THIS IS THE Shishiguchi, a diplomatic vessel. My name is Emissary Gabriel Mbala va Babylonia. Return control to our pilot at once, and I’ll be happy to begin negotiations for safe travel through your local space.”
Dawn’s sedated moans drifted in from the hall. Though Orion-lem had stopped in his tracks, Derev, Playa, and Coraz continued carrying her to the medbay.
“—An honor to meet you, Emissary. My name is . . . My name . . .” The old man’s eyes drifted to the side and lingered, unfocused, before snapping back toward them. “Negotiations are quite irrelevant. You’re in the hands of the Masters. The Hizashi will take you to them now.” The wall display switched from his face back to the ship’s sensor feed.
A troubled murmur passed from mouth to mouth. The Masters. Sabira felt someone take her left hand, before realizing Cal stood beside her.
“Is that really Orion’s father?” he whispered.
Orion, embodied in the smart-matter lem, remained silent and still in the middle of the room. What’s wrong with him?
On the display, the stars disappeared behind a shell of glistening, oil-slick colors encasing the Shishiguchi and the other two ships.
“We’re slicing void.” Gabriel took the motionless Orion-let by the arm. “Have you lost sync? You still in there?”
“Orion? Can you hear us?” Sabira grabbed Orion’s other arm and shook it. No response. “What’s happening?”
“I wish I knew,” Gabriel said. “I fear whatever is blocking this Orion-lem’s connection with the pagoda has somehow locked him out of the lem body, as well.”
Gabriel turned to Torque. She huddled in the corner of the room, head hunched in her shoulders. “You already know more about how this ship works than any of us. I need you to find a way to get the Shishiguchi back under our control. And see if you can figure out how to fix this”—he patted Orion-lem’s motionless shoulder—“or if Orion synced into something else, or . . . I don’t know. Just do what you can.”
Torque answered with a quick nod and hurried out of the observation deck. Announcing that he could help in the medbay, Edlashuul darted off as well.
“What was he saying about his father before he went quiet?” Cal asked.
“Orion once told me his father died when he was young,” Gabriel answered. “Other than he was once a renowned Adept himself, that’s all I know. Yet, somehow the Hizashi has cracked our firewalls and commandeered our ship—a Muyama ship. It should have been impossible.”
The shell of oil-slick colors enveloping the vessels disappeared. The teal and orange crescent of a dwarf planet, and the small pale crescent of its moon, filled the wall display. The Hizashi flew between them and the planet, partially illuminated by the local star. Alongside them, the Unity talon tumbled dark and lifeless. Both it and the Shishiguchi seemed to be pulled along by the Hizashi.
“What’s that?” Zonte pointed to the dwarf planet’s dark side.
It was hard to see, and they didn’t have the means to adjust the picture. Something sprawled across the dwarf planet’s crust, as if an incomprehensibly huge parasite had burrowed into the skin of its celestial host.
“The Masters?” Cal suggested.
“Whatever it godsdamned is, we definitely don’t want to go there.” Sabira shook Orion-lem again, then flicked her knuckle hard across his nose. Still no response. “Orion! Stop drilling around!”
The old man reappeared on the wall. His sharp eyes, rendered huge in the display, made Sabira feel like an insect held in a cruel child’s pinching grasp.
Gabriel stepped forward. “Captain of the Hizashi, before this goes any further, know that as an Emissary of the Constellation of Aligned Star Systems, an attack on my person, my vessel, or any of its passengers, will be viewed as an act of war. Release us now, before this incident escalates any further.”
If he understood or even heard Gabriel at all, it didn’t register on his wide face.
“—You are being taken to Loshan, the Bastion of the Final Masters. After one of you has been found suitable for our needs, the rest may leave.”
Though her face didn’t appear, another voice filled the room. “I am Zika Rab Izd, Warseer of the Nahgak-Ri, the true and only Masters under Divine Will. In the name of the Nine Gods, release my ship now, or Conqueror see me—” Her voice was abruptly silenced.
“—For many long centuries, we have waited for a ship to pass through those Gates once more. And now there are two!” The old man’s smile was as sharp as his eyes. “After all this time, we had resigned ourselves that whatever sentient creature finally reached us would suffice. Yet now, we have the unforeseen luxury of choice. No longer must we make do with whatever the whims of fate toss our way. We will find the most suitable among you.
“—Each of your ships will be docked at the far ends of Loshan Bastion. There you will be tested. Quite a simple test, really. Until one of you makes your way through the bastion and reaches us in the Hara, none may leave. However, once one of you passes this test, all will be free to go. The first of you to reach us will be rewarded with our great gift: Godsfall, the most powerful weapon in the galaxy. Not even the Gods will stand against you.”
The image on the wall split into two views. One remained on the stranger, the other displayed their approach to the dwarf planet and its moon. The crescent of rusted orange and teal, and the sprawling compound lurking in the planet’s night, grew larger and more detailed.
“What under the rocks is he talking about?” Sabira asked.
“I don’t know,” Gabriel said. “I don’t understand this any more than you do.”
“—Of course, you don’t understand,” the stranger said. “What good are words when actions are needed? A simple demonstration of some of Godsfall’s capabilities should suffice.”
A quick flash of light illuminated the dwarf planet’s night, throwing the vast bastion into stark relief in the blink of an eye. The display zoomed in on the small moon.
“—Watch closely, now.”
A few long, tense moments passed in silence. Then the pale crescent cracked in two, folding in on itself. The two halves swung up, breaking into four, then eight, then an uncountable number of scattered, broken rocks. Some moon shards flew into the void, but most collapsed back in, as if sucked into the moon’s core. The far side erupted like a boil, spewing the shattered bits of the impact point out through the exit wound. In a matter of seconds, the moon had been turned inside out, reduced to a cloud of dust and rubble.
Sabira expected to hear a boom, a rumble, something. But of course, it was utterly silent in the black of space. And utterly silent in the Shishiguchi’s observation deck, not a breath or gasp to be heard.
It was their mysterious captor who broke the silence.
“—And now our demonstration is over. As you see, anything that opposes Godsfall faces total obliteration. We’ll arrive at Loshan Bastion quite soon. Are you ready?”