinates whenever I finish with it, which should be sometime tonight."
"Thank you, Director," I said, stepping through the doorway and into the dark halls of the MFS Supernova. I made my way to my room at a quick pace, sliding open the door with a wave of my hand and stepping inside.
There was a possibility that Eldernova would use the link I'd established between his phone and my Screen to contact me. I wanted to be fully clothed and ready for that to happen, so instead of changing into my sleep clothing, I remained in the Luminite bodysuit uniform. One who wanted to be a respected Captain did not walk amongst their crew wearing underwear and a diaphanous shirt.
And so I sat down on my bed, opening my Screen and leaving it faintly glowing off to my side.
And waited.
Thirteen minutes and twenty seconds later, a message buzzed on the surface of my screen. Hey. You still awake?
Yes, I typed back, my fingers flying across the holographic keyboard.
Can we talk? In real life? was the response.
Sure. Your room or mine?
Take your pick, Eldernova replied.
I nodded. I'll just come to you. See you in a couple minutes. I stood up and closed my screen. If I remembered correctly, Elder's room was directly opposite to my own. Or was that Arcturus's room? I hadn't had a First Seeker and so long that the location of their quarters had almost been lost to time. Whatever. I'd just have Nebula direct me to it.
Stepping out through the threshold of my doorway, I entered the hall.
. . .
Eldernova
Two minutes later, a high-pitched beep resounded from the Array next to my door, startling me out of my stupor. I rose quickly to my feet and prepared to address the AI. "First Seeker Starfall, you've got a visitor. Identify: Star Sentinel Timewind. Requesting access." Nebula's surprisingly Human-sounding voice rang out across my room in a stark contrast to Optica's monotonous intonations.
"Um, yeah," I said, realizing that I hadn't replied and that the AI was probably waiting for an answer. "Access granted." The Array pulsed blue once, and the pearly-white doors slid open, revealing Eternity Timewind's lithe form standing before the threshold, entirely clothed in the hexagonal black uniform streaked with flaming orange circuits.
"Hey, Elder," she said brightly, smiling. "You mind if I come in?"
I nodded. That was kind of the entire reason I messaged you, I did not say. Damn, maybe Alaspakta's snarkiness was rubbing off on me. I resolved to not allow that to, under any circumstances, happen. "Yeah, come in."
She stepped inside and looked around - slightly awkwardly, I thought, as if she didn't really know what to do - before I motioned for her to sit down on the still-made bedding across the room from us. "Please, sit," I said, crossing the distance and moving into a sitting position with my legs hanging out over the side of the bed. She followed after me after a couple moments' hesitation and sat down beside me.
"So what did you want to talk about?" she asked, turning to me, still with that slight air of awkwardness I couldn't quite place.
"I... well, first, I wanted to apologize, for just walking out like that," I said, wanting to get that off my chest before anything else. "I know it must've seemed... rude, or frustrated, but... I'm still mourning. Autumn was... she was my best friend, for all of my life on Earth. She was always there for me, by my side. Sometimes I still expect to turn around and find her standing behind me. I... I wasn't ready to talk about her yet, I suppose."
Eternity's eyes lost their previous hesitation and awkwardness, and she placed her palm on top of my hand. The sudden warmth of her fingers immediately made every hair on my arm stand up, accompanied by a slight shiver. "I had a sister, too, you know," she told me. "Her name was Esme. Esme Ava Timewind. We grew up together back on Hyperia, but... during the Starless Crisis, we lost her. Her body was never found, so she might still be alive... but I seriously doubt it. It's been one hundred fifty years since then... and I haven't seen her since. It's hard for me to believe that she's still out there."
I blanched. "Wait, you're one hundred and fifty years old?"
Eternity smiled. "Sorry, I keep forgetting how little you know. Hyperians live a long time - a lot longer than Humans. Our lifespans are around two-thousand years. As for myself, I'm actually about three-quarters through my fourth century, which is considered a very young adult. For reference, that's about twenty or twenty-one for a Human, physically and mentally."
My eyes widened. Eternity Timewind was... at least, from what she'd told me, four-hundred and seventy-five years old. I let out a shaky breath.
"Sorry. Didn't mean to scare you," she said.
"No, not at all," I said, still caught up in the revelation. "But don't you have anatomy similar to Humans? How do you even live that long?"
"Technological advancement, mostly," Eternity answered. "For example, this eye is not the one I was born with." She pointed to her left eye, leaving me starstruck at the level of technological advancement needed to constitute a bionic eye.
Eternity laughed. "Wait, did you believe me on that one? No, of course not; this is my real eye. Although cybernetic eyes are something that Hyperians know and do make."
I blinked. That had been a joke? Damn, I was more socially inept than I thought. "Oh. But still, wow... bionic replacements. For so long... that's been something that Humans have dreamed about for two hundred years," I told her. Everything that I learned about the Multiverse intrigued and amazed me further, and I fiercely wanted to know more.
"Anyway, I'm getting us off topic," Eternity said, making my heart sink. "I know how it feels to lose your sibling; like a part of your Lifespark just goes missing. Very things compare to the sibling bond - the only things I can think of that remotely compare is the Enetae Arra bond, the Snagrol Forge bond, and those few Vampires with Fated bonds. Nothing else comes close."
Vampires? Fated? What?
"The point is," Eternity said, smiling sadly. "If you don't want to talk about your past, you don't have to. But if you need me... I'm always here for you to talk to. Memories are our greatest allies and our greatest foes. All you need to do is ask if you want to talk."
"Thank you," I said. It was against Human decorum to show weakness, but I found that I couldn't hold back my emotions when I was near Eternity. Human females definitely considered insecurity to be unattractive, and I wasn't sure why Eternity wanted anything to do with me - I was as insecure as they came. And yet... she almost seemed to like me. How could that even be? I'd never been in a relationship on Earth, never even kissed someone outside of my mother, and never on the mouth. "I..." I didn't know what I was even trying to say, so I just left it there, leaving unspeakable words to die in my throat.
Eternity's gaze softened even further, and she seemed to come to a decision. After a couple moments of silence, she leaned her face toward mine.
And then, in that moment, Eternity Alisyn Timewind, the girl I'd met five days ago in the rainforest of an alien world, pressed her soft lips to mine and kissed me.
. . .
Eternity
A tiny noise of surprise made its way past Eldernova's lips as I pressed my mouth to his. As my face had inched closer to his, I'd watched his eyes widen, and time had seemed to slow down.
I suppose it was time to admit that I'd never kissed anyone in this way before. Emotional attachments had always been against the code of Hyperian soldiers, and old habits had died absurdly hard. I'd never really gotten close to anyone aside from my sister, Nocta, and Arcturus - and when I'd lost Esme, it'd further solidified in my head that there was no point in getting close to others; for it would only hurt me more in the long run.
As if on cue, the Cadet Timewind part of my brain snarled furiously. Young lady, what the hells are you doing?! He's just a Human! Capitalist, elitist - he was even a CEO! You can't trust him, she raged, causing a hot spike of guilt to tear down my spine, followed by a second spike of guilt that came from the memory of how much Eldernova had done to help me; risking his own life several times with a single-minded ferocity.
But, oh, gods, what was I doing? I knew that I liked him - there was no denying that. But Eldernova wasn't even Hyperian. No flaming eyes, no empathic ruff, every bit of him was Human - unless he was, in fact, half-god, but that hardly counted. What was wrong with my brain? Was I honestly sexually attracted to someone not a member of my own species? Were Hyperians and Humans even reproductively compatible?
I didn't know. I didn't have any way of knowing, not unless I wanted to have a child with a Human - the act of which being something I wanted to avoid for as long as I could - which, by the way, was completely off the table.
But I don't care, my heart whispered.
You should care, Cadet. Think about what you're doing. Think of how it will impact the mission. Your feelings for him are only going to get in the way, spat my inner soldier.
He makes me braver, I thought fiercely, fire burning in my closed eyes. And I think I do the same for him. I trust him, and he trusts me. And if I feel something for him, then it shouldn't be anyone's decision but my own. Don't try to tell me what I can and can't do.
I am you! the soldier screamed. Why should I not get a vote?
I pulled together every last iota of power in my mind and told her what I'd wanted to say for two hundred years.
You stopped being a part of my mind a long time ago. It's time I stopped living by your rules. You're nothing but an echo of me, and you have NO PLACE in my mind! I forcefully shoved her down, down, down, as deep into my unconscious as I could go.
For now, Cadet Timewind was defeated.
Back in the real world, identity crisis temporarily averted, I felt my lips moving gently against Eldernova's. I couldn't feel his moving in return, but I could feel the confusion in his mind through our telepathic link.
Hey, I whispered in his mind, tapping into the mind-speech. I know you're afraid. I know you're scared to show weakness, to be insecure. I'm not secure myself, nor do I claim to be. And that's okay. This isn't Earth any longer. In the MFS, we do not discriminate. If one is not scared when they have a two-thousand year-old Dragon bearing down on them, they are insane. Everyone has fears; everyone has sadness; everyone has anger; and that is no reason to be embarrassed. You don't have to try to be someone different than who you are for other people - especially me. You can just be the person that you are; you, Eldernova Starfall. You're not perfect, but no one is. You're just you.
And soft as leaves falling, I heard words whisper from his brain.
Just me.
He kissed me back.
Nebula's horrified voice streamed through the air around us, deafening us both and jarring us apart. "ALERT! ALERT! HOSTILE STARSHIPS DETECTED ON STARBOARD SIDE. BATTLE STATIONS; BRACE FOR IMPACT! ENGAGING SHIELDS NOW!"
. . .
Antares
One moment, I was peacefully resting on the sofa in the room which Rynn and I had been given for our temporary use while we stayed aboard.
The next, the shrill, intense roar of Nebula's voice shook me awake, and I promptly and for the second time in less than twenty-four hours (Though, gods, it felt like it'd been so much longer) fell off the sofa. Although, unfortunately, this time, I smashed face-first into the glass-topped table that sat between the sofas. "GODS BLAST IT!" I shouted, staggering to my feet and stumbling out from the area. I blinked at the dark room around me blearily; from the pitch-blackness of the room I could tell that it was still nighttime - maybe even midnight, or close to it.
"What by the Blades..?" Rynn's confused voice called from behind. I turned back and found Rynn sliding off her own sofa, somehow even in rudely-awakened half-sleep still graceful. She tossed her hair and climbed to her feet. Realizing that she was currently wearing nothing but under and uppergarments, I looked away in embarrassment and stretched, turning my mind to other things. "Good very early morning," said Rynn tiredly, and when I turned back, she was strapping on pieces of her synthetic Luminite Leather gear, allowing me to look at her without breaching decorum.
"Same to you," I answered wryly. "What in Atlantis's name is going on?"
"I... have no idea," Rynn said. "I think... I didn't hear all of Nebula's announcement, but..."
The doors to the lounge slid open with haste, and Eternity stumbled in, Eldernova following behind her like a lost puppy. "On the bridge. Both of you. We've got hostiles," she said, her voice breathy thanks to the running she'd undoubtedly undergone to arrive there. She waved us on and exited the room, Eldernova doding out of the way so as not to be overrun before falling back into step with her.
"Hostiles? Aboard the ship?" Rynn called after her, furrowing her brow.
"THE BRIDGE! NOW!" Eternity yelled back, disappearing around a corner as the doors closed behind her.
"Alright then," I said, unable to keep the surprised laughter from my voice. "Let's go!"
We didn't exit right then, of course. Rynn stared awkwardly at the door while I hurriedly got dressed in silence. Once I'd done that, Rynn and I raced down the hall like a bolt of lightning - a type of energy that I was now traumatized by (No thanks to Sikhet) - and burst out onto the bridge, where Eternity, Eldernova, Nocta, Arcturus, Helix, and Seraph were already seated.
"What took you so long?" asked Alaspakta, who'd been leaning against a desk just out of my line of sight and had therefore escaped my notice when I had originally assessed the sentient life forms existent aboard the bridge.
"Ala, enough," Eldernova said gently. "I don't think Eternity or Arcturus want to hear your cynicism right now, and frankly neither do I."
Alaspakta chirred quietly yet angrily before the light of her runes switched off.
"I cannot describe what is happening to you," Eternity told us. "All I can say is... look outside."
I stepped aside so as to gaze out the viewer, and what I saw froze my blood solid. "Twin suns," I murmured.
Outside, several Trianguli warships floated in the vacuum, the blue light within their windows radiating an eerie malevolence and casting the unlit bridge in the same light.
"What do we do?" I asked.
"No bloody clue," said Seraph. "How they even found us. We should be undetectable - our signature is muted."
"Not so," Helix said. "Captain, I'm picking up a strange new harmonic in our Aetherdrive's signature. I think there might be a correlation between that and the lag spikes." He turned to face us, his expression grave. "Something is wrong with the Supernova, Captain. And unless I figure out what, we're going to die."
. . .
Eldernova
Something is wrong with the Supernova.
What exactly did Helix mean by that? Did the ship have a virus, or something? Wait - could starships even have computer viruses? I shuddered to think of the excess time involved in the creation of a virus that could infect a computer as big as the Supernova's undoubtedly was. And besides, a virus would probably have to infect the entirety of Nebula's network to gain access to the starship, since she seemed to be in control of its systems. In realizing that, my blood turned to ice at the thought of someone dedicating enough time to replicate and control something as big as Nebula's network.
So, that was probably not the cause of the lag spikes, unless Saladin had about twenty million Technomancers working without respite on computer viruses.
But then what else could it be?
Eternity let out a rumbling growl of annoyance, and as I turned to glance at her, I involuntarily caught a glimpse of the ruff beneath the edges of her hair as it pulsed a deep crimson color - no mystery as to which emotion that pertained to. Even on Earth, red had always been identified as the color of anger, and sometimes thought of as anger itself. "Helix, would you have a better chance of identifying what's wrong with the ship if you were down at the Aetherdrive itself?"
Helix pondered that for a moment, scratching his chin thoughtfully. "I... think so. But it'd be helpful if Arcturus could be down there as well."
Eternity shook her head. "Director Skylight is urgently needed on the bridge, as primary tactician. I can think of no scenario in which we could-"
"Wait. He fills the role of tactician?" Antares asked suddenly, leaping into the conversation seemingly at random.
Eternity swiveled around, obviously surprised. "Yes. Why?"
Antares grinned. "Because that's all I've done as my rebellion's leader for the past five years," he said, obviously excited. "If Arcturus is needed at the Aetherdrive, I can hold position for him until he returns." he went on, before he hastily added, "With your permission, of course, Captain."
Eternity's gaze was conflicted, indecisive. "I..." she didn't seem able to make a choice on Antares' proposition. "If you're completely sure you can do this..."
"I've been commanding starships in dogfights since I was ten years old," Antares said. "I can do it."
"And I can monitor the engine from up here while Helix is gone," Rynn added.
"We're seriously about to make history here," she said to my confusion. I looked at her questioningly, and she smiled. "This will be the first time in the history of both factions - the Empire and the Federation - that Trianguli officers have held positions aboard an MFS ship."
My eyes widened. The two factions had seriously never gotten along?
"And may it be the first step toward peace," said Antares determinedly.
"May it be so," Eternity said. "Welcome aboard, Director Whitewater."
"I would submit to you," Arcturus cut in. "That the proper title would be Temporary Director Whitewater."
Eternity gave him a look, and Arcturus's mouth snapped shut. I wondered then if Eternity had a scary side to her - but then, of course she did. She'd single-handedly knocked an eighty-foot long Hydra unconscious going on nothing but a Hydra biology lesson she'd learned long ago, and she'd performed the act right in front of me less than twenty-four hours ago. "But yes. Welcome aboard, and please be seated."
Arcturus, sensing that Antares would be about to temporarily assume his bridge position, stood from his chair and crossed to Helix's Array.
"So we're doing this?" Helix clarified.
"Yes. Yes, we are," said Rynn, beginning to move toward Helix's seat.
"Alright then," Helix said. From thin air, he pulled a marble-white box etched with lightly red-glowing lines that appeared very much similar to an Earthling tool box. I wondered if it contained Aetherdrive-fixing instruments, and if so, what could they possibly look like? They sure as hell wouldn't look like a wrench, though, that much I was sure of. They'd likely look more like the the tools that the player could craft in Subnautica at their Lifepod's Replicator. "Let's go."
The two swept off the bridge, leaving the rest of us to decide what the hell to do about the squadron of Trianguli warships that floated directly outside the bridge, dark, malevolent, and inscrutable; silent as death itself as they drifted in the emptiness of the vacuum.
. . .
Eternity
Though I knew how important it was that I stayed focused at the present moment, my brain still couldn't let it go.
l'd kissed him. Wanted him to kiss me back, enjoyed it when he had.
Did that make me insane? That I has a crush (Maybe a bit more than a crush) on a Human, an elitist, capitalist race more concerned with income than the health of their world - the very idea of which was horrifying; almost too terrible to think about - something that I once would have denied anything to do with.
And yet, at every turn, I found all my assumptions about how a Human would behave wrong. Most Humans wouldn't have looked back, after they'd run away from the Hydra - but Elder had. He'd returned and saved us from Spetella, when all hope had seemed lost. Any other Human probably would've been scared if I told them that I was nearly five centuries old - but Elder didn't seem to care. He was kind; he was sweet; he was funny; he was... well, honestly adorable; and my brain couldn't bring itself to think of him as a Human; instead of seeing his race's flaws... I just saw him.
I wondered if he'd do the same, were our situations different.
Clawing my way back to reality, I gripped the armrests of my chair tighter, making my knuckles turn white as if to keep my brain from falling back into its Wurm hole of thoughts. I needed to stay focused on the moment at hand - the moment that involved at least six Trianguli warships floating just a few kilometers outside the Supernova, their weapons armed and their shields engaged.
"Arc-" I stopped mid-sentence, reminding myself that - at least for the time being - Antares was the Director aboard my bridge. Or Director Whitewater, to be more precise. "Sorry, Antares, how many ships are we dealing with?"
Antares waved a hand, and a Screen flowed outward from a single point of origin, casting his face in a bluish-violet tone. He quickly flung the tab he'd been on out of the way, forming a Monitor tab similar (Yet also still distinctly Trianguli) to the ones that MFS crew members used. Performing a gesture similar to trying to zoom out, but instead a radarlike pulse flew from the point between where his fingers had come into contact with the hologram, flashing across the display. After only a few moments, seven dark purple dots visualized, about two and a half bars on the radar away from our ship, represented as a bright blue dot. "Seven, Captain," he said, not missing a beat. Maybe I'd been wrong to be so reluctant - he seemed to be fairly fast at his work. Not as fast as Arcturus was on a Screen (Or any device for that matter), but of course, Arcturus directly interfaced with devices he used, allowing him to make inputs using his thoughts alone - one of the many advantages, I assumed, of being part-machine - and as such, Antares literally could not have been faster than him, unless he himself was a Technomancer.
Apparently sensing my next question, he tapped his index finger against each of the violet dots in quick succession, which was followed by small bubbles of text stretching out next to each one. They read:
TES BANNER
Class-S Fighter
Shields minimal Weapons twin aetherstream pulsars
TES IDEOLOGY
Class-A Fighter
Shields light-medium Weapons electrosphere cannon
TES MANDIBLE
Class-W Fighter
Shields light Weapons scorpion headhunter, twin aetherstream pulsars
TES SIGIL
Class-S Fighter
Shields minimal Weapons twin aetherstream pulsars
TES ARROW
Class-W Fighter
Shields light Weapons scorpion headhunter, twin aetherstream pulsars
TES ENFORCER
Class-A Fighter
Shields light-medium Weapons electrosphere cannon
TES VIPERSTRIKE
Tier 2 Mauler
Shields medium-heavy Weapons arthropod graviton lance, twin scorpion headhunters
The first six ships, the Banner, Ideology, Mandible, Sigil, Arrow, and Enforcer didn't seem like they'd be hard to deal with - even the Supernova's aetherstream pulsar arrays could demolish a Fighter's shields in seconds - but I was somewhat worried about the Viperstrike. Maulers were medium-sized starships, built for speed and brutal attacks. They didn't have the greatest shielding of all time, and their armor was medium quality at best, but what they did have on their side was ruthless precision and a weapon capable of destroying - or significantly impacting - another ship's shield in one shot with its graviton lance. It could then finish the ship off by targeting important systems with its scorpion headhunters, powerful, starship variants of sniper rifles that packed quite a heavy punch. The presence of the Class-W Fighters wasn't great either; they, too, were equipped with headhunters and could support the Viperstrike if and when it lowered the Supernova's shields.
But if we could beat out the Viperstrike quickly... there was no way that we would lose in combat to the Fighters. Despite their numbers, the Supernova, as a flagship, was treated as a Tier 12 ship. And, even if you added all of the Fighters' Tiers together (Which wasn't how the Tier system worked regardless), they still wouldn't have a chance. Normally, the Viperstrike wouldn't either, but with the lag spikes in our Aetherdrive, we were sluggish - moving slowly at best and at a snail's pace at worst - and that gave the Mauler's graviton lance a good chance to penetrate our shields before we locked it down and destroyed it.
"What are their offensive stats?" It was obvious to me that the Mauler was the squadron leader, but I knew it was also important that we knew their attack strategy. Much like with other sentient life, you could tell a lot about them from their body language - though in this case it was less body language and more unintentional Aetheric signatures and radar pulses. Learning how to decipher the unconscious language of a starship's movement was imperative to commanding a starfight.
"The fighters have trajectories set for our port and starboard," answered the Trianguli. "The Mauler... it's preparing to hit the forward. They're doing a mandible movement, which is-"
"I know what a mandible movement is," I said, cutting him off. "Remember, I lead that skirmish against Indirk Vorpal at Claudroth."
"Right, sorry," Antares said quickly. Then his expression turned thoughtful. "Speaking of Indirk, I've been meaning to ask - how did Kevrokh get-"
The rapid-fire pinging of an incoming hail, an off-key staccato, dispersed from Nebula's sound ports throughout the bridge, cutting Antares off. I gave him a look that said later and said, "First Seeker Starfall, who's hailing us?"
It seemed to take Elder a moment to realize I was addressing him. "Um... right, that." He fumbled around, turning from side to side; once, twice, three times, for a moment. "How do I check that again?" His tone was hilariously earnest.
"Open your screen," I instructed, and quickly he swiped the blazing orange display into being. "Since you're First Seeker, you should have an App on your desktop called Monitor. Open it; it should start giving you a walkthrough of itself." I turned back to Antares once more, as Elder began minimizing tabs and pulling the Screen back to its base display. "In the meanwhile, Antares, though I know this isn't technically what Directors are supposed to do, find out who's hailing us."
Unsurprisingly, he quickly said, "the Viperstrike, Captain." It as the answer I'd been expecting - but still, always worth the ask. One who wishes to remain Captain - and indeed, even remain alive - did not make assumptions relating to combat.
"Link us in," I said with a confidence I hardly felt. The blue-skinned Trianguli nodded and pressed a finger against a button lying upon the surface of his Screen. A friendly chime followed shortly after, and with that, the Corsair of the Viperstrike's words entered the air.
"Lower your shields," the voice, undoubtedly male and sounding arrogant as all Hells, said.
"And why," I began in an even tone. "Would we... do that?"
"By order of Saladin, Lord of the Binary Stars, you are to lower your shields and submit your ship for processing," the Corsair droned on, seemingly not having heard me whatsoever. "Now please... lower your shields, or prepare to-"
"Oh, spare me the empty threats. If I wanted to exchange death threats, I would've become a Shadowdancer, not a Captain," I said, interrupting him with a derisive snort.
The Corsair sputtered on the other end, taken aback at my sudden aggressiveness. "How... how dare you?" outrage surged through his tone. "I am-"
I waved my hand and muted the boastful Corsair, which generated a perfect quiet. "Antares, mute our signatures, and lock phase torpedoes."
The temporary Director nodded, and while he busied himself with the weapons systems, I turned back to check in on Eldernova, who was intently watching his Screen as Nebula's instructions rolled across its magmatic orange surface. "Are you understanding what Nebula is telling you?" I asked him gently, knowing he might not understand quite a lot of the AI's vocabulary but not wanted to imply that he wasn't intelligent enough to guess.
"I... think?" to put it mildly, he did not sound sure at all. "But Ala is explaining the terms I don't know when they come up... so it's fine, I guess."
"Alright," I said with a nod. I turned back to the viewscreen, where the dark ships were already beginning to move vaguely in the directions that Antares had mentioned. Crossing the question I'd just asked Elder off my mental to-do list, I tapped my earpiece, quickly ordering Nebula to patch me in to Arcturus, who by now was likely at the Aetherdeck, where himself and Helix could monitor the going-ons of the Aetherdrive. "Director, report; how's the Drive doing?"
I could hear the grimace in the Android's voice as he spoke (Yes, yes it was that bad). "Not... well," Arcturus answered. In the background, I heard Helix's voice, though the words were too faint for me to make out, and Arcturus let out a long-winded sigh. "We're trying to hold the core together, but.." he left the it's still deteriorating unsaid, the unvoiced words hanging in the air menacingly. "It would, however, help, if we actually had -"
"Captain, the Viperstrike's graviton lance is arming," said Antares, rendering whatever else Arcturus had to say unintelligible, given Antares' proximity to me and the fact that he was far louder than an earpiece was capable of.
Caught between the need to hear what Arcturus needed to solve the Aetherdrive's problems, and the need to monitor the enemy ships. Typical captaintry.
"I'll call you back," I said with a short mental curse, disengaging the communicator and desperately hoping that I could keep that promise. "Antares, take the Viperstrike's shields down, and fast; Rynn, find the planned targeting of the graviton lance and get us out of its range as fast as safely possible."
"The lance's projected target is four-Delta-aft," Rynn answered immediately, apparently having already localized the targeting systems of the Viperstrike. I cursed under my breath; of course the Mauler would be targeting the life support systems.
Great. So, Arcturus and Nebula would be the only ones to survive, if that happened.
"Firing torpedoes," said Antares, his voice accompanied by the resounding techno-style pulses of the phase torpedoes echoed across the bridge, and the viewscreen I watched as missiles tipped with the Supernova's signature icy glow accelerated into the vacuum, darting forth at hypersonic speeds as they carried their aetheric payloads toward their target.
Just like that, the battle had begun.
. . .
Antares
Given a thousand years, I never would have guessed - seriously, at least - I would end up aboard and MFS starship as the Director in the course of my rebellion. Life had a funny way of being completely, amazingly, unexpected like that. Though that kind of unexpectedness never happened to me; I usually just weathered the firestorm it hurled upon me daily as best I could.
"Antares, charge status on the graviton lance?" I caught a hint of... almost... fear in Eternity's voice. Surely my ears were deceiving me? Alright, maybe not fear. Eternity was well known for preaching that it was okay to have emotions, but for someone so stridently pro-feeling, she didn't seem to have much in the way of them herself. Or if she did, she didn't show it. But it wasn't so much fear as uncertainty, that I detected in her tone.
Forcefully dragging myself out of my head, I quickly opened a Weapons tab on the Monitor app and navigated to the charge indication of the graviton lance. "Sixty-seven percent fully charged," I read.
"Starfire!" snarled Eternity, obviously displeased. "Rynn, get us out of here. Go to aetherjump, use Impulse, I don't care; just get us away from that thing's range!"
Rynn nodded and 'flipped' a holographic 'switch' on the Array in front of her, and shut her eyes. I knew what she was doing - linking her mind to the Supernova's engines so that she could move it about with the force of her will - and tried not to think about the fact that the highest-Tier ship I'd ever seen her Direct had been a Tier Four. I took a deep, nervous breath.
Under her breath, I heard her mutter, "I can do this," and I braced myself. She opened her now-glowing bright blue eyes, her brow furrowed with effort and concentration... as the harsh sound of the graviton lance firing rang out like a death knell.
. . .
Eldernova
The six rings at the center of the App represent the ship's radar, Nebula's 'voice' went on as it gradually spread across the Screen in vibrant white text, contrasting beautifully with the bright orange of the Screen itself. When a ring flashes white, it means that another starship's signature is passing through that part of the space around you. Otherwise, you should just see a white dot, representing a starship. As what I could only assume was an example, the three rings closest to the dot at the center (Which represented the Supernova) flashed that same snowy color.
Wait. Not an example, Elder, but good try, Alaspakta said sarcastically. Now try actually using that thing in your skull. You know, your brain. That organ that you think with.
Says the sword that literally doesn't have a brain, I retorted.
Moving on, Nebula highlighted the Communication tab on the upper right side of the Screen with a brighter orange tone than the rest of the display. This sections monitors Transmissions, to and fr-
An earsplitting shriek-like sound broke the air, instantaneously shattering my focus (And, for that matter, my eardrums) and causing me to promptly leap out of my skin with fright. I clapped my hands over my ears protectively as the sound poured over the bridge, eliciting similar (Though far less agonized (I supposed that made sense, sounds and smells had always been more intense for me than those around me)) reactions from the rest of the crew.
"What the hell is that sound?!" It was truly terrible. No, it was not as loud (Nor as awful) as the Hydra's screaming at been; a chorus of all the worst sounds known to the Multiverse; but it was not pleasant by any means, amplified by the intense speakers of the bridge.
"Rynn!!" shouted Eternity over the din, either not having heard me in the heat of the moment or simply having ignored me. The Trianguli at the Array where Helix usually sat flung her fingers across the Screens in front of her, 'turning' the holographic 'dials' on the light sheet. A moment later, a faint whirring began emanating from the back of the bridge, as the Aetherdrive undoubtedly began to churn.
"Captain, fifteen seconds to the next lag spike in the core," Rynn said cautioningly.
"Seven seconds to graviton impact," Antares added. Eternity bit her lip, her left hand twitching anxiously.
"Get us out of here, Rynn!"
My eyes whipped to the clock on Antares' Screen as the glowing violet bolt on the viewer (Undoubtedly the projectile which the graviton lance summoned) drew ever closer. The display read six seconds... five... four... three...
"Rynn, NOW!" Eternity screamed. The lance looked close enough to touch on the viewscreen, hurtling toward us and growing in size every millisecond.
"Two seconds!" Antares yelled over the increasingly loud screech of the weapon.
And then, in that moment, as I realized our shields were about to flicker out of existence (Followed by a small army of aetherstream bursts), the circuit designs etched upon the pillars and walls of the bridge lit up in an inferno of blue radiance.
And the MFS Supernova launched itself into the Aether.
. . .
Slowly, carefully, and deliberately, I removed my palms from my ears, and I was greeted by a sweet silence, airwaves free of the horrific noise of the graviton lance.
"Eight seconds to the lag spike, Captain," said Rynn, making my heart sink. We weren't out of the woods yet.
"Plug in the Paradise Key and take us to those coordinates," Eternity said, her voice somewhat hoarse from screaming and her face contorted in fear. I extended one hand to wrap in her own.
Rynn's arm flashed into Helix's desk, rummaging about in a desperate fervor. "Got it!" she announced, tearing the Nemesine key out. She stabbed - and I do mean stabbed - the key into the Drive Port on the side of the desk, and instantly her Screen lit up like an emerald torch - emerald, like the color of her eyes (I wondered if the eye color of the person had anything to do with the color of the Screen (But no... my eyes were brown, and my screen was sunset-colored...)) - and bright white words flashed across it: Aetherdrive engaging.
"Three seconds, Rynn," Eternity warned, having brought up an Aetherdrive App of her own in order to monitor the lag spike's progress. The frequency of the core was displayed below the estimated time, going up and down like an equalizer. "It's already beginning to-"
The metal walls of the ship, for the first time in my time aboard any MFS starship, shook; the beams groaned; the engines screamed.
"Rynn, what happened? What did you just-"
The clock on Eternity's Screen hit zero.
It was like an earthquake. The entire bridge - the whole ship, in fact - rumbled, shuddering violently like a seizure.
"Rynn, take us out of Jump! Now!" Eternity commanded, fervently gripping the armrests of her chair.
"I can do this!" Rynn said, her eyes still glowing blue, brows creased with effort and intense focus. What was she doing? "We're almost there!"
"Rynn, we won't make it there in one piece if we-" a barrage of sparks erupted from Eternity's console as if to prove her point "-don't get out of the Aether, right now! TAKE US OUT OF-"
A sound like a thousand atom bombs flooded my ear canal, and the world cut out like a light.
. . .
Eternity
Three Hours Later
My eyes fluttered and gradually, so very slowly, opened, and I gazed up into a white oblivion. Where was I? The last thing I remembered was... we'd been on the bridge of the Supernova, in aetherjump. I'd been shouting for Rynn to pull us out... and she hadn't listened? So... where was I, now?
I looked around, and the white and blue interior of the Supernova greeted me, sending forth a wave of relief. I'm still here. I let out a slow breath and quickly analyzed my situation; I was on the ground, face-up. Being only a few feet from my Shipmind chair, I clearly hadn't been thrown far. Eldernova was still in his seat, slumped against the armrest with his eyes shut, while Antares had apparently been flung across the room; his form lay in a heap near to the viewscreen. Rynn was still at her desk, though her face was planted directly into the surface of it, and Seraph was on the floor next to his chair. Finally, Nocta appeared to be slowly waking up, coming back to her senses while in her chair (From what I could tell, at least, as her back was turned to me).
"Nocta," I rasped, my voice sounding choked and hoarse. "What... by all the gods... happened?"
The Human, saying nothing, stood from her chair with anger and turned. "Rynn happened," she said. "Rynn Sunstreak, who just almost killed us all." My eyes widened, and I leapt to my feet and strode over to Nocta, my eyes narrowing.
"I don't think-"
"That she did it on purpose? Of course she did. Antares related his story; you were there - Vance was a traitor, why couldn't Rynn be, too?" Nocta's voice was hard, accusing. I didn't want to believe she was right, and Antares certainly didn't seem like a spy... but maybe he didn't know. And maybe Rynn was a spy. "Does it seem so unreasonable to you? Think about it, Timewind! The Trianguli ships showed up at just the right time to get us into Aetherjump? The malfunction in the Aetherdrive, making sure that Rynn would be commanding Helix's normal position?"
My heart dropped out of my rib cage and landed in my stomach acid with a splash. "Three suns." Nocta was right. The way that Rynn had gotten everything just perfect for a betrayal... it was the perfect storm of factors. How hadn't I seen this before? "Nocta... we..."
"We won't say anything about this - not a word - to Antares. I can get Rynn for questioning whenever you need, and until then I won't say anything to her about it. I'll still be watching her, of course."
"No, definitely," I affirmed. "I'll let you know when to get Rynn for questioning." At this, Nocta, nodded.
"I'm ready whenever you are," she said. I started to say something else when a noise from behind us made me whirl around.
"Ready for what?" Rynn's groggy voice called from her - Helix's - desk as she pushed herself upright. Starfire.
"Hopefully, to get out of the Aether, or wherever the hell we are," Nocta said smoothly, without a trace of guilt in her voice. "Thanks to you."
Rynn's brow furrowed. "I didn't leave us in the Aether. You all went out before me - we finished our Jump."
Well, that's suspicious. If she was right, we'd all been knocked out before her - so that meant she could've done any number of terrible things under the cover of unconsciousness. Of course, I said none of these things, instead offering a weak smile and asking, "If we're not in the Aether, still, then where are we?"
Rynn angled her head toward the viewscreen. "Apparently, the coordinates led here: an ocean world by the name of Ryph."
Ryph. I remembered Ryph; a popular place for studying Leviathans and oceanic tours. I'd been there once or twice, visiting the native Ryphorians on diplomatic missions for the MFS. They were a peaceful species - no fragmented countries, no rulers, just compassionate freedom, as if the entire planet was an extension of Elysium. It was for this reason that a majority of the people were adamant believers in the teachings of Spes, the Planar Goddess of Elysium, its inhabitants (Being the Angels), and freedom; and Spes herself was actually quite fond of the planet. But then, not many people weren't - Ryph was a popular favorite of many people all over the Multiverse, especially the Water Sprites of Aqua and the Merfolk of the same Plane, who flocked to the planet for its beautiful oceans filled with reefs and life. The one and only downside of visiting the planet was the extremely small chance of a Leviathan attack. Leviathans, a species originally native to Celestia, had, much like Dragons, Hydras, and Wurms, spread throughout the planets of the Multiverse, becoming native to them in their own right. The Leviathans who called Ryph home were called the Reef Leviathans, or simply Ryphorian Leviathans: massive, ninety-meter long, serpentlike, bioluminescent, apex predators who lived in the deep. They weren't hostile - no, as Leviathans and therefore a sentient race, they were somewhat adverse to eating Ryphorians, as they shared their home planet with them and would not risk war. But occasionally, an inexplicably stupid diver would swim a little bit too close to one, and the instincts of the massive creatures would kick in, causing them to snap at the offender, and, in rare cases, kill them.
But, of course, it required a high degree of idiocy to attempt such an action so obviously against common sense, and not many people dared to do so.
So why would the Paradise Vault be on a tropical, peace-loving world like Ryph?
I shuddered then, to think of what Daedalus might have hidden in its depths. It had always been assumed that the second Vault would be located on a hellscape planet, like the ash-choked dust world of Anakhe, or the frozen badlands of Fyndra. But it had never been an idea that the Paradise Vault might have been on a beautiful, frankly paradise world like-
Paradise world.
The clue had been in the name of the second Vault. Paradise Vault. Paradise planet. And what world came to mind when one thought of a paradise world? Ryph.
For millennia, the Starfinders and groups like them had scoured horrifying, awful planets for the black, angular shape of a second Nemesine Vault. And the whole time they'd never guessed the truth; the truth that the Paradise Vault would rest upon a Paradise World. The assumption of the Vault's name had always been that it was named that for the Navigator that lay within.
But it had never meant that. It had always been referring to a paradise planet, not a Navigator.
The truth had always been obvious, yet never realized: deep beneath the crystal-clear waves of Ryph lay the single most coveted vault in the Multiverse, and within was the resting place of the Paradise Navigator.