I KNOW YOU’RE all feeling nervous,” Gabriel said. “But let me assure you, these are good people. Krishnamurti Tower was our last stop when the three of us left the Home Cluster, so it’s only appropriate the tower is our first stop on our way back home. I’m quite certain they’re very excited to meet all of you.”
Everyone on the ship had gathered in the Shishiguchi’s empty hangar bay, except for Spear, who remained in the medbay recovering from surgery under the care of a lem. The hangar’s forma walls were still configured to look like the trees and plants of many different worlds, just as it had been for Maia and Rain’s funeral. They hadn’t held a funeral for Zonte yet. If one was planned, no one had mentioned it to Sabira.
Gabriel and Orion-lem stood near the personnel airlock where Spear had been kept. The hangar lights gave a bright sheen to Gabriel’s purple Emissary uniform. Orion’s forma body was tuned to dimly radiating blues and glistening blacks.
Sabira stood the farthest back. Edlashuul, with the eeshl in two of his arms, waited nearby. Sabira focused past everyone else to the airlock doors. Knowing they would soon open, but not knowing who exactly would come through, rubbed uneasily against her years of Servant discipline, even as she rubbed uneasily at the scar of her breast.
Embedded in a reddish-brown tree trunk to the left of the airlock, a large monitor displayed their approach to Krishnamurti Tower. They were close enough that not all of the tower fit in the view. The white cylinder rotated vertically on the right side of the display. In the upper left, a graph illustrated their trajectory. Orion decelerated the Shishiguchi into alignment with the tower, and even though there was no up or down in space, the view gave the illusion of their ship coming to rest underneath it. With the Shishiguchi’s field tech engaged, they couldn’t feel themselves spinning to perfectly match the tower’s rotation. In the monitor, the tower appeared to gradually still, then the field of stars began circling around them. A narrow docking arm extended from the tower’s nearest ring to meet them.
“This is the first step into your new lives in the Constellation of Aligned Star Systems,” Gabriel said, “and we’ve all sacrificed much to be here.”
“Some more than others,” Playa spoke under her breath, though loud enough for all to hear.
Sabira stopped rubbing her scar and clenched her fist over her heart. Playa wasn’t wrong. A widening chasm had cracked open between the two of them, and Sabira didn’t know how to find the bridge across. Perhaps that bridge didn’t exist.
Orion-lem addressed them next. “You should also know that as we approached Krishnamurti Tower, a CDF vessel sliced void to rendezvous at this location.”
“That’s the Constellation Defense Forces,” Gabriel clarified. “Like the Servants, but made up of volunteers from every world and station in the Constellation. And their mission is defense, not conquest.”
“Likely they just want to verify we haven’t brought back any threats through the Old Portal,” Orion said. “They’ll do a quick but thorough security check before they escort us into Constellation space.”
“After everything we’ve been through these past weeks,” Gabriel said, “having the protection of the military will be something of a relief. Remember though, you’ll be just as new and strange to them as they are to you. Probably more so. I expect everyone to be on their best behavior.”
“Don’t want to get us all killed for nothing,” Playa said.
Sabira’s clenched her jaw so tight her teeth hurt. Gabriel took Playa aside and said something privately to her. She glowered silently in response.
On the display, the square mouth of the docking arm extended closer, until it blocked everything else from view. The display reverted back to the appearance of flaky red tree bark. A metallic clang shuddered through the hangar. The airlock control panel danced with multicolored lights and emitted a series of beeps in ascending pitches.
“The Shishiguchi is securely docked to Krishnamurti Tower,” Orion said. “Cycling the airlocks now.”
“Do you know who it is?” Gabriel asked.
“Jiddu and Aquila.”
“We really have come full circle, haven’t we?”
The final beep held for a long, high pitch before a series of hisses from the airlock indicated a pressure match with the station. The outer doors slid open, and two people entered the ship’s airlock. The inner doors opened, revealing a man and woman encased in transparent bubbles that matched their body shapes and movements. Both of them carried bulky, dark gray cases at their sides. Two chrome and white nodes floated in after them.
Orion announced in multiple languages at once, “Jiddu! Aquila! Welcome aboard the Shishiguchi!”
Gabriel opened his arms wide and said something in Connish that Sabira couldn’t understand. The two answered in Connish as they stepped out of the airlock and put down their cases. Within their bubbles, each wore matching simple uniforms of white, gray, and gold, but otherwise, the two looked nothing alike.
Gabriel turned back to the Freebrood to introduce the visitors in Khvaziz. “Everyone please welcome our guests, the Lead Shastri representatives of the Aligned Research Workgroup aboard Krishnamurti Tower. This is Lead Shastri Jiddu Raj va Arjuna.” The man’s complexion was dark bronze, with thick, onyx black hair. A heavy mustache concealed his upper lip. He bowed his head slightly to the group.
“And this is Lead Shastri Aquila North va Foundry 3.” The woman’s complexion was nearly as pale as the Freebrood’s but dusted with flakes of coppery dots. She bowed quickly, sending plasma red curls of hair bouncing atop her head.
After their introductions, the two of them conversed with Gabriel in Connish. Jiddu and Aquila kept nearly two meters distance between themselves and Gabriel as they spoke. Their eyes kept darting away from the Emissary to steal glances at the Freebrood.
“I can’t understand a thing,” Sabira whispered to Ed. “Is there a problem?”
“—Use the little bird Orion made you.” Ed pointed to the blue metallic ring encircling the base of one of his sense tendrils.
Sabira pulled the small box Torque had given her out of her pocket and opened it. A thin blue crescent lay on a black cushion. She placed the crescent behind her ear and shivery tingles briefly radiated through her skull. Jiddu’s voice became a disorienting duality of what he was saying and the little bird’s interpretation into Khvaziz. Like picking out a specific voice in a crowded room, Sabira was soon able to shift her attention to the language she understood.
“— every indication that you were destroyed,” the dark-haired man said. “Annihilated like everything else that’s ever attempted the Old Portal.”
“—Turns out that not every transit attempt has been the catastrophic failure we thought,” Orion said.
“—Needless to say,” Jiddu Raj continued, “everyone at the tower was shocked when the Old Portal spontaneously activated. Then to see the Shishiguchi emerge, well, every jaw fell to the floor, I can tell you. It’s incredible. I’d even say unbelievable if I wasn’t seeing you with my own two eyes.”
Step by slow step, the red-haired woman, Aquila, eased away from her companion, while darting glances at Sabira. No, not at her. At Ed. Of course. She’d never seen a Vleez before.
“—There’s obviously quite a bit to discuss. We’ll explain everything in due time,” Gabriel said. “Such as the fact that we’ve made contact with multiple sentient races, primarily the Vleez.”
Ed raised one of his hands in greeting while his other three held and stroked the eeshl’s blue-black hide. His six sense tendrils stiffened toward the visitors. His tunic, tuned to shiny abstractions of flowers, stood out as a spark of color amid the pale complexions and gray tunics of the other Freebrood.
The woman seemed emboldened as Gabriel spoke, and walked directly to Ed, stopping about two meters in front of him. “—Hi. My name is Aquila. Do you understand Connish, or have they given you a little bird? Orion sent us interpreter protocols for Khvaziz and Vleezian, too. Though I’m afraid I can’t pronounce Vleezian very well.”
“—I’ve got a little bird, so you can use whatever language you want.” Ed stroked the back of the eeshl a bit harder, and the beast wiggled in his hands. “And my respirator also translates what I say. My name is Edlashuul. Humans like to shorten it to just Ed, though.”
“—I’m very pleased to meet you, Edlashuul. All my life I’ve dreamed of meeting someone like you.”
“—I’m, uh, just me.”
Cal came over to stand beside Ed. “Why are you both in bubbles?”
“Orion assured us that everyone on board has been cleared for pathogens,” Aquila said, switching to Khvaziz. “When you’re dealing with xeno microbiology, though, better to follow protocols. For everyone’s safety.”
“—Yes,” Ed agreed. “I know what you mean.”
Sabira remembered how weak and ashen-colored Edlashuul had been, how close he’d come to perishing like millions of other Vleez during the Unity’s germ warfare attack on his world. An attack she’d been part of.
“I’m very proud to inform you that Oracle del Seta was right all along,” Gabriel said in Khvaziz. “We found the descendants of Tierra’s first diaspora on the other side. These people you see gathered here are the first of what I hope will one day be many lost siblings reunited with Humanity.”
Rhythmic clanging sounded from the airlock. Sabira knew that sound well: soldiers on the march. They filed in through the airlock in two rows, each armed and armored, but weapons held at ease, for now. Looked to be some kind of stun gun. Helmeted respirators hid their faces. They wore black and green armor with an emblem of interconnected stars adorning their right shoulders. A thin red crescent was emblazoned over their hearts, its ends pointed up like curving horns.
The last two through the airlock must have been the ranking members, a man and woman. Though their hands remained empty, they wore heavy pistols holstered on their hips. Same as Jiddu and Aquila, transparent bubbles covered them from head to toe. They stood side by side between the two lines of soldiers.
The woman was the taller of the two. She had a broad stern face, dark complexion, and short wooly hair. She looked them over with alert green eyes. The man’s gray-brown hair was cropped short enough to be nearly as bald as Sabira. She had never seen a pinkish-bronze complexion like his before. With deep-set eyes, he quickly appraised the layout of the hangar bay and everyone within. In the past few minutes, Sabira had seen more variations of human complexion, hair, and eye color than in all her life before.
“—Let’s not get ahead of ourselves, Emissary,” the man said. “Much remains to be brought to light before we discuss introducing a refugee crisis into the cluster. Emissary, Adept, my name is Commander Tauro Arkrider va Nu’esef of the CDV Egalitaire.”
He gestured to the woman beside him. “—This is Lieutenant Tavia Djeli va Babylonia. And this is my squad.”
Lieutenant? That’s a weird title for a rank. She must be the caller to his first drum.
Gabriel introduced himself and said it was a pleasure to meet them. Orion merely said they had permission to come aboard.
“—I want to be clear with everyone right from the start, so there’re no misunderstandings,” Commander Arkrider said. “The Shishiguchi will now disengage from Krishnamurti Tower and prepare to rendezvous with the Safehold, which is currently en route. As I understand it, you’re both already familiar with the Lead Shastri representatives of the ARW. They’ll conduct a full stern to prow scan of the Shishiguchi to confirm the absence of any known or potential pathogens. Once they’ve given the all-clear, everyone aboard, excepting the Adept, of course, will be escorted over to the Safehold for processing and debriefing. My squad and I are coming along to evaluate and neutralize any other safety concerns, should they arise.”
Gabriel stepped forward. “Now as you said, commander, let’s not get ahead of ourselves. On our approach to Krishnamurti Tower we were informed that after quarantine and inspection at the station, we’d be cleared to proceed on to Nu’esef. Nothing was mentioned in regards to disembarking to a CDF ship.”
“—The Safehold is a joint Embassy-CDF vessel,” Commander Arkrider said. “As Lead Shastri Raj already indicated, your return through the Puertas del Infierno would be unbelievable if he hadn’t seen it with his own two eyes. Well, sir, his aren’t the only two eyes that need to believe you . . . and your story.”
“Puertas del Infierno?” Coraz asked.
“The birds didn’t translate that one?” Orion said. “Means the Gates of Hell, or the Gates Infernal. It’s what some call the Shattered Gates on this side.”
“—Yes, exactly,” Commander Arkrider continued. “The Gates Infernal. Nothing’s come out for two thousand years. Even other Muyama Adepts who’ve tried going in never came back. So I think we’re all in agreement that our current scenario is unprecedented, at best.”
Gabriel pursed his lips and nodded in agreement. Sabira was surprised he acquiesced so quickly. But these soldiers were his people after all, and they did hold the advantage of arms. Still, she didn’t like it.
“—Adept Hanada, it goes without saying the fleet can’t impound a Muyama Adept vessel,” Arkrider said. “But I do expect and appreciate your full cooperation. We all want to avoid unnecessary complications for everyone involved.”
“Agreed.”
Commander Arkrider turned toward the Freebrood and addressed them directly. “—Now as I understand it, you claim to be the long-lost first diaspora. Whether or not that’s the case is not for me to decide. Nor is it up to me whether or not you all are granted asylum status. That’s a decision made by those with significantly higher pay. My squad and I will escort you safely from the Shishiguchi to the Safehold when it arrives. You’ll be made quite comfortable. If you all behave yourselves, and your stories all check out, the Safehold will transport you into Constellation space where the civilian government can decide what to do with you. Then, and only then, will you no longer be my concern.”
“No,” Sabira said. “No. Orion, tell them. We’re not going with them. The others can stay, but we have to go back.”
Gabriel approached her. “Sabira, everything is going to be fine. We’ll be safe, you have my word.”
“I don’t give a grankshit about safety. We have to go back, Orion and I. We need to stop Daggeira and Subaru. We can’t just keep running away.”
“Girl, don’t,” Coraz whispered.
“Take them, but I’m not going anywhere with you,” Sabira told the commander.
Lieutenant Djeli sneaked through Sabira’s peripheral vision, drawing the stun gun pistol from her holster. She was good. Sabira hadn’t noticed when she left the commander’s side. Sabira was good, too. She burst into motion and swatted the stun gun away. Carrying through the momentum, Sabira caught her arm, and using the weight of her armor against her, threw Djeli over her hip.
The clank of armor hitting the floor mixed with Dawn’s squeal of shock, Gabriel’s shouts, and the crackle of stun guns firing. The world flashed white. Every nerve in Sabira’s body screamed.
In a whoosh of speed, Gabriel was behind her, holding Sabira’s convulsing body in his arms. His face blurred, his voice sounded impossibly distant, and everything went black.