Hexpod 5-Ores’Mesma, Startide Nexus, Nem’yar Atoll
The sterile, chemical smell of an earth caste med-pod filtered into her consciousness. Pain shot through her limbs, her chest. But where there was pain, there was life.
Then the darkness closed over her once more, and she was drowning.
Deep beneath Mount Kan’ji, her lungs burned as the underwater river thrashed her to the edge of unconsciousness.
She was a deer caught in the maw of some gargantuan, invisible crocodile, every turn a death roll, every twist a blow driving the air from her meagre supply. Disoriented, frozen, terrified, she felt her head collide against sharp walls, scraping off patches of skin. Blood floated around her, black as the ink of an octopus in the dark water. She flailed, powerless. Every handhold was snatched away a moment later, a cruel joke against the raw power of the deluge. Her fingers were becoming numb, her limbs leaden.
The caves were full, now, the meltwater river’s wrath at its height. She was several days’ travel from the exit, and already her lungs were burning. There would be no reprieve.
Blackness came for her.
But within it, there was light.
A translucent figure with far too many arms, somehow immune to the battering ice water, drifting as calm as a Dal’ythan jellyfish. In its profusion of arms it held objects, amongst them blades, shells, an amphora, a buckler shield. It swam close, its unsettling, blank mask of a face somehow staying inches from hers even as the deadly river pushed her ever on through the darkness.
‘No… What are you?’ Her thoughts were so loud she swore she could hear them.
The entity raised its amphora, silvery bubbles drifting from the neck, and let her take a long draught. Not water, but air, blissful and life-giving. Greedy as a newborn, she filled her lungs.
‘I am the communality of species,’ it said. Its voice was calming, like that of a mother, whilst somehow carrying an edge of threat. ‘I am destiny.’
‘You are a ghost,’ Shadowsun replied. ‘Nothing more.’
‘Set against the cosmos, I am nothing, it is true,’ the apparition replied. ‘Though even a seed cast to the wind can flourish. If you will let me, child of hope.’
They passed a darker patch of nothingness. A moment later, the waters became calmer, less insistent. She could see the glow of the cave-worms once more, their glimmer showing the strange, diaphanous spirit before her in disturbing detail.
‘How can I repay you?’ she managed.
‘I simply wish to exist, child,’ it said.
Shadowsun’s head burst from the surface of the underwater river, and in that moment, the entity was gone.
The memory faded, a mist of dreams drawn away through the window of consciousness. She opened her eyes, just a crack, to see a dozen screens in front of her. Every one of them was clamouring for attention. Amongst them were familiar faces, and angry ones at that. The sight gave her a headache.
‘Turn them all off,’ she managed. ‘Whatever it is, it can wait.’
‘Are you sure?’ came a smooth, level voice from her right. ‘Are you sure that is what you want?’
Calmstone. Confined to her med-berth, but alive, thank the T’au’va.
‘Yes,’ she replied. ‘I am sure. It will be all right. Just… have faith.’
The pain was a little better, today. She opened one of her eyes a crack, automatically looking at the stump of her foot. There was a collar of metal just visible under the skin of her ankle, the neurone bundles waiting for a prosthetic replacement that, in time, would function just as well as the real thing.
She sensed a presence nearby. This time, it was a drone that bobbed at her berthside.
‘Oe-hei,’ she managed. ‘Did Ven and Tak make it back?’
‘Ah,’ said a familiar voice. ‘I am afraid I am not Oe-hei. But yes. All of your team were recovered by a local air caste sortie under Admiral Horizonchild, save the charpactin called A’haia.’
‘Oh. It’s you.’
Oe-ken-yon gave a brief trill of dismay. ‘I can only offer the greatest contrition for what I did, high commander.’
‘I feel that title may no longer be appropriate. In no small part due to your actions.’
‘On the contrary,’ said the drone. ‘Commander Surestrike’s forbiddance of your leadership has been reviewed and found counter-intuitive, even in extremis. You have been reinstated by the hand of Aun’La, and Surestrike will answer to you as before, with the Fourth Sphere under the explicit guidance of the Fifth.’
‘Noted,’ she said, masking the great weariness that rose up inside her at the thought. She gestured a tiny circle with her forefinger, and the med-pod revolved, elevating her until she could see the bulky drone before her. ‘Nonetheless. If I had the energy, I’d punch you out of the air, then exile you all over again.’
‘I see. I am glad you are talking well.’
‘Well enough to tell you to leave.’
‘I implore you to let me impart the news I have. It… It is not all good.’
‘That means some of it is good. Tell me that part, at least.’
‘Yes,’ the drone said. ‘Your notion concerning the charpactin? It worked. Wherever the victims of the nightmare plague were found, A’haia’s kindred put their unique talents to work, casting out brainwaves as per your comrade’s example held on the XV22’s memory banks. The destructive somnambulism either turned into true sleep, or just ended then and there. It has been called the New Awakening. The resultant plague was completely lifted, whether it affected gue’la or t’au. Those who fell to it are distressed, of course, but healing fast.’
‘That is well. And what of the enemy ships?’
‘There, the news is not so good. The enemy flagship that you boarded…’
‘It reached the Nexus, didn’t it?’ she said. ‘It passed through.’
‘It did,’ said the drone. ‘The air caste could not close it down in time. There was no killing it.’
She felt a wet shroud of despair settle inside her, then, dousing what little fire she had left. ‘The sept worlds will pay the price,’ she whispered.
‘In actuality, that might not be the case.’
Shadowsun made the sign of unfolding truths so fast that Oe-ken-yon drifted back in alarm. ‘Elaborate.’
‘Firstly, it was only a trio of ships that passed through the portal, the capital craft and two escorts,’ said the drone. ‘The rest, for some reason we cannot fathom, peeled off for interstellar space. The fleet split, high commander, immediately after you left it.’
‘It did? That might be enough.’ She paused. ‘But we have to assume it is not.’
‘As to the second thing. We sent a communion drone through the wormhole, as you requested. But it did not go alone.’
‘Oe-ken-yon, I swear. The one time I need you to be forth-coming…’
‘I took the liberty of seeking help from Fio’O Kejata, high commander, in cloning enough of my mainframe to both go, and stay at the same time. Another version of me went after it. A copy, intrinsically linked. Not quite embracing a quantum state, said O’Kejata, but with enough data entanglement to make instantaneous communication possible.’
‘You went through the wormhole yourself?’ She sat up, the muscles in her abdomen and neck burning. ‘The ethereals would not have sanctioned that, would they?’
‘It remains a grey area,’ said Oe-ken-yon awkwardly, wobbling his disc in a drone-shrug as if that explained everything. ‘The earth caste did, though, once Kejata had restabilised the wormhole. They work miracles.’
‘You glorious little bastard. What did you find?’
‘Once the messenger drone was on its way, my slaved unit passed back through the Startide Nexus. The evidence of the gue’ron’sha ships was entirely absent. Not so much as a drive signature after their passage. On further inspection I was left with only one conclusion.’
‘Oe-ken-yon, if you make me ask for it, I swear I will rise like the phoenix and break you over my knee.’
‘They did not pass through at all. They instead went into the interstitial dimension encountered by the Fourth Sphere.’
‘What?’ Shadowsun felt a smile split her features, and twirled a finger to let the healsphere lean her back. ‘Is that right,’ she said. ‘Thank the T’au’va.’
‘You must rest,’ said the drone. ‘I shall tell the technicians you are healing well.’
‘My thanks, little helper. And for the record, I forgive you.’
Oe-ken-yon dipped his rim for a long moment, his lights flashing slowly. ‘That is good to hear. Is there anything I can do for you whilst you recuperate, high commander?’
‘You can send Ven Tah Regah and the shaper Tak my best wishes, and debrief them as you have me. I think I shall reassemble that same team again, if they are willing. Perhaps with one of A’haia’s circle-mates accompanying us as a mark of respect.’
‘Along with Oe-hei and myself?’
‘I think I could stand your presence for a little longer, yes.’
‘As you wish, high commander. It is good to see you embrace a team. Anything more?’
‘There is,’ she said. ‘When I was on Pekun, I gave the earth caste a demolition order to enact after the recovery phase, having them locate and destroy the temples of the auxiliary races’ new faith. I would like to rescind it.’
‘And will they know to what you refer?’
‘They will. And they will do it. For the Greater Good.’