

### The Loneliness of Stars

Published by Z. M. Wilmot at Smashwords

Copyright Z. M. Wilmot 2011

In memory of Rebecca J. Quint

1990-2010

Rest in Peace

This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual people, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

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### 1

" _I walked through the slums of Raheera once. It is a filthy place, a dung-heap in the middle of a beautiful oasis. It is really a shame that the only feasible place for the Docks was in the slums – if only we had known before they arose, then we might have had a respectable spaceport, where rancid beggars did not pull at your clothes, begging for that which they did not deserve."_

~Raul de Simonez, 102nd President of Baja, in his speech proposing the clearing of the Raheeran slums

My name is Jak. If you want to know my full name, it's Jakken Jalhalla Servidos. I was born in the Lower Docks of Raheera, in Baja, the "greatest" country on Earth. I was the fourth of fourteen children, raised by an alcoholic mother and an abusive father.

Sounds like a fun life, doesn't it? My parents could scarcely pay for themselves, let alone fourteen children. It's a miracle none of us died, when we hardly ever had clean water to drink or any food to eat. We were forced to go scrounging for scraps when we were only little scamps, but the damned maintenance and disposal squads in Raheera were too good at their jobs. They hardly left anything for us, and half the time we ended up just plundering their dumps anyway. The food there got all mushy and inedible, but we had to make do.

As soon as I was old enough to get a work permit, I did. I got it surprisingly quickly, too – I guess the pompous scumbags who run the Occupation Authority didn't want me stinking up their place for too long. I remember going out and applying for my first job that same day, at the Raheeran Docks: the largest set of starship docks on the planet. As a little kid I used to hang out down there to avoid my parents – not to mention the rest of my family – and watch all of the famous starfarers go by. To me, an adventurer and explorer at heart, they were heroes, carving out the vast frontier of space, making it ready for human habitation. David Steinros, Darius Ochenko, Kailash Beldron, Dania Bedenka, Jeremiah Korzos – I would stare at them, open-mouthed, whenever they walked by. My best friend, Peet, would always smack me when I let it hang open for too long. I appreciated that, because it kept the flies out. You'd think that with all the technology we'd developed that we'd have somehow gotten rid of the pests by now, but nope, they're still just as numerous as they ever were – if not even more so.

Anyway, I went to apply for a job there, loading stuff onto and off of the starships. There'd been a big scandal down there recently, and they'd gotten rid of a bunch of their staff. They were only too happy to take me in, and they barely looked at my background or experience. I was to become a "schlepper" – one of the people that move cargo around. They wouldn't let me start out loading the ships directly, much to my disappointment – they set me to sorting incoming goods instead.

I spent most of my time at the Docks, working overtime, even if I knew I wasn't going to get paid. I hated life at home that much. I often slept down there, too – it was much quieter. You weren't woken up in the middle of the night by shattering glass and the sound of beatings in the room next door.

After only a few months of work, I got promoted to loading the ships themselves. It was, at that time, the best day of my life – finally being able to walk on board the actual ships! Sure, it was only the cargo hold, but I was still on a starship! I cherished every moment on the job, and I was always daydreaming, imagining that I was on the crew, taking the ships to distant planets and unexplored star systems.

That was how I got to hear of the Ambassador. Not from the public news holos – anyone worth anything knows the people who appear on them are all brainless pawns, paid off by the big corporations. No, I heard talk and rumors while I was working, of a big ship coming through the Lower Docks. It was September the sixteenth if I recall, in 3245 since the year of our Lord, when I ran across one of the Docks' managers talking to the owner of the ship. I walked closer, hiding behind the crate I was lugging. The owner said that a ship called the Ambassador was coming in, and needed to be stocked for a journey of indefinite length. It was going to investigate some strange signals coming from a distant group of stars, and would be supporting a multi-planetary crew. The manager said he would put my boss, Jorge, on getting it ready immediately.

I was ecstatic. Most of the ships that came through the Lower Docks weren't going more than a few stars away, but this one was really going places, and carrying important people! I slept at the Docks for a week after that, helping Jorge get ready.

The Ambassador docked at 14:32, October the second. I was waiting for it; I had been doing so for at least three hours. It was an hour and a half late. Jorge, Phurb, Doof, Felicité, and I, the top loading team in the Lower Docks, got to work immediately. I kept an eye on the door that led to the interior of the ship the whole time, hoping to catch a glimpse of the helmsman.

And I did. He had a black patch over his left eye, as well as a massive, unkempt red beard and an equally intimidating moustache. It looked like a painted rat was attacking his face. I was... unimpressed, to say the least. I saw a few other members of the crew, as well, but did not mark their appearances in as much detail. They weren't important – at least not to me.

We finished loading two days later. I actually paid attention to the servile pawns on the news holos, and learned that the Ambassador was bound for a group of seven stars, called the Seven Seas, from which scientists had been picking up electromagnetic signals at a strange frequency. The ship was going to investigate it, and try to find the source of the signals. Everyone was excited because they thought there might be some kind of intelligent life giving off those signals. I was doubtful; we had never found any sentient life anywhere else, no matter how worked up people got about it.

I also learned more about the crew in the days we spent loading the ship. It was to be a joint effort by all of the planets and nations under the Terran Home Rule, with the top offices on board the ship to be taken from various countries and planets. I cheered aloud on the street corner when I saw who the captain was to be: Jeremiah E. Korzos. He was from Namibia, Baja's rival for world power. Not caring much for the country that treated my family and me the way it did, I had never had any problem with loving this outsider. He was my favorite of all the starship captains whose lives I followed. Korzos had been on the team that discovered the inhabitable world Pallas as first mate, and had led the famous expedition to the star Arannis.

The first mate was to be Henry Mather, a man from the poorest and most hated country on Earth: America. Though from a universally reviled nation, Mather had risen above all of the obstacles placed in his path to become one of the most famous starship captains of all time. The helmsman was named Fineas Sparten – he was from Egypt. The report did not have much else to say about him. His name sounded familiar, but I couldn't quite place where I had heard it before.

The only other name I recognized was Menthus Crydgar, the ship's designated commando and guardian. He was one of the most famous commandoes in the Bajan army, and he was to be our representative on this expedition. I wondered if Crydgar and Korzos were going to be able to live together on the same ship without one murdering the other; it was well known that they hated each other, even more than the leaders of their respective countries did.

It was after I heard the name of the captain that I made my decision: I was going to stow away. I packed a crate full of food for myself, stealthily added it to the ship's inventory list as "Misselaneous Goods" (I learned how to spell later), and parked it in an out of the way location, a dark corner under a platform in the main cargo hold. I planned to hide behind it until it was too late to turn back. And if they just decided to space me, so be it. Even space had to be better than life in Raheera.

When the day came for them to leave, I rechecked their inventory – Jorge had conveniently put me in charge of that – reported the results (all clear!), and said I was going home. As soon as Jorge's back was turned, I hid. I worked my way through the crates to my corner. I had stacked the crates in such a way as to give myself a hidden shelter. I brought what little belongings I had in a pack. I placed them on the floor beside me, sat down, and waited.

A few hours of bored waiting later, the ship began to vibrate. I heard the engine hum, and then I felt it move. I could barely contain my excitement – I just wished I could see out one of the viewports. I imagined the scene, with myself as the captain, standing heroically on the bridge, while the crowd outside cheered me on, tearful women waved goodbye, and silly awestruck boys stared up at us open-mouthed, wishing they could come along. I blew a raspberry in the direction I thought they must be standing. I was going on an adventure, and they were all stuck back in Baja, forced to continue living their dull, boring, everyday lives.

Then the ship's orbital escape engines kicked in. I was thrown against one of the crates, and I was glad that I had secured it so well. I found myself unable to move as I was pressed against it. It was then that I began to think, for the first time, in a truly rational way about what I had done. I had broken the law, climbed aboard a ship going who-knows-where, and I was probably going to die. My heart fell into my stomach, and I began to feel sick. My thoughts dwelt on my stupidity until the pressure eased off, and I was again able to move.

Then I forgot all about my worries and doubts, and my adventure began.

### 2

" _I'll take care of the boy, and bring him up as if he was my own – his father was a good friend of mine, he was. The boy shall never want for anything, and I will teach him the ways of the wandering chef – though I will refrain from teaching him the ways of my faith, at your request, dear sirs, as that would not be in accordance with our agreement."_

~Joseph Antiochus, Jesuit Missionary and Master Chef, in his pledge to adopt the child Ezekiel Yevon

Once the ship was underway, I was pretty sure that I would be safe for a while. Not many people go into the cargo hold – other than the cook's assistant. After an hour or so of waiting, I emerged from my hideout and stretched my legs. I wandered around the hold for a while, taking note of the layout of crates so that I could quickly hide if need be. It didn't take very long for me to realize that there was nothing to do in the cargo hold.

In an attempt to pass the time, I went around to all of the boxes, and tried to recall what was in each and every one of them. Then I tried again. And again. And for good measure, I did it a fourth time.

I was going to have a lot of time to spare as a stowaway. Sighing, I returned to my spot for food. I walked over to the crate that I had stashed my supplies in – the "Misselaneous Goods" – and then realized that I had stacked another crate on top of it, preventing me from opening it. I sat down heavily on the floor. That was the only crate I had the key to. The other ones were all locked tightly, both to preserve the food and to keep stowaways – much like myself – from eating them. There was no way for me to get any of the crates open. I had no food except for the one apple in my pack. I moaned and put my head between my hands. I must have looked rather pitiful – but then, I felt pretty pitiful.

I somehow managed to sleep that night (I thought it was night at least), though how I did so with my stomach rumbling as it was amazes me. When I woke up, the hunger was infinitely worse. My apple eased it for a little bit, but a few minutes later it returned in full force, along with a massive thirst. I had brought no water with me. I cursed myself inwardly for what I estimated was the rest of the day – I had no way to tell – before finally falling asleep again on an empty stomach and a parched throat. Or perhaps I passed out from hunger and thirst – I'm not sure which.

I was awoken by someone pouring water down my throat. I coughed and sat straight up, staring straight into the eyes of another boy. He looked frightened, and backed away. I was still thirsty, having coughed up most of the water he had tried to make me drink.

"More?" I croaked. Hesitantly, the boy handed me the jug of water he had been holding. I gulped it all down, savoring the sweet flow of liquid down my throat. Wiping my mouth, I put it down. "Do you... have any food?" The boy nodded and handed me a bag of crackers. I stuffed them into my mouth, ignoring the stares of the boy. I finished in less than minute, my hunger finally at bay.

Once I was finished, I turned and studied the boy. He wore nice clothes, and had brown hair and eyes. He was white, like just about everyone I'd seen in my life, other than Captain Korzos. "Are you a stowaway, too?" I asked him, before realizing the foolishness of asking him that.

"Is that what you are, then? A stowaway? I had wondered." He had a pretty voice.

I don't think my response was intelligible. I tried to deny it, but in the middle realized that I really couldn't, and my words turned into meaningless sounds. He smiled knowingly. "That makes sense. Mighty stupid of you, though. How'd you think you'd survive with no food or water?"

My indignance helped me gather my composure, and I explained my plans to him, as well as how I had thwarted them myself. He laughed. It was a light, tinkling laugh. I found myself liking him already, even though I had just met him and he had scarcely said a word to me. I think it was his laugh.

It was my turn to ask him a question. "If you're not a stowaway, then what are you?"

He grinned. "You seem intelligent enough, I suppose. Who has reason to come down here the most often?"

"The cook's assistant?"

He nodded.

"So... you're a member of the crew?" Whatever trust I might have been developing vanished in an instant. He was going to have to reveal my presence to the captain. No matter how friendly he was, I knew his first duty was to the crew and the mission.

"Of a sort. If you consider me crew."

I said nothing. I was too afraid to speak, in case I incriminated myself further.

He smiled and held out his hand. "Don't worry, I won't report you."

I loosened up and glared at him suspiciously. "Promise?"

"Promise."

"Swear?"

"Swear."

"By?"

He blinked. "Whatever you want?"

"You have to choose. It isn't the same if I do."

He sighed. "Fine. I swear by the ship. Happy?"

I grinned. "Very much so." I took his hand, which was still outstretched, and shook it. "My name's Jak. What's yours?"

"Ezekiel."

"Where're you from?" The name sounded foreign.

"Ysrayel. My family was Jewish."

Jews always had lots of money. "If you're Jewish, then why are you serving in this position? Shouldn't your family be the ones funding the expedition or something?"

He smiled sadly. "I said 'was' for a reason. They died. Murdered."

I kicked myself for not paying attention. "I'm sorry! I didn't mean-"

He interrupted me. "It's okay. No worries. It was a while ago. I'm over it."

"Didn't they leave you anything?"

He shrugged. "No. The murderers took everything."

Neither of us said anything for a moment. I decided to change the subject.

"So how'd you wind up here then?"

He wrapped his arms around his legs. "Only work I could get. I wasn't going to refuse it. My family knew the cook – he'd tried to convert them to Christianity many times." He started. "Gah! I came down here to get something!" He scrambled to his feet. "I need sausage! Where is the sausage?"

I hid my smile behind my hand as I stood. I grabbed his arm. He flinched from the touch, but followed me as I dragged him to Crate 46. "In here," I told him. He smiled his thanks and took out a key. He used it to open the crate. He took out what he needed and was about to seal the crate when he hesitated. "Do you like sausage?"

I grinned. "Do I?"

"I don't know. Do you?" He clearly did not understand the meaning in my tone of voice. I would have to fix that.

"Of course I do! How can you not?"

He shrugged. "I don't eat pork." I kicked myself again for forgetting that queer habit of Jews. He went on, "I'll leave this unlocked. Don't tell anyone, though." I smiled. Who did he think I was going to tell? I wasn't going to walk up to the captain and tell him that the cook's assistant was conspiring with a stowaway.

I grinned my thanks, and then said what I grinned, just for good measure. He nodded in reply and walked over to a nearby crate. He squinted at the number, then unlocked that one too. "I'm guessing you'll need water as well." He was right. Water is kind of essential.

"I need to go back now. I'll see you later. Nice to meet you." He smiled at me and ran off, a pack of sausages under his arm. I waved at his back as he left, and then shook my head – he had forgotten to close the door behind him. I did so for him, then returned to my hiding space. I fell into a deep sleep again, despite having only been awake a few minutes.

When I awoke, I helped myself to some sausage and water. I was standing next to the water crate when I heard the handle on the door turning. I panicked and hid behind a nearby crate, praying that it was Ezekiel.

My prayers were answered, and I silently thanked whoever it was that did so. I ran out to greet him. He smiled at me. "How have you been in the..." He glanced at a chronometer on his wrist. "Five hours since I saw you last?" Apparently I hadn't been sleeping that long.

"Just dandy," I replied, feeling slightly silly. For whatever reason, Ezekiel made me feel better about myself. I'd only known him for a few hours, and only actually been with him for a few minutes, but I already trusted him quite a bit. It must have been his swearing by the ship.

"Good to hear. Do you know where the cod is?" I showed him where it was, saving him several minutes of searching. We used up that spare time in talk. He told me all about himself, and I told him all about myself.

His family had been poor, even by my standards – not all Jews were rich, apparently. I had to make some serious adjustments to my worldview after that revelation. He was the tenth child out of sixteen, as well – I felt sorry for him. I could only imagine what that had been like.

When Ezekiel was nine years old, everyone else in his family had been murdered by one of his father's enemies. He had then entered the service of his father's friend, Joseph Antiochus.

At the time, Joseph was merely a wandering chef and Christian missionary, spreading both good food and the word of God, but shortly after Ezekiel entered his service, he began to serve the rich and powerful, and was offered a permanent job at Sladjik's Resort in Lithestatvia, his home country. He had been reluctant to leave that job for the expedition, but the government had exerted considerable amounts of pressure on him to accept the new job. He left on the promise that he would be given his old job back when he returned. Ezekiel, on the other hand, who had been brought along by Joseph to continue assisting him, was quite excited about the prospect of a space journey. He and I had a lot in common.

We continued to meet like this for weeks. I showed him where all the food was, and we used the minutes saved to talk. He became the best friend that I ever had, and the loneliness that I had felt for most of my life vanished when I was with him. I was happier than I had ever been in my life. He made sure I had access to the right foods (so I didn't catch scurvy), while I showed him the ins and outs of what was in the inventory. I thought, and even dared to hope, that it could continue like this forever.

### 3

" _I am honored to accept this post to lead humanity's ambassadors in this quest for alien civilization, far from beloved Sol's light. The best that humanity has to offer will ride out with me to the Seven Seas, and together, unified by our common humanity, we shall show anything that lives out there that humanity is the greatest race ever to dwell under the stars."_

~Captain Jeremiah E. Korzos, in his speech accepting the leadership of the Ambassador expedition

I was discovered eight weeks into the expedition. It was my own stupid fault, too. I forgot that Ezekiel was not the only one who needed to come into the cargo hold. The maintenance technicians did as well.

After many visits from Ezekiel, I heard the door open, and leapt out from behind a crate and ran towards it, thinking it was my friend. I skidded to a halt when I saw not Ezekiel, but an old man in a thick black uniform.

"Err... hi," I said. I had thought I was doomed when Ezekiel first found me, but I hadn't been. Now I really was, and there was no way I was getting out of this one. Before I could move, the old man walked forward and grabbed my right wrist with an iron grip. "A stowaway, eh? We'll see what's t'be done wit' ye." He turned and dragged me towards the door. I resisted fiercely, struggling to pull myself the other way. Despite my best efforts, my body continued moving towards the door. It was wrong for so old a man to be so cursed strong.

As he crossed the threshold of the door, I admit it, I panicked. I really panicked. I also bit the hand that was holding me. He yelped and let go. I turned and sprinted away from him, ignoring his cursing. I was about to turn the corner of a crate when I felt something hit my leg. It went completely numb, and I couldn't move it anymore. I fell to the ground and rolled several feet before I slammed into a crate. My body hurt all over. The man took his time walking over to me. He smiled cruelly down at me. "Not so keen on runnin' now, eh boy?" He chuckled drily as he put the stunner into his belt. "Be glad it was me who caught ye' an' not one o'dem others. They's not nearly so nice." He bent over and grabbed my wrist again. "Come on. Ye 'ave some asplainin' to do." I couldn't move, as much as I tried to, and I was dragged through the door.

I don't know how long he dragged me, but it must have been at least five minutes before he let go of my arm. "Cap'n!" I heard him say. My eyes up until that point had been closed, but I opened them again to see Captain Jeremiah E. Korzos staring down at me.

"What's this, Methuselah?" His voice did not have any of the roughness that I associated with most blacks. His grey beard quivered around his thick lips as he spoke.

"Foun' 'im in the cargo bay, cap'n. 'E tried to run, but I stunned 'im, see?" The old man, presumably Methuselah, looked proud of himself. It had just been a lucky shot.

"I do." Korzos prodded me with his foot. "Can the boy speak?"

I couldn't, but I very well couldn't tell him that – as I couldn't speak.

Being smart as he was, he figured that out. He barked orders for someone to get a stunner antidote, and looked down on me as he waited. I don't know what was going through his mind then, nor do I have any desire to. Someone rushed into the room and gave him the antidote. I heard a muffled gasp, and recognized the breathing of Ezekiel. I groaned inwardly. I had forgotten about him. They had to know that he must've seen me at some point and not reported it. He went in there far too often for him not to have noticed a stowaway in there, even though it was a rather large cargo hold.

The captain administered the antidote and I groaned as it took effect. I collapsed onto the floor from my previously rigid position and continued to look up.

"Get up, boy," Korzos barked at me. There was so much authority in his voice that I had no choice but to obey. I slowly stood, wincing, and took in my surroundings. About twenty people of varying ages stood around me, their expressions ranging from curious to stern to sympathetic. All were men save two women in the back.

"Look at me." I turned to face Korzos. His deep blue eyes bored straight into my soul, and I started to shake. He had the most unnerving stare, and I couldn't look into his eyes for more than a few seconds.

"What are you doing here?"

"I... umm..." I couldn't get the words out. It's hard to defend yourself when you are clearly in the wrong and being stared down by one of the most experienced starship captains of all of the planets under the Home Council's rule. You try it sometime, and then we'll compare our respective performances.

"I think he's a stowaway, captain." I wanted to turn to face the speaker, but I was afraid to take my eyes off of Korzos.

"Yes, yes, I know, but I want to hear him say it." He grabbed my chin with his strong hands and lifted my gaze to match his. His hands were surprisingly soft. "I repeat, lad: what are you doing here?"

I swallowed and answered. "I... stowed away." He raised an eyebrow, and I hastily added, "Sir." He nodded and let go of my face. My gaze dropped to the floor. I heard snickering behind me.

"Well then. We're certainly too far out to turn around – not that we would anyway. It'd be bad publicity." Some of the crew chuckled. "So then, boy, what should we do with you? Space you?"

I shuddered, remembering my own thoughts when I had decided to stow away. Why had I done that? Now that the possibility of being spaced was real, I felt very differently about it.

Korzos laughed. "Scared? That's good." His voice almost sounded warm. I looked up, surprised. There was a glimmer of amusement in his eye. " Don't worry, boy – I wouldn't actually space you. Only a barbarian would do that. I am not a barbarian." He smiled. "No, you will live with us – but you'll have to earn your keep." He looked into the space past my shoulder for a moment, then called out, "Joseph?"

I heard someone behind me step forward, and winced as I heard Ezekiel's voice. "He's busy in the galley, captain. Shall I get him for you?"

Korzos shook his head. "No, he has work to do, I know. Keeping the ship fed is one hell of a job. Do you know if he needs extra help?"

"We always need extra help, sir."

Korzos grinned. "Well, that's settled then! He'll live with you and Joseph down in the galley! Only half-rations for him, though – he's not one of those counted in when we calculated our inventory. Plus he probably took some from our stores over the past eight weeks. Off you go!" He pushed me into Ezekiel, who caught me. His arms wrapped around my body, and my head lingered for a moment under his neck. He pushed me to my feet and grabbed my hand. Not my wrist. My hand. He marched us out of the room without looking sideways. As soon as we were a ways down the corridor, he turned to me and glared. I cowered. I hated to see him mad at me. Was I going to lose my only friend?

"You idiot!" He did not yell, but I could hear the anger in his voice. At the same, though, I heard fear. I liked to imagine it was fear for my safety, but I knew it was more likely fear for himself. "You could have been killed! If it had been someone else who caught you, like Ivor..." He shuddered. "You probably would've been spaced without Korzos knowing a thing! How the hell did you get caught, anyway? You promised me you'd be careful! You almost got me in trouble! It's a good thing Korzos wasn't thinking about who was in that room most of the time!" I waited for him to finish. If he was anything like my mother, after his rant he would start to cry and hug me and tell me how worried he had been about me.

Right on cue, he drew me into his arms. That seems a tad romantic – it's a bit too early for that. We'll just say he hugged me, for now. And cried. I felt his tears roll onto my face.

"Damned selfish of you, Jak! My only friend on the whole expedition, and you almost got yourself killed!" I put my arms around him and drew him closer. After a few moments he pulled away. "We need to go. Come on." He held – no, grabbed – my hand and pulled me down various corridors until we arrived at the galley.

It smelled delicious. Kitchens usually did, and this one, despite being aboard a machine travelling at impossible speeds, was no exception. At first I couldn't see the cook amid the plates of sizzling food. Ezekiel pulled me through mounds of pots, both clean and dirty, to the center of the room. A middle-aged, balding man stood there, facing away from us, wearing tight purple clothes. He hummed a slow dirge to himself as his arms moved frantically, rearranging platters and adding dashes of this and that to various dishes. "Ho, 'zekiel, throw me the powdered prawn antennae, will you?" Ezekiel let go of my hand, leaving it out in the cold (though the kitchen was almost unbearably warm; I was already sweating), and picked up a small vial. He tossed it at the man, who he caught it deftly. "Thank you kindly, son. Who's that you've got with you? I don't recognize his smell." I was indignant. I did not smell! Sure, I hadn't taken a shower in weeks, but I had scents I used to cover it! I had thought about that at least when I stowed away. It had taken a lot of scrounging to get those.

"He tries to cover it up with perfumes, but the stink of a long time without a bath comes through. I'm guessing he's a male – maybe sixteen? Fifteen? Gone through most of puberty, I'd say. White. Definitely white. Am I close?" I was impressed that he had guessed so much about me just through my smell. I wondered how he could do so even though the powerful aromas in the room. He turned around, grinning, and I saw his face for the first time. It looked sunburned (perhaps stoveburned?), and he looked surprisingly solemn for all the cheerful words that emerged from his mouth (not to mention the grin – it was a solemnly cheerful grin). "I thought so. So, who is he, 'zekiel? Need I ask you a fourth time?"

Ezekiel finally came to himself. "His name's Jak. He... err... stowed away. He was hiding in the cargo bay. Korzos told me he was to help us."

The man, presumably Joseph, raised an eyebrow. "The cargo bay?" Something whistled, and he turned around and silenced it. His hands began moving in a flurry again. "Did you know about this?"

"N-no, sir." Ezekiel was a horrible liar. Not that I could really say much myself.

Joseph clucked. "So he's not the reason that you've been taking longer and longer trips to the cargo bay, and with increasing frequency?" Ezekiel had the grace to remain silent.

"Like I thought. So, he's to live down here and help us out? Well, if that's what the good captain says, so it shall be. Take whatever belongings he has and show him to his room. He'll be sharing yours, I think. Get him set up, then show him the basics. He starts work tomorrow, precisely at 0300 hours."

"Yes sir." He took my hand again and warmth flowed back into it. He led me off to the cargo bay to retrieve my scant belongings, and then we retired to his room.

### 4

" _It is then that I must refuse your offer of the post of captain of the starship Ambassador, for the reasons I have already stated. It is a risky venture – I may even go so far as to call it foolish, with little to no chance of any reward. It is uncertain as to whether or not we even want to make contact with whatever is sending off these signals – I believe that I can best serve humanity's interests elsewhere."_

~Captain Kailash Beldron, in her speech refusing the post of leader of the Ambassador expedition

I liked Ezekiel's room a lot. It was in an out of the way location – behind the galleys – and was much more spacious than I would have thought it would be, taking into account the fact that he was just a cook's assistant. He had a bunk bed, for whatever reason. He slept on the top and used the bottom bunk for storage. He sighed and began to move his things to drawers. "You'll sleep here, I guess. I don't know what you want to do about clothes – maybe you should talk to Gerald about that later today. He manages our clothing – he can probably scrounge up some things for you."

After settling me in, he began to show me around the ship. We started at the bow. He showed me the secret bow storage, which had been stocked by Joseph and Korzos themselves, so that the Dock "rats" wouldn't know about it – he looked at me apologetically as he said it. We then walked up to the door outside the steering room, where Fineas spent most of his time. Ezekiel said it was a fairly large room, and never locked, but Fineas was liable to bite your head off if you barged in – unless you were either Mather or the captain.

Behind the steering room was the largest room on the ship (other than the cargo hold) – the bridge. It was the area that Methuselah had dragged me to. Korzos spent most of his time here, talking via teleholo to Fineas and communicating with the other members of his crew. The crew never seemed to do much, and I asked Ezekiel about it. He said that they were mostly reserve soldiers and political placements, so didn't have much to do. They did perform a few basic maintenance tasks aboard the ship – like observatory duty and some cleaning – and did lots of military drills. As I entered the room, I was greeted in a surprisingly friendly manner by most of the crew gathered there. Korzos and Mather were talking to Fineas in the center, but the other crewmembers in the room came over to say hello.

Ezekiel introduced some of them, but most of them introduced themselves. Two of the officers were in the group – Peter Robos and Rafael Donnar – and they all seemed very nice. Through several minutes of active conversation with them all, I learned that Peter had actually started his own starfaring career as a stowaway. I was surprised to learn that quite a few others had done the same – they all congratulated me on my good work, and asked how I had managed to stay hidden for so long. Kyle, a nice man with very short blond hair, said that he had managed it only for five weeks, and he had never seen anyone last longer. I told them about how I had packed an extra crate for myself, but I remembered to leave all mention of Ezekiel out of my tale – as well as my own stupidity in blocking off my own crate. They were suitably impressed.

After a while, Ezekiel extracted me from the group, saying that he needed to finish his tour. They all waved goodbye to me as we walked off. I felt much better about myself after that experience. As we exited the bridge, I noticed a man leaning against the far wall, watching me intently with dark blue eyes. He was bald, and had a silver stud earring in his left ear. There was a writhing purple tattoo on the rounded canvas of his head, and he was dressed in tight black clothing, with an open (also black) leather vest over it. I shivered. He did not look like a friendly man, and I had learned to trust my instincts.

Ezekiel caught me looking at him, and pulled me out of the room. "I wouldn't stare back if I were you, Jak. That's Ivor – almost as bad-tempered as Fineas, if not more so. And he's also pretty creepy. He's from Ryussa – has to be, with a name like Ivoranov Karazkevitch Karanov." I wondered why he had put that name in his memory. "I would avoid him if I were you. Don't talk to him. It shouldn't be too hard – he keeps to himself mostly anyway." I nodded to show that I was listening and had understood, and we carried on.

He showed me to three different mess rooms, two training areas, the door to the officer's mess (which I was never to enter on pain of death), and various crewmembers' lodgings. On the way to the third mess, we ran into a man with long brown hair flowing from underneath a brightly colored bandana, dressed in tight blue pants and wearing wristguards and gigantic sunglasses.

I recognized him instantly. His name was Adam Sansson – he was an Irish spy who had been caught in Baja and imprisoned there for a while. I knew because I had been there when he was caught, standing about five meters away. The incident hadn't been well-publicized, only receiving an offhand mention on some minor news holos.

Ezekiel introduced him by his real name. I was surprised that he hadn't even bothered to change it, but I hid it well. I nodded a greeting, and we continued onward. I felt his eyes on my back as I continued walking; I hoped he didn't recognize me. Not that I was sure it would mean anything for my safety if I did. I wondered why he was on the crew. Had he escaped and was using this ship to get away? Had he been released? Forced into Bajan service? I had no idea, and soon stopped thinking about it.

As we began to work our way into the bowels of the ship, back towards the galley and cargo bays, we met the two female crewmembers, Angela and Michaela. They acted more like boys than girls – or at least a lot like the poor girls back in Raheera. Neither of them had been born on Earth, though – Angela was from Adenia and Michaela from Ulkind. Angela had a short blond mess of hair, and Michaela had long, smooth, brown hair tied back in a ponytail.

We carried on. Eventually we reached a door with a palmlock. "That's the way to the science labs – Uriel and Abdul live down there. They hardly ever emerge. I think Uriel's a biologist and Abdul's a chemist."

"No physicist?" I was surprised. Physicists were essential on spaceflights – or so I had been told. I don't remember by whom.

"Fetherkap is one. He's one of the assistant engineers." I nodded. That made sense.

Moving on, he then showed me the maintenance room. There were three men sitting around a circular table. I jumped and tried to walk backwards when I saw Methuselah, but Ezekiel grabbed my hand to stop me, grinning. He whispered to me, "Don't worry, they won't bite... too hard." I let him pull me back in. He addressed the inhabitants of the room. "This is Jak. I'm showing him around."

A thin, wiry man with the most ridiculous gray moustache I had ever seen leapt to his feet. "Jolly good! Come on in, chaps! Have a seat."

Methuselah grinned evilly at me. "Nice ta' see you still 'board the ship. Lucky thin' Korzos didn' space ye."

The thin man slapped Methuselah on the back, sending him into a coughing fit. "Hush, Methuselah, don't scare the boy so. We've got to give him a proper welcome!"

He stood up, walked around the table that the three men had been sitting around, and enthusiastically shook my hand. "The name's Matthias. Matthias Newson, Chief Engineer of this ship. Or, as I like to call myself, chief fixer-upper of the magical maintenance municipality!" I wasn't sure if that made sense, but I smiled anyway.

"I hear you've already met Methuselah, eh, lad?" He winked and elbowed me. I smiled thinly and nodded.

"And him that's sitting next to him is the esteemed Daniel Fetherkap, my assistant and the unofficial physicist of the group."

Fetherkap smiled. "I also happen to be the official physicist of the ship, Newson. Don't forget that or I'll have to convert you into Darievan energy." He laughed. "You'll probably be of more use to us that way." Methuselah nodded in solemn agreement and stared down into his drink, as if he was looking for something hidden at the bottom.

Matthias sighed. "No one appreciates the work of a good engineer. We just get bawled at when we mess something up. And Fetherkap, I told you to call me Matthias. I hate chaps being all formal around me."

"And that's why we do it, mate." Fetherkap winked at me and stood up. "I think I'll join these two on their tour."

We said goodbye to Matthias and Methuselah, and Ezekiel, Daniel and I continued on our way. Daniel opened up the engine room for us, and explained how it worked. He said something about it drawing energy from some strange medium that physicists had taken to calling the Ethyr. No fuel was required, and it could heat the ship too. I didn't understand much of else of what he said, and I'm pretty sure Ezekiel didn't either.

Daniel accompanied us for about half an hour before he said goodbye and walked off to go check up on something or other. By that time, Ezekiel and I had almost finished our tour. The last stop on our journey was a place even more remote than the galley. It was the priest's lodgings. The priest was a nice man named Lazarus Lanoné. He was Christian Universalist, so could hear confessions and help out anyone from just about any branch of Christianity. As far as I knew, that meant everyone except Ezekiel. And me, I guess. I never cared much for religion. As far as I was concerned, any god who let me live like I had lived in Raheera wasn't worth worshipping.

We left Lazarus and returned to the galley. Joseph, going back on his promise to set me to work tomorrow, put me to work washing dishes immediately. Ezekiel scurried around, chopping up food and throwing things to Joseph whenever he needed them. I was sweating profusely after only a few minutes, and I was soaked by the time we were done an hour later. I asked Ezekiel if Joseph ever left the kitchen. He shrugged. "Maybe once or twice. Total."

I asked Ezekiel how many people he was feeding, and he said only forty-nine, then corrected himself and said fifty, with a smirk at me. I then asked why he spent so much time in the kitchen if he wasn't cooking for that many people. Joseph apparently heard me, and turned and stared at me in horror.

"Just because I don't serve many people doesn't mean I can slack off! I make only the best food for those under my charge, and give them what they need to stay healthy, while at the same time making sure everything is still delicious! Oh, and also, by tomorrow, give me a piece of paper – borrow some from Ezekiel if you must – with your favorite meals and foods on it. Just because you're on half-rations doesn't mean you can't eat well!"

When we went to sleep that night, after taking a much-needed short shower – each of us got on every four days – I was exhausted and sore all over. I didn't know that cooking could be such hard work. Although, actually, I suppose I didn't really cook – I just scrubbed dishes. And I had already known how hard that work could be. So nevermind that.

I was very tired, and I fell asleep almost immediately.

### 5

" _Engineers get stuck with all the crummy jobs – I don't know why I wanted so badly to be one. In fact, I don't know why anyone would ever want to be one – all they really ever do is clean and tinker with machinery. It might seem fascinating at first, but it soon loses its luster. No one appreciates you – you're just doing your job, no matter how skilled you are, until something goes wrong – then you become a failure and an incompetent buffoon."_

~Former Engineer and Professor of History Nikolai Tullas, in an interview regarding his change of profession

It turns out that I was not only to be the cook's assistant, but the engineers' as well. I learned that the next morning when Fetherkap came to get me, after having helped Joseph and Ezekiel make breakfast. I was still only half awake (or maybe I was half-asleep?) as I gobbled down half of a breakfast and followed him to the engine room. He told me the floor needed cleaning, grinned, handed me a mop and bucket, and told me to get to work. Cleaning, it seemed, was a duty of the engineeers (app-arently the rest of the crew was supposed to help as well, but rarely did their share), and they were only too happy to have someone to hand much of their own share off to. I sighed and got to work, wondering why they were making me clean with such archaic tools.

As I worked my way (rather slowly – I hadn't done any cleaning jobs in a long time) around the room, I took in my surroundings. The room was mostly empty – presumably for engine overheating and explosion containment – and was rather large. The engine itself was in the dead center of the room, and Fetherkap had forbidden me from touching it on pain of spacing. I was more than happy to avoid it.

The engine extended from the floor to the ceiling, and consisted of two cylinders, connected to each other by metal bars and thick cables and wires. It gave off a very low hum. A few meters away from the engine apparatus was a wall, slightly shorter than I was. I guessed that it was to protect the engine from saboteurs, but unless it was electrified or something (which was entirely possible), it didn't look like it would be very effective. In the middle of the wall closest to the door was a series of boxes, like the kind used to cover input panels. There were five of them, and they all stuck out above the wall.

After half an hour or so, I had made it almost to the far corner of the room, which was mostly shrouded in darkness (for such an important room, it was remarkably ill-lit). As I prepared to move out of the corner, the engine room door opened. Peering towards it, I saw Korzos walk in, looking around. Apparently satisfied, he walked up to the engine, opened up one of the boxes, and placed something in it. A small smile touched his lips, and I shivered. It was not a friendly smile. He closed the box and walked out. I had a feeling that I wasn't supposed to have seen that.

After several minutes of silence and very slow thoughts (not to mention motionlessness), I decided that it was none of my business and that I should trust the captain – after all, he was the Jeremiah E. Korzos – and I continued cleaning. I was just about to exit my dark corner when the door opened again. I froze.

It was the first mate, Henry Mather. He looked nervous. He scurried over the box that Korzos had visited, opened it, and took something out of it. He fiddled with it for a few seconds. I shrank further into the shadows. Mather looked around nervously, his brown hair quivering, before pocketing whatever it was and walking quickly out of the room, closing the door behind him. It opened again an instant later, and Mather ran back in, shut the box, then ran back out, again closing the door. I decided to think nothing of it (or rather, ignore it in case I got into trouble), and finished cleaning the room, always keeping an eye on the door.

It took me two more hours to complete, me being rather nervous and stopping every few seconds to make sure that the door wasn't opening. I was sent to clean a few of the corridors by Daniel, then sent back to the galley to help Joseph prepare for lunch. I wondered if the man ever slept; he had been up well before I awoke, and was still cooking when I went to sleep last night. I noticed for the first time that he wore a thin layer of plastic over his arms. When Ezekiel arrived after doing who knows what, I asked him about it.

"Surely you've noticed how hot it is in here? Joseph is human, you know. He does sweat. And no one wants sweat in their food. The plastic prevents that sweat from getting into the food." I couldn't argue with that.

After lunch was done, Joseph told Ezekiel and I to take some time off. We did so gladly, and ended up in the cargo bay, talking like we used to. We sat closer than we ever had before, our legs pressed together, and I could feel his breath on my neck when he turned to look at me. I was surprised when he rested his head on my shoulder, but continued talking like he always did. I was acutely conscious of it, but it did not make me uncomfortable. I was so focused on the weight of his head on me that I didn't hear his next question, and had to ask him to repeat it. He lifted his head, and his face almost touched mine. Hesitantly, he began to move forward, and I did the same. His hand clutched mine as we got closer, and his lips gently touched my own.

I had always heard that first kisses were horrible. It's true, though at the time I didn't know it. I thought it was the most wonderful thing in the world. I wanted it to last forever – but, of course, it couldn't. So it didn't. When we finally drew away, we looked into each other's eyes, then hurriedly looked away. I think we both looked like tomatoes. Very vibrantly colored tomatoes.

The door to the cargo hold opened, and we hurriedly unlocked our hands and scooted apart, looking towards the door. Peter Robos and another crewmember I hadn't met, with hip-length black hair and a matching trench coat, stood there, looking at us. We stared at each other for a few moments, then Ezekiel grabbed my hand and dragged me out of the room. The two men walked into the cargo room, closing the door behind them.

Ezekiel and I shared a small smile, and then went to the bridge, to see what was going on there. It was mostly deserted. Korzos and Mather stood in the center (as always), talking to Fineas over the holo. I didn't look at them for too long. Ivor was in the same place I had seen him last, staring at the captain and mate. Michaela was speaking to Mikhail Nikkelei on the opposite side of the room, and Menthus Crydgar, my fellow Bajan, stood nearby, watching Ivor intently.

Crydgar was younger then he looked. His dark reddish skin was leathery and wrinkled, and his hooked nose gave him the appearance of an eagle. I couldn't see his eyes as anything other than dark pits, as his dark blue hood obscured most of his face. He held a massive scythe, taller than he was, upright in his right hand, its bottom resting on the floor. The scythe was ceremonial, but it looked like he knew how to use it.

"-lmost at Mediterraneo. We should be there in less than a day, if we want to start there." It was Fineas, speaking to Korzos and Mather. Korzos turned to Mather. "Think we should?"

Mather shrugged. "Why not? It's the closest. We might as well be logical about this – our supplies won't last forever."

Korzos nodded. "Fair enough. Summon the crew."

Mather walked over to a nearby console and held down a red button. "All able hands report to the bridge immediately." His voice echoed over the intercom system down the length of the ship. He let go of the red button and returned to where he had been standing before. People slowly began to trickle in from various parts of the ship, until a flood of them poured in, presumably from one of the messes, about five minutes after the call. I noticed that Joseph wasn't there. I asked Ezekiel about that. He explained that Joseph, the scientists, and the priest didn't count as "hands." Technically, neither did we, but we weren't going to be told to leave. We were part of the crew, after all. Or at least he was. And I was with him.

The captain began to address the crew. "Alright. We've almost approached the first star we were told to examine. There are apparently at least three planetoid objects circling it, so we may actually be landing on a planet. I want everyone to check their suits in the next two hours, and report any damages to Gerald."

I was still tired, and I began to doze off as Korzos continued. I had missed a fair potion of what he had said by the time Ezekiel noticed and elbowed me awake. "The scientists still can't determine from which of the seven stars the signal is coming from, but it could be this one. So we're going to check it out. There are probably several more planets, just too small and close to the star to be able to pick out effectively. Once we get closer, we should be able to pinpoint the signal, if it is indeed coming from this star. Questions?"

Someone that I could see in the back had one. I wish I had thought of it myself. "Why is it that the scientists can't pick up the signal if we're so close?"

Korzos shrugged. "They say the equipment might have been calibrated incorrectly, so their sensors aren't as fine-tuned as they could be. I don't really know – I'm not a scientist. Anything else?"

He answered a few more questions as I thought about his answer. It seemed to lack something. For an instant, Korzos had seemed less than sure of himself. And his response seemed half-hearted and... incomplete. I got the nagging feeling that he was hiding something.

I noticed that Mather seemed unsettled as well. He kept giving Korzos half-hidden, suspicious looks. There was clearly something going on here that I had no business in. As much as I wanted to stay out of it, I had a feeling that I had already been drawn in by what I witnessed in the engine room. But who could I tell?

Korzos called the meeting to an end and everyone scattered in their separate directions. Ezekiel and I hurried down to the galley. Ezekiel told Joseph what was going on, then returned to his room. I followed. He closed the door behind us, then grabbed me and kissed me for all he was worth. Surprised at first, I resisted, then gave in, letting his warmth flow through me. We broke off several seconds later.

"Do you have a suit to check?" I asked him, as he continued to hold me. He let go of me and took a step back. He smiled crookedly. "What makes you think they'd let us lowly people get off the ship?" I admit, I had never thought of that before. I always had imagined everyone on the ship getting off to go exploring. I should have realized that it wouldn't be like that.

Ezekiel seemed to realize what was going through my head, for he hugged me again. He had certainly gotten bolder over the past day. "Sorry to disappoint you. I know this adventure hasn't been what you hoped for."

I looked into his eyes, and held his gaze. I decided now was the time to say something sweet. "Oh, it has been," I said, and kissed him again, for a long, long time.

### 6

" _The Seven Seas Star Cluster is unusual in many ways – the seven stars are very close together compared to most stars near Sol, yet are also farther away from other stars than would be expected in this area of the galaxy. They also all have drastically different characteristics – there is a Sol-star, a pulsar, a red giant, a white dwarf – and each has quite a few planets. It's a shame that the Ethyr-distance between them and Earth is so long, and that there are no useful resources out there to be found, or else they doubtless would have been explored far sooner."_

~Astronomer Theodore T. Jenkins, in his briefing of the crew of the Ambassador

There was nothing at the first star. The scientists apparently managed to get the instruments to a workable level, and reported nothing coming from the system. Upon hearing the news, I wondered why a biologist and a chemist were put in charge of maintaining machinery – it seemed rather foolish. Any member of the maintenance team would probably have been a much better choice. Ezekiel said that it had been Korzos who had assigned them to the job. I was beginning to lose some respect for the great captain at this point – he seemed incapable of running a ship efficiently. I often thought that I could do a better job, then kicked myself for thinking that. I had no idea what it was like to be ship's captain, and probably never would.

There were five planets circling the star. One was almost twice the size of the planet Jupiter from the Sol system, but also about twice as far from the star. The next two planets were what many members of the crew called "hot Jupiters," which were apparently similar to Jupiter but much closer to the star. There were also two terrestrial planets. One of them was far too hot to be able to sustain life, and the other had an atmosphere of ammonia. We lingered three days in the system (doing what, I'm not entirely sure) before taking off again for the next star.

The star cluster we were exploring, the Seven Seas, had, not surprisingly, seven stars in it, each one named after a sea on Earth. They were quite far from any other stars: the journey between them and Earth was about eight weeks, using the Ethyr to cover the distances quickly. Travel by Ethyr, apparently, did not rely so much on distance as on the strength of an area's connection to it, so the stars were actually much further physically than one would expect from the length of the journey. Nothing of interest had ever been detected from them before, and they were in a direction that humanity had never expanded in, so were currently unexplored. The first star we had investigated, Mediterraneo, was the closest both as the Ethyr travels and in terms of physical distance.

The next star, Carib, was about a week's journey away. The week was fairly routine, save for the fact that the sensory equipment stopped working again. I heard from Ezekiel, who got around the ship more than I did, consigned as I was to washing dishes all day (Joseph went through a huge amount dishes for someone who only cooked for forty-nine – sorry, fifty – people), that the scientists had to go to Fetherkap to successfully recalibrate the equipment. They got it working again a day out from the star, and we emerged from the Ethyr to see if the readings came from the star. They didn't, but Korzos insisted that we explore the star anyway, to Mather's objections.

Carib was a pulsar. It sent out massive amounts of radiation, forcing Matthias to increase the artificial atmosphere (AA, or the "dubbay," as the crew called it) surrounding the ship to prevent us all from frying. The energy came out in bursts, making all of the reading equipment on the bridge go nuts – it was quite fun to watch. When we weren't spending quality time in his room, Ezekiel and I liked to watch the sensors light up in exciting colors and spin wildly, whirring and beeping. There were quite a few planets – seven, I think – but we didn't bother investigating them, as everyone agreed that there could be no life on a planet orbiting a pulsar. It seemed to me as if Korzos wanted to inspect it further (who knows why?), but he gave in to the crew's wishes.

It was going to be a week and a half to the next star on our list, Baltia. It was actually the fourth most distant star from Earth physically, but the third fastest to get to through the Ethyr. It was five days into this journey that I discovered that the normally locked and sealed door to the scientist's chambers was slightly open. Ezekiel was helping Joseph make a feast for Mathers' birthday – much to the mate's objections, I had gathered – and I had been told most politely that I would just get in the way if I hung around in the kitchen. At that, I had saluted and left, then spent my free time wandering about, peering through the viewports and talking to the occasional crewmember who passed by. I learned the hard way that it is a bad idea to look out of the ports when one is in the Ethyr. It's impossible for me to describe what I saw, but it hurt my eyes. A lot.

I'm not sure what drew me to the scientist's area, but I found myself there, in front of the door. It was open just enough for me to be able to slip my hand through the crack and push it open the rest of the way – if I wanted to. I took a step towards it, then stopped. What if they had put some sort of defense system in there, like a series of lasers that would incinerate me the moment I stepped inside?

I sighed. My curiosity always won in these situations, so I saw no need to argue with myself when I already knew what the outcome would be. I finished walking to the door, slid my hand through the crack, and pushed the door open – just enough for me to fit through. I slid it back to where it had been before, when I was on the other side.

I found myself in a white hallway. The walls in most of the ship (save the gray cargo holds) were white, but the walls here, I felt, deserved an even whiter word. They were flawlessly, immaculately, and perfectly white. The floor and ceiling were as well. I felt like I was defiling a holy place just by walking across the floor. It looked like the highly polished floor would squeak when walked upon, but it didn't. I still walked carefully, heel to toe, being very careful not to make a sound. It had been made clear to me several times that I was not allowed back here.

The corridor was rather long, and it turned a lot. I stopped at every corner and peered around it quickly, to make sure I didn't run into anyone going the other way. I listened carefully, too – a skill I had honed in the streets. I didn't hear any footsteps. When I finally reached the end, I found the door wide open. I froze. Had anyone seen me? There was no one visible in the room, so I assumed that I was safe. I slowly walked forward (I still don't know what I was thinking), and listened for any noises. I heard the gentle buzz of machinery, but nothing else. After standing still for several minutes, I finally stepped into the room, figuring that I would have heard voices if there was anyone in there.

There was no one in there – at least, no one still among the living. The stench of rotting flesh assaulted my nostrils, and I quickly covered them with my hand. I cautiously continued to advance. The room was almost the size of the bridge, but seemed much smaller, as it was crammed with computers, lab desks, microscopes, chemicals and screens. The machines were all running, but the screens were blank.

There was a body in front of one of the microscopes. I walked over to it, and came to the conclusion that the buzzing came more from the flies around the body than the machinery. Having seen bodies in the street all the time since I was a child, I wasn't particularly shocked at the sight of this one. I just started thinking about how on earth the flies could have gotten on board the ship.

I crouched down next to the body, making sure to keep my nose covered. The man was lying on his back. A pair of broken glasses lay next his outstretched hand. He was wearing what I think was once a white lab coat, but it was stained red with blood. A bronze plate on the left side of it read "Dr. Uriel Anakos." The biologist. Looking closer at his chest, I saw a large stab wound, mostly hidden by the black shirt he wore underneath his coat. The blood stained the shirt an even deeper shade of black. I stood, shaking. There had been a murder on board this ship.

I searched the lab for the other scientist, Abdul, the chemist. I found him less than a minute later on the opposite side of the room. He had a gun in his hand. I picked it up and found that it was not loaded. The case of bullets was about a meter away. I suppose he dropped them when he was attacked. I knelt beside this body, too, and read the bloodstained nameplate. "Dr. Abdul al-Jamullah." I stood again. There would be no biological or chemical analyses of any more of the planets we visited.

A large device at the far side of the room caught my eye. I walked over to it, stopping when I was two meters away. It had six large screens, and three different keypads. A label at the top said "ISWSD." Below that, in smaller letters, the words "Interstellar Wave Sensing Device" were written. Scientists really needed to come up with better names for their tools.

I realized then that I was looking at the device that the entire expedition had been depending on, that was telling us where the signals were coming from. Did I mention earlier that the keyboards were slashed and the bottom of the machine gutted? I don't think so. Well, they were.

A chill went down my body. Someone was sabotaging the mission. I swallowed and ran out of the room. I didn't want to be caught in here. On the way out of the area, I made sure to close the door behind me. All the way.

### 7

" _What madness is it that would inspire anyone to go on such a journey? As far as humanity has progressed, we have never overcome ethnic and nationalistic boundaries – the ship will be, excuse the comparison, a powder keg. The lightest misstep will set the whole thing ablaze, and the ship will go up in proverbial smoke as the crew finds itself at each other's throats."_

~Captain David Steinros, in his speech condemning the use of a multi-planetary crew on the Ambassador expedition

I didn't mention the murders to anyone, not even to Ezekiel. I waited for someone to discover their murder, but it was never announced. Four day-cycles after my discovery, I heard Korzos speaking with Mather, and he mentioned the work that Abdul had been doing on samples of dust gathered in the Carib system. Was the murderer now playing the scientists' part, communicating with the rest of the crew through vocal or text interfaces? They had never been social, and I had never seen either of them emerge from their lab. It probably wouldn't be too hard for someone to pretend to be them, carrying out their communications as if they had never died.

There was something evil afoot – I just didn't know what it was. I thought about it whenever I wasn't with Ezekiel (which, sadly, was becoming more and more often, as Joseph was demanding more work of him, even though there were two fewer mouths to feed – although I suppose that was irrelevant because nobody knew that, presumably not even him). No matter how hard I thought, though, I couldn't come up with a motive. What benefit would there be to sabotaging the mission? It would only get them killed, along with everyone else. Could it be a personal grudge? I doubted it – no one in this crew was stupid enough to let something like that go so far, and if they did, Korzos would put a stop to it.

Or would he? I had become more suspicious of the captain lately. Small things had been going wrong of late, especially with the engines. He seemed less there, and his temper was becoming shorter and shorter. Mather, I thought, was blameless, but Korzos was up to something. Thinking back to that day when I was cleaning the engine room, I remembered Mather taking something out of the engine that Korzos had put there.

Was Korzos sabotaging his own mission? Was he the murderer?

I felt a cold spot form in the pit of my stomach. That would make so much sense – he had the power to cover it all up, and nobody would doubt his word. I was on the bridge when I had this epiphany, and broke out into a cold sweat when I looked at Korzos, again engaged in discussion with Fineas. I hurriedly walked out of the room, not paying attention to anyone around me, and didn't stop walking until I almost didn't know where I was.

I leaned against the wall in a remote corner of the ship, thinking myself alone, to think things over.

I was not alone. I don't know how he did it without me noticing, but Ivor Karanov, the creepy man with the intense stare and tight black clothing, was suddenly in front of me, with a knife pressed to my throat.

"Don't do anything stupid, boy. You stay silent and answer me a few questions and I'll let you get off free. Understand?" I nodded nervously. He had a thick Ryussan accent.

"Good. What were you doing in the science lab?"

I blinked. I didn't think anyone knew about that.

"Yes, I know. There are cameras in there. Lucky for you I got to the files first and doctored them, editing you out. You have a lot to thank me for, foolish boy. So what were you doing?"

I would have gulped, but I was afraid that doing so would carry my skin into the blade of the knife. It looked very sharp. "I – was j-just curious, sir."

He hissed. "No need to call me sir, stupid boy. What did you find in there?"

"Th-the machine was g-gutted, and the s-s-scientists were dead."

Karanov sighed in contempt. "Useless, you are. I don't know why I bothered saving your pitiful life." If I hadn't been so scared, I would have been offended.

"Because you would have had to answer to me, Karanov." Ivor's head whipped around. Crydgar stood to his right, a pistol aimed at his head, his scythe slung over his back. "I can shoot you dead and not hit the kid, and you know it." He spoke softly, but his voice carried power.

Karanov growled, but withdrew his knife. It vanished into a sleeve.

"Leave the kid be. Touch him one more time and consider yourself dead." Ivor spat on the floor and walked away, making sure not even to brush Crydgar as he passed him. The Bajan's pistol remained trained on the Ryussan until he was out of sight. Then he turned back to me. "Don't go wandering off alone. This ship's not safe." Thanks for the warning.

"Stick with your boyfriend whenever you can. Keep your room locked." I blinked. How did he know about Ezekiel and me? He must have seen some of my question on my face, for he added, "Ivor's not the only one who looks at the cameras, and they aren't just in the labs." He winked at me, and my cheeks felt like they were on fire.

Crydgar escorted me back to my rooms in an awkward silence (well, more so for me than him – I think he was just amused), bid me farewell, then left. I locked the door and waited for Ezekiel to return, which happened about an hour later. I think I was shaking and sweating a little when he came in, and he sat down next to me and put his arm around me, pulling me close. "What's wrong?"

I told him (almost) everything, leaving out my discovery of the bodies – which pretty much means I just told him that Ivor had cornered me in a hallway and I didn't know why. So actually, I suppose, I really didn't tell him much. Just enough to make him feel sorry for me and hold me close and kiss me to make me feel better. He told me off (half-jokingly, half-seriously) and warned me not to go wandering off by myself like that, because Ivor's a dangerous man.

Recovering some of my composure, I asked him what he knew about Ivor. Ezekiel shrugged and told me that he didn't know much, just that he was a former Ryussan ambassador and convicted rapist, pardoned by his country. I guess Ezekiel just assumed that that's what Ivor was after when he cornered me (rape, not being an ambassador). I felt kind of guilty about misleading him, but I wasn't going to tell him about the murders. I decided then that I was just going to ignore them and act like a normal crewmember (big mistake – never ignore murders).

We both had to leave about half an hour later to go help Joseph prepare for dinner, and I didn't have much time to reflect. I wasn't washing as many dishes as usual (or maybe I was just getting better at it so I spent less time doing them), and so actually got to help throw various items at Joseph as he needed them. Ezekiel was much more practiced at it, but I thought that I got much better. After everyone else was served, the three of us ate the leftovers, like we always did, then shelved and froze the rest. We couldn't let anything go to waste. The crew knew that too, and did their best to only take what they needed (although maybe that was because Joseph made it very clear that whatever they didn't eat would be shelved anyway, along with anything they vomited up, and served at the next meal). After that, afraid to wander about the ship, Ezekiel and I retired to our room. Before doing anything else, though, we searched for the camera (I had told him about that at least). It wasn't that hard to find if you were looking for it – it was a small gray sphere directly above the door. We covered it with part of a blanket, then went to bed.

The next day, I was let off again by Joseph, this time for Methuselah's birthday, as I would apparently just get in his way. Ezekiel had to go help Fetherkap do something or other (I was glad to see that I wasn't the only person forced into cleaning and maintenance), so I just stayed in our room by myself (after yesterday I wasn't going anywhere alone).

I must have dozed off, because my eyes snapped open and I jumped up, hitting my head on the bottom of Ezekiel's bed, as someone knocked on the door. I hesitated, then slowly stood and walked over to it. I really wished at that time that it had a little viewing glass that let me see who was on the other side, but mere assistants were apparently not important enough for those.

The knocking continued as I tried to figure out what to do. If it was Ivor again, I would have no protection – unless I uncovered the camera. I quickly did so, threw the covers aside, and opened the door a crack. I wanted more than anything to just leave the door closed, but if it was Korzos and I didn't answer, I would be in trouble.

Before I could even ask who it was, an arm snaked through the crack, forced open the door, grabbed me, and pulled me out into the hallway, closing the door behind me. The owner of the arm spun me around, pinning me against the opposite wall. I felt his warm breath on my neck and shuddered (not like the way I do when Ezekiel does it - this was a bad shudder, not a good one). Adam Sansson whispered into my ear. "Foolish boy. Covering your camera? If Ivor decided to get into your room, he could have, and you would be dead. He has ways of getting around doors. And he can do it quietly, too – the audio on the cameras wouldn't have saved you." I did not know that there was audio as well as visual. I blushed, but I'm pretty sure Adam didn't see it, as I was facing the wall. I began to wonder just how many people had access to the security cameras.

"No cameras out here either. You should always ask who it is before opening the door. You never know who might be behind it, waiting for you to slip up." I tested his grip on my wrists, which he was holding together behind my back. He squeezed them together harder in response, and I flinched. "Don't try to escape. I don't need to put a knife to your throat. Nor do I need to commit any more murders – just play along and I'll let you go free."

More murders? Had I found the scientists' killer? I was sorely tempted to ask, but felt like that would not be beneficial to my safety.

"I know you recognize me – I sure as hell recognized you, walking down the hall, being dragged by your boyfriend. You saw me get taken down in Raheera. No-one else knows who I am – it wasn't a well-publicized capture. If you sing at all, you'll be as dead as Abdul and Uriel, got it?" I nodded. There was no doubt in my mind now that I had found the murderer. "Good. I don't want to kill you, but I will if I have to.

"Now, what did Ivor accost you for? He was clever and took you away from the cameras, so I couldn't see. I wouldn't have been able to get close enough to hear without tipping him off. What did he want?" He said the last words forcefully, pushing me harder into the wall. He hurt my nose. I didn't think it was bleeding, though.

"Tell me!" He pushed even harder, and I winced as my nose began to compress further. I finally managed to mumble a few words. I don't remember exactly what I said, but it didn't matter what they were anyway, because Adam didn't hear them.

"What was that? Speak more clearly!" He twisted my wrists, and I gasped.

"I don't know!" Apparently he understood me that time (assuming that was what I said the first time), but he was not happy with my answer. Or so I gathered from him kneeing me in the crotch from behind.

"Have a better answer now?" he asked, his voice sickeningly sweet. I imagined him as an old lady batting her eyelashes at me, holding forward a plate of steaming hot cookies. Not that anyone had ever done that to me. Old ladies only ever gave me lashes for lingering around their houses, looking for food. My interrogator was closer to the second category than the first.

I did not handle pain very well. "He wanted to know why I was in the science lab."

"Now we're getting somewhere. What did you tell him?" I wondered why he wasn't asking me why I had been there. He twisted my wrists again.

"That I w-was curious." I had never stuttered in my life up until Karanov cornered me, and here I was doing it again, the very next day-cycle.

"You really don't handle torture very well, do you?" He was very perceptive. "What else did you tell him?"

I tried very hard not to stutter. I failed. "N-nothing."

He leaned closer. "Lies!" he hissed, clutching my hands more tightly and twisting my wrists until I could hardly breathe from the pain.

"Let him be, Sansson!" It was Crydgar. Again. I felt Adam's hands leave mine, and slowly turned to look at my savior. His scythe was on his back, but no pistol was visible this time. "He really does know nothing. You should have talked to me before you came here. I could have told you everything this boy could, and more." I blinked. Were they working together?

Crydgar turned to face me. "Boy, you will not speak of anything that has passed here, got it?" I nodded. I wouldn't have trouble with that. "Not even to your boyfriend. Swear." It was not a question, but an order. I nodded again.

"By what?" That was Sansson. I struggled to think of something.

"The stars?"

He and Crydgar exchanged looks. "Fair enough. Now go back into your room. And no more snooping about." I nodded for a third time. As they both turned to walk away, Crydgar turned back to me. "And Jak?"

I turned and looked at them. "Y-yes?" I wanted nothing more than to vanish into my room and never emerge again. I was in way over my head.

"We didn't kill the scientists." He nodded shortly and they both vanished around the corner. I ran into the room, locked the door, flung myself on my bed, and cried for the first time since I was four. I didn't know what to do...

I lay there, sobbing into my pillow, for about an hour before I managed to pull myself together. I wiped my eyes and flipped my wet pillow over. I didn't want Ezekiel to ask too many questions. I wasn't sure I could lie to him again.

When he returned two hours later, I pretended to be happy for him – I laughed and smiled and hugged and kissed him. On the outside, I was perfectly content. On the inside, though, I felt as if something was gnawing at my stomach.

### 8

" _You know that I agree with most of Steinros' opinions – I have publically said as much several times. The crew is just an explosion waiting to happen. Why do I go then? Someone's got to. I don't have much else to live for. It could be exciting. And it really is a noble effort. The real question I asked myself is why not?"_

~Lieutenant Daniel Ironton in an interview about his acceptance of the post of officer on the Ambassador expedition

Baltia was dazzling. It was easily twice the size of the other two stars we had visited, and much brighter. I couldn't look at it for more than a few seconds at a time without special equipment (which I didn't have). The "scientists," or whoever was playing their part, claimed that there was something coming from the fifth planet in the system. It was not the larger signal we had been following, but still something peculiar. Korzos announced that he was going to dispatch a boarding party, led by Mather, to the surface of the planet. During the speech that Korzos gave announcing the signal's discovery, I learned that there were four landing craft stowed around the ship (two on each side) that Ezekiel had failed to show me. When I later approached him about it, he shrugged and said that it had merely slipped his mind.

The team would consist of five people. Mather was going, of course, along with Angela, Peter Robos, the long-haired man Ezekiel and I had seen Peter with, and another I didn't know. When questioned by Michaela about why neither of the scientists were going along, he said that they had more important work to do on the Ambassador, but that Mather had been given instructions to collect planetary samples. It seemed like a hollow explanation to me, and I heard some murmurs among the rest of the crew. Korzos glared at the whole group until they quieted down. Ivor smirked at him from across the room. I was standing in between the two of them, not wanting to get too close to either – there was something seriously wrong with them both.

After we were dismissed, Ezekiel returned to help Joseph prepare meals for the landing crew, who would be on the planet for a day-cycle or two, after making the day-long journey to the planet (Korzos didn't want the Ambassador getting too close to the star). I followed him down, but Joseph told me that he only needed Ezekiel for this. I had begun to notice that I was not needed very often, despite Korzos' claim that I was to earn my keep. I decided that that was why I kept getting into trouble – I just didn't have enough to do.

I ended up finding Michaela, who I had been getting along with rather well, and playing spissyx with her for an hour. As we played, I asked her what she knew about Korzos, Ivor, Adam, and Crydgar. Against my better judgment, I was now determined to figure out what was going on – my damn family curiosity always gets the better of me. That curiosity was responsible for my birth, you know. It probably would be the cause of my death, too, if I didn't get a hold on it soon.

Michaela didn't have much to say on Korzos that I didn't already know: brave, handsome, dashing, commanding, stern, kind, smart. I sensed an undercurrent of doubt in her speech, as if she didn't quite believe what she was saying. She knew next to nothing about Ivor, and had never even heard of Adam before this mission. Crydgar, too, was an enigma to her. She had duties to attend to after our second game, and left me (alone, I might add) to entertain myself. I wandered down to my room, ever watchful for Ivor and Sansson, and ran across a man I hadn't met before. I walked by him without a word, only a nod. As soon as he was behind me, I felt a hand on my shoulder. I jumped and whirled around, only to find the man laughing. He had short black hair and an unkempt but short beard. "Jak? The stowaway?" I nodded slowly.

He stepped back and held out his hand. I shook it. He had a very firm handshake. "The name's Vincent. Vincent Magritto. I'm the head of security on the ship. I'm very impressed that you managed to get on board and stay here through take-off. Do you mind telling me about it? I can't do my job properly without knowing, you know." He winked at me.

I suppressed a sigh and told him the story I had told to so many people already. He paid me more attention that I was used to, nodding and smiling throughout. When I was done, he congratulated me, giving me a huge slap on the back. "Brilliant, boy, just brilliant! Congratulations! You really do deserve to be on this crew." I didn't think it was so brilliant, especially what with me stacking things on top of my food crate, but I thanked him for his kind words, and we soon parted ways. I continued heading back towards my room.

I was very close, only a mere thirty seconds or so away, when I felt something slam into the back of my head. I fell over, and my vision went black.

***

When I woke next, I was in a pitch black room. I sat up slowly, and almost fainted as the blood rushed out of my head. I had been draped over some kind of box (a crate perhaps?), and my head had been hanging over the edge.

I let my body recover, then slowly stood and walked until I ran into some kind of obstacle. I moved my arms around, and felt a handle of some kind. I pushed it down, then pushed outwards, thinking it was a door handle. Nothing happened. I pushed harder. Nothing happened. I began to wonder who put a fake door handle into a random wall when I leaned back, still pushing down on the handle, and the door swung open towards me. Impossibly bright light poured in from the open door, and I collapsed to the ground, shielding my eyes with my arm and closing them tightly. After several minutes, I slowly opened my eyes and peered around the open door. I heard footsteps approaching, and ducked behind it again. There were two pairs of them, softly echoing nearby. I heard Peter Robos' voice. Apparently the landing craft hadn't left yet. "Something opened the door over here... ah, yes it's open." I heard the sounds of pistols being drawn, and then the footsteps stopped. I held my breath.

Suddenly, the door swung open forcefully, shoving me violently against the wall. I grunted in pain and looked at the now open doorway. I saw Peter and the long-haired man standing over me, each with a standard armada issue beam pistol pointed at my face.

"Jak?" Peter's voice was incredulous. "First stowing away on the Ambassador, and now the Diplomat? Aiming to become a professional, are you?" He hoisted me to my feet as thoughts began to race madly around my head. The Diplomat was the name of the landing craft Korzos was sending to the planet. Why had whoever knocked me out put me here?

"I – didn't mean to. Someone knocked me out and when I woke up, I was here..." It sounded stupid even to me.

Robos, however, seemed to think it less so. He grabbed my chin with his hand and lifted my eyes to meet his. "Say that again to my eyes."

I swallowed and repeated myself. He stared at me for a moment, then let my head go. "I think he's telling the truth, Daniel." Not Fetherkap Daniel. A different one.

"If you say so, Peter." Daniel looked at me and smiled grimly. "However, that doesn't matter much. Mather's in charge; his word is final. We have to bring the boy to him."

Peter sighed. "I suppose." He leaned forward, grabbed my arm, and began to tow me away, his shoulder-length blonde hair swaying gently as he walked from side to side. Daniel walked behind me, his face devoid of emotion.

The Diplomat was much smaller than the Ambassador. It had to be, as one fit inside the other. It had been stored in a hangar at the front of the larger vessel. We reached the front of the ship and the bridge in about twenty seconds. "Sir Mather, sir?" Peter spoke respectfully.

Mather stood at the front of the room, peering over monitors showing the surrounding space. The man I didn't recognize was looking over security cameras (why they were included on this ship I had no idea, but they certainly had come in handy), and Angela was staring at a wall. When we walked in, she turned, saw me, and waved, not showing any sign of surprise.

Mather turned at the sounds of Robos' voice, and raised an eyebrow at the sight of me. "What is he doing here?"

Robos gave me a sidelong look, then faced the first mate. "Jak stowed aboard, sir. It was him that opened the door." I barely managed to stop myself from looking at him in startlement. Why was he changing my story? To discredit me?

Mather stepped closer. He wasn't that much taller than me, but for some reason his eyes made him appear much larger. He sighed. "We can't have him aboard. We'll just have to turn around and bring him back to the Ambassador." He addressed me. "And you... you should be ashamed of yourself. We would have been perfectly within our rights to space you when Methuselah first found you, but we didn't. I expect you to be more grateful in the future – if Korzos lets you live."

I hung my head. I wanted to shout out that I hadn't stowed away, but I was sure that no one would believe me, and that Peter would be angry. Daniel cleared his throat.

"Actually, Mather, sir, there is the pod. If we send a message to Vincent, we can align Jak's trajectory with that of the ship and have him pick up the pod. Then we won't lose time."

Mather cocked his head. "Yes... that could work. Very well. See to the pod, you two. I'll talk to Vincent." He nodded and turned back to his screens. Peter and Daniel escorted me out. We walked in silence until we reached the aft of the ship again. Then Peter turned to me.

"Sorry about that, Jak, but I couldn't tell Mather the truth. We don't need him more wound up than he already is. We know that there's somebody on the ship with a malicious intent. Likely the one who murdered the scientists and knocked you out."

I blinked. "How many people know about the scientists?"

Peter smiled unpleasantly. "The better question would be how do we know that you know?" I stayed silent, and he did not answer.

"Anyway, they will likely try to prevent you from getting back to the ship. I think they're planning something, and wanted us out of the way for a while. I understand getting rid of Mather, but not so much us. You can trust Vincent – he's the chief of security. You've met him?" I nodded. "Good. He'll pick you up. When you get back, have him take you straight back to Ezekiel's room." I nodded in understanding.

"And watch out for the captain," Daniel added, leaning calmly against the wall. "He could very well be behind this." The thought had occurred to me.

I turned to face him as Peter began to ready the pod. "But what motive could he possibly have?"

"The simplest one of all: nationalism. He's Namibian. The Ambassador is Bajan, the expedition is funded primarily by Baja, and was launched from Raheera, the capital of Baja. He hates your country, and would like nothing better than to see it humiliated before the world when its prized expedition never returns. You should have seen what it took to convince the Bajan government to let Korzos captain the ship." He smiled. I wondered how he knew all this. "He would love to see this mission fail. He does not care about his own pride. He despises your country with a depth of hatred that I don't think you see. Why do you think the Ambassador even has security? Nationalistic tensions run high on board... if you care to pay attention." Peter yelled something from the pod. "Come on, I think Peter's done."

We walked over to the pod. It was a metallic chrome egg-shaped device with small thrusters in the back. It was set in a dark grey trench in the ground than ran into an airlock in the wall. The top half of the pod opened, revealing a plastic chair and a crude set of controls, much like Ancient Earth motorcars. "Sit down," Peter told me. I did as I was bid. He explained to me how to work the controls. When he was satisfied that I had learned all I could without real training, he bid me farewell, touching his middle and pointer fingers to his forehead. "Good luck." I thanked him as he closed the top.

The next thing I knew, I was pressed back into the seat, and felt like my eyes were going to burrow through my skull into my brain. I closed them, then heard Vincent's voice over some intercom. I admit it, I jumped. Peter hadn't told me about that particular feature.

"Hey, Jak! Nice work there." I heard a smile in his words, and shook my head at him. "Don't shake your head at me, boy. I can see you, you know. But you can't see me!" He laughed. "Can you see the ship?"

I looked at the tiny screen that showed what was outside the pod. I could just barely make out the massive bulk of the Ambassador. "Yup," I replied.

"Great. Head towards it." I did so. Vincent made small talk as I zoomed back towards the ship. I mostly just mumbled in agreement and astonishment at the right times, not really listening. I must have woken up shortly after the launch, for it only took about an hour to reach the ship again. As I approached, Vincent stopped his idle chatter. "Alright now, boy, listen carefully. Slowly depress the brake." I did so, and the pod began to slow. "Now, do you see the marking in the shape of a black ancient space shuttle?" I squinted at the screen, then made it out. I responded in the affirmative. "Go towards it. Keep the brake slightly down." I obeyed.

Suddenly his voice came on again, frantic and shouting. "Push the brake all the way! Now!" I did so, and felt the pod come to almost a complete halt, the reverse thrusters doing their job exceedingly well. My body flew forward, but I was stopped by the restraints before I hurt myself.

Vincent breathed a sigh of relief. "Sorry there, Jak – I underestimated your speed." I told him it was okay as I rubbed my aching neck. He guided me towards the image of the shuttle, and a door in the hull opened up to reveal a large docking space, slightly larger than the size of the Diplomat. I gently guided the pod in, and set it down (rather roughly) on the floor of the hangar. The door to the outside closed. Shaking, I pressed the button that popped open the top and climbed out. That was my first ever piloting experience. At the time, I was petrified, but looking back now, I think I did a pretty damn good job.

Vincent welcomed me back on board with a hug and a half-hearted admonishment (the hug surprised me – I had only talked to him once before this incident and he already treated me like I was his best friend). He again congratulated me on bypassing his security, and asked if I would help him go over the security systems tomorrow, so he could see where he went wrong (again). Seeing no other choice but to agree, I did so. He beamed at me. Worried, I asked him if the captain was going to punish me. He winked.

"How can the captain punish you for something he doesn't know you did?" I could only stare at him. "Security has its ways of getting around the captain. We're not stupid." He nudged me. "Mather told me to escort you to your rooms to await punishment. Seeing as you won't be facing that, I think I'll just see you to your rooms." I nodded my thanks and we set off, him chatting cheerfully, me nodding to his words. I was glad when we reached my room and I could say goodbye. I collapsed onto my bed. As I fell into a hazy sleep, I wondered if Ezekiel knew I had been gone.

### 9

" _I wouldn't worry overly much about the nationalistic tensions – though we may all come from different countries, and even different planets, one thing unites us all – our humanity, and our desire to serve mankind."_

~Vincent Magritto, in an interview on his acceptance of the position of head of security on the Ambassador

" _Come to us, Jakken. A new world awaits you, and a new destiny lies at your fingertips. Just walk among the stars, and all will be well..."_

I opened my eyes and found myself standing in a swirling sea of grey mist. My passage had no effect on its movements as I slowly walked through it, towards the source of the voice.

" _Yes, Jakken. Come nearer, and know the warmth of the stars. You will be welcome here..."_

I sat up straight in bed as a hand touched my shoulder. It drew back quickly at my movement. "Jak?"

I sighed in relief. It was only Ezekiel. "Sorry. I thought it might have been Ivor."

Ezekiel sat beside me and put his arms around me, drawing me nearer. "Nope, not Ivor. Though the door was unlocked." He looked at me with concern in his eyes. "Promise me you'll be more careful next time."

I smiled and rested my head on his chest, listening to his heartbeat. "I promise."

He hugged me more tightly. "How was your nap?"

I drew away and looked at him indignantly. "I wasn't sleeping!"

He raised his eyebrow and crossed his arms. "Oh really? Then what was that noise coming out of your mouth just then?"

There was a witty comeback on the tip of my tongue, I promise you, but I just couldn't get it out. I raised my finger, unable to speak, as he smirked at me. "Thought so." He leaned forward and kissed me, pushing me down onto the bed.

I wasn't going to get the next day off. Korzos had ordered Joseph to prepare large quantities of food with no explanation. Joseph enlisted the help of both of us about half an hour earlier than we normally got up. Thank goodness we decided to sleep in separate beds that night, for he burst into our room using his special key, shouting at us to move our ugly asses and get going.

It was a long day. Breakfast was taken care of quickly (that day's was rather mediocre, far below Joseph's usual standard), and lunch was little better. We spent most of the day preparing for the larger meal that the captain had told us would take place later today. Seeing Korzos in the kitchen made me very uncomfortable. It didn't help to see Karanov just outside, watching him, and Sansson lurking about, watching me.

When we finally got to take a fifteen minute break, Ezekiel suggested we go to a viewport and see if we could still see the landing craft. He didn't know that I had been on board it. I agreed, and we set off to one on the starboard side. When we found an open viewport, we peered outside. It wasn't visible. Ezekiel laughed at my disappointed face and walked to a panel on the wall to the right of the port. He pressed a few buttons, and suddenly the view zoomed in. I stood, open-mouthed, staring out into space. I had never seen anything like it. Ezekiel walked over while I was standing in awe, closed my mouth, and kissed me gently.

"I found it." He grinned like a small child. I could only nod. The Diplomat was a beautiful ship, much sleeker and more streamlined than the Ambassador. Of course, it didn't have to store nearly as much cargo. It didn't appear to be moving rapidly, but I knew that was just an effect of the magnitude of the objects in the background and the angle that the ship was travelling in relationship to us.

We both watched the ship for several minutes, admiring its elegance and beauty. As we were about to turn away, we saw a beam of light shoot across our field of vision, appearing to come from behind the Ambassador. It hit the Diplomat, which exploded in a cloud of fire and dust far larger than the actual ship had been.

We both froze in place and stared. After sharing a look, we both took off for the bridge. It occurred to me, about halfway there, that going to the captain might be a mistake, as he might be – no, probably was – involved. However, I didn't want to be left alone to walk through the corridors of the ship, so I hurried after Ezekiel.

Most of the crew was already gathered on the bridge, watching one of the larger monitors in horror. The grey cloud of debris was very visible there, set against the black background of space. Korzos was shaking in rage. We arrived just in time to hear him shout, "Who did this?" He had been in front, facing the screen, but whirled around the face the crew, who all took a step back from him. His rage looked very real. I began to doubt myself. Was he really that good of an actor?

His eyes fixed themselves directly on me. "You," he snarled. I stepped back from the force in his words. "You and your friend are responsible for this! Other than security, you were the only two not near the bridge when the beam was fired! And it clearly came from this ship! Who else could have done it?" I'm pretty sure we both blinked. We weren't the only ones missing! Joseph wasn't there, the two scientists definitely weren't, and neither was Lazarus, the priest. And who was he to say that security themselves hadn't fired it (unlikely, but still a possibility)? More and more people were beginning to notice their captain's lack of coherency, and there was a lot of quiet muttering amongst the crew.

A look of concern flashed over the captain's face as the voices reached his ears. I think he began to feel the doubt slipping into the minds of the crew, for his voice and his accusations suddenly grew softer. He closed his eyes and breathed deeply. "Perhaps I am mistaken. I apologize for letting my temper get away from me." He tried to smile, but it didn't turn out very well. "It's just that... losing Mather... it's a blow." The crew nodded in sympathy, their faces growing glum as the implications of what had happened hit them. These were the first deaths on the expedition. That they knew of, anyway. That most of them knew of. There were some who knew about the scientists' murder, I reminded myself. But I only knew who five of them were.

Korzos had turned his attention back to me (not Ezekiel – he was clearly singling me out) as I was reflecting. "However, you are the most suspicious at the moment, stowaway. Not here, like almost everyone else, when the shot was fired? Arriving late from the direction the shot was fired from?" I blinked at this additional piece of information. It had clearly come from the opposite side of the ship, but no one pointed this out to him.

"Until we get to the bottom of this, you are to be confined to your chamber. Michaela, escort him there." She nodded, walked over to me, and led me off. Ezekiel started to follow, but Korzos called him back. We walked back my room in silence. Michaela didn't even look at my face, just my feet, as I stepped into my room.

Once there, and after locking the door, I walked to my bed, lay down, and cried, not caring that the cameras could see me. I scarcely noticed when Ezekiel walked in and pulled me close to him. I think we fell asleep like that, but I'm not sure.

When I woke up, he was gone. Not in the same way that Peter and the others on the ship were, but I still wished he was here. I missed all of them acutely, though I never had really spoken to most of them. I rolled out of bed and slowly paced my room. There was really nothing else to do – I had lots of time to reflect.

The first thing I thought about was food. I was hungry. I wondered if meals would be brought to me. Looking at the chronometer, I noticed that it was almost lunch time. I hadn't been brought breakfast. I hoped they just forgot, and weren't starving me.

It took me at least five minutes to stop thinking about my stomach. Once I stopped, I then decided to be practical, and tried to figure out what was going on. Korzos had accused me of destroying the Diplomat. I knew that I hadn't done it, and I'm pretty sure he knew that, too. When he heard the angry mutterings of the crew, he had looked slightly panicked, like someone caught in a lie.

I began to suspect very strongly that Korzos was behind this, and was using me as a scapegoat, as I was the easiest person to assign blame to. I wasn't even supposed to be here. But why would he kill his own first mate? Daniel's words came back to my mind: He hates your country, and would like nothing better than to see it humiliated before the world when its prized expedition fails. He had nothing against Mather, or most people on board the craft. If he hated any crew member, it would be Crydgar, the only Bajan on the crew besides me.

Maybe that was why he singled me out. I was Bajan. And I had managed to circumvent his security – I bet he didn't liked that. At that moment, a thought struck me. Why hadn't security picked up on me while I was in the cargo hold? They must have had cameras there. I decided to ask Vincent when I next saw him – if I ever did.

But if he only hated Crydgar and me, why not just send us to go down on the carrier before destroying it? It certainly would have been more convenient.

But Peter and Daniel had known something was wrong. They didn't trust Korzos. Perhaps Korzos knew that they knew something, and so had gotten rid of them. But still, why not put Crydgar and me on the ship? I suppose his orders would have been questioned had a lowly stowaway been put onto the landing craft, but why not Crydgar? A commando on board would have made sense.

Unless of course, there were other forces at work here. Maybe Korzos had been just as surprised as everyone else when the beam hit the ship. Could Ivor be responsible? I didn't remember seeing him in the crowd. But then again, I was too busy being terrified to notice that much.

Maybe Crydgar or Adam? But what would they have to gain from the destruction of the landing craft? No, the only even remotely possible suspect was Korzos. I wondered why he hadn't just destroyed the ship before it launched, or just blown up the ship during our journey, if he hated Baja so much. Unless...

I stopped pacing. What if he had tried? He had put something into the main engine on that day I had been cleaning, but Mather had removed it shortly afterwards. Could Mather have known something was up, known who was behind it, and had been stopping Korzos from carrying out his sabotages? Did Korzos send him out to get rid of this obstacle? I blinked. If he knew, then why had he agreed to go onto the landing craft, preventing himself from stopping Korzos if anything went wrong in the future? Maybe he just couldn't have refused with any good reason. After all, he was the logical choice.

I sat down on my bed just as I heard a knock on the door. I froze. Who was willing to talk to me, and risk gaining the disfavor of the captain? I was relatively sure he would frown on anyone talking to me, and he could easily have security watch my room. He had probably posted a guard.

Remembering the lesson Sansson taught me, I walked to the door and asked who it was. In response, I heard the lock click and the door swing open. I leapt backwards out of the way and raised my arms, ready to be attacked. Instead I heard laughter. Standing in the doorway was Vincent. "Good to see you were ready for anything." He grinned at me. "Unfortunately, Security has all the keys, so you couldn't have stopped me even if you wanted to." I was strangely happy to see Vincent, although his chatting did get on my nerves.

"I decided to bust you out of here for a few hours. Plus, you never did show me how you bypassed our security." He grabbed my arm and dragged me out of the room, locking the door behind him.

"But won't you get in trouble?"

Vincent just laughed and led me straight to the security booth. We didn't pass anyone on the way.

The booth, which was actually a rather large room, was hidden in the walls of the corridor. Vincent stopped at a seemingly random point and placed his hand on the wall. It vanished, revealing a black set of ascending stairs. He muttered something in some language I didn't recognize. He then walked up the stairs with me in tow, half dragging me. I didn't like the smell of the room.

It was a rather short flight of stairs. All the way up, guns of some sort followed us, making me nervous. The wall had reformed behind us as soon as we stepped through it. At the top of the stairs was a room whose walls were plastered with monitors. They covered nearly every vertical surface, and any raised horizontal service held a keypad of some kind. There were four other people in the room.

"This is my staff – or what remains of it. Valerius Publiatys was on the landing craft. He's why you had a direct link to me." He smiled grimly. "I hope whoever it was who fired that beam gets what he deserves." Valerius must have been the man I didn't recognize. I had to say I agreed with Vincent's sentiment.

"Shouldn't you be in charge of the search?" I inquired, looking up at him.

He nodded. "Aye. That we are. But we're going to have a hell of a time. The beam fired was from the ships own weapon systems, not a separately installed weapon or one not connected to the ship. Someone must have hacked into the weapons network and fired it. There are no traces of the attack, though, so we really don't have any leads." I wondered if he had considered the possibility that it was one of his own men.

"I don't believe it was you, Jak. No offense, but I don't think you're... quite that skilled. Or angry." I wasn't either of those, and told him as much. He nodded. "Most of the crew think Korzos is over-reacting. He's been acting strangely throughout this entire trip." That was an understatement – he'd been acting as if he'd lost his mind. "Security's watching your door, but if you want to leave without a trace, hold up two fingers like this..." He demonstrated. "...wait five seconds, then leave. We'll cover you and make sure no one sees you. If someone is approaching your position, the nearest camera will start buzzing." I was taken aback by Vincent's willingness to do this for me.

He grinned down at me as I stuttered my thanks. "Always willing to help the unjustly persecuted. Now, how on earth did you get on board the landing craft?" I thought fast, and told him an improvised story about covering cameras and boxes. I didn't think he would buy it, especially as they would notice blocked cameras, but he did. I was surprised.

"I thought we should have had more people watching the ship. There was only Scipio here. The rest of us were seeing them off. Ah well. What's done is done. We're lucky we got you off." I nodded. I had been lucky. Peter, Daniel, Henry, Angela, and Valerius had not been.

Vincent spent another hour showing me how the various pieces of equipment worked, what controlled what, and where all the cameras were (apparently everywhere except the kitchen, the mate's cabin, and the captain's cabin). I asked him why there was no camera in the kitchen, and he told me there was, but it was never on. "After all, where's the fun in knowing what's for dinner?" I couldn't fault him on that.

Remembering my earlier musings, I asked him if there were cameras in the cargo bay that I had been hiding in. He smiled at me. "Of course there were!"

"Then why didn't you catch me earlier?"

Vincent shrugged. "Luck, I guess? We don't really watch the cargo bays much. In case you hadn't noticed, there's a lot of tension on this ship. It's what happens when you drop a bunch of people from every country and planet known to man on a single vessel. People are bound to not get along. We've been monitoring people we know are here rather than those we don't. Plus, there are only a few cameras in there – perhaps you never were at a good angle for them to capture you." I nodded, but I wasn't satisfied with his answer.

As Vincent walked me back to my room, I realized that my opinion of him had completely turned around after this visit. I began to find his chatting pleasant, and actually listened to him all the way back. I thanked him as he turned around to go back to his booth as he left me at my door. He winked and bid me farewell.

I opened the door to find a very angry, not to mention worried, Ezekiel standing there.

"Jak! What the flying fuck did you think you were doing? If you had been caught you could have been flogged or spaced or something!" I hadn't thought about Ezekiel. I felt horrible.

"Ezekiel, I'm sorry... I didn't..."

"Didn't think? No you didn't! I don't want to think of what could have happened to you!" He was shaking in anger. I had never seen him like this. "All by yourself, alone in this ship..."

I interrupted him. "I wasn't alone. Vincent was with me. He came and got me from the room and showed me around the security area." I knew as soon as the words left my mouth that it was the wrong thing to say. Ezekiel just stared at me for several seconds. Then he swallowed, tears forming in his eyes.

"I see." He walked forward, pushing past me, and started to walk out the door.

"Wait! I didn't mean it like that!" I ran out into the corridor after him, but he was gone.

### 10

" _Korzos... someone needs to keep an eye on him – and I suppose I am that man. Officially, at least. The Corgathian government was right – they are paying me to do something useful, and not just sending me out on a wild goose chase. I've let Daniel in on my secret... but I'm not sure about Vincent. He seems nice enough, but slightly odd. I think he can be trusted, but I'll wait before I make my final decision."_

~Peter Robos, in his personal diary

Ezekiel didn't come back to our room that night. I was alone, confined to my own depressing thoughts. I wasn't trying to unravel any mysteries anymore – I was too lonely and too depressed. Why was Ezekiel so upset that I was spending time with someone else? I was allowed to have friends, yes? Was Vincent gay and I just didn't know it?

After several hours of miserable brooding, that was the conclusion I finally reached. Reaching it, however, didn't make me feel any better. I knew that I wasn't going to reach any semblance of peace until I tracked down Ezekiel and explained everything to him. Sighing, I stood up and walked in front of the camera. I held up two fingers and carefully counted to five. Then I opened the door, locked it behind me, and set off.

I knew all of Ezekiel's hiding places. I immediately took off for the most likely one, near the cargo bay where I had hidden. It was a small storage closet that held some rarely used tools. When I was halfway there, I heard a buzzing noise. I jumped, then looked around wildly. There no rooms to hide in nearby. I swallowed and chose a direction at random (which ended up being forward). I sprinted the rest of the way to the hideout, opened the door, and dove in. I never found out who it was behind me.

"So you decided to find me? I should have picked somewhere I hadn't shown you." I felt someone shove me aside, and Ezekiel opened the door and ran out. A tear slipped from my eye as I took a breath and followed him, not caring who else was nearby, pausing only to close the door behind me.

I didn't know which way he went. I decided not to backtrack, so went in the opposite direction of the way I had come. I checked every hideout I knew on the way, avoiding larger rooms for the most part. The cameras only buzzed twice more, and there were nearby empty rooms each time. The second time I caught a glimpse of Ivor through the window of my hiding place. He didn't appear to be looking for me, but I could never be sure.

I finally decided to check the main cargo hold, where I had stowed away. I hadn't been there in a while. When I reached the door, I saw that it was closed. I knew that the door, when closed, locked automatically, and I didn't have the key. Ezekiel did – I would have bet my life that he was in there. I called his name, begging him to let me talk to him. There was no response.

After five minutes of pleading, I noticed that the door was actually open a crack. I wondered then why I hadn't tried opening it earlier, despite it appearing to be closed. I hesitantly pushed it open and stepped in, closing the door behind me.

I found Ezekiel.

He was lying spread-eagled on the floor, blood flowing in a stream from a cut in his throat. I barely held back a scream. I ran to him and dropped to my knees, my eyes blurred by the tears pouring down my face. I fell over on my side, letting the grief take me.

I was brought to reality by a sharp kick in the stomach. Groaning, I rolled over and found myself looking into the eyes of Korzos. "What are you doing out of your room, boy? What have you done?" Every word was soaked with fury. His hands shook with barely restrained rage. "Only yesterday we lost five members of the crew to you, and now another?"

I then noticed the rest of the crew standing behind him, with shocked looks on their faces. Joseph was in the front. I can't even describe the look on his face with words, but I could tell that I was dead to him.

Vincent walked into the room. "Captain?"

Korzos whirled around, spit flying from the edges of his mouth. "You failed, Vincent! We lost another crewmember, you incompetent bastard!"

Vincent did not flinch. He stood up straighter. "Captain, sir, Jak did no-"

The captain stepped towards the chief of security and slammed his fist into Vincent's face. Vincent staggered backwards, blood pouring out his nose. "You no-good dirty bastard!" Korzos roared. Perversely, I was grateful that his rage was no longer directed at me.

Vincent straightened, his face completely calm. He smiled cynically. "So it comes to this, captain?" He shook his head. Korzos raised his hand to strike him again, but as his arm descended, Vincent caught it. "Sorry, sir, but I don't particularly feel like getting hurt again." He shoved Korzos back. The captain staggered backwards and glared at Vincent, murder in his eyes, while Vincent stared back, a slight smile on his lips.

"Now that you seem to be in more of a position to listen, I would like to inform you that Jak did not commit the murder. We have it all on the security cameras. I'm surprised that you didn't disable them first, Captain." Vincent drew a holographic projector from his pocket. He used it to project an image into the air, visible from all angles. It showed Korzos entering the cargo bay, sneaking up on the sobbing Ezekiel, reaching around him, and slitting his throat. The virtual Korzos then dragged Ezekiel out to where he now lay, then looked up and hid as I walked into the room. I was horrified, but couldn't look away. A dark beast deep inside me began to claw its way out. I looked at Korzos with hate in my eyes.

The captain's face was ashen. Vincent shut off the projector and put it back into his pocket. "Sneaking back past Jak as he was sobbing over Ezekiel's lifeless corpse mustn't have been too hard, and rallying the crew against him was probably easier. Who would dare side with the lowly stowaway who was already accused of five murders? What do you have to say for yourself?"

Silence reigned for what seemed like an eternity. Korzos opened his mouth to speak, but someone else spoke first, her voice filled with cold anger. "I don't want to hear it – 'captain.'" I turned my head to see Michaela step through the crowd and draw a tiny pistol from her sleeve. The captain's eyes went wide as she leveled the weapon at him and twitched her finger. A short black bolt shot from the tip of the gun, and hit Korzos directly between his eyes. He fell to the ground like a limp doll, and did not rise again.

Vincent glanced at Michaela, who stared back unapologetically. The corner of his mouth twitched. "While rather unorthodox – it had to be done. Even if it was with a non-regulation weapon."

She smiled cynically, and the weapon vanished back into her sleeve. "What weapon?"

Vincent did not reply to her, and turned his attention to the rest of the crew. "I am truly sorry, comrades. Every man was on duty in the booth – we didn't have time to stop him. It was a foolish mistake that we shall never make again. We've been having trouble since we lost Valerius..." He paused for a moment, gathering himself. I felt my anger begin to cool, despite myself, as Vincent spoke.

"I am sorry to be the bearer of such bad news. Korzos did not just commit this murder. He is responsible for eight murders total." There were gasps and murmurs from the crew.

Someone shouted from the back, "But only six have died!"

Vincent shook his head sadly. "I'm afraid there are more than six dead. There are two you do not know about. You have seen the murder of Ezekiel Yevon, and witnessed the destruction of Peter Robos, Daniel Ironton, Valerius Publiatys, Angela Lorenos, and Henry Mather. But the first murders were those of Uriel Anakos and Abdul al-Jamullah – the two scientists. I am sorry that we have kept this hidden from you, but someone managed to edit the footage of those murders, so we did not at the time know who did it. We kept it secret so that we could get to the bottom of it."

Vincent pulled out the projector again. He turned it on, and flipped it to a different scene. It showed Korzos, in his office, typing on a keypad. On the monitor, the words "Override Weapons System?" were just visible. Korzos hit a large button, and the display changed to "Weapons System Override." A nearby monitor showed a beam shoot from one of the bow guns, hitting the Diplomat shortly afterwards. Vincent shut off the projector.

"Korzos is responsible for all of the murders on this vessel. I am not entirely sure why, but I suspect he was in the pay of his government to take down this mission. The Bajan government was foolish to allow such an unstable Namibian to lead us."

Vincent cleared his throat. "Now, I don't want to remove you from your grief so soon, but we have practical matters to deal with. This is a very important expedition, and we need to carry it out and complete its goal. In order to do so, we need a captain. Unfortunately, we lost our mate when Korzos took down the Diplomat. So, an election must be held, as we made no other plans beyond Mather." He clasped his hands behind his back and began to pace back and forth. "His replacement... will need to be ready for anything. It takes a lot to hold together such a diverse crew, with so few loyalties between its members. This man," he glanced at Michaela, "or woman will need to be on top of everything, and always know what's going on. They will need to be just, impartial, and swift to act. They must be sure of their actions, and able to handle almost anything." He stopped. "Any nominations?"

Someone in the back shouted, "Vincent!" The crowd took up the cheer. "Vincent! Vincent! Vincent! Vincent!"

Something in Vincent's eye gleamed, but it quickly vanished and he smiled abashedly, raising his hand. "Alright. All those in favor of electing me as captain, for whatever reason, say aye." There was a thunderous round of ayes. "And all in favor of not electing me?"

A single nay came from the back. Everyone turned to look at him. Ivor Karanov stood there, his head raised defiantly. Vincent nodded to him. "And who do you wish to be captain?"

Ivor sneered. "Anyone but you." He spat on the ground and walked out the door. Silence followed his exit.

Vincent broke it. "Well then. Let's get back to work, shall we? Fetherkap, Matthias, come up here. You have duties to perform." Vincent turned to me. "Jak, you can go back to your room. Do you want to pay your last respects to Ezekiel?" I shook my head and stood up. I didn't think I would be able to stay in the presence of my dead lover for any longer. I walked back to my room without a further word, locked the door, and collapsed onto my bed.

### 11

" _He who blends in will be noticed far more than he who stays apart. To an extent, of course."_

~Instructor Dmitry Radovich Nyetstevik of the RGK Academy, in a speech to graduating students

I don't think I loved him. If I had, I'm pretty sure it would have been worse. I mean, at the time, I certainly thought that I did, and the day after his murder was hellish. I didn't eat anything, and refused to talk to anybody. I just locked myself in our – my – room. My period of solitude lasted at least a day. I never asked anyone how long it really was, but for however long I was out for, I was living in my own personal hell.

My point is that it could have been worse. I mean, I was out for a day. Since then, I've been worse off after ending a relationship, and not via death. I think it was just lust, and deep down somewhere, I knew that. It just took that day to realize it.

He was still a friend, and I really did like him a lot, even if I didn't love him, so it still hurt for a while. He was my first, too, so would always be special to me. But after that one day, I was mostly over it. As soon as I had pulled myself together, I went in search of Vincent. He had removed the security on me. I found him on the bridge, in Korzos' normal place. Korzos had taken up the space better, I thought, but Vincent still did a fine job of it. When he saw me, he smiled.

"Good to see you up, Jak. Are you okay?" I nodded, and I wasn't lying.

His smile grew even more. "Good." He tilted his head. "Sorry to bring this up, but do you want to move out of your room? It might make things easier for you."

I thought about it for a few seconds before nodding. "Yes, I think that would be good. But where would you put me?"

His grin faded slightly. "We have several room openings. I was thinking of maybe putting you in Valerius'? It's near the security booth, in case you run into more trouble." Morbid as it was, taking the room of a murdered man, I couldn't help but accept. It would be good to get away from Ezekiel's things.

"I'll make the arrangements and have his things moved out. You should be able to move your things there in a few hours. I'll contact you when it's ready." I thanked him.

"You didn't miss much while you were... indisposed. I would like you to see your new first mate, however." He moved aside, revealing the person who had been standing just behind him. Michaela waved at me. I actually smiled. It was good to see her getting such a position. I waved back.

Vincent smiled. "I thought you would like that. Also, you are no longer on half rations. The crew agrees with me. Consider yourself a full-fledged member of this crew."

I think I left my mouth open for several seconds before closing it. The last memories of Ezekiel and the other murders left my mind. Though it was their deaths that propelled me to this "promotion" of sorts, it didn't bother me at all.

"Sorry, but you'll still have to help Joseph, now as his chief assistant. That still needs to be done. However, each day, after you help Joseph prepare each meal, Rafael will come get you for training. If you're going to be a member of the crew, you're going to work – no exploring on your own anymore. He'll tell you how everything works, and teach you self-defense. The work should take your mind off of the... recent past."

I appreciated that, though I didn't really think I needed it. I was already over the deaths, abhorrent as that was – it was probably because of my upbringing. I had seen corpses almost every day, although only rarely had they been close to me.

I did have one question for him. "Sir?"

He nodded at me. "Yes? And call me Vincent. I never dealt well with the 'sir.'"

I smiled. He would be a much better captain than Korzos – even though he wasn't nearly as famous. "Who will be head of security now that you're captain?"

He didn't hesitate. "Scipio Deredus. My right-hand man. A good question, though. Any more?"

I thought for a moment, and I realized I did have another one. "If the scientists are dead, how are we going to carry out the goals of the expedition?"

A shadow briefly crossed Vincent's face. "I... I'm not entirely sure, but we're going to try. Fetherkap did have to go through a scientific university, and so learned some about all the sciences. He says he can probably figure out how all of their instruments worked – at least those that still function. He and the engineering team are currently in the lab trying to do just that."

I nodded. He waited for moment, probably to see if I had any more questions, then spoke again. "If you think you're up to it, Joseph probably needs some help. Can you do it?"

I stood up straighter. I swore to myself that I was going to be useful. "Yes, sir – I mean Vincent. I won't disappoint you." I saluted, turned, and walked off, just barely catching his smile at my words.

"I don't think you will, Jak. Not at all," I heard him say as I left the bridge. "Not at all..."

I was halfway to the galley area when I saw Ivor walking towards me from the end of the corridor I was travelling down. I froze, scared. My newfound confidence flowed out of me like a waterfall. He smiled at me. It was not a nice smile.

"So, the boy feels safe enough to wander about on his own now, does he?" He stopped centimeters in front of me, looking down on me. "You'd better watch your back. Not everyone here worships you. Or Vincent, for that matter." He roughly shoved me into the wall and walked past, not bothering to look back. Shaken, I hurried the rest of the way to Joseph's domain.

We didn't mention Ezekiel. When I got there, Joseph threw me an apron, not even looking at me. I had never worn one, but Ezekiel had. I hurriedly tied it, my fingers fumbling. When I was ready, Joseph showed me everything Ezekiel used to do. He told me where all of the various spices and condiments were, and how to interpret his barked commands. I helped him prepare lunch, and while the going was slow, lunch was made.

When I was done cleaning up the dishes, Rafael was waiting for me, as promised. He grinned as I approached him. "Hey there, stowaway. Ready for the real thing?" I nodded. "Right then. Follow me." He turned around and marched off through the corridors, forcing me to jog to keep up.

"You've already learned a lot of what you need to know through the engineers. You'll be doing a lot of maintenance." I barely managed to stifle a groan. "That and helping Joseph will take up most of your time. However, when you're not doing either of those things, you'll be coming up here." He had stopped in front of an unlabeled door, near where Ezekiel and I had watched the Diplomat explode. I didn't think too much about that.

He pressed his hand into the door and pushed forward. The door slid back, then shot up into the ceiling. A narrow set of polished white stairs led upwards. Rafael led me up it, When we reached the top, I found myself standing in a plastiglaz dome, with a floor painted to look like space. Looking down at the floor more carefully, I realized that the image on it was actually changing slightly. Rafael noticed my gaze, and explained. "The floor is receiving signals from cameras on the bottom of the ship and displaying them here, so that we can see what's below us."

Rafael spread out his arms. "This is the observatory. Well, one of two. There's a less extensive one on the bottom – or what would be the bottom if it mattered, but it's flat, not dome-shaped. And frankly, it's less important – although it does house the artificial gravity drives." He smiled. "There is always at least one person stationed in each one." For the first time, I noticed one of the crew standing at the far side of the room, staring out into space. I recognized him as Nemhet Ahuja. He didn't acknowledge our presence.

"When you are stationed here, you must watch all of the space around you, making sure that no large asteroids or anything are incoming. Our instruments usually do a good job of picking those up and destroying them – that's security's job – but sometimes they break down." He paused. "Actually, they break down a lot. Hence, the observatory. You're also up here to report anything weird – like explosions on planets or something." He led me over to one side of it. I noticed faint black markings on the dome, dividing it into rectangles. He placed both of his hands on one and moved them apart. The window zoomed in.

"Moving your hands apart magnifies the view." He moved his hands closer together, and the view went back to normal. "Moving them together moves the view out." He moved his hands in a circle, and the screen rotated. "Make a circle, and it rotates. Your turn." He made me try every different movement at least three times before he was satisfied. "You're a natural," he told me, smiling. I didn't think it was that hard.

He went on in detail about what I was to do while up there during my four-hour shift. If I saw anything interesting (and interesting, it turns out, is defined very specifically), but not dangerous, I was to bring up a menu on the viewscreen rectangle by drumming my fingers on either side of the screen, make a verbal report, and take snapshots. If something dangerous but not urgent was spotted, I was to make contact with a member of security via the menu. If something was both urgent and dangerous, I was to talk directly to Vincent. For most of the time, I was to walk around the dome, slowly, not letting anything distract me, until my shift was over. When he finished outlining my duties, he asked if I had any questions.

"Is there a way to adjust the view on the floor?"

Rafael shook his head. "Nope. That would be a pain – you'd have to walk funny the whole time you were up here." He grinned. "It would keep you awake though – maybe we should implement something like that." I was sorry I had asked. "But no, that's the job of the people in the lower observatory. You won't be assigned to do duty down there, so don't worry about that. Any more?"

I shook my head. "Nope."

"Alrighty then. Your first shift is at 2000 hours. Lasts until 2400. Got it?" I nodded.

He smiled. "Good. Enjoy your free time. It'll be the last substantial amount you'll get for a while." I followed him out of the observatory.

I didn't get my free time. Vincent summoned me over the intercom and told me that my room was ready. I the next hour or so moving in, and then I had to rush to help Joseph. I thought I did a much better job helping this time. After making dinner and eating, I had an hour or so to kill before my observatory watch. I slept through most of it, and then had to rush to the observatory to make it there on time. I relieved Ahuja from duty. He nodded to me politely, but tiredly, and walked down the stairs.

Nothing of interest happened during my entire shift, and I somehow managed to stay awake. I was impressed with myself.

### 12

" _Strange dreams fill my nights, and clouded thoughts my days. It's almost as if someone is trying to tell me to go somewhere, with a soothing voice that I cannot resist..."_

~Fineas Sparten, in his personal diary

I woke up at 0430 to help Joseph. I don't know how many times I messed something up, but the breakfasts must have been interesting, to say the least. Immediately after that was done, before I could have more than a few bites, Fetherkap stole me away and told me which rooms needed cleaning. The main engine room was one of those rooms. I was hesitant to do it, but then I realized that neither Mather nor Korzos were alive, and felt a little better. Cleaning it still took longer than I had intended.

I also had three other rooms to clean before I helped with lunch, and so had to do a rushed job on those. I was going to have to learn to manage my time better. On the bright side, my panic at the possibility of being late for lunch preparations certainly woke me up.

I did a much better job making lunch than the day before. Joseph was pleased, and even paid me a compliment. After lunch, I polished various pieces of machinery for a while, then went up to one of the ECU (Environmental Containment Unit) rooms.

Ezekiel had shown me this room in passing on our tour, as well as the other five of them, but I had been more interested in him than the rooms at the time, and hadn't paid too much attention. The interior of the room was filled with four massive tanks of water, stretching from the floor almost up to the ceiling. Pipes came out of black bases at the bottom of these tanks, and went into the walls and floor. The water was filled with more green algae than I had ever seen in my life (though that isn't too surprising, considering Raheera wasn't a coastal city). A low hissing sound filled the room, seeming to come from large air filters set into the ceiling.

The floor was absolutely filthy, covered with muck, algae, and dirty water. I began mopping immediately. After a few minutes, I heard footsteps. I jumped, startled. I turned to see a fellow crewmember, dressed all in gray, walk in and stop. He looked rather startled. "My apologies... Jak, is it?" I nodded.

He extended his hand. "My name's Stephen. Stephen Krafting." After glancing at my disgusting, gloved hands, he hesitantly withdrew his own. "Cleaning?" I nodded again. He smiled sympathetically. "It's about as fun as it looks – not at all. This one is worse than the other five. Units one and two are just air filters, and five and six have land plants. Three and four have the aquatic algae and most of the water filtration." He grinned. "Yes, the water in here is the water you drink."

I looked at the tanks filled with green gunk, and I shrugged. "I've had worse."

He raised one eyebrow at me. "Have you now? Where're you from?"

I lowered by eyes, embarrassed. "Baja. Raheera."

"Ah. I should have known – that's where we took off from." He laughed. "I'm from Miridian."

I didn't recognize the country. "Miridian?"

He nodded. "Aye. One of the smaller nations on New Dominica. My journey to Raheera was my first visit to Earth – and it might be my only one. I'm the EO on the ship."

Most environmental officers were scientists, or at the very least had some limited scientific experience. Considering he was a member of an all-star crew from the entire Terran Home Rule, I guessed that he was a scientist, and I asked him if he was.

"Not really – sorry to disappoint you. I have the minimum scientific training required for the job. I was picked for my managing experience. Allon Lazu, my co-EO, is the... 'scientific' mind, if you could call it that, though he really only does closed-system ecology – not useful for much other than air and water circulation.

"Anyway, I'll let you get back to work. I have to make sure everything's working in here. Enjoy your cleaning." He walked behind one of the tanks before I could mutter my thanks, and I kept cleaning.

I finished a few minutes before I was supposed to help with dinner, and I had to run to get there on time. Dinner went well. Afterwards, I slept again, as I had done the day before, then again rushed to the observatory when it was time for my shift.

The cycle repeated endlessly. We began to move out of the system again after two days. On the day before we resumed our journey, we had a memorial dinner for all who had died (except Korzos – which Ivor was quick to point out). That was hard. All of the memories I had of Ezekiel came back then, and much of the grief that I had missed out on manifested itself. I don't remember much of it, being wrapped up as I was in my misery. There were speeches given. Vincent himself gave a spectacular, heart-warming one that earned him a standing ovation. The food was good, too. A lot of work had gone into making it – I would know. It had taken us longer than usual to prepare. At least we got to eat it with the rest of the crew.

The day after the feast, we left for the next star, which was a mere week away. On the third day of our journey, the monotonous cycle of my schedule was interrupted by an invitation from Vincent. He asked me to see him in the captain's office after lunch was done. He said I didn't need to worry about my other duties.

I hadn't talked to Vincent in a while (I knew he was the captain now, but he had taken time out of his job to see me before), and I was happy to see him again. Despite having never been in the office before, Ezekiel had shown me where it was. I found it without trouble.

I had just raised my hand to knock on the door when it slid open. Vincent stood in front of me. His face broke into a smile. "Jak! Good to see you made it! Come in!" I wondered idly if he had expected me not to make it as I stepped over the threshold. The door slid shut behind me.

His "office" was nice. It was really his room – it didn't resemble an office at all. He had a loft bed on the far side, a writing desk next to it, and several book-cases. I wondered how much of it was his, and how much was Korzos'. In the center of the room was a map. I walked up to it and looked down at it. It displayed a carpet of stars, set on a monitor that had the appearance of a tabletop. Vincent came up behind me.

"A map of the known galaxy. It functions much like the viewers on the observatory, including the ability to adjust the screen however you wish to." He pointed to a small, flickering dot moving away from one star and towards another. "That's us. It's twinkling because we're making periodic jumps into the Ethyr. It's easy to think the distances portrayed here are smaller than they really are. Maps are deceptive." I nodded in response, wondering why he had invited me here.

He walked over to a nearby table with chairs at both ends of it. "Please sit, Jak." I did, and he did the same on the other chair.

"Now, I'm sure you're wondering why I asked you here."

I nodded.

"It was partly to check up on you to make sure you're doing okay. Are you?"

I nodded again. "The memorial dinner was wonderful. I... I've gotten over it. I really was fine even before then."

He smiled warmly at me before continuing. "That's good to hear. I won't apologize for what happened, though I wish I could have stopped it. Apologies are useless, anyway." He sighed. "However, checking up on you was only part of what I was doing. I also want to ask you to do something for me, in addition to your other duties."

I groaned, causing Vincent to raise his eyebrow at me. Admonished, I sat up straighter in my chair. "Yes sir?"

He smiled. "Much better. Although no sirs, please – I still prefer Vincent."

"Yes sir."

He leaned back and let out a mock sigh of exasperation. "What will I do with you? You're just full of insubordination!" I smiled in response. I decided that I still liked him, even after his promotion.

He waited a moment, probably to see if I had anything to say, and then continued. "As you may or may not know, there are always issues with having an international crew, let alone an interplanetary one. No one ever gets along." He smiled crookedly.

I had to disagree. Most of the crew seemed to get along rather well. "I haven't noticed that... they seem to be perfectly fine."

Vincent leaned forward. "You've encountered some of it, I've heard. Ivor Karanov. Adam Sansson. Menthus Crydgar." He leaned back. "And Daniel Fetherkap." I blinked. Fetherkap had seemed like such a nice person the few times I had spoken with him.

"You've had encounters with the first three, I believe. Karanov... is more than he appears. Ryussa has a vested interest in seeing this mission fail. They released Ivor from prison shortly before the Ambassador set off. He was a former diplomat, spy, rapist – and assassin. He is not the fool you might think him to be." I never thought he was a fool. It was hard to think that about someone who had held a knife to your throat.

"There is a chance he might be trying to sabotage the mission. Korzos had tried, as you saw. Ivor may very well take up the slack now that his puppet is out of the picture."

"His puppet?" I asked. Although I trusted Vincent and believed that he was telling the truth, I couldn't picture Korzos being anyone's puppet.

He nodded. "Aye. Korzos despises Baja – his hatred is legendary, as you very well know. He wanted to see the mission fail, in a fantastic way that would shame Baja before the entire Terran Home Rule. As angry as Korzos was, he also wasn't really very bright. Doubtless he planned to have the ship return, severely damaged and with no results, and probably come up with a half-thought out story about how the Bajan stowaway and the commando ruined the whole mission."

Vincent took a breath. "There is at least one other who wanted – and still does want – to see this mission fail. And he is much more intelligent that the late captain. He convinced the captain that they had the same goal, but that the captain was going about it wrong. He supplied the captain with the tools and knowledge that he needed to effectively sabotage the mission, while also keeping his own hands clean.

"And who is it?" I asked, wondering why Vincent was telling me all of this.

"I told you already – Ivor. I explained to you what he was – but the most important aspect of what I said is Ryussan spy. Being on the security staff, I did background checks on all of the crew. Valerius managed to get me into Ivor's confidential files. He went through Moscau's biggest RGK training facility, and... 'graduated' early. He is, without a doubt, the most dangerous man on this ship."

Vincent leaned forward. "Ivor, however isn't a trained saboteur. He knew he might very well fail, so he used Korzos' anger to turn the captain into a tool. That way, he had two chances to succeed."

He sighed. "Now, however, Korzos is gone, and his first chance used up. Ivor will likely try to find another puppet. Failing that, though, he will do it himself. I want you to watch him when you can, and report to me. Pretend to be cleaning, but follow him. As stealthily as you can. He might not notice you." That wasn't likely – he had threatened to kill me. "Most of the information I gathered is from faint audio – there are no cameras in the captain's quarters. Accusing him now with no evidence to back it up would be foolish. If you can give me any concrete evidence that he is the saboteur that I think he is, then we can get him." I nodded.

He leaned back. "Now, Sansson is in a similar situation. Yes, I know who he really is, and that you do, as well. The Bajan government released him and returned him to Ireland, in secret, so that he could be their representative. However, I believe he was conditioned or bribed in some way to support the Bajan cause. Crydgar, then, is essentially Sansson's boss. Crydgar also has access to security records, being a sort of security member himself." Vincent was clearly not happy about this. "Fortunately, he rarely uses the videos.

"They both, however, have a vested interest in keeping this mission going, so they've been helping us. Unofficially, of course. I'd prefer you didn't drag them into this, so avoid them."

I nodded. "Follow Ivor, avoid Sansson and Crydgar. Got it."

"Good. Lastly, Fetherkap. He's up to something – our cameras show him doing some strange things to the engines. None of the security staff being technologically inclined, we don't know exactly what he's doing, but it looks... wrong. Nothing bad has happened to them yet, but something very well might. He could easily just claim repairs if confronted about whatever he's been doing, but they don't look like repairs to me. Try to avoid him as much as you can. If he does anything strange, watch him and report to me. We'll meet like this every few days. Sound good to you?"

It sounded dangerous, and a lot like he was using me as an expendable spy. I really wanted to stay on his good side, however, so I nodded and saluted. He grinned. "Thank you, Jak. You'll be amply rewarded when we return." He stood, and I followed suit. He saw me to the door and bid me farewell. I still had an hour to kill, so I went to my room and napped until it was time to help prepare dinner.

### 13

"I remember a time when the engine of a ship was all that separated the crew from life and death – thank God there's more than that now, and all the engine really provides now is movement. It makes ship maintenance easier, too – everything's more spread out and easy to see."

~Daniel Fetherkap, in a lecture at the Tigris University on Eden

" _Come to us, Jakken. We will protect you. You will never be alone with us. We need you. We will be so alone without you. We are so lonely..."_

I found myself in the swirling mist once again. I walked through it, and it began to disappear. I was walking on nothing, surrounded by a sea of stars. I felt warmth and kindness flowing out from them, and I wanted nothing more than to go out and join them. I stretched out my arms and took huge steps, closing my eyes, waiting for their embrace...

Something shoved me back. I opened my eyes to see a man standing in front of me. He was a head taller than me, and wore a short, dark green cloak that fell only to his knees. A dark grey, dull metallic mask covered the lower part of his face, from right below his eyes to his chin. His eyes were grey. A hood obscured the rest of his face and all of his hair – if he had any. He had two dark brown leather gloves, and matching knee-high boots. One hand held a coiled whip, and the other three crossbow bolts.

" _It is not your time to visit the stars, Jakken. You have other duties to attend to. Return to yourself. Now."_

I sat up in bed, sweat streaming down my face. Repeated dreams always made me nervous – they always seemed to be a sign of something. When I was younger, I had dreams that our house was robbed for five nights in a row. On the sixth night, our house actually was robbed. Since then, I had always paid attention to my dreams.

I spent a few moments pondering the absurdity of the figure that had confronted me. He had been wearing a ridiculous outfit, and he had carried a whip... as well as crossbow bolts. Where was the crossbow for the bolts? Who was he? And who was the owner of the lonely voice that had spoken to me so invitingly? Was it one of the stars I had seen? I tried for several minutes to interpret the dream, but soon gave up and lay back down, staring up at the ceiling. I turned my head to check the chronometer; I still had another hour before I had to report to Joseph. I closed my eyes and tried to go back to sleep. I couldn't do it. After five minutes, I gave up and rolled out of bed. I got dressed and walked out of my chambers. I wasn't sure what I was going to do, so I decided to take a risk and let my feet lead me wherever they chose to go. I didn't let down my guard, and I was ready to run the instant I saw anyone dangerous about.

I ended up in the main engine room, where I had seen Korzos and Mather plant and remove some object from a panel near the engine itself. I walked to the center of the dark room, up to the panel they had tampered with, hesitated, then opened it. Inside was a grid of unlabeled buttons. After staring at it for a while, I decided that I shouldn't mess with it and closed it. I turned around to find a pistol leveled at my head. Ivor's grinning face was behind it.

"Just because you're friends with the captain doesn't make you safe, boy. And I don't like you much." He drew closer to me, and I felt something sharp poke me gently in the stomach. I moved my eyes to glance down, and saw a knife in his hand. Panicking, I looked around, frantically searching for the cameras. I couldn't see any in the dark room.

"Don't move or you're dead." I decided that it would be a good idea to do as he said.

"What do you want, Ivor?" It took me a few seconds to realize that I had spoken.

The Ryussan raised an eyebrow. "Getting cocky – never a good idea." He pressed the knife slightly deeper into my stomach. I sucked it in to move it away from the sharp tip.

"Did Vincent set you to spy on me?" I didn't answer – I thought Vincent might disapprove of me if I did. I was a member of his crew, and I would act as such.

He sighed. "Do you expect Crydgar to save you this time? He may be formidable in combat, but he's a military man. No real competence at all. Or originality.

"So," he continued, licking his lips in a disturbing manner, "how should I kill you?"

Another voice sounded from the doorway. "Both of you, sneaking into the engine room while most of the crew is asleep? Mighty suspicious behavior." Ivor turned his head completely around, and his arms followed suit for a split second. I took advantage of his momentary lapse and dove to the left, out of his reach. I heard him snarl and he aimed his gun at me as I rose to my feet.

A beam suddenly struck the gun in his hand, sending it flying past me into the opposite wall. I finally turned to see who stood in the door.

Daniel Fetherkap sauntered slowly into the room, a pistol in each hand, aiming at both of us. "Drop the knife, Karanov." Ivor growled and did so. It clattered loudly on the floor.

"Good. Now, both of you, explain what you're doing here. Jak?"

I decided to tell the truth. "I couldn't sleep, so I wandered around the ship. M-my sh-shift starts in less than an hour anyway, so I just followed my feet." Fetherkap nodded, and I took that as acceptance of my answer. He looked around at Ivor.

"And you?"

Ivor spat on the ground. "I don't need to answer to the likes of you, Fetherkap. Damn Edenite." I blinked. So Fetherkap was from Eden – the third planet colonized by earth. I was surprised – Edenites were known for their arrogance and seclusion, as well as their hatred of non-Edenites. Only a few years ago, a group of Edenite terrorists had attacked Thygorad in Ryussa, demanding that Eden be recognized as independent from the Home Rule.

Fetherkap sighed dramatically. "But you do need to answer to the likes of this, Karanov." He twitched the hand holding the gun he was aiming at Ivor.

The Ryussan mimicked Fetherkap's sigh. "I'm here to rape the boy. Happy?" I stiffened as he smirked at me.

"Bullshit. What did you do to the engine?"

Ivor shrugged. "I just rigged a VC up on it. Nothing much. What are you doing up so early, when the rest of the crew is sound asleep in their little beds?"

"A vanishing charge?" Fetherkap's voice was incredulous. "Do you realize how much those cost? I was going to settle for a simple rewiring to cause a spark to fall into the second auxiliary shaft."

I didn't catch Ivor's response to that, as I was distracted by a shadow crossing the doorway. A few seconds later, it returned, blocking out the light from the corridor.

"Well, well, what have we here?" Fetherkap whirled around, but it was too late. A baton appeared in Adam Sansson's hand, and he smashed it into Daniel's skull. He was dead before he hit the ground. Sansson's baton vanished, and he walked cautiously into the room as I stood staring at the body lying at the entrance. "The Edenite fanatic reveals himself now, eh? Guess he got sick of seeing the Earthlings be so successful."

He nudged Fetherkap's corpse and grimaced. "Oh, I hate killing. Goddamn Bajans. I wish they'd given me an easier way to earn back my freedom." He turned his attention to us. Or at least I think he did. He was wearing the thick sunglasses he always did, even in the dim light of the room, so I had to go by the movement of his head.

"And Karanov? Still trying to sabotage our mission? Or trying to rape the boy?" The Ryussan didn't move. I wondered why he hadn't rushed to pick up his weapons, as Adam clearly didn't have anything he could attack with at range.

The light from the corridor was blocked again. I wondered why every single conspirator on the ship seemed to be awake and converging on this room. I also wondered why security was taking so long to get here.

Crydgar's silhouette stepped inside. His voice followed shortly thereafter. He sounded frustrated. "Jak, you fool. You are interfering in affairs you needn't be concerned with." He unslung his scythe and turned to Adam. "Security is dead. I think it was Ivor's work. And now he's here to take out the engine. He needs to go – and I think so does the boy, regrettably." I swallowed hard.

Ivor laughed. "Go on then, you noble bastards." His accent began to slip further into Ryussan as he continued speaking. "Kill me," he hissed, followed by something in his native tongue that I didn't understand.

Adam smiled. "If you insist." He drew his baton with lightning speed, and a bolt of electricity shot out from it, slamming into Ivor. He flew backwards, forcing me to duck and roll out of the way. I used my momentum to bring myself behind the engine, hidden from view. I crawled further away from the engine, and the two standing on the other side of it. The Ryussan hit the wall with a loud thud, and collapsed on the ground.

"I'm really sorry about this, Jak – we don't really want to kill you. But if word got out that an isolationist Edenite terrorist and a Ryussan assassin got on board the ship, we'd have a riot on our hands. We cannot compromise the mission."

Crydgar spoke next. "We won't shame you, boy – there was merely an engine malfunction, and the device sucked up your bodies before they could be found. It'd be best just to get this over with."

"Come out, boy. It won't hurt... that much." I heard both Sansson's and Crydgar's footsteps slowly advance towards me. Suddenly, one pair stopped.

"Adam... is this thing supposed to be attached to the engine?"

Adam's steps stopped. "What thing?"

My vision exploded in a blinding flash of white light. I gasped and covered my eyes. I curled up, shaking and clutching my throbbing head. When I could finally open my eyes again, the engine was gone. So was Crydgar.

Adam lay groaning on the floor, his baton nowhere in sight. His sunglasses were on the floor nearby. I stood up and walked towards him. Soon I was able to make out his muttering. "My eyes... oh, my poor eyes..." Looking around, I saw that Fetherkap's body had vanished as well, but Ivor's remained, sprawled next to the wall.

Several people ran into the room. At the head of the crowd was Vincent. His eyes were opened wide with shock. "What the hell?"

He turned to me. "Jak? What happened here? Where's the engine?"

I looked again at where the engine had been, registering fully the fact that the engine was no longer there. Where it had been moments before there now was... nothing. There was a hole in the ceiling and in the floor, but no engine. "Ivor said something about a... vanishing charge... I couldn't sleep, so I wandered around, and ended up here. Ivor pinned me against the engine, then Fetherkap came, then Adam killed him, then Crydgar came, and Adam killed Ivor... then they tried to get me, but everything exploded... Crydgar said that security had been killed." Someone turned on the lights just in time for me to see Vincent begin to shake with rage. He said nothing.

Silence reigned in the room until Rafael timidly asked a question from the back. "What does it mean that we have no main engine? Do our secondary ones work?"

Vincent inhaled deeply, and the rage slowly faded from his eyes. He blinked, and it was gone. He turned around. "Michaela, Eugene, go check the lower engines. Nemhet, Kyle, check the upper ones. Oldman and Allon, central. Mikhail, right aft, Rafael, left aft. Rasjane, fore." Half of the gathered crew scattered. Silence again reigned.

They returned within five minutes. All reported that the engines were gone. Not damaged or exploded, but gone, much like the main engine. Everyone looked to Vincent. He sighed and drew himself up. "Well, we're down a physicist – and an engineer. We'll have to rely on Matthias and Methuselah." I quailed at the thought. Neither of them had seemed particularly competent to me.

"And... we're also done with our mission... all of our engines are gone, in addition to our scientists. We'll have to coast to a nearby planet. I'll set the EO's and the engineers to working out which one. Allon, get Stephen and go find Matthias and Methuselah." Allon nodded and left. "The rest of you, don't worry. We'll be fine. We still have lots of coasting momentum, and Fineas is a superb helmsman. We just have to find some way to replace the engines... and find food... and water..." Despite his attempt to put some hope in his words, we could all feel the despair in his voice.

We weren't going back.

### 14

" _It's hard to fly a ship with no engines – it severely limits steering capabilities, and forces you to do all manners of complex math in your head as you fly – it's a miracle that Fineas has managed to keep us going for so long. The rest of the crew thinks it's easy, that there's nothing dangerous in space that we might hit, but I know better. Yes I do."_

~Methuselah of Enoch, in his personal diary

Spaceships move very quickly. Everyone knows this – they have to, to cover the vast distances between stars and planets. They move even faster when they alternate between real space and the Ethyr – something about momentum in real space transferring to the Ethyr and vice-versa. I don't really understand it – that's what physicists are for. Anyway, our ship was doing precisely that when the engines were taken out. Apparently the device that switches us between the two – states of reality I guess? – is located in the engines, and the engines can modify the time spent in each one. I learned that the panel Korzos and Mather had been messing around with was the way to manually adjust that mechanism, when the helmsman wasn't doing it remotely from the navigation room. I wondered why the panel hadn't been better protected – it seemed rather important.

Vincent was positive that Ivor hadn't been lying about placing the vanishing charges. I asked someone – I believe it was Rafael – what they were, and he said they were a relatively new development, a kind of bomb that you could program to send very specific things to another dimension. I asked him then how Crydgar's body had vanished in the charge, and he have me some half-hearted explanation involving cracking open reality and some sort of force like a black hole, but I didn't really get it. He didn't know much else about it – apparently no one did. I found Vincent later and apologized to him for not reporting Ivor's activities to him sooner. He told me not to be silly; I had been watching him for less than a day, and it wasn't my fault that Ivor had acted so quickly.

It is rather difficult for a ship to keep going for any length of time without engines. Which brings me back to my original point: spaceships move very quickly. As such, we would be able to coast for quite a while. We still had another three or so days until we reached the next star system, Antarct. Or would have, if we still had engines. Fortunately, space doesn't have enough particles in it to slow you down significantly, so we would still coast very quickly. The Ethyr, however, is filled with things that slow you down, which is the main reason for the engines in the first place. So, essentially, by losing our engines, we lost our ability to jump between the two states of reality, and so travelled much more slowly (we were lucky that the engines weren't destroyed during the nanoseconds in which we were in the Ethyr). Vincent said that it would take two to three weeks to arrive at Antarct. And if there were no habitable planets there, we were doomed. Of course, I thought we were doomed anyway.

There wasn't much we could do in that time. Without the engines, Fineas was in charge of practically everything, and he never emerged from his room. The only time I had ever seen him in person was before the ship took off. A pilot has a strange relationship with his ship, often preferring their company to that of real people, and sometimes viewing them as their children – or spouses.

Losing the engines must have hit Fineas hard. The engines are like the heart of the ship; they keep the blood flowing and the fluids circulating – and the ship moving. Even the crew could feel the loss of the engines. There was a background hum that we had all grown accustomed to that was no longer there.

There were still things to do. I helped Joseph make meals, although they were much more conservative than his previous ones. We didn't know how long we would be adrift, or even if there would be a planet we could inhabit in the next system. It seemed unlikely. We did have terraforming equipment and could set up a small life-dome on the planet's surface, but we probably wouldn't last long. I didn't really see the point of conserving all of the food because we would probably just all die anyway, but Joseph was my boss, and his boss was Vincent, so I didn't question him.

Due to the smaller amounts of food we needed to prepare, Joseph and I both had more time off. He, for the most part, retired to his room to pray, or went to talk to the priest (they were the two single most religious men on the ship), while I wandered around. I often played spissyx with Michaela and Rafael. We were sometimes joined by Nemhet, who always handily defeated all of us.

I hadn't realized up until this point how much the engines were responsible for the mess of the ship. Or maybe it was only the dead people who had cluttered it up. The ship was almost always immaculate, and I never really had to clean during our weeks of coasting. I even had less time to spend in the observatory, as now most people were free for more and longer periods of time, so the shifts were split up more often. Sometimes there were two people up there at once.

When I wasn't performing my duties or playing spissyx, I went to Rafael for my combat training. He had said that we would begin when Vincent assigned him to me, but he had never gotten around to actually doing it – probably because neither of us had really had time. Now, however, we had all the time we needed. I think I became decent during those two weeks –certainly not nearly as good as Rafael, who was a former professional martial artist, but still good enough for me to be able to defend myself well enough.

I didn't really see Vincent at all during those days except in passing. He seemed to have lost all interest in me, focusing instead on the crisis in the ship. I couldn't say I blamed him – he had more than just me to worry about. I had heard mutterings among much of the crew about a possible mutiny. It had come up in conversation many times. I asked Michaela about it during a game of spissyx, and she laughed at me. "They won't do anything. They might not be happy, but they know we're screwed. What's the point of replacing the captain if they know no good will come of it? Sure, they'll be less angry, but it will serve no practical purpose. It would probably hurt more than help. 'Sides, we all know there was no real way Vincent could have stopped it. They don't hate him – just the situation we're in."

Adam, the only surviving conspirator of the crime that had gotten us into this mess, was in the hospital wing. For whatever reason, our ship didn't have much of one. It seemed rather foolish to me, as this was a mission of indeterminate length, and people were bound to get hurt. The doctor was an older man named Gerald Forgeson. He had no assistance at all, except a few volunteers every once in a while. Most of the serious medical work was done by a machine. Adam was the first real test of the machine's abilities. Considering the fact that he was still alive after standing almost directly next to a bomb (of sorts), I had to say that I was impressed with the machine's abilities.

He wasn't able to be questioned yet – he had slipped into unconsciousness shortly after he arrived. Maybe he did so on purpose, knowing that he would be in for a lot of abuse when he woke up – even though he had been trying to save the mission. Most of the crew didn't know that Adam had been trying to stop the sabotage; Vincent hadn't explained much about what had happened that night. Part of this was that he didn't know much himself, and part was that he just didn't tell the crew anything – and the crew didn't like being out of the loop. That probably didn't help his popularity. Of course, having been paid a lot of attention by Vincent earlier, I was hurt a lot by no longer having his trust.

And so it went for two weeks and three days. Two days before that, we reached the Antarct system. The two engineers frantically looked over the scientists' instruments to determine if there were any planets capable of supporting us, abandoning all pretense of the mission to find the source of the signal. The sensor was broken, anyway – probably Ivor's work again. After only several hours, they found a planet – the fourth most distant from the star. From here, it looked as if the atmosphere was relatively earth-like – they weren't sure if it could support us without suits, but it looked relatively hospitable. We were all asked to check our suits again. I had been issued one that kind of fit me – I didn't know which dead man it had belonged to, and didn't want to.

Then we waited as we approached the planet.

### 15

" _When crash-landing a ship, it is important to keep one thing in mind – it isn't going to be a perfect landing."_

~Fineas Sparten, First Helmsman of the Caliphate of Cairo in Egypt, in advice given to an apprentice helmsman

I expected it to be more dramatic. Antarct was not a particularly brilliant star – it looked a lot like Earth's sun, although it was more blue than it was red. There were only five planets circling it. The fifth planet was massive compared to the other four, and much further out. We headed in a straight line directly towards the fourth planet. When we were an estimated three hours from the planet, Vincent told us all to stand at our crash stations. Naturally, being relatively new to the crew, I had no idea as to what this was. I couldn't find him to ask him, so I turned to Rafael. After a moment of uncertainty, he told me to just stick with him. So I did.

As we waited, I asked Rafael what exactly was going to happen as we approached the planet. He shrugged. "This is my first real exploratory mission – I've never had this happen before. My guess is that we're going to crash-land onto the surface. This ship is surprisingly sturdy." He touched a black spot on the wall, and a strange harness dropped from the ceiling. He put it on, then fiddled with some straps and somehow managed to attach me as well. I was uncomfortably close to him, but didn't say anything. I could feel his breath on the top of my head, and I'm sure he could feel mine on his neck.

After a moment, he disengaged us both. "It seems to be working." He left the harness dangling from the ceiling. "Okay. We don't need to put that dreadful thing on again until twenty minutes before impact."

"What does it do?" I was curious. I had never seen or heard of anything like this, despite my paying close attention to the world of spacecraft as a youth.

"It's a crash harness. When the ship senses an impact, the ropes will stiffen, and whenever you're about to hit something, like the wall or another person, it will steer you away, while also not breaking your bones. That, combined with the disabling of the artificial gravity drives, keeps you pretty safe. Or so I'm told."

I tilted my head. "If they're supposed to stop us from hitting things, why is it so close to a wall?"

He opened his mouth, about to say something, then closed it. He looked up at the ceiling for a moment, then the harness, then back at the wall. "I don't know."

I waited another moment, then asked him another question. "What does Fineas do during all of this? Doesn't he have to steer?"

Rafael shrugged. "I don't know – I'm not an expert. I think he has some kind of special pod or something." I nodded.

After that, we stood in silence for a while. There was a viewport right next to where we stood, and I looked out of it as we approached. As we got closer to the planet, it gradually began to enter my field of vision. Its surface was a dark, uniform green. It didn't even look like there were clouds; it was just green. Rafael tapped my shoulder. I turned to see him already in his harness. "Get in, boy. Impact soon."

I walked over and let him strap me in. We waited awkwardly (or at least that's what it felt like to me) for quite a while, and then we felt the ship begin to slow. I blinked. How were we slowing? The brakes were dependent on the engine – or so I thought. I asked Rafael about this, and he replied saying something about gravitational fields and extra-engine thrusters and the atmosphere. I didn't understand it then, and even now I don't completely understand it, but we slowed down rapidly. The green that we had seen vanished as we entered the atmosphere. My ears began popping madly, and I grimaced as my hearing left me. My eyesight began to blur, and then they went black as my vision left me as well. As my eyesight faded, my head began to hurt, and soon I was unconscious.

***

I was awoken by something hitting my cheek. I sat up in alarm, and found that I was lying down. I was no longer strapped into the harness, but was lying on the floor of the ship. Michaela knelt in front of me, holding out a pill. I took it with a shaking hand and swallowed it. She grinned. "Good job, Jak. We made it. That pill will let you breathe out there. Apparently Gerald knew how to operate some of the biologist's equipment and popped these out for us. Lucky for us. The atmosphere is kind of breathable, but it would kill us in a few days. Could be inhabitable after only a few years of terraforming." Michaela stood up and extended her hand. I took it, and she pulled me to my feet. I stumbled forward into her, but she pushed me back and held me out at arm's length. "Don't you even try. I know you like your own, but I don't know about your preferences for the other side." I turned red as she grinned wickedly. She let go, and I stood on my own.

"What happened?" My voice was unsteady.

"We landed. Fineas is a superb helmsman. He's currently locked up in the navigation room, lamenting the loss of his ship. Apparently, we still had some extra-engine thrusters, which he used in combination with the particles in the atmosphere to slow us down. Still, we hit pretty hard. Rafael said you blacked out about a third of the way down. You didn't even get the worst of it. That impact was hard." She rubbed the back of her neck and winced. "And those harnesses aren't foolproof." She sighed. "Anyway, we managed to hit some kind of foliage-top with the ship oriented the right way, and skimmed on it for a while as we sank. Then we hit some unforeseen obstacle and flipped over. I'm not exactly sure what happened, but this ship won't be flying again – and not just because we don't have engines. The living quarters are still intact, though. Mostly."

She waited for more questions. When I had none, she turned around and told me to follow her. I did. She led me to the door of the main cargo bay and turned to me. "Have you ever been off of Earth before?"

I shook my head. She grinned. "Well, prepare for the thrill of your life."

She opened the door. Looking across the hold towards the open doors on the far side, I caught my first glimpse of the planet. Well, it wasn't really a glimpse. It was more of a prolonged viewing. And it was unlike anything I had expected.

I'm not exactly sure what it was I was expecting, but it definitely wasn't what I saw. It looked a lot like Earth. Michaela took my hand and led me towards the door. I didn't resist, following her in a dreamlike state. She kept me going until we reached the open air, and then she stopped and let go of my hand. "Neat, huh?"

I nodded. We were in a clearing, in the middle of a forest of some sort. There were tree-like things all around us. Their trunks were a dull gray, and were mostly smooth, save for a few cracks along their length. Their "leaves," which looked a lot like lily pads on Earth, were all manners of reds and purples and pinks. The ground was a rich red soil, with various small rocks and pebbles scattered in it. There was no grass that I could see. The air smelled faintly of some exotic spice, and a faint, pulsing vibration permeated the air around us.

The sky was the green color of the atmosphere we had seen from space. It looked smooth, much like the sky on earth, so the green hadn't been from any clouds. Looking at it more carefully, however, I did see what appeared to be green clouds of some kind scattered across the sky.

I heard voices to my right. Bringing my attention back to the ground, I saw most of the crew gathered around one of the closest trees. A few trees away, I spotted Fineas, our hermitic helmsman. Apparently he wasn't locked in the navigation room anymore. He was smoking a pipe and looking angrily up at the skies. I felt some pity for him – it was hard for a pilot to lose a ship. Pilots usually piloted one ship for their entire life. Losing it was like losing a close friend, or a family member.

As I watched him, Vincent came out of the trees in between the two groups. He saw Michaela and me, and raised his arm in greeting. He strolled over to us. "Good to see you finally out of that ship, Jak. A bit of fresh air should do you some good." He chuckled.

"How long was I out for?" I asked, afraid of the answer.

"Not that long. Only three or four hours. You managed to get out of listening to my brilliant speech on how we have to stick together out here." I wasn't sure whether I was disappointed or not.

After a few moments of silence, I asked Vincent what we were doing now.

"Nothing much. Half of the crew is either exploring or trying to make sense of things. The other half is over there," he gestured to the tree that the crew was gathered around, "doing whatever it is they're doing. We don't need to make shelter, as the ship is still mostly intact, thanks to Fineas' skill." We all glanced over at the helmsman, who looked lost in deep thoughts.

After another moment of silence, Vincent turned to me and said, "So, you're free to take time off. Do whatever you want. Just don't go too far – we wouldn't want to lose you." He winked and walked past me, back into the ship. Michaela said goodbye shortly after, and left to go join the large group around the tree.

Left alone, I ventured to the tree line, and stopped in front of it. The smell of spice was much stronger than before. I sniffed the air. I could almost make it out now – it smelled like a mixture of oregano and thyme. It was a very strange smell.

Hesitantly, I took a step into the trees. There was no sudden change or dramatic event, but I felt like I had done something important. I took several more steps, and wandered four or five trees in, never letting the ship leave my sight. A few more steps in, and the density of the trees increased exponentially, until it looked like passage through was impossible. I wondered if it was the same on the other sides of the clearing.

As I turned around to see, I saw movement out of the corner of my eye. I whirled around to face it, but there was nothing. I waited a few moments to see if the movement returned, and when it didn't, I decided I was just imagining things. I turned and walked towards the opposite side of the clearing. I went about three times as far in, stopping just as the ship began to vanish from my line of sight. The trees were becoming denser, but not much. I turned around and walked back to the ship, walking in through the main cargo bay.

I wandered aimlessly through the corridors of the ship, not looking for anything in particular, but noting the damage that had been done. I passed by two of the ECU rooms. The first one seemed to be functioning perfectly, but the second had been flooded by shattered water tanks, and the floor was covered in green algae. I grimaced and carried on.

As I approached the hospital wing, I decided that there was someone I wanted to talk to. I had spoken to him only twice before, and then the situations had not been very amiable. I decided that it was time that I make amends with that person, and try to understand them better. I'm not entirely sure what got into me, but I decided to pay a visit to Adam Sansson.

### 16

" _Stowaways are a strange phenomenon. Usually left for dead by those they left behind, they no longer exist within society. You can starve them, overwork them, or space them if you wish, but that serves no purpose. If you feed them less and make them earn their keep, they can often be a surprisingly worthy addition to your crew."_

~Captain Kailash Beldron, at the Starfarer's Union meeting in 3242 A.D.

Adam was conscious. I was surprised; I had heard that he was still unconscious only shortly before we had entered the planet's atmosphere. When he saw me, he raised one eyebrow and put a finger to his lips. I looked around. The physician was not in the room, having returned to his chamber after letting me in. I walked next to Adam's bed. He looked pale and weak, and something was wrong about him. It took me a moment to notice that he wasn't wearing his sunglasses. He was actually rather handsome when you could see his eyes – they were a rich green. "Why isn't the ship moving?" He sounded genuinely concerned. I realized that he didn't know that we had landed – unless Gerald had told him, which he apparently hadn't.

I thought for a moment before answering. "Because we've landed." He sat up straight in bed, then winced and slowly lay back down. His eyes were wide open now.

"Where? How? Why?" He began to sit up again, but I pushed him back down.

"Does anyone know you're conscious?" He shook his head. "You may want to keep it that way; no one can prove you're not a conspirator – and I'm not sure I'd help you convince them you're not."

He smiled wryly. "I don't blame you. It shouldn't be too hard for me to pretend to be unconscious – I feel dead." He coughed. "So, where are we?"

"Some planet in the... Antarct system. The fourth one. It's relatively hospitable – we only needed one pill to allow us to breathe here." He nodded. I hesitated. "Do you need to get the pill in case the outside air comes in...?"

He laughed, then burst out coughing. When it subsided, he replied, "I don't think so. The hospital wing generates an artificial atmosphere. I should be fine. Thanks for the offer though." He coughed again. "So, what's it like out there?"

I shrugged. "Fairly similar to Earth. I suppose any planet we chose to land on would be – but it has these grey and purple tree-things, and lots of red dirt. And a green sky."

He said nothing for a few minutes. His eyes were closed, and I thought he had fallen asleep. As I began to tiptoe away, he spoke. "Has Vincent named the planet yet?"

I stopped. "No? Does he have the authority to?"

Adam grinned. "He was probably the first to set foot on the planet. It's the captain's duty – or honor, I suppose, to do so. And the first one to set foot on an unnamed planet gets to name it." I had not known that. I made a mental note to ask Vincent about it when I saw him next.

Seeing that he was tired, I began to leave again, but he asked me to stop. I turned back to him. He beckoned me closer. "Why'd you come visit me? I appreciate it, but for the life of me, I can't fathom why you would come to see me – unless you wanted to see my pitiful state to make yourself feel better."

I shook my head. "I'm not sure why." I smiled crookedly. "But I'm glad I did. You're not nearly so bad when you're not trying to kill me." He laughed, which again quickly turned into a fit of coughing.

"I'm sorry about that – I never wanted to do it. It'd be perfectly understandable for you to hate me. There'd be no hard feelings."

I looked down at him, and found that despite all he had done to me, I couldn't bring myself to hate him. I felt like I should despise him, but he was rather likeable when not in his spy costume.

"Well, I certainly don't trust you – but no, I don't hate you. You're on the good side."

He sighed. "Or so I like to believe. I never wanted to come along in the first place, you know. You saw me get taken down in Raheera – I didn't put up a fight. I hated – and still do hate – hurting people, especially physically." He laughed cynically. "I got myself in a bad position for someone with those feelings.

"But then the goddamn Bajans broke me down in their prison – they released my violent side and bartered me back to Ireland, on the promise that I would be sent to join the Ambassador as the Irish representative. My superiors thought they were getting a good deal – they would have their spy back for almost no cost to them. But I wasn't truly to be Ireland's representative – I would be under the control of the Bajans, through Crydgar. I still hate killing, but I can do it now... and I have to. They imprinted me... Crydgar could turn me off whenever he wished." His voice was almost pleading now, as if he was begging me to listen to his story.

"Just hearing that one simple phrase sends me into painful seizures – I'm always afraid someone will say it by accident, and it'll kill me. Crydgar knew the phrase, so I had to do what he said to make sure he didn't hurt me – and it hurts so much, more than you can imagine... I never had any real choice. I liked you, really – but Crydgar forced me to play good-cop bad-cop, and then to try to kill you. I'm so sorry..."

I wasn't sure what to say. I had not been expecting to visit Adam and find a broken man before me. Neither of us said anything for a few minutes, and then I awkwardly patted him on the shoulder. "It's okay. Don't worry about it."

Adam sighed, then coughed. When he spoke, his voice was back to its usual drawl. "Anyway, I suppose I'll go back to pretending to be unconscious. Enjoy yourself."

I nodded and left the hospital wing. Gerald was sitting in his quarters, which were just before the exit, and I chanced a wave at him, my confidence buoyed by Adam's acceptance and apparent trust of me. He didn't notice. Sighing, I left the wing.

I decided to seek out Vincent and ask him about the planet's name. He had entered the ship earlier, and I hadn't seen him leave, so I presumed he was still inside. I didn't pass anyone on the way to the captain's quarters; they were all outside exploring.

When I arrived, I knocked on the door, rather loudly. Vincent opened it. He smiled when he saw me. "Jak! Done exploring already?"

I nodded. There hadn't been much to see.

"Well, come in." He gestured for me to enter, and I did. He closed the door behind me. We sat down at the same table we had the last time I had been in there. He leaned forward and rested his head in his hands, placing his elbows on the table. "So what brings you here?"

I shrugged. "I just wanted to talk. I'm bored, and haven't talked much to you since the incident with the engines."

He leaned back. "I'm sorry about that. I was rather busy."

I smiled "It's fine, I know. Anyway, I'm not even supposed to be here." My smile vanished as a wave of depression hit me. "I'm not even sure why anyone pays any attention to me."

Vincent raised an eyebrow. "You really don't?" I shook my head. He sighed and leaned forward again. "Mainly because you're kind, and you're polite. It's hard to ignore someone like that." I think I blushed at that point. I like to think I didn't, though. "And I think you suffer from some misunderstandings of the general attitude towards stowaways."

He grinned. "It is generally expected that there will be at least one stowaway on board a ship. Usually, rations are set aside or extra rations are packed just in case. They're usually found wthin a week or so at the most.

"So most people don't mind – they're just an extra hand that they don't need to worry about overworking, as they're usually considered dead by those left behind. And who could prove they ever stowed away? The stories about the horrible fates of stowaways are myths. They're just spread to discourage people from doing it. In truth, successful stowaways are usually admired and welcomed by the crew – much like you were. And you even packed your own rations. I'm surprised there weren't more of you, considering how huge this expedition was.

"That's why we pay attention to you. Besides, you're a full-fledged member of the crew now, and you do your work. There's no reason to ignore you."

I nodded. His words made me feel better. "Do we have any plans for escape, or are we stuck here?"

He tilted his head to the side. "We are, in all likelihood, stuck here. I'm sure they'll notice that we don't return eventually – but they did choose people who didn't have families to go on this mission, just in case something like this happens. Do you have any family wondering where you went off to?"

I shrugged. "None that I care about – and I doubt they care about me, either."

Vincent's face softened. "I'm sure they miss you, Jak."

I shook my head. "I came from the poor district in Raheera – the Lower Docks. That's where they stuff all the scum in society. I know you aren't Bajan, but I'm sure you have places like that wherever you're from." The look on his face told me that it did. "My parents were – are – alcoholics. They hit us all the time. I hardly ever stayed in the house after I got my job at the docks. They probably just assumed I got knifed in some alley somewhere and left me for dead." I was no longer looking at him, afraid of the pity I knew would be in his eyes.

"Is that why you stowed away?" His voice was gentle. I nodded. I heard him stand and walk over to me. He put his hand on my shoulder. "I'm sorry. Hopefully we'll be better to you than they were." I said nothing.

We waited a few moments for me to regain my composure. I excused myself and began to walk out the door. Right before I left, I paused. "Out of curiosity, is there a way to communicate with Earth?"

Vincent shrugged. "Perhaps. Our transmitter is faulty – we hadn't been able to test it because it doesn't work when we switch between the Ethyr and reality. I don't know if Korzos sent messages back each time we stopped at a star system. I am trying to repair it, and send a help message. Of course, at these distances, it will take a week or two for any message to get back to Earth."

I nodded and took a step out the door, then remembered what I had come for. "Oh, did you name the planet?"

He smiled and nodded. "Yes I did."

I waited a moment, then asked, "What did you call it?"

He responded instantly. "Kiefan."

The name didn't remind me of anything. "Is there a reason for that name?"

He smiled at me. "There is, but for now, that information will remain with me." I nodded, bid him farewell, and left.

Not sure what to do with myself, I returned to my room. As I sat down, I realized how tired I was. I lay down, closed my eyes, and was asleep.

### 17

" _Rule number one of any exploratory mission landing on an unknown planet: you can't be too careful. Rule number two: wear your goddamned suit. Rule number three: whatever you do, don't die."_

~David Steinros, in a lecture at the Pilot's Academy in Weirnberg

The stars were calling to me. I heard the gentle, soothing voice speak to me, begging me to stay with them forever. "We are right for you, Jak. We can be your family – don't leave us. Come to us, and stay with us. We can help you, we can make you happy. Come to us, Jak..."

I wanted to. I felt my feet begin to float above whatever ground I stood upon, leaving the thin layer of grey mist behind me. I held out my arms, and I began to become warmer. A happiness began to enter my soul, and I closed my eyes.

Something tugged on my foot, and then pulled me down. Hard. I landed on the ground again. I opened my eyes in anger, searching for the one who had taken my joy away from me.

The strange green-cloaked man stood in front of me again. "You," I said. "Why do you stop me? Do you never want me to be happy again?"

The man said nothing.

" _Who are you? What do you want from me? I just want to go to my family..."_

" _They are not your family."His voice was rich and deep. "Do not go to them. You have work to do, Progenitor. You must not go to them." I blinked, and wondered how I could be a progenitor when I was very clearly gay._

" _Now go, and do not return here." He walked forward and pushed me._

And I was awake. I slowly sat up, my head whirling. I had dreamed a similar dream three times – it must mean something. I put my legs on the floor, rubbed my eyes, and stood. Glancing at the chronometer, I saw that it was very early in the morning of the day-cycle on the ship. I wondered how long the days were here.

I walked out of my room and wandered idly around the ship. The hospital wing was locked, and I didn't want to wake Gerald – or Adam. My feet led to me one of the two crew's messes. I hadn't spent much time in there, other than when I played Michaela or someone else at spissyx. I walked over to the spissyx board, and looked down at it for several moments. I shook my head and walked over to a nearby couch (like most furniture on the ship, it was bolted to the floor). I sat down on it, and looked at the broken game monitor. I sat in silence, staring at the screen.

"Hey there." I started and looked over at the entrance to see Michaela standing there.

"Hey." I am not very eloquent that early in the morning.

She sat down beside me. "What are you doing up so early?"

I shrugged. "Bad dream. I couldn't sleep."

She nodded in sympathy. "I'm sorry."

I shrugged again. "It's not so bad. Why are you up?"

It was her turn to shrug. "Couldn't sleep – I'm too excited. Plus, I was on duty in the observatory." I flinched. Did I still have duty there? Why did we still need to have someone on watch?

I asked her my questions. She smiled. "Of course you still have duty there. Even though you blacked out during the descent, you're still on this crew. And as for your second question, we're on an unfamiliar planet; we don't know what's out there, and it's always good to know what's going on." I nodded. It made sense.

"Did you see anything outside?" I asked.

"Well... sort of."

I tilted my head. "Sort of?"

She nodded. "Here, I'll show you. Come on." She stood, and a few moments later, I forced myself to do the same. We walked to the observatory in silence.

When we got there, I saw what she meant.

You couldn't see more than a few centimeters outside. The air was completely filled with violently swirling green clouds. "What is that?" I asked in a hushed voice that still carried in the vast space of the dome.

The man on duty turned and shrugged at my question. I hadn't noticed him. "A storm of some kind, it looks like."

Michaela nodded in agreement. "Aye. We're not sure what caused it – it could be a coriolis storm, or perhaps just a lot of wind moving the clouds around. Or it could be a cycle-storm. That's what I think it is."

"A cycle-storm?" I hadn't heard of those before.

The man answered. "Yeah." I waited for more, but nothing came. I turned to Michaela.

She looked at the man. "Very helpful, Felzmad."

He looked at her questioningly. "What?"

She sighed dramatically. "He was asking what one was, if I judged the nature of the tone of his voice correctly."

Felzmad looked at me sheepishly. "Sorry."

We waited a moment. "Well, aren't you going to explain?" Michaela sounded amused.

The man started. "Of course, of course! A cycle-storm is a storm that always exists, and never dissipates. Either it stays in one place, and appears to move as the planet rotates, or it moves, but at a different speed or maybe in the opposite direction of the planet."

I nodded in understanding. "Is it dangerous out there?" The question sounded stupid to me as soon as the words left my mouth.

Michaela shrugged. "We don't know. Looks like it though – those clouds are moving pretty fast." I had to agree with her. "I wonder why they're down so low though – maybe it's some kind of gas from the ground, being blown around."

Felzmad was shaking his head. "No, I doubt it. These clouds are very thick – I doubt any natural gas that exists at this altitude would look like that." I was surprised – I had thought that more dense objects were on the bottom, less dense on the top. I said so to the two crewmembers.

"Yes, this is normally true. There are reasons that it doesn't apply in this case, but I am too tired to explain right now. If you're really curious, come find me when I'm more awake." Felzmad did look exhausted.

We watched the clouds swirl in silence for a while. "Was anyone out there when it started?" I asked.

"Nope. Vincent and I made sure that everyone was inside and the ship secured when the evening part of the day-cycle began. We don't know what it's like out there. Better safe than sorry." Even though we all knew we were doomed to die on this barren planet? I felt the thought coming from Felzmad, too, even though he had turned around to watch the clouds.

I watched the clouds with him for a few moments, then decided I should go see if Joseph was ready for me. I bid Michaela and Felzmad farewell, and told them where I was going. She laughed. "Joseph went crazy when we landed, and made frozen meals for the next five days. You should have seen him – it was terrifying. I didn't know people could move that fast. But he said we are to help ourselves, and that he was too excited to cook every day. You're off of kitchen duty for now, though you probably should report to him every once in a while. Now, go back to sleep. Or try to."

I gratefully saluted and did as I was bid.

### 18

" _Good food. Clean water. Air. Good lodging. Off-duty time. Camaraderie. Clear authority. Certainty. Respectability. Fairness. Morality. Confidence. Relative lenience. That is what a crew wants from a captain, and if one of these things ceases to be provided, trouble will begin brewing."_

~Jeremiah E. Korzos, in a speech given to fellow members of the Terran Home Rule Starship Captain's Society

I awoke in what was passed for mid-afternoon in the ship's day-cycle. Normally it takes me a while to completely wake up, but I had gotten enough sleep that I practically leapt out of bed. I walked out the door, locked it, then walked quickly to the kitchen. Joseph was sleeping in a chair at the table. I smiled and opened the massive freezer. I was surprised to actually see five day's worth of meals for every member of the crew, all labeled. I took my breakfast (I saved my actual lunch for another time) and ate it hurriedly, washing my own dishes afterwards, as well as others that were lying around. Excited to explore when I was completely clear-headed, I practically skipped over to the cargo bay. Rafael stood guard there.

He smiled at me. "What are you doing down here, Jak?"

"I was hoping to go outside. Can I?"

Rafael sighed and shook his head. "Sorry, but there's a terrible storm out there. Vincent says that no one is to go out again until it dissipates, and then will have to bring some kind of gear if they go too far."

I was disappointed, but I tried to hide it. I thanked him and left. I ran into Michaela on the way back to my room, and asked her if she wanted to play spissyx. She apologized and said she couldn't, as she had to talk to Vincent. We both went our separate ways. When I arrived at the door to my room, I realized that I didn't really want to stay there – there was nothing to do. Bored, I wandered about the ship some more. The bridge was empty. When we had been travelling, it had always been full of people, and Fineas had been in constant conversation with the captain and mate. It was unnerving to see the place so empty. I hurriedly left.

My feet took me to the areas where the landing crafts docked. I first found myself at the dock of the Missionary. I could not get into the actual dock itself, as it, and the door leading to it, had been damaged in the crash. I continued forwards, until I reached the dock of the Diplomat. I stood there for several moments, and did not even try the door. I knew it would be empty, and because it was on the same side as the Missionary's dock, I suspected that it was probably damaged as well.

I journeyed then to the two docks on the other side of the ship. The first, across from the dock of the Diplomat, was that of the Negotiator. The door was open, and I walked in.

The Negotiator appeared to be almost identical to the Diplomat, save for the name written on its hull, and double the amount of weaponry spread along its length (and width). The hangar it was in was also similar, with crates and lockers around it storing what was necessary to maintain such a craft. I stood in the room for a few moments, wanting to go up to the ship and inspect it more closely, but I resisted the urge. I turned around and walked out the door.

The door to the last dock was closed. I hesitantly tried the door, and it slid open for me. I stepped into the room.

It was dark – unlike the rest of the ship, there were no lights. I could barely make out the vague outline of the ship, the Emissary. I walked towards it, and as I approached, I could make out the sound of heavy breathing. I stopped, hesitating. Who else was in the room?

Apparently they were wondering the same thing. A gruff voice called out from the darkness near the ship, "Who's there?"

I swallowed, suddenly nervous. I did not recognize the voice. "J-Jak, sir."

There was a silence broken only by the man's breathing.

"Jak. The stowaway. What are you doing? You have no business here. Get out!"

I nodded, then realized that he couldn't see that in the darkness. "Y-yes, sir." I turned and fled the room, shutting the door behind me. I leaned against the closed door, wondering who was in the room. After a few moments, I shook my head and continued my aimless wandering, now having no goals at all in mind.

I found myself at the door to the observatory. Not able to think of anything better to do, I pressed my hand into the door and went up the stairs. Just before I reached the top, I heard hushed voices. I froze.

"I don't know about that. You saw the video that Vince showed us..."

"Yes, I know, but he controls the security footage. Security practically worshipped him. Valerius was the only one who didn't – look what happened to him! And how do you think the Diplomat was destroyed? The guns that shot at it were controlled by Security. Even if Korzos was responsible, Vincent had to have let him do it. He had too much power before his mutiny, and we handed him even more."

Another voice. "You go too far to call it a mutiny. He was just giving a man what he deserved."

"If you're sure it was him." I recognized Nemhet's voice. "I am not so sure. Vincent is an ambitious man – I've known him for years. There's a lot of power in Security, which is why he gravitated towards it. He's always wanted recognition, though – and what better way to get that than to lead the mission to success?"

"He's done a good job of that, managing to get our engines blown up. Was that part of his brilliant plan?"

Rafael answered. I wondered when he had gotten off of guard duty. "No. He is not suicidal, just mad. In a rather suave way. Whatever his flaws may be, Vincent did tell the truth about Ivor being a saboteur, in the pay of the Ryussan government. The engines' destruction was almost certainly Karanov's work – and it threw a wrench in Vincent's own plans. No doubt he is trying to send for help as we speak, while blaming us for this failure – but the transmitter is down. I made sure of that."

I blinked. Rafael had sabotaged the transmitter? Why would he do such a thing? Apparently others had similar thoughts running through their minds, for I heard some mutters. When they were silenced, Rafael continued.

"There is, however, a second transmitter, one that Vincent does not know about, that Mather entrusted to me. It works. We will call for help once Vincent is removed."

My stomach went cold. I had heard rumors that they were plotting this, but this was a confirmation.

"Why would Mather trust you with it?" It was Allon.

Rafael sounded smug. "Korzos was sabotaging the mission. The Namibians were paying him to make it go badly, and return in disarray." There were a few gasps. "Mather discovered this early on, and put a stop to all of Korzos' actions. He then entrusted me, someone that he knew he could trust but who was not associated with him, with a confidential transmitter supplied to him by the Bajan government, in case Korzos did anything like this.

"Korzos suspected that Mather was stopping his efforts at sabotage, and so told Mather to head the mission on the Diplomat. Robos and Ironton had always been Mather's pets, and probably knew about the captain's hidden agenda. Valerius was the only security man not loyal to Vincent, and Angela was always the smartest one of us. That's why Korzos sent them on the mission – Valerius at Vincent's request. But he did not plan on blowing up the ship – that would be too obviously a fault on his part. No, he planned on abandoning them. I don't know how he thought he could make it okay with us, but he was going to try.

"It was Vincent who blew up the shuttle, in order to frame Korzos and take the captainship. Sure, Korzos had anger issues, and was trying to make the mission fail, but at least he wasn't the Machiavellian dictator that Vincent wants to be." Rafael was not describing the Vincent I knew. I began to back down the stairs, as silently as I could. When I reached the bottom of the stairs, I silently left the observatory and ran all the way to Vincent's cabin.

### 19

" _If you're ever going to lead a mutiny, you should keep three things in mind. One, don't let everyone in on it – avoid those who follow the captain blindly. Two, make it happen quickly – a good captain will notice the signs of discontent and put a stop to it, eliminating your power base before you can act. And three – don't let the captain find out."_

~Rafael Donnar, in an encrypted private voice message to Nemhet Ahuja

I stopped in front of Vincent's door. I took a breath and raised my hand to knock, then hesitated. Rafael was my friend – he had trained me in combat and given me help whenever I had needed it. Did I really want to betray him? Who did I have more of a duty to: the captain, or the mission? Was Rafael even speaking the truth? I didn't know what to do.

Vincent answered that question for me. The door opened, and he looked blearily out at me. Michaela stood behind him, adjusting her shirt. "Jak? What do you want?"

I swallowed. "I have something to tell you."

"What is it?"

"Can I come in?" I wasn't going to speak of mutinies while standing out in the corridor.

He hesitated, then turned made a gesture at Michaela. She nodded and vanished from my view. A few moments later, Vincent stepped aside and let me in. I made sure that he closed the door after me.

"Now, Jak, what is it?" He sounded slightly annoyed.

I swallowed. "There's going to be a mutiny, sir."

He didn't blink at my use of the word "sir." "What? How do you know?"

I hesitated a moment before answering. "I was wandering around when I came across a group of them in the observatory. They were accusing you of doing some terrible things..." I took a breath. "They claimed you were responsible for all of the deaths." I was asking the question of him as much as telling him what they had said.

His eyes blazed with a rage that I had never seen before. I shrank back.

"Who is involved?" His voice was soft, but not in a pleasant way.

"Rafael and Nemhet are l-leading it, s-sir." I was terrified.

"How many were there?"

"I don't know. I d-didn't want them to see me, so I didn't go up all the way."

He nodded and turned to Michaela. "Michaela, round up everyone who isn't up there and have them meet outside these chambers. Be discreet. And fast."

"Do we want Fineas?"

Vincent thought for a moment, then shook his head. "He'll be of no use. Just let him mope around in that dark hangar." So Fineas had been the one in the Emissary's dock.

Michaela saluted and pushed past me out the door.

Vincent smiled at me, though I could see the fire in his eyes. "Thank you, Jak. Do you want to stay here while this is dealt with?"

I thought about it for a moment, then shook my head. I wanted to see what happened.

He smiled grimly. "Alright. Then for now, we'll both wait for Michaela to come back."

She returned a few minutes later with nine crew-members. Looking out at them through the security camera monitor, I recognized Lazarus (the priest), Stephen Krafting, and Joseph among them. Other than Lazarus, the entire crew was armed with pistols and batons. I blinked when I saw that the doctor, Gerald, was there, along with Adam, who looked surprisingly energetic.

We left the captain's quarters, and stood out in the hallway with the assembled crew. Vincent nodded to Adam. "A good chance to redeem yourself. Are you up to this?"

Adam grinned, then quickly hid it and replaced it with an exaggerated look of solemnity. "I believe I am." Vincent nodded to him again, and then addressed the gathered members of the crew.

"Gentlemen... and lady," he added, with a slight dip of the head in Michaela's direction. "We have a problem on our hands. Rafael and Nemhet have apparently turned most of the crew against me. Now, I know that I was not the original captain of this ship, but you, and they, chose me to succeed him when Korzos proved to be unfit. Now those two seek to overturn their previous ruling, and take the captainship away from me. Now, if that is the decision of the whole crew, I will gladly step down – if it is done peacefully. However, this group – which seems to consist of everyone except you – wishes to dispose of me in a violent fashion. So I ask you now – do you wish to get rid of me?" A chorus of negative answers followed. Vincent smiled. "Then let us go to the observatory and turn the tide."

We moved quickly through the ship, stopping in front of the door to the observatory. Vincent gestured at me to open the door. I hesitated a moment, then did so. He signaled for me to start advancing up the stairway, and I obeyed. I stopped just before they would have been able to see me. I wondered why they had failed to post a look-out; it seemed rather foolish of them to not do so. The rest of the loyal crew followed behind me, and we all listened to the conversation. Rafael was speaking.

"-framed Korzos, when he was the one who killed Ezekiel!" I ignored Rafael's comment. I didn't want to think about that unlikely, horrible possibility. "He has not done us any good so far – this mission has suffered just by his mere presence on the ship! He must be removed!" There were some half-hearted cheers, as well as a few enthusiastic ones. I felt relieved that most of the crew did not sound excited by this prospect.

Vincent shouldered his way past me, winking as he went. He walked into view of the conspirators, and stood there for a few moments, unmoving and silent. Then I heard a gasp.

"You were talking about me?" Vincent asked softly.

There was a moment of silence, and then Nemhet spoke. "We have some charges to bring up against you, captain." His footsteps echoed in the domed chamber as he approached. "You haven't been doing so well since you became the leader of this expedition – and you killed everyone on this ship, and you are going to be responsible for all of their deaths now!" He wasn't nearly as eloquent as Rafael.

"And how, may I ask, did I do that?" Vincent's voice was flat.

"You were the one who shot the laser at the Diplomat. It could only have been you. You were the one who killed Ezekiel, then doctored security footage to shift the blame to Korzos. You killed the scientists! No footage of what happened in their lab was ever released!" Nemhet was breathing heavily.

"I see," Vincent responded after a moment. "Well, please permit me to answer. I did not fire those weapons. I could not have. They have a lock set on them preventing anyone other than the captain from giving the order to fire them."

"But they were under your control!" hissed Nemhet.

"They were only if Korzos gave us the order to fire. Which he did not."

"How can we believe you?" It was Rafael. He sounded smugly confident.

There was a pause. "I guess you'll just have to trust me."

Someone snorted. "And who's to say you didn't just hack into the system?" Rafael again.

There were some mutters from the rest of the crew.

"Me," Vincent replied. "And we did not have the resources to edit the footage to extent that you saw. It was the work of a true spy – or spies. Karanov and Korzos were working together to sabotage the mission. They both wanted it to fail, and so joined forces to maximize their effect."

"How do you know all this, captain?" Nemhet used the last word sarcastically.

"I was Security. It was my job to know."

"Then why didn't you report it to us? Waiting for the right moment to in order to seize the captainship for yourself?" Rafael sounded triumphant. "I know you, Vincent – that's exactly what you would do."

The mutterings grew louder. I turned around to look at the rest of the crew still loyal to Vincent, panic in my eyes, but Michaela just raised a finger to her lips.

"If that's what you believe. I, however, know that I wouldn't."

Rafael laughed. "It doesn't matter what you believe, Vince. The crew believes what I believe. And I believe that you need to die. You were responsible for killing everyone who has died on this ship – not Korzos or your Ryussan scapegoat. Your thankfully short-lived captainship is over." I heard the distinct buzz of a charging power weapon. "Good-bye."

Michaela whispered, "Now!" We all ran up the stairs, and enclosed Vincent in a ring of people. I was on the right side.

Rafael, Nemhet, and Allon Lazu were standing in front of a large mass of crew. The people in front looked angry, but towards the back, I saw doubt and uncertainty.

Vincent smiled. "I see that Rafael's eloquent speeches have won you over. However, I entreat you to listen to me, rather than that power-hungry worm." I glanced over at Vincent in horror. I had never heard such scathing words come out of his mouth before.

"Have I really failed you that much? Yes, the ship has crashed, but Ivor would have planted the bombs even had Korzos been captain; it was unavoidable. And how many more people would Korzos have murdered if I had allowed him to continue?"

The mutineers weren't going to wait any longer. "Get the traitor! Don't let him sway your minds with his clever tongue!" Nemhet shrieked, and led the charge forward. Only Rafael and Allon followed him.

As soon as they were within striking distance, Michaela stepped forward, a baton in her hand, and flicked her wrist twice, hitting the heads of both Allon and Rafael, taking them both to the ground. For a professional martial artist, Rafael hadn't lasted long. Nemhet snarled and leapt on top of Adam, who collapsed under the larger man's weight. I turned to help, only to see Nemhet fly through the air as Adam kicked him off and leapt to his feet. The crewmembers facing us caught him, breaking his fall.

I turned my attention back to Michaela, only to find that she had conjured up a pair of restraints and had tied up the moaning Allon and Rafael. Nemhet struggled to break free of those holding him, and they released him without a fight. He charged us again. Adam threw his baton, and it hit Nemhet directly in the temple. His eyes rolled back in his head, and he collapsed. Stephen sauntered up to him, catching the pair of restraints Michaela tossed to him, and tied him up as well, giving Adam a respectful nod. He and Michaela dragged the three prisoners together.

Vincent smiled at the crew. "If you really wish for me to step down, I will do so. Is that what you wish?" The room filled with the sounds of negative replies.

"Very well. Then I shall remain as your captain.

"But, in order to show you what happens when people like these," he gestured at the three men lying on the ground in front of him, "try to destroy our community and sow discord, they shall all be executed. Each in a different fashion. Allon shall go first, then Nemhet, and then finally Rafael. Allon... will die tomorrow. The rest of you are all forgiven. May I suggest we all retire to our rooms?" A somber mass of humanity trudged past us, exiting the observatory in silence. Soon only the original loyal crew remained.

Vincent turned to Michaela, Stephen, and I. "Take these three and tie them up in... Ivor's old quarters. Don't let them get near enough to each other that they could break their bonds. Strap them to the wall. Assign a guard to them, from among us." We all nodded. I took Allon, not being able to bring myself to carry either of the other two, and we did as we were bid.

I sat on my bed for the rest of the day-cycle, trying to make sense of what had happened, and of Vincent's sudden brutality. I couldn't. I did, however, begin to doubt Vincent for the first time.

### 20

" _Curiosity is both the blessing and the curse of the human race. Without curiosity, we would have advanced nowhere, and would be forever stuck on one single planet until the end of days. At the same time, without curiosity, many of the horrors of the world would have been circumvented, and needless deaths would have been avoided. Is the curious one, then, a progressive, or one doomed to die?"_

~Jakken Jalhalla Servidos, in a speech to the Terran Home Rule Council

" _Come, Jakken. Come to us. We are lonely. We want you to join our family..." I wanted very badly to go to them, even more so than before, for I was beginning to have doubts about the family I had on the ship. But I knew I could not, for the strange man would stop me again. I looked at the stars longingly. I listened to their pleas for what seemed like an eternity, and when I could finally take it no longer, I began to float up to them. Something pulled me back._

I turned to face the masked man, standing beside me. "Do you not heed my words, Jakken? You cannot go to them. You are the Progenitor; it is your duty to live, so that the Witness in turn may live." He shoved me backwards, and as the dream left my vision, I heard him shout, "Be gone, Psy!"

I woke up. I didn't even remember falling asleep. I rubbed my eyes and sat up just as the intercom came on. "All members of the crew are to report to the main cargo bay immediately." I stood and walked out the door, locking it behind me, then made my way to the cargo hold. I passed five or so other crew members walking in the same direction, but we did not speak to each other.

When I reached the hold, almost everyone was there. Even Fineas was present, standing apart, leaning sadly on a crate, his one good eye closed. I thought I saw a tear roll down his cheek.

I found Michaela near the front, and stood beside her. Vincent stood several meters ahead, with Allon tied up at his feet. Allon was awake, and looked terrified. Vincent waited a few more minutes, then satisfied that everyone was there, began to speak.

"Honored members of the crew, we stand here today to witness the rightful execution of a man, Allon Rezzat Lazu, who conspired against the goals and captain of this mission, and attempted to sow the seeds of discontent amongst the community of the crew." He smiled wryly. "In other words, he attempted to commit mutiny. The penalty for mutiny, as we all know very well, is death." There were many solemn nods throughout the crew.

"In light of these charges, I hereby sentence Allon to be buried alive." I blinked. Where on earth had he gotten that idea?

Vincent nodded towards someone in the back, and the cargo hold doors opened, revealing the planet's "forest" behind him. "Follow me," he said, and picked up Allon, who did not even struggle. We did as we were told. We walked for a about a minute, until we reached a small, thick clump of trees in the forest. I wondered if Vincent had thought to put a guard in the ship.

There was a shovel leaning against one of the trees. Vincent put Allon down and picked up the shovel. He turned to face us. "With this shovel, I will dig a hole for Allon, and I will place him in this box, which will then be placed in the hole and covered up." He gestured towards a coffin-like box I hadn't noticed, lying on the other side of the clump of trees. Then he began to dig. We watched him for about half an hour, until the hole was large enough. He laid the shovel to one side and walked over to the box. He opened the lid, and then walked over to Allon. As he bent down to pick him up, someone screamed, "No!"

Allen Rasjane, a Balladian from Ulkind who I had spoken to once or twice, ran forward and grabbed the shovel. "He was innocent, you can't do this to him!" He swung it at Vincent's head. Vincent ducked and rolled to the side, then quickly got to his feet.

"Allen, have some sense!"

Allen only shrieked in response, and swung again. Vincent caught the shaft of the shovel and yanked it out of Allen's hands, causing Allen to stumble towards him. Vincent took a step back. "Calm yourself." Allen did not listen, and instead drew two knives from hidden pockets. He lunged at Vincent, who side-stepped, then swung the shovel in a vicious arc down on Allen's neck. Allen's body collapsed to the ground, and his head went flying into a nearby clump of trees.

There was silence.

Vincent put down the shovel wearily, and walked over to Allon. As he picked him up, he began struggling. The captain ignored it, placed him in the box, and then shut the lid before he could attempt to escape. Muffled screams came out of it as Vincent dragged the box to the hole, and then carefully slid it in. He picked up the shovel, and hesitated. He put it down, picked up Allen's body, and placed it in the hole alongside the coffin. "Can someone get me his head?" If it hadn't been so serious, I would have laughed at the absurdity of the question.

Someone did, and handed it to him. He placed the head on top of the body, then filled the hole back in with dirt. He made a little mound on top of the site. "Here lies the mutineer Allon Lazu, who was a good man... until he let his rage get the better of him. Also here lies his friend, Allen... Kahyyru Rasjane, who died defending what he believed to be right." He bowed his head. We all did likewise, ignoring the thumps and screams coming from below the ground. "May they rest in peace."

The crew slowly dispersed, most of them returning to the ship, until just Michaela, Vincent and myself remained. I raised my head, looked at the two of them, standing close together, then walked away. But not towards the ship.

I wandered in the direction I had gone the first time I had been outside, where the trees became so dense that you could not travel through them. I walked along the length of the dense trees, looking for a space large enough for me to fit in between their trunks. After several minutes of searching, I found one. I hesitated a moment, looked around, and then squeezed through.

The crack continued on for another minute or so, then gradually began to widen. After another minute, I was able to walk normally (not sideways, like I had been before), but the trees on either side were still close enough to almost touch. Only a small amount of light from Antarct filtered in through the foliage above, lending the air a gloomy feel. Small particles of dust floated gently in the beams of light. The path continued on straight for as far as I could see. I kept walking. After several minutes, I noticed that the path began to dip downwards, until just ahead, I saw the path appear to vanish, as if there was a large drop-off there. The sides of the trees still pressed in on me, though I could walk relatively comfortably.

I stopped at the drop-off. It wasn't a sheer cliff, but the path did get remarkably steeper. The tree line, however, got no lower, much to my surprise. The tree trunks carried on unbroken, and it looked like someone had dug a hole out of the path, revealing the roots of the "trees" on either side. And the trees did have roots. A lot of them.

I carefully walked down the steep trail, looking in awe at the roots that made up the walls of the path. They went from the trunks of the trees into the dirt two or three meters below. They twisted and curled in random patterns, and varied wildly in size, though the average one was the thickness of my arm. I stopped as the trail leveled out again. The dirt had been removed from under the trees as well, and the roots were all that were holding the trees in the air. The interlocking roots prevented me from venturing underneath them, however.

I took a few more steps, then noticed that there was an opening in the tree roots to my left. I stopped and thought. I had two choices: either keep walking forward, or go under the trees. It didn't take me much time to reach my decision – my curiosity never gave me a choice. I ducked under and between the roots.

It was much darker under the trees. There was some light filtering in, but it grew rapidly darker as I walked forward, dodging roots shooting up from the ground (or coming down from the ceiling) all around me. It wasn't long before it was almost pitch black, with just a faint glow coming from where I had entered.

I hesitated, beginning to become afraid, and stopped. A few seconds later, my curiosity, the family curse, kept me moving, and I went on. Soon it became completely dark, and I couldn't see anything. My senses finally came back to me, and I turned around. I ran into something.

My way was blocked. I tried to move forward, but felt something wrap around my ankle. I swallowed.

The roots were moving.

### 21

"I lost a good friend today – one of my best on this accursed mission, the only other true man of God here. The crew, they all claim to follow the word of great God in heaven, but at heart they are all atheists; all of humanity is. We have devolved to a despicable level because of the advancement in starship technologies. It is a miracle that the Church still exists at this point in time. Nevertheless, I will continue to pray for them all, and especially for my dear departed friend."

~ Lazarus Lanoné, in his personal diary

The roots grabbed my arms and legs, and one gently wrapped itself around my neck. They began to lift me up, towards the trees themselves. I struggled, but the roots only tightened their hold. Deciding that I liked being able to breathe, I stopped moving, even as one snaked its way around my torso.

I'd heard that many carnivorous plants let you go if you remain perfectly still. I tested that theory, and now firmly believe that I have thoroughly disproven it. They definitely kept pulling me up, although very slowly.

Something wet touched the top of my head, and I yelled, recoiling, trying to move away. The roots pushed me up into it, and I panicked. I started to struggle.

Then there was a blinding light, and I heard a shrill shriek. The roots all either recoiled or evaporated, letting me go. I fell to the ground, shielding my eyes. After several moments, I began to open them, little by little. I saw a figure, holding something in his hand above his head. It was muttering something. I removed my hand from above my eyes and tried to make out the shape of the figure. It looked oddly familiar.

It lowered its hand, and the light faded, a dim glow in its place. I blinked as I noticed that the glowing "object" was actually three crossbow bolts. The figure in front of me was the cloaked man from my dream. "You endanger yourself needlessly, Jakken Servidos. You will return to your ship now, and not leave the sight of it again." He didn't ask my opinion, but I wasn't going to argue with him. There was unquestioned authority and power in his voice.

I slowly stood up. I looked at the figure and swallowed. "Who are y-you, s-s-sir?"

The figure didn't answer, only pointed with the glowing crossbow bolts back the way I had come. I nodded and ran in that direction. The roots parted in front of me, allowing me to make it back to the path in no time at all. I looked back, but the light was gone. I turned to my left, looking down towards the continuation of the path, and saw the man standing there, arms crossed, blocking my way. I swallowed and ran in the other direction, away from the ominous figure in dark green. I squeezed through the crack in the trees, and ran back to the clearing. I waited at the tree line to catch my breath before walking back towards the ship. I glanced behind me, but did not see the figure.

Shaken, I walked back to my room. There was a note on my door. I recognized Joseph's handwriting. Jak, you were not here for lunch as was ordered. I have reported you to the captain. Come now. I blinked. I had been told, both by Joseph and Michaela, that I did not need to help him in the kitchen for a few more days. Curious and mystified, I walked quickly to the kitchen, and opened the door. There was a massive pot, almost half as tall as I was, sitting in the middle of the floor, with a lid on it. I walked up to the pot. Another note was on top of it. I picked it up and read.

Dear Jak,

Thank you for all of the work that you have done for me. I know we did not talk much, but I wish I had been given a chance to get to know you better. I will thank Ezekiel myself when I see him soon. I hereby give you all of my possessions, and give to you my position as cook on board this vessel. May you not suffer too much on this planet, long ago forsaken by God. That is why I am leaving you – I cannot bear the thought of watching us all perish away, slowly, one by one. It is easier for me this way. I hope you can forgive me.

With Love,

Joseph Antiochus

The note fell from my shaking fingers as I looked at the pot. I laid my fingertips on it, and pulled them back hurriedly. It was hot. I was afraid to open it.

I stood there for several moments, at an impasse. Then I heard footsteps rush in. I turned to find Vincent standing in front of me, Michaela behind him. "What's this? Is Joseph here? I need to talk to him." I forced my trembling hands to point at the note on the floor, and then walked over to the table and sat down. Michaela gasped and Vincent cursed as they read the note. The captain looked at me, his face ashen, then walked over to the pot. He closed his eyes tightly, muttered what sounded like a prayer, grasped the top of the handle, and pulled it off. Whatever was in the pot smelled delicious, and the thought sickened me. Vincent opened his eyes a second later, dropped the lid with a loud crash, and backed away. Michaela touched Vincent's shoulder and walked over to the pot. She looked into it, and winced.

There was a moment of silence. "Well, at least he went doing his favorite thing. He even put... spices... in the broth." She peered into the pot, mostly unperturbed by whatever was in it. She reached in, winced, and removed her hand. She was holding something: a piece of paper covered in some kind of plastic. She backed away from the pot and read it. She let out a short, choking laugh. "It's a recipe for... himself. Including what wine to eat him with, and what side dishes should be offered." She paused a moment. "Silly fool. He's a cook, he should know that he'd have to be gutted first. No one wants to eat boiled rectum." No one laughed. She let the note slide from her fingers, then looked at me. "I guess you're the cook then, Jak."

I blinked. And swallowed. "M-me?"

She nodded. "Although I think at this point all you'll have to do is grab food directly from the cargo bay and put it in the bins. No one will care, and it will help us preserve food. Plus, it'll still be edible."

"However, I must ask that you please not serve us Joseph – despite his intentions." Vincent had finally spoken. He sighed. "Let's take the pot and dump his remains out in the trees." Michaela and I nodded, and we each grabbed a handle. We lugged the pot off the ship. We only passed two crewmembers, both of whom gave us questioning looks, but said nothing.

Vincent grabbed the shovel on the way, and quickly dug a hole. Michaela and I tilted the pot over, and watched the stew pour down into the hole. Or at least Michaela did. Or might have – I'm not sure. My eyes were closed. I couldn't look.

Vincent filled in the hole, said a few words, and then we trudged back to the ship. We left the pot out there – we had all silently agreed that we never wanted to eat out of that pot ever again.

When we returned to the ship, Vincent called all hands to the bridge, and explained what had happened. He included my promotion among his announcements. No one congratulated me. Once he was done, everyone left in a somber silence, I among them. I knew that dinner was coming up, and travelled to the kitchens. Painful as it was, I forced myself to prepare everyone's meals. I'm not exactly sure what I made, as I was working on autopilot, my mind elsewhere. It can't have been any good. Fortunately, it didn't matter, because as soon as I was done I remembered that we still had several days' worth of meals left in storage. I sighed and stored everything I had just made in the bins, along with everything else.

An hour before my observatory shift, I cleaned up the kitchen, then went to the observatory early. Nemhet had been replaced by Mikhail, who nodded respectfully as I came in. We stood in silence until Mikhail's shift was over, and then he left without saying a word. I stared glumly out at the landscape before me, walking in slow circles around the dome. The day cycle was different on this planet than on earth, and it was still bright out when I went back down after Jeen replaced me. We did not speak to each other.

It took me several hours to fall sleep, and when I did, I was plagued by dreams for a long while before I finally slipped into blessed darkness.

22

" _Dreams and reality are intertwined, and each lives off the other – they cannot co-exist without eachother. Dreams are the stuff upon which reality is built, and dreams are built upon the foundations of reality."_

~Jakken Servidos, in a speech to the Terran Home Rule Council

I returned to the place beneath the trees. It was bright, and I could see the roots in vivid detail. They were the same grey as the trees they belonged to, but in the grooves and cracks along there length there was a blood red color. I walked through them purposefully, pushing them away as they made half-hearted attempts to grab me. Gradually, the roots began to thin, and I saw a vast blackness in front of me.

Without warning, the ground gave way, and I fell. As I did so, lights began to appear below me, until I found that I was falling towards a field of stars. They called to me, welcoming me. I closed my eyes and laughed, leaving all of my grief behind me, flinging my arms open, waiting for them to receive me.

Something slammed into my stomach. I opened my eyes and looked down, out of breath. The green-cloaked man stood there, his fist in my stomach. "I told you not to return here, Jakken. Now go, and stay on the ship!" He lowered his arm and pushed me very hard, and I was flung back. I felt the stars clamor in outrage below me, and I heard the figure say something to them. Straining my ears, I managed to make out what he said. "The boy is not yours, Psy, so leave him be! He belongs to the Shivvos. Do not interfere again!"I was indignant. I didn't belong to anybody! I shouted back down that it was so, but was only halfway through my speech before I was forced back into reality.

I awoke and looked over at the chronometer. I yelped and leapt out of bed, hurriedly dressing and running out the door. I was half an hour overdue for breakfast. Halfway to the galley, I remembered that there were still meals in the freezer for another few days. I stopped walking, then remembered that Joseph wasn't even there to scold me. I had turned around, a glum mood overtaking me, when I heard Vincent's voice come on over the intercom.

"All members of the crew, please report to the burial site of Allon Lazu and Allen Rasjane immediately." I sighed. I didn't want to see another execution – there had been so much death in my life recently. I considered hiding in my room, but decided that it was my duty to attend. I grudgingly walked to the main cargo bay, then out the door to the burial site.

Once everyone was there, I began to regret my decision to attend. There were a relatively large number of people missing. Just as I considered walking back to the ship, Vincent approached, carrying Nemhet over his shoulder. Michaela followed with a length of rope. They halted in front of a tree. Vincent nodded to Michaela, and she threw the rope over a low branch. I then got a better view of the other end of the rope. It was tied in a noose – Nemhet was to be hanged. Seeing his fate before him, Nemhet began to laugh, with his hands tied behind his back and his feet shackled together. He continued laughing even as the noose was placed around his neck. Michaela held the other end of the rope.

Vincent solemnly turned to Nemhet. "Any last requests?" I noticed that he had not given this last respect to Allon.

Nemhet stopped laughing and looked at Vincent with a straight face. "I want the priest to bless me before I die."

Vincent nodded. "Fair enough." He turned to the crew. "Lazarus, come forward!"

The priest did not step forward. The crew began to murmur among themselves. I wondered if Lazarus had skipped out on Nemhet's execution. He and Joseph had been great friends – perhaps he was still grieving.

Vincent gestured to Jeen. "Jeen, find Lazarus and bring him here." Jeen nodded and jogged back to the ship.

Everyone waited in silence for him to return. After several long minutes, he jogged back – alone. He went straight to Vincent and whispered in his ear. The color drained from his face. He nodded, and Jeen walked slowly back into the ranks of the crew, who all gave him questioning looks.

Vincent cleared his throat and turned to Nemhet. "Lazarus is... unavailable. Do you have another request?"

Nemhet spat in Vincent's face. "I don't need anything from you. Just kill me now."

Vincent calmly wiped the spit from his face and nodded to Michaela. She took a breath and pulled on the rope. She walked backwards, pulling Nemhet higher in the air. He did not struggle or flail at all. It was the most unnerving thing I have ever witnessed. There was defiance in his eyes up until the moment they clouded over and his last breath left him. After several minutes, Michaela let go of the rope, and his body crumpled to the ground.

The crew began to talk quietly amongst themselves. Vincent raised a hand to silence them, and picked up a shovel lying on the ground. He silently dug a hole, pushed Nemhet's body into it and then filled it in again. When he was done, he put down the shovel said Nemhet's last words. I didn't pay attention to them, as my mind was elsewhere. More specifically, I was wondering why Lazarus was unavailable. The question was on the minds of a lot of the crew as well, apparently, for they all clustered around Jeen as soon as the service was done, asking him what had happened. He shook his head and would not speak.

Vincent cleared his throat. Everyone went silent and looked at him. "There has been another death on board the ship." If the silence could have become any more silent, it would have. "Lazarus... has killed himself. He impaled himself on his golden cross. Apparently, the bottom end was much sharper than we had imagined." Everyone looked to Jeen, asking silently for confirmation. He only nodded.

"We will perform rites for him later this evening, before dinner." We all began to walk slowly back to the ship. I went to the galley, where I cleaned the dishes of the six crewmembers who came in to eat. After a while, I returned to my room and stared at my pillow, not thinking anything.

I don't remember falling asleep, but I do remember being awoken by Vincent calling us all for Lazarus' funeral over the intercom. Groggily, I walked out the door and to the burial site. The mounds of both Allon and Allen and Nemhet were there. A new hole had been dug in between them, Lazarus' body already inside. Vincent said some kind words over the grave, then filled it in. For the second time that day, we all walked solemnly back to the ship.

I was a zombie for the rest of the day. I cleaned the dishes slowly, and was almost late for the change of shift. Mikhail looked scarcely better than I felt, and we said nothing to each other. Jeen looked even worse than I felt, and I pitied him, but only for a moment; I was far too wrapped up in my own misery to pay attention to that of others for very long.

I returned to my room immediately after my shift, and collapsed into a deep sleep without even changing out of my clothes.

When I awoke the next morning, I was surprisingly alert. I had not been troubled by any strange dreams about stars or cloaked figures shoving me away from fields of said stars, and I forced myself to not think about the recent deaths. Still, even though I didn't see anyone as I went to go lay out breakfast, it felt like an aura of despair had settled over the entire ship – quite different from the excitement that had permeated the atmosphere when we had first landed.

I laid out breakfast for everyone, then wandered towards the main cargo bay. I passed a viewport on the way, and glanced out of it without thinking. A moment later, I doubled back and stared outside. There was another green storm. I wondered for a moment if perhaps this was the planet's substitute for night. Deciding that if I couldn't go outside there was no point in going to the cargo hold, I let my feet lead me wherever they chose.

They led me straight to Lazarus' room. I tried the door, and it slowly swung open. I hesitated a moment, then walked inside. The room was very clean, with very few personal effects.

In the far corner was a miniature confessional booth. A small cot was opposite it, with a thin comforter and a single, small pillow on its surface. At the foot of the cot was a small altar, with a statue of the Virgin Mary atop it. Lying in front of the altar was a golden cross. The longer end of it was shaved into a point. The bottom half was covered in blood. I stared at it for several seconds, then looked away. I walked out of the room, closing the door behind me.

Vincent's voice came over the intercom a few minutes later, as I was wandering towards the bridge. "All members of the crew are to report to the main cargo bay immediately." As an afterthought, he added, "please." I smiled momentarily at that, turned around, and walked to the cargo bay. I was one of the first there, like I always seemed to be. Only about two thirds of the crew showed up. Vincent chose to ignore this as he walked in, dragging Rafael behind him. He approached a small door to the right of the large loading door, and put the tied up Rafael on the floor beside it.

He turned to face the crew. "Seeing as we cannot execute Rafael outside of the ship today, we will give him a chance to live." His announcement was met with silence. "In a way." He opened the door, and everyone took a step back as the howling wind assaulted our ears. Some of the green clouds drifted inside the ship.

Vincent stood Rafael up. "Rafael, you shall be cast into the storm, for whatever god you so choose to judge you." He drew a knife and cut the bindings on Rafael's hands and feet.

Rafael glared at Vincent. "Very well... captain." He spat at the ground at Vincent's feet, turned, and walked out the door. As soon as his left foot entered the storm, he was yanked outside by a powerful force, and he vanished into the clouds.

Vincent closed the door again. It looked like it took him quite a bit of effort to do so. After locking it, he turned to face us. "And that is what happens to mutineers. However, if Rafael survives, he will be welcome to rejoin into the crew of this vessel, as the gods will have deemed him worthy to live."

He took a breath. "Now, even though not all of you are here, I have an announcement to make. We are not going to sit here on this ship, watching our food supplies slowly dwindle down to nothing, then die slowly of starvation. Nor are we going to follow in the footsteps of Lazarus and Joseph, killing ourselves rather than face the life that fate has chosen for us. No, we are going to try to survive. Starting tomorrow, you will all be organized into groups, and every day each group will go out to accomplish its assigned missions. We will map out the surrounding area. We will use the scientist's tools as best we can to see what there is that can be eaten. We will search for other life forms, be they intelligent or not. We will build shelters in case our ship falters. We will learn more about this planet, and we will survive until help arrives!"

Ragged cheers greeted this short speech, but I was skeptical. Why would our ship falter? And how would help arrive if the transmitter was broken?

Then I remembered. Rafael had a second transmitter. Had Vincent taken it when he took Rafael prisoner? As the crowd began to depart, I left hurriedly. I ran to Rafael's room and flung open the door. I scanned it wildly, looking for a transmitter. I wasn't sure why I was so eager to get my hands on the device, but I felt that something was wrong. I turned the room inside out, but I found nothing. I tried to calm myself down, reasoning that Vincent probably had taken it, which is why he had said help would arrive. But then why not tell the crew about the existence of the transmitter itself?

I decided to go directly to Vincent. I walked quickly through the corridors to his chambers, and knocked on his door. There was no response – he probably hadn't returned yet from the cargo hold. I waited for him to come back. When he did not after almost half an hour, I guessed that he was probably on the bridge, and started to walk in that direction. He intercepted me after I had only taken ten or so steps.

"Vincent! I have something to ask you!" I told him.

He raised an eyebrow at me. "And what is it?"

"Do you have Rafael's transmitter?"

He stared at me blankly. "What?"

I swallowed. "Rafael had a second transmitter, that Mather gave to him. He was planning on using it after he got rid of you."

Vincent looked at me suspiciously. "How do you know this?"

"I overheard it when I found out about the mutiny. I... just forgot to mention it, I guess. Rafael said that Mather had given him the second transmitter in case Korzos did anything to sabotage the mission."

Vincent nodded. "It makes sense... but no, I don't have it. Maybe it's still in his room. If Rafael was telling the truth."

I shook my head. "I checked his room right after you... let him out. There was nothing in there."

"Well then, I guess he was lying. No need to worry about anything."

Or maybe someone took it. From the look on Vincent's face, this possibility had crossed his mind as well, so there was no point in bringing it up. "Thank you, Jak. I will look into this." I nodded, then turned and left.

23

" _Well, I certainly hope that any alien race we come across will be friendly – it would make life much easier for us, and probably for them as well. It would be beneficial to the both of us, I think, to develop a long-standing relationship with any extra-terrestrials that we may come across."_

~Captain Jeremiah E. Korzos, in an interview shortly before leaving on the Ambassador Expedition

After breakfast the next day, Vincent called the promised meeting, and assigned us all to groups. There were twenty-seven of us left, not counting Fineas or Gerald. We were divided into five groups of five, with Vincent and Michaela remaining on the ship with Fineas and Gerald. I was placed in the second group, led by Jeen. Also in my group were Daniel Oldman, Adam, and Fetiz Calepernas. We were ordered to go out and search for life.

Jeen led us out from the ship in a direction we estimated to be the equivalent of north. The light of Antarct was especially bright, and we found ourselves squinting whenever we passed out from under the shelter of the trees. When I looked back towards the ship after five minutes of walking, my heart sank into my stomach. I couldn't see it. I looked around nervously, waiting for the cloaked figure to appear and tell me to turn back. When he did not come after ten minutes, I relaxed a little. Perhaps he didn't mind me disobeying his orders when I was with others.

As we looked, I fell to the back of the group, walking beside Adam. I hadn't talked to him since my visit to the hospital wing. I gathered enough courage to speak to him after several minutes. "I see you finally got released."

Adam grinned. "Aye, that I did. When Michaela made her rounds on that night, she came and got Gerald. I was still pretending to be... out at the time, but Gerald decided to check up on me one last time before he went to go show his support for our captain. He prodded me in, um, certain places. I was quite surprised, and I leapt out of the bed and almost threw him on the ground. He handled it quite well, though. So did Michaela. They just asked me if I would stand behind Vincent, despite my suspicious behavior, and I said yes. Then they told me to follow them while they got the rest of the crew.

"After the mutiny was over, it became abundantly clear that I wasn't one of the saboteurs, and was in fact one of those trying to stop the sabotages." His grin turned into a cynical smile. "Not that I was any good at that, but it's the thought that counts." He sighed. "It's good to not have to worry about that damned spy business anymore, though. That was rather stressful."

"I can imagine." He smiled at me, but did not respond with words.

After that, we didn't talk much as we carried out our search. No one expected to find anything; we had no real idea as to what we were looking for. Tracks? Droppings? Actual aliens? We found nothing after hours of searching. Jeen led us very far from the ship; much farther than I would have dared go by myself.

After an hour or two, the trees began to thin. We continued walking forward, and soon the trees vanished entirely, revealing a vast expanse devoid of trees. The dirt – or "regolith" as the more scientifically inclined among us called it – became finer and more sand-like as it carried on into the plains before us. In the distance I saw what appeared to be massive dunes, and even further was what appeared to be a mountain range. In the absence of trees, the dirt had formed into countless small mounds, scattered randomly across the landscape.

As we all stood at the edge of the forest, staring out towards the horizon, I saw movement out of the corner of my eye, near one of the mounds. I turned my head to face it, but I saw nothing. I stared at the spot for a few moments.

Something blinked at me. I jumped. There were two eyes in the mound, barely visible under the red dirt that made it up. They looked distinctly feline, but instead of the yellow commonly associated with cats, the eyes were a dark red. As I stared at them, unbelieving, they closed again, the eyelids blending in perfectly with the dirt.

I turned to Jeen. "I think I saw something – it looked like some kind of eyes underneath the dirt over at that mound." I pointed.

Jeen's eyes followed my finger. "Eyes? Under the dirt you say?" He gave me a look of disbelief, and I just shrugged. He sighed. "Alright, let's take a look." We all walked over to the mound and surrounded it. Jeen then pulled a large knife out of his pocket and stabbed the mound. He hacked and slashed at it, until half of it had been destroyed, and it only came up to our knees.

Wiping the dirt off his blade, he looked at me. "Still so sure about your eyes?" I shook my head. Adam gave me a sympathetic look at Jeen's sarcastic words. He really was much nicer when he wasn't interrogating you.

Once Jeen sheathed his blade, we began to head back in the direction of the ship. As we left, I took one last look at the mound. My eyes widened as I saw the strange green-cloaked man standing behind it, his clothing moving gently in a silent breeze. A small, furry, weasel-like animal stood by his side, looking at me with red, feline eyes. I blinked, and they were gone. I shook my head and turned around, paying attention to what was ahead of me.

After another three or so hours, Jeen gave up and we turned around. He told us to keep looking for any signs of life we may have missed as we made our way back. I wondered if I should report my discovery of the roots; it had not occurred to me before to do so. After a moment of thought, I decided that it would be better to not to. What had happened down there was between me and that strange man.

There was no one outside the ship when we got back, so we walked through the cargo hold and into the ship. We headed towards the bridge, where Vincent had told all of the groups to make their reports to him.

When we arrived there, all of the other groups had already returned, and were gathered around something, Curious, we approached. Jeen shouldered his way through the group and looked down at the ground. "God damn, what is that?" I heard him say. Upon hearing his words, the rest of us pushed our way through as well. I followed behind Adam, and stood on my toes to see over his shoulder.

On the floor of the ship was one of the strangest looking beings I had ever seen.

It had what appeared to be the head of a four-eyed pink alligator, set on the end of a long, worm-like neck. Its body was covered in what looked like blue artificial plastic hair, and it had six chitinous legs. The front two legs had vicious claws, and were about half as long as the back four were. The middle pair of legs ended with what appeared to be hooves, and the final pair had what looked like paws, similar those that you would find on a dog. It had no tail. On its back were rows of extremely thin purple spines, shimmering with some sort of inner light.

Vincent was standing on the opposite side of it. He answered Jeen's question. "I have no idea." He smiled. "Well, that's a lie. It appears as if we have found the first alien animal on this strange planet." As he finished speaking, I looked back down at the thing.

It opened its eyes.

### 24

" _And if the aliens we meet are hostile? Well then, we'll just show them exactly what humanity is capable of."_

~Captain Jeremiah E. Korzos, in an interview shortly before leaving on the Ambassador Expedition

"Holy shit, it's alive!"

I don't know who shouted first, but the rest of were doing the same shortly after. I leapt backwards, startled, as the thing jumped to its feet and let out a terrible shriek. Most of the crew collapsed to their knees, clutching their ears, pain evident on their faces. Vincent, who had been the closest to it, leapt back, his hand fumbling for some kind of weapon, seeming to ignore the thing's scream. Michaela winced at the sound, but quickly drew the gun that she had used to kill Korzos from her sleeve, and aimed it at the creature. It turned its eyes on Vincent, who was still having trouble finding a weapon. It leapt at him just as Michaela fired, the gun's bolt hitting the ground where the thing had been an instant before. It raked its razor-sharp claws over Vincent's chest. He screamed as fountains of blood spewed out of his body, and he fell to the ground, the creature on top of him. The thing's jaws closed around Vincent's head, and it bit down, hard. Vincent's skull shattered with a sickening snap.

"You goddamn son of a bitch!" Michaela shouted, and fired her weapon at the thing again. The bolt hit it straight in the eye. The creature released Vincent's head and looked at her, its eyes blazing with balefire. It shrieked again, and I found myself on the ground, trying desperately to stop the sound from reaching my ears.

It leapt at Michaela, the spines on its back now facing forward. She stared it in the eyes, unflinching, then leapt to the side at the last second. It landed where she had been a moment before, and whirled around. Adam, who was still standing in front of me, ran forward, in between the beast and Michaela. The thing charged Adam. The tips of its spines began to glow, and then each one shot out a tendril of lightning. The tendrils coalesced into one massive bolt that hit Adam squarely in the chest, causing him to fly backwards into Michaela. They both sailed into the opposite wall and collapsed in a heap.

The beast changed its course, then, and headed for the largest mass of people: the group I was in. I jumped to my feet and ran away from the beast as fast as I could, sprinting out of the bridge. I heard the terrified screams and howls of pain as the thing began to kill the crew who remained behind. Behind me echoed the sounds of people fleeing in all directions as everyone tried to escape the thing that had been brought on board.

I ran blindly for several minutes. I'm not sure whether or not I screamed, but I must have done something to attract attention. I found myself at the door to one of the landing craft. As I approached, the door was flung open. I didn't notice, and I ran right into it. I fell over backwards, and fell into someone's arms.

"Foolish boy," said a gruff voice. "Come in here, you'll be safe. It won't get you." The man tossed me into the room, and quietly closed the door. I heard a click as it locked.

The room was very dark, and my head hurt a lot. I peered up at the figure, but couldn't make out who it was. Was it the green-cloaked man? I decided that he wasn't – the green-cloaked man had a very different voice.

I slowly stood. As my vision cleared and the pain in my head lessened, I could make out the man's features. I blinked. "Fineas?"

"Aye."

I shook my head to clear it. "What is that thing?" I looked at his shadowed face, then took a suspicious step back. He hadn't been on the bridge when the thing had come to life. "How do you know about it?"

Fineas did not answer, instead wandering off towards the landing craft in the center of the hangar. I followed. "You weren't in there when it started killing! How do you know it exists?"

Fineas stopped. "It does not concern you." I stepped back. The voice that had spoken was not his. It sounded oddly familiar, but I couldn't quite place it.

"Now leave me alone." The old Fineas was back. Unnerved, I stammered a "yes sir" and turned around, walking towards the other end of the hangar. Once I reached the far wall, I paced back and forth for a minute or two. Hiding in here wouldn't solve any problems – eventually, I would have to try to escape anyway. I was merely prolonging my death.

Then it struck me. The room was a hangar. Hangars needed a way to let the craft stored inside them to get out. If I could open the hangar doors, I could escape outside! The one problem with my plan was that I had no idea as to how to open the doors.

I considered asking Fineas for advice, but decided against it. I could do it on my own. Besides, he probably wouldn't be any help anyway. I walked over to a box jutting out of the wall. It looked like it was a control panel of some kind.

When I got there, I saw that the front was covered by something. I looked around for something to pry it open, but couldn't find anything in the dim light. I began to scour the floor and walls, looking for something that might help me. I was paying so much attention to my search that I didn't notice Fineas in front of me. I bumped into him, then leapt back and apologized profusely.

"Lookin' for a way to open the hangars?"

I nodded.

"It won't work, boy. They can only be opened and closed at the captain's orders, through a terminal in the bridge. The only way out is that door. And it's not safe out there. Stay in here."

I swallowed – I didn't want to go out that door again and face the thing. I turned and walked slowly away from Fineas, trying to figure out what I should do. I didn't want to stay in this room until I died from hunger and thirst – but I didn't want to be killed by the thing, either. The prospect of dying just didn't appeal to me.

Then I remembered that there were other people on the ship. I had friends out there, dealing with the alien monster, people who were not hiding in a dark corner of the ship, too afraid to fight. Stupid as it was, I decided that I wasn't just going to hide while the rest of the crew was being hunted and killed by some strange alien beast. I turned back to the door. I began to walk towards it. As I approached it, I noticed a series of lockers to the right of the door. I decided to see if there was anything useful inside.

There were seven of them. The first four were locked, but the fifth was slightly ajar. I opened it the rest of the way, revealing a rifle of some kind. I peered at it in the dim light. It looked like an energy weapon. Grabbing it, I ran back towards the door. Fineas made no attempt to stop me. I opened the door slowly, peering out, and saw nothing. I squeezed through the open door and shut it after me. I paused a moment – now that I was no longer safe in the hangar, the resolve to save my fellow crewmembers had diminished remarkably.

Nevertheless, I carried on, continuing in the direction I had been going before Fineas had pulled me into the hangar. After a minute, I heard a scream, from very close by. I slowed. The corridor up ahead took a sharp turn. I recognized the door to the scientists' labs up ahead. As I advanced, cautiously, I heard a strange set of footsteps. I stopped walking.

The beast came out of nowhere, rounding the corner in front of me. It was still five or so meters away, but it didn't slow down. Its momentum would have carried it into the wall, but it leapt onto the opposite wall and ran sideways along it. I was so astounded that I just stared, forgetting all about the weapon in my hands. As it prepared to leap, I heard a shout behind me. A bolt of electricity jumped over my head and slammed into the beast. It flew backwards, into the door leading to the labs.

The thing was on its feet again in an instant. It screamed, and I dropped my rifle to the floor as the terrible sound pierced my ears. I followed my rifle's lead shortly thereafter as I fell to my knees and closed my eyes in pain. Somehow, I heard the crackle and sizzle of electricity over the shrieking of the beast, and then a thud. The shrieking stopped. I opened my eyes, and saw the beast standing where it had been before I had fallen to the ground in pain – it had not moved. I quickly picked up my rifle and scrambled to my feet.

The beast walked slowly forward, and a bolt of lightning shot from its spines, arcing over my head. I heard a grunt behind me. I turned around to see Adam Sansson and his baton fly backwards, slamming into the wall at the very far end of the corridor.

I whirled back around. The thing opened its mouth and shrieked. I was ready for it this time, and I merely flinched. As it charged forward, I raised my rifle and aimed at its head. My hands began to shake, and I pressed the trigger before my aim was gone, hoping to the gods that the safety was turned off.

It wasn't.

Nothing came out of the gun's tip. I frantically searched for a safety, but couldn't find one. I looked up as it leapt at me, its jaws open wide, and screamed in terror.

### 25

" _If a wild animal ever charges you, there are several things you should never do. One of them is running. Chances are, the beast can outrun you, and you'll only encourage it. The second is to not show fear – that also will encourage it. The third is to not sit there and do nothing – that will only get you killed. What you need to do is try to dodge it; sidestep, duck, and use its own momentum against it. Use the precious seconds gained to ready your weapon, and shoot to kill. Of course, if the beast is sufficiently agile so as to turn on a dime, then there isn't much you can do but pray to God that it doesn't want to hurt you."_

~Captain Darius Ochenko, in a lecture on the exploration of primitive environments

I dropped the rifle and put my hand up to shield my face, waiting to feel the beast's fangs sinking deep into my flesh.

The feeling didn't come.

I looked out between my hands to see the green-cloaked man pulling the beast back. His whip was wrapped around three of its hind legs. It squealed pitifully as it was dragged further away from me. The figure flicked his wrist, and the whip snapped – along with some kind of bone within the beast. It shrieked in pain, but the shriek did not hurt my ears this time. The green-cloaked man took a step forward, and thrust the three crossbow bolts in his other hand into the creature's flesh. The bolts glowed brightly, and I had to cover my eyes. I felt a rush of air, and I opened my eyes. The beast was gone.

The man was still there, however. "Flee the ship, now. It is not safe for you here – and he is coming nearer, as well. Soon I will not be able to overpower him, and you will be on your own. You must escape this world – they will come for you. Just survive, and all will be well."

As I stood, I had the courage to speak back to him. "Who are you? Who's coming for me? What was that thing? What did you do to it?"

The man shook his head. "It is irrelevant. Now flee the ship before its spores hatch!" The man vanished without another word.

I began to run for the main cargo hold, then stopped. Adam was lying at the other end of the corridor. I turned around and ran back down the way I had come. He was lying in a crumpled heap on the ground by the wall. I knelt down by him and put my ear against his chest. His heart was still beating. I lifted his head, and considered removing his sunglasses. My hand hovered over them, but I couldn't do it. It had been strange seeing him without them that one time in the hospital ward, and he seemed to like wearing them.

I got behind him and lifted him up by his arms. He was surprisingly light. I began to walk backwards towards the main cargo hold as fast as I could, dragging Adam along with me. I didn't pass anyone on my way there, and I found the door relatively quickly. I opened it, and walked into the room. Deciding to leave to the door open, I continued dragging Adam towards the far end of the room.

As I walked backwards, I heard footsteps approach. Four crewmembers ran through the door. They saw me dragging Adam and stopped, panting. I recognized them all: Daniel Oldman, Matthias, Michaela, and one of the members of the environmental staff, Aleks Vesselheff. Aleks and Daniel ran forward and took Adam off of my arms. I didn't object – Adam had been getting heavier as I had dragged him through the corridors.

I looked at Michaela. "Is Vincent okay?"

She bit her lip and shook her head. I wasn't surprised, but it still hurt me to think about it. She took a deep breath, then sighed. "Let's get out of here before the things find us."

Aleks and Daniel had stopped moving, and I almost ran into them. They dropped Adam onto the ground, and slowly turned to face me. An unnerving look had entered their eyes, and their pupils began to dilate. Matthias, who had been walking next to me, did the same.

Michaela, out in front, turned at the sound of the falling body. "What the hell are you guys doing?"

I wasn't sure myself, but I didn't like it. I took a step back as Michaela jogged back over to us. "Guys, come on, we need to get out-" Daniel's left hand flew backwards and slammed into her face. She slid backwards a few meters and fell to the ground. "What the fuck are you doing?"

Then it happened. The three of them suddenly exploded in a burst of blood and flesh. Where before there had been three men were now three of those alien beasts. They all hissed at me, and opened their mouths wide. I was paralyzed with fear.

It was a good thing for me that Michaela wasn't. She leapt to her feet and took something out of one of her many pockets. She threw it at the thing that had once been Daniel, and it stuck to its back.

Then it exploded.

The force of the blast sent the other two things flying in opposite directions, and sent me to the floor. Michaela ran towards me. "Let's go!" I needed no more encouraging. I leapt to my feet, and we both ran to Adam. She took his legs, me his arms. We ran towards the smaller door. The two surviving beasts had gotten to their feet, and were slowly walking towards us.

My vision exploded in a burst of white light, and I stopped moving and closed my eyes tightly until it was gone."Jak, come on!" I saw that she had not stopped moving.

"But the light..."

She gave me a look. "We don't have time for this. Let's get out!" I looked back at the beasts, and blinked. The green-cloaked man stood between us and them. I glanced at Michaela, but she did not seem to notice him. I picked up my pace and followed Michaela towards the door.

Suddenly, a bolt of lightning shot through the air and slammed into Adam. He flew out of our hands, and went straight to the ceiling. He went almost all of the way up, and caught on some piping on the way back down.

"Shit," swore Michaela. "Come on, he's gone. Let's go!" We both sprinted for the door. I glanced back, and saw the two aliens charging for us, the strange man gone.

Michaela threw open the door and ran through. I followed a second later, and slammed the door shut behind me. Without hesitating another moment, we both ran as far as we could, away from the Ambassador and the monstrous things inside of it.

We stopped running as soon as we couldn't see the ship anymore. Panting, we both turned to look behind us to see if we had been followed. We hadn't been.

As we both stood there, recovering, we suddenly heard a massive explosion. Waves of energy almost knocked us off of our feet. When we regained our balance, we looked up and saw a massive plume of smoke rising from the direction of the ship. Michaela and I exchanged a look, and slowly walked back the way we had come.

As we approached the clearing that the ship had been in, we saw, through the thick smoke, the charred and burned remains of the once-proud Ambassador. Neither of us questioned it. We just stared, not saying a word. After what seemed like an eternity, we both sat down at the edge of the treeline, staring at the smoking wreckage. We both knew that no one could have survived that.

Of the fifty who had set out on this expedition, only two remained – without any food, water, or shelter.

### 26

" _The first thing you need, if you are stranded on a foreign planet with little or no technology, is shelter. Even before food and water; you can get those later. You don't know what will happen, and without shelter, however primitive it may be, you are at the mercy of the elements. That is not a situation that you want to be in."_

~Michaela Jonson, in a lecture at Murkge University

We fell asleep out in the open. It was a very good thing that none of the big storms started up. Unused to sleeping out in the open after living on a ship for so long, I leapt to my feet the instant I woke up, startled at the unfamiliar situation. Michaela continued to sleep calmly beside me. I glanced down at her, then walked towards what remained of the ship.

It had stopped smoking, and the metal was cool enough to touch – though it was still warm. I ran my fingers along various parts of the hull, wondering where each had come from.

There was a groan from somewhere inside the wreckage.

I started and ran towards the source of the noise, ignoring the scrapes and cuts that the sharp metal gave me. I found the spot I thought it was coming from in less than a minute, and moved a sheet of metal from the ground. It revealed a hole, and in the hole was Adam Sansson, looking none the worse for the wear, and still wearing his sunglasses.

He grinned up at me. "So you lived too, Jak? Good to see that." He tried to stand, then winced and fell back down. I offered him my hand, and he took with a smile, and allowed me to pull him to his feet. He shakily climbed out of the hole.

"How on earth did you survive?" I asked, amazed.

He shrugged. "I don't know. I don't remember anything after that bolt hit me...What the hell happened while I was out? The ship was definitely still intact then..."

"I don't know. Michaela and I ran from the ship – Oldman, Aleks, and Matthias turned into those... things, and we sprinted out the cargo bay door and closed it – we tried to bring you with us, but you got hit by a second bolt and thrown into the ceiling. We thought you were dead."

He smiled grimly. "Well, I'm not – at least not yet." A curious look entered his eyes. "How did you survive the beast's attack?"

I hesitated. I didn't want to tell him about the strange man – he was my secret, and I had a feeling that his existence wasn't my right to reveal. He probably wouldn't believe me, anyway. "Mikhail rescued me – he threw some kind of explosive at it."

Adam chuckled. "So they can die after all – that's good to know." He coughed. "Those things... I think they were plants of some kind."

I blinked. "Plants?" They definitely had looked like animals to me.

He nodded. "Aye. I don't think they were aliens – I've seen something similar before, when I went to Eden for some of my later education. A certain... corporation... on the planet had developed an army of mutated monsters for the government. Some of them resembled those things."

I could only stare.

"On the last few days we were on the ship, I had noticed a strange scent in the air – you probably didn't, as your nose hasn't been trained as mine has – and the skin of some people began to become more purplish, indicative of some kind of infection. It would be very like the Edenites to send some sort of spore onto the ship, have it infect the crew, and then have the infected burst out into some strange killing machine."

Adam sighed. "Did you know that Lazarus' body was never moved? And that he had signs of the infection?"

I had not.

"I would bet my lucky sunglasses that the beast they discovered came from him – forced by the priest's death to emerge from its human host early. We don't know the circumstances of its discovery, though..." He stared into space for a moment. "You said Michaela survived?" I nodded. "Can I see her? I think she might be able to confirm my theory."

We walked back to where Michaela was, and Adam gently shook her awake. She was exceedingly happy to see him, and he even got a kiss on the cheek, much to my astonishment.

After the reunion was over, Adam began to ask Michaela questions. "You were there when the alien was discovered, yes?"

Michaela nodded. "Aye – the first group we sent out found it."

"Where did they find it?"

"Kyle said that it was just lying in the middle of one of the corridors – his group had returned first, and he had found it as he was returning to his room."

Adam stroked his chin. "Did he report anything unusual about it?"

"There was a trail of blood leading from where he found it to Lazarus' room – I checked it myself." She hesitated. "And Lazarus' body was gone – it had been since shortly after his death. We think the thing ate it. It walked onto the ship a few days ago, hid from us until yesterday, and then ate Lazarus' corpse."

"I don't think it did, Michaela." She looked at him, questioning. Adam sighed. "You both know, by this point, that I was an Irish spy." We both nodded. "As part of my training, I was sent to Eden to find out some information about rumored illegal experiments going on there. I succeeded remarkably, and returned back to Ireland with countless files on said experiments. Most of them were involved the development of hideous chemical weapons – and of biological mutants. The Edenites were creating an army of super soldiers, with the intention of breaking off from the Terran Home Rule." He smiled cynically. "I don't know what, if anything, was done with the information I gave to the GIPIA on it. I do, however, remember almost everything that was in those notes – we spies need to have good memories. One of the... things being created in the labs there was something very similar to that beast we saw. It was called a 'Deviant.' They are parasitic in their juvenile stages – they spread via spores, which are inhaled, and the infected would later have the full-grown things hatch out of them. I was never sure how something like that could fit inside a human, but somehow it could.

"The ones I saw on Eden many years ago were much more primitive than the ones we saw on the ship, but have the same basic form and function. One sign of infection by a Deviant, which the biologists could never get rid of, was a purplish tinge to the skin, especially around the neck. I had noticed this on many crewmembers since we left Carib."

Michaela narrowed her eyes. "Why didn't you report this?"

Adam shrugged. "I wasn't sure it meant anything. The thought had occurred to me, but lots of things cause purplish necks, not just Deviant infection. Once I noticed it, I was more wary of Fetherkap, but I never caught him doing anything. Besides, even though he was an Edenite, he had no links I could find to any isolationist terrorist groups."

I spoke up. "Vincent said he had been tampering with the engine."

He looked at me. "Tampering with the engine?" He was silent for a few moments. "It's possible... the engine does overheat, and the heated air is shunted through various filters and used to provide heat to the rest of the ship. He could have planted the spores in there, and have them spread throughout the ship that way..."

"Why didn't he just use the filters in the ECU's?" Michaela asked.

"The ECU's require more maintenance – it was more likely he would be caught there. Plus, he was an engineer – he had a legitimate reason to be in the engine rooms."

Michaela clenched her hands. "So you're saying that all of this needless death is the result of Edenite fanaticism?"

Adam nodded. "It would appear so – but there's no point in brooding on it. We might as well try to survive. Speaking of survival – if I managed to survive, others may have as well."

We decided then to scour the nearby area for any other survivors, who may have been thrown out of the ship when it exploded and miraculously survived the shock, or perhaps had escaped via other entrances before the ship was destroyed.

The first survivor we found was sprawled at the base of one of the nearby trees. I noticed a root nearby was poking out of the ground. I squinted at it, and noticed it moving almost imperceptibly towards the man. Focusing on the man, I realized that I knew him – it was Stephen Krafting, the EO. I Michaela knelt down next to him and placed her head on his chest. After a few moments, she raised her head. "He's alive, but unconscious." She bit her lip. "We're going to need water."

As if on cue, it began to rain lightly. I looked up at the sky and saw grey clouds, much like rainclouds on Earth, below the higher green ones. I opened my mouth, letting the rain flow down my throat. I blinked. "What on earth...?"

Michaela hit my leg gently. "Don't question it! Someone up there must finally be looking favorably on us. Find something to collect it in!" I looked around, and found some pieces of metal from the ship. We took several of them, bent them into the shapes of cups and bowls, and caught as much water as we could. I brought one over to Michaela, and she poured a little onto Stephen's face. He spluttered and opened his eyes. Michaela poured the rest of the water down his throat, and he drank it all greedily.

"How... how did I survive?" He looked at us all with questions in his eyes.

All of us shrugged. "We don't know. Just be thankful that you did. Now rest." He nodded and closed his eyes. Michaela stood and turned to us. "It's good to see that someone else survived. Adam, stay with him, will you?"

Adam saluted and sat down beside him. "Aye aye, captain." He tipped an imaginary hat at her. Michaela gave him a tiny smile, and the two of us set off again to go search for any other survivors.

I noticed that my stomach was rumbling a few minutes into our search. We needed food if we were to survive. I said as much to Michaela, and she nodded in agreement.

"I'm don't know where we'd get any, though. I guess we should just keep an eye out for anything edible." Somehow, I didn't think we'd find anything edible on this planet – although it was raining, so maybe there was hope.

The rain stopped. I looked up to find that the grey clouds were gone. When I returned my attention to the ground in front of me, I saw a pile of what looked to be potatoes. I blinked. They hadn't been there before. "Michaela?" She had gone on ahead of me.

She turned around and looked at me. "What?"

I gestured towards the potato-things at my feet. "Think these look edible?"

Her mouth dropped open. She walked back to me and dropped to her knees. She picked up one and inspected it carefully, looking at it from all sides. She half-smiled. "There's only one way to know for sure." She took a breath and, before I could stop her, took a bite. She chewed carefully and swallowed, then looked up and grinned at me. "It's a potato. I have no idea how they got here, but they can't be anything else." She offered me the one she had sampled. "Try it."

I did, and it was, unmistakably, a potato. I grinned. I wasn't going to question this miracle. "Come on," Michaela said. "Let's take these to Adam and Stephen. They can guard them."

It took us two trips each to bring all of the potatoes to the pair of them. They were as astonished as we were at the sight of them (or Adam was, rather – Stephen was asleep). After depositing the potatoes, Michaela and I set out again to search for survivors.

After half an hour of searching, we heard uneven footsteps nearby, coming from somewhere in the dense clusters of trees. Michaela and I glanced at each other, then ran towards the footsteps. As we struggled through the stifling foliage, the footsteps grew louder. The treeline ended suddenly, revealing a small clearing in front of us. In the center of it was Mikhail, stumbling around blindly. When Michaela spotted him, she called to him. "Mikhail! Over here!"

He stopped, and looked at us, squinting greatly. "Who's that?"

"Michaela! And Jak!" He straightened up and staggered over to us. We jogged towards him. He almost fell as we reached him, but I caught him in my arms. His breathing was uneven. The two of us dragged him back to Adam and Stephen, who promised to take care of him while we left again to search for any more survivors.

We found no one for the rest of the day. When we returned to Adam, Stephen, and Mikhail, everyone was up and walking around. We were both impressed with Adam's nursing skills, and Michaela even offered him words of praise.

He grinned in response. "What can I say? I was just born to help people!"

We decided, after a small amount of discussion, that we needed a shelter. Michaela had lost her beam pistol in the flight from the beasts, and neither Mikhail nor Stephen had been issued one. They didn't even think of me – but I had never owned more than a few knives.

Fortunately for us, Adam had one. I wondered why neither he nor Michaela had used it to break through the outer hull of the ship in our escape. Maybe it wasn't powerful enough.

Adam used his gun to fell several nearby trees and carve them up into chunks that we could use to build a shelter. We all did so, Michaela and I (being strongest) doing most of the work. The trees oozed a thick sap-like substance that we were careful not to touch. Within an hour or two, we had built an improvised shelter, somewhere between a lean-to and a small cabin. It was rather impressive, considering what we had available as tools.

By that time, it was late in our day-cycle (or at least it felt like it was – none of us had chronometers, so we couldn't really tell), and we all settled down to sleep. Before we fell asleep, Adam checked all of our necks and skin, to make sure that none of were exhibiting signs of Deviant infection. We were all safe. Once Adam finished checking us (and explaining the Deviants to Stephen and Mikhail), we posted a watch. Michaela took the first shift. I would be second, then Mikhail, Adam, and then finally Stephen. Despite being uncomfortable sleeping beneath a roof made from the cannibalistic trees, I fell asleep almost as soon as I closed my eyes, and I dreamed.

" _Come to us, Jakken. We need you, as much as you need us. We were meant for each other, destined to be partners and companions from the beginning of creation! Join us!"_

I fell again, down towards the stars waiting eagerly for me below. I looked around me as I fell, but the green-cloaked man was not there to stop me. I smiled blissfully and focused again on the stars, who still called to me and beckoned for me to come and join them. They were beautiful... I was closer to them than I ever had been before. I laughed in joy and pleasure, and opened my arms, admiring their purity and brilliance.

The stars began to move closer together. I watched, wondering what they were doing. They coalesced, merged, and then expanded again, into the outline of a giant, translucent, blue slug. It glowed with the light of the stars, and its head turned to look at me. "Stay with us forever, Jak." I was terrified – what was this thing that my loving stars had become?

I woke up before I reached the embrace of the slug. I heard a sad hiss as I awoke, leaving the slug behind in my dream, and the sound stayed in my ears for several minutes afterwards. Michaela was shaking me. I sat up.

"Your turn, Jak. Have fun." She smiled tiredly and lay down. I yawned and stood up, stretching. I walked over to the one open area of our shelter, and stood in the doorway, staring outside. It was still light out – I again wondered if there was even night here. Someone had mentioned that the planet did rotate, so I suppose it did – unless it was like the moon, and rotated at just the right speed to always have one side facing the star.

I did not think much on the dream after spending a few minutes wondering where the strange figure had been. I was used to the dreams by this point, and had stopped questioning them. I was certain that their purpose would eventually be revealed.

Nothing happened on my watch, and when I estimated it was time for Mikhail to watch (having no chronometer, this was hard, and I think I stayed up too long), I woke him and went back to sleep. This time, I did not dream.

### 27

" _My mommy told me to never talk to strangers. They're dangerous and they want to do bad things to me – like kill me or do sex to me or eat me or something. You shouldn't ever trust them, Mister. They're bad news."_

~Matilda Greylane, niece of Matthias Newson, speaking to him shortly before the Ambassador departed

When we were all awake, we gathered in a circle and discussed what to do next. We still had a large supply of potatoes, as well as most of the water. Based on this, we decided that our most important goals were to find more water and to look for more survivors. Everyone had recovered after the night's sleep, and was eager to help. We agreed that one person should always be present at our shelter, and that this position should rotate throughout the day. Those who left to explore would always travel in pairs; if anyone got lost, they were to yell as loudly as they could and listen for a response (either from the shelter itself or from the other group). Our plans laid out, we ate, and then began our day.

Mikhail and I set out together, looking for survivors, while Adam and Michaela went out looking for water. We, not surprisingly, found none. After a few hours, we returned to the shelter to find Stephen standing just outside the door, looking up at the sky. We ate a little bit of lunch together, and we talked as we ate.

I explained first how Michaela and I had escaped the ship. Stephen had no idea how he had survived – I guessed that he had been flung out of the ship when it exploded. Mikhail had escaped through one of the ship docks; using some of the materials in the hangar, he had rigged an impromptu explosive device and blown a small hole in the hull. He had still been close to the ship when it was destroyed, and was flung into the woods by the force of the explosion.

None of us could figure out how the ship exploded, despite several minutes of intense discussion. After half an hour or so, Mikhail and Stephen left together to continue looking for survivors. I had another while before Michaela and Adam were due to replace me, so I sat in the relative darkness of the shelter, looking outwards. After about fifteen minutes, I heard footsteps outside. I sat up straight, then got to my feet. I walked to the doorway, standing to the side, just out of sight, waiting for whatever was outside to enter. The footsteps stopped just outside the shelter. I didn't move for another few minutes. I was afraid to breathe too loudly, and terrified of saying anything.

The owner of the footsteps, however, wasn't. "Jakken Servidos." I recognized the voice of the green-cloaked man. My body went cold.

"Y-yes?"

He stepped through the door, and I shrank back from him. He turned to look at me. "You almost fell into his embrace."

I said nothing.

"You can be forgiven for walking too far from the ship, as you were sufficiently protected, but in your dreams, you are not, and the danger is just as real – if not even more so. Do not give in to Psy – do not let him take your mind."

I swallowed. "W-who are y-you? W-who is Psy?"

He did not answer my first question this time, either. "Who I am does not matter. Neither so much does who Psy is, but you shall know, as you will not be able to grasp the threat he poses unless you do.

"Psy is a Kreton, a being created by Jux at the beginning of time, one of his initial 'experiments' – the only one of his kind. He has immense psychic abilities, and has been entering your dreams, as well as the dreams of many of your crewmates, though most of them managed to resist his pull. Their lives have not as terrible as yours, and so they were far less susceptible. He also cares not much for them, so expended little effort to take them under his control. You, however, he wants as his own, and thus he is trying to dominate you. When you fall into his embrace, you will be lost forever to yourself – you will die on this planet, your consciousness absorbed into his. He revealed to you his true form as you slept last. Do not let him again do this to you, or you will be forever lost. He has become physically near enough that I cannot overpower him any longer, especially as I am not even present in space at the moment."

I blinked. I had no idea what to make of what had just been told me. "Who is Jux? What is a Kreton? Why does he want me? Who are you? How do you exist if you aren't present?" The questions all flowed out of me in a stream of curiosity. The figure held up his hand, and I stopped talking immediately.

"Jux is the supremely powerful being who created space, then left it to attend matters elsewhere. A Kreton is a type of being that he created. Who I am is unimportant, as is my state of existence. All that you need to know is to not give into Psy's call." I remained silent.

"Speak of this to no one. Trust no one. Know only that you need to get out alive – and to not trust your dreams. The stars are a lie – Psy is the truth, and he wants you as his. He is not trying to help you." Without any further words, the man vanished, and I was left alone.

I stood where I was for several minutes, thinking. Eventually, I decided that I should trust him. Most of what he said did not make sense to me, but at the end of my last dream, I had felt a terrible fear of the stars' embrace, and of the slug-thing. The man had also saved me from the Deviant, and had given me sound advice to flee the ship. I also began to suspect that he was somehow responsible for the Ambassador's destruction. I decided to keep everything to myself, as he instructed. I didn't think anyone would believe me, anyway, so there would be no point in telling anyone.

When Michaela and Adam returned, they had more potatoes. "I really hope we find more than these – we'll need proper nutrition if we're going to live for any length of time," Michaela commented as she deposited her load. "We also found a pool of sorts. And it has water in it! We'll need to fashion more bowls and cups to carry it." She cocked her head. "Actually, let's do it now. We can leave the shelter abandoned for a few minutes, I think."

We all went back to the ship and gathered more pieces of metal, twisting them into crude vessels capable of carrying water. I followed Michaela and Adam to the pool – it wasn't far off, just hidden in a very dense cluster of trees – and we carried most of it back to the shelter. I wondered why we hadn't just moved into one of those clusters of trees, instead of building a shelter. A few moments later, I realized that I really had no desire to live (and sleep) in a cluster of those trees while they were still living – I was uncomfortable enough when I was surrounded by dead ones.

Michaela stayed behind when we were done, and Adam and I set out, looking for food. We walked in a relatively straight line for quite a while, and as we advanced the trees began to thin, slowly at first, then very rapidly. We carried on, and then the trees just stopped, revealing the vast, rolling plain I had seen on my last exploratory mission with Jeen. We could see the hills in the distance, and far beyond them, green swirling clouds. Brilliant green lightning flashed, and a distant howling reached our ears.

We stared out at the majestic scene before us in awe before turning to look at each other.

"Shit," he said. "I forgot about the storms." We both turned to look again at the approaching clouds, then without a word, turned around and ran back to the shelter. Despite us having travelled only in a straight line, in our panic, we somehow managed to get lost. We stopped and both yelled as loudly as we could. Nearby, we heard Michaela yell back, and we found her, and the shelter, shortly thereafter.

She smiled at us as we rushed in. "I didn't expect you to get lost so easily..."

Adam interrupted her. "There's a storm coming – if it's anything like what we saw when it snatched Rafael right out of the ship, it will kill us all."

She frowned. "Damn. I had forgotten about that – but where the hell are we supposed to find shelter?"

At that moment, Mikhail and Stephen returned. Seeing the terrified looks on our faces, Mikhail asked what was wrong.

"Storm's coming," I told him shortly. He cursed, and Stephen paled.

"We're doomed," Adam said. "There's no way this shelter will protect us."

None of us could think of any place in which we would be safe from the storm – our best hope seemed to be hiding in a cluster of the trees and waiting there until it passed. Just as we were about to go find a cluster thick enough to protect us, I realized I did know of a place where we would be sheltered from the storm. I didn't like the idea, but it was probably our only hope.

"I know where we can go," I said.

### 28

" _Paranoia is the opposite of curiosity. Or is it fear? One could make a case for both, but I believe that it is paranoia. Paranoia is what shuts one up in his own little hole, afraid to venture outside, while curiosity is that which drives one out into the world to do what he will, whether for good or for evil."_

_~Jakken Servidos, in his_ Philosophical Musings

Everyone stopped talking and looked at me. I continued. "After Allon was executed, I went exploring. I found a place where the roots of the trees were exposed, and the path between them sunken. We could go underground, beneath the trees." I hesitated. "But... the plants are carnivorous, and the roots attack you if you go too far in."

"Why didn't you report this?" Michaela asked. She sounded angry.

I flinched at the tone of her voice. "Some... things happened there that I don't want to think about." It was a half-lie. I'm not sure if she bought it.

Michaela sighed in exasperation. "Come on then, guys. Grab whatever food and water you can hold, and let's go. We don't know how fast these storms move."

We couldn't take that much water, but we combined several makeshift containers together and made lids to make it easier to carry, and then we stuffed our pockets with potatoes. Fortunately, the location of the shelter was near to where the ship had exploded, so I found the place easily. We all squeezed through the gap in the trees, the others with almost as much apprehension as me. I don't know what had possessed me to go into the trees the first time; it was a rather terrifying place.

I led them down to the place where the ground dropped, and we stepped just into the roots, not going far. We found a small clearing with no roots nearby, and sat in a circle there, facing outwards, to make sure no roots got near.

After a moment, I ventured a question. "How will we know when the storm's over?"

Michaela shrugged. "With those kind of winds, we'll probably hear it when it starts. When the loud noises go away, we wait a few minutes, then come out." I nodded. It sounded good to me.

We sat in silence for a good while, straining our ears, listening for the sound of howling winds. Eventually, it came, but not in the gradual way I had been expecting. One minute there was silence, and the next all I could hear was the howling wind and the deafening cracks of thunder. I covered my ears with my hands, pressing hard, but it did nothing to stop the noise. Every time the thunder reached my ears, my entire body shook with the sound of it. I didn't remember it being so loud on the ship.

It was a long time before the storm died away. On the ship, they had lasted usually four or five hours, but this one felt like nine or ten. It was gone as suddenly as it had come. We had felt none of the effects of the storm. Once all was silent again (of course, we might have just been deafened by the sound), we waited for another while, then Michaela slowly stood and crept to the hole leading back outside. She carefully stuck her head out into the open and peered up at the sky. She stepped out all the way and turned around. "We're good. It's over!"

Relieved, we all piled out. I never wanted to do that again – though I knew I probably would have to.

"We're going to have to rebuild the shelter," Michaela said once we were all out and had stretched.

"Why?" asked Stephen. We could just use this area as our shelter. We won't ever have to rebuild it, and it actually protects us from the storms!"

My eyes went wide. "We can't do that! They'll eat us as we sleep!"

Michaela sighed. "He does have a point, Jak. It would be perfect. And none of us saw the roots move, like you claim they had before. Did you see them move this time?"

I hesitated, then shook my head. "But they did before – they almost killed me! I can't sleep in there."

"Fine. We won't. We'll sleep out here." Her proposed compromise didn't make me feel much better.

"What if the roots move out into the path? They could kill us anyway!"

She sighed again. "We'll have a watch. Besides, it's not safe to sleep anywhere else when a storm might come at any moment. We have a choice between certain death at the hands of a killer storm that could come at any moment, or possible death at the hands of carnivorous trees. I'm going to place my bet for survival on the trees."

I started to speak, then realized that I had nothing to say. She was right.

"On the matter of flesh-eating trees," said Adam, "how did you get away from them in the first place? You said they almost killed you, but that you managed to escape?"

I couldn't tell them about the strange man who kept saving me, so I pleaded amnesia. "I don't remember – I just struggled a lot, and I think I eventually broke them." He raised an eyebrow at me and said nothing.

"So, all in favor of camping here say aye," Michaela said.

We all responded, "Aye" – even me, though reluctantly.

She nodded. "Good. We'll give Jak the benefit of the doubt regarding the killer trees, and stay out here, except when a storm sets upon us. Then we go under for shelter. We'll always have someone here to watch the food and water."

We moved all of the food out from under the trees, and placed it in the middle of the path-like area. Then, all of us tired, we all settled down to sleep – or rather, most of us did. I had the first watch.

An hour or so into it, I discovered that I really needed to relieve myself. I walked back up the trail (I was afraid of going further down it), walked out of the woods, and did what I needed to do. As I started to slide through the crack again, I heard a groan, then a thud, coming from somewhere nearby. I scrambled back out, and ran in the direction of the noise.

I found a man, lying at the base of one of the trees. I hurried over to him, and knelt by his head. It was Methuselah. He didn't appear to be conscious. I put my head on his chest, listening for a heartbeat. It was faint, but it was there. I jumped to my feet and rushed back down to the camp. I shook Michaela awake. She sat up groggily, waking Adam, who she was sleeping beside. "Jak? What is it?"

"I found Methuselah," I replied breathlessly. "He's unconscious and needs help."

Michaela was on her feet in an instant. Adam followed suit shortly after. She grabbed a cup of water and a potato. "Quick! Where is he?" I motioned for her to follow.

I led both of them to Methuselah. He hadn't moved. She put down the water and potato as she knelt down by his side, placing her head to his chest. "He still lives..." She raised her head, grasped her right hand with her left, and began to pushing on his chest rhythmically. "How... ever... he... is... not... breathing... right..." She stopped pushing and put her mouth on his. Adam flinched and looked away. Despite myself, I had to smirk. My suspicions about what they might have been doing while they were alone were all but confirmed.

Michaela repeated the cycle three more times before Methuselah's eyelids opened and he sat up violently, throwing Michaela back a bit. He coughed, and a mass of blood and phlegm shot out of his mouth, landing on his stomach.

"Are you all right?" Michaela asked, her eyes full of concern.

Methuselah coughed again. No blood came out this time. "What d'ye think, lass? Do I look alright t'ye?" He coughed up a smaller ball of blood and phlegm. "I'm dyin' – no point in savin' me now."

She glared at him. "You're dying over my dead body!" She picked up the cup of water and held it to his lips. "Now, drink. And no arguing!"

He complied. As soon as the first drops of water entered his mouth, he choked and spat it out. He laughed sadly, then burst into coughing again, shooting more bodily fluids from his mouth and nose. "I can't drink nothin'. My body don' want it... no use. I'm old 'nuff, jus' let me die." He closed his eyes and mouth as he lay back down.

"No, damn you! We're a crew, we stick together!" She tried to open its mouth, but it did not open. Her head fell down onto his chest, and her body shook as she cried silently.

"We lost him." There was more desolation in her voice than I had ever heard before. I didn't understand why she, a veteran crewmember and soldier, was so broken up about the death of a cranky old engineer. Adam gave me a meaningful look, and I nodded and trudged back to camp as Adam knelt beside Michaela, putting his arm around her. Stephen and Mikhail were still asleep. I sat down in the middle of the path and watched the roots around us, making sure they weren't up to anything.

29

" _Scurvy was the plague of ancient seafarers, and is oftentimes also the plague of modern starfarers, especially on low-budget missions with under-qualified chefs. A good diet is essential to the health of any starfarer, and for them to have a good diet, they need a good cook. In this light, the nation of Lithestatvia is proud to offer its award-winning cook, Joseph Antiochus, to the crew of the Ambassador."_

~Prime Minister Paoul Czercznzniak of Lithestatvia, in his speech naming Joseph Antiocus as his nation's representative on the Ambassador expedition

The next day, upon waking, we all ate our breakfast of potatoes and drank a few sips of water. Michaela told Mikhail and Stephen about what had happened last night as they slept. If they were upset, they didn't show it – they just nodded calmly throughout the whole tale, and made no comments afterwards. When we were done, Michaela and Adam went to go fetch more water and potatoes, while Stephen and I went out to explore. Mikhail volunteered to stay behind.

Stephen was rather attractive. His hair went down to the nape of his neck, and was a nice chocolate color. He had a smooth face, unmarred by... well, anything – and nice lips and beautiful eyes. I think he felt my eyes on him, for he gave me several uncomfortable looks, and scarcely said a word to me.

Neither of us were sure what we were looking for – more water, more potatoes, and more survivors was what I had in mind, as well as anything else interesting that might happen to be around.

We walked in the direction that Adam and I had walked the day before, when we had seen the storm approaching. Stephen and I reached the spot more quickly than Adam and I had, and stopped again at the tree line, looking at the distant mountains. Stephen squinted. "Jak – is something moving out there?" He pointed.

I looked at where he was pointing, squinted my eyes, and indeed saw something moving. It looked like a man. I wondered if it was the cloaked man or another survivor – it was too far away to tell. I took a few steps closer, and focused on him more intently. I saw that the figure staggered drunkenly, and almost fell over several times. It was definitely not the cloaked man. Stephen and I exchanged a look and walked rapidly onto the plains towards the man. Several seconds later, we broke into a jog as he suffered from what looked to be a nasty fall.

We reached him in about two minutes. He had not gotten up, and was lying face-down in the dirt. I knelt beside him and turned him over.

It was Fineas Sparten.

His face was weathered and horribly scarred, his beard filled with dust, and his eye patch mostly gone, revealing a gaping hole leading directly to his brain. The hole was lined with red dust. He opened his good eye at my touch. "Who're you?" he muttered at me.

"I'm Jak. That's Stephen." I jerked my head in his direction.

He blinked, very slowly and deliberately. "Who?"

I resisted the urge to sigh. "We're from the Ambassador."

"The what?" He looked confused. Stephen and I looked at each other. Something was not right with him.

"Right, Fineas, you're coming with us," Stephen said. He walked to Fineas' other side and grabbed his arm, just below the shoulder. I did the same. We lifted him to his feet, ignoring his weak protestations. Each of us put his respective arm over our shoulders and grabbed his hands, and then we began to walk him slowly back towards camp.

It took a few hours to finally reach the crack in the dense clump of trees that hid our shelter, and it was hard getting Fineas through. I had to go in first, and Stephen practically shoved him through into my arms. Mikhail noticed us as we dragged him the final stretch, and walked out to greet us. Michaela and Adam followed close behind, having already returned. We laid Fineas face-up on the ground.

"Is he alive?" Michaela asked.

I nodded. "And he can still talk. He doesn't look too good, though – he doesn't seem to remember anything about the ship. He's not in his right mind." Of course, he hadn't been since the Ambassador had crashed.

Fineas opened his eyes, then looked suspiciously at all of us. "Who're y-you?"

Michaela rested a hand on his shoulder. "We're your friends. That's all you need to know right now."

He smiled calmly and closed his eyes. A second later, they were open again. "Do not leave us, ever. We are so lonely." He spoke with the strange voice that I had heard him use when I had hidden with him from the Deviant.

I jumped and stepped back, looking down at him fearfully. I realized now why the voice had sounded so familiar to me – it was the voice of the slug-thing from my dreams; Psy. No one else seemed to notice his change of voice, or his referring to himself in the plural. I hoped I had just imagined it, but I didn't think I had.

"Don't worry – we won't. Here, drink this." Michaela held a makeshift cup of water to his lips. When she judged him ready to drink, she let some of it trickle into his mouth. He drank greedily, and after a few minutes, the entire cup was gone.

He sat up, looking much better than before. "Food?"

Michaela glanced to Adam, who threw her a potato. She caught it and broke it in half. Crushing and mashing the potato in her hands, she fed small portions of the softened potato to the helmsman. She only let him have half, and threw the other half back to Adam.

"Sorry, Fineas. We need to see how well your body will handle food before giving you any more." He only nodded and closed his eyes. Within moments, he was asleep.

Adam and Michaela went off half an hour or so later to go look for more survivors. Stephen, Mikhail, and I sat around, making sure Fineas didn't do anything strange or stupid. We didn't really need to, because all he did was sleep.

Mikhail and I followed his example, me a few minutes after Mikhail. I was awoken what seemed like seconds later by Stephen shaking me. "Get up! You have to see what Adam and Michaela found!" I sat up slowly, stood, and stretched. "I'll stay here with Fineas – I've already seen it. Just go out of the crack, then left thirty or so meters."

Mikhail had already left, so I jogged up the path towards the crack in the trees. I slipped out, turned left, and ran forward, curious. Stephen had sounded scared.

I soon saw Michaela, Adam, and Mikhail standing in a circle around something on the ground. I stopped when I reached them, breathing heavily. "What is it?"

Michaela turned to look at me. "You have eyes. You can see." He pointed down.

I looked down, and I stopped breathing.

There were two corpses lying on the ground, neatly side by side. The one closer to me was Rafael. Half of his face was ripped off, and his skin was badly bruised, torn, and cut. He also had no clothing on – not surprising, considering he had been thrown out into a vicious storm. I was surprised he was still as intact as he was.

The second corpse was that of Allon. How he had gotten to the surface and out of his box was beyond me. Worrying as that was, what was more worrying were the claw marks all over his body, and what appeared to be bite marks on his upper torso. His throat had been ripped out, and the top of his skull was gone.

"H-how did they get here? Did you move them?" I asked. There was no way a storm could have deposited them so neatly here.

Adam shook his head. "No, we didn't. We found them like this, neatly laid out. And we didn't dig up Allon either – he was just here, like this, all clawed up." Adam grimaced. "We went to check the burial site. Allen was still buried, but the box containing Allon was on the surface, ripped to shreds."

I swallowed. "D-does that mean that something here is... alive?"

Michaela shrugged. "We can't say for sure, but it looks to be that way." A shiver went down my spine. Was it an animal? Had another one of the Deviants emerged from one of the corpses?

I spoke my second question aloud, and Adam bit his lip. "If it was a Deviant, it did not burst out from these two – if it had, their bodies would have been obliterated. The wounds could have been caused by a Deviant, but show no sign of electrical shock. I can't be sure."

After a moment of silence, Mikhail spoke. "Are we just going to leave them here? It seems sort of... disrespectful to them."

"They both were mutineers – and at least one of them was given last respects. Plus, we don't want to tip off whatever did this – if something living did do this – to the fact that we exist." We all nodded – Michaela's words made sense.

"So we leave them here." There was no question in Adam's voice.

Michaela nodded. "Aye. Let's go back to camp. We probably shouldn't stay split up for too long."

We walked back to camp at a decent pace. Nothing had changed from when I left it to when I got back. We all sat down, and were silent for several moments.

Then Stephen cleared his throat. "Are we going to move camp? Those corpses were deposited awfully close by – perhaps the thing already knows where we are and is giving us a warning?"

Michaela sighed. "I don't know – there might not be another place like this, and if there is, who's to say that that is not the home of the creature, or closer to where it lives? I guess it can't hurt to look for another place, but I think our best bet is to stay here for now." She glanced at me. "Among the carnivorous trees." I looked at the ground. They still didn't believe me. After all that had happened, I had thought they would at least give me some credibility.

We all agreed with her, and ate a lunch of sorts (consisting of, of course, potatoes). Michaela again lamented about how we would need to improve our diet if we were to survive for any length of time. Mikhail pointed out that we couldn't really help it, and we probably shouldn't question where the potatoes came from in case no more appeared.

Adam suggested seeing if the trees were edible. He, at least, did not make fun of my claim that the trees were carnivorous. Mikhail did. "And turn the tables on the trees? That would be ironic."

Michaela nodded. "That is actually a good suggestion. We have found absolutely no other life here besides the trees – assuming they are alive – and they could very well prove to be edible." She frowned. "We need some way to check for poisons though..."

"I have a simple test I can do," Adam said. He pulled something out of his pocket. It was a mechanical device of some sort, consisting of a small black body with buttons and a screen, with a tube coming out one side. "Take a sample of the trees, boil it in water, and I can stick this thing in the water and test it for various poisons."

"What if the poison is something we don't recognize?" said Stephen. "Could it pick it up then?"

Adam thought for a second. "I'm not sure. It works by detecting anything that could be harmful to humans – so I assume that if it was harmful, it would pick it up, and just wouldn't tell us what poison it is."

Michaela chewed her lip. "We'll take that risk when we need to. For now, our potatoes will do, I suppose. We still need to keep an eye out for other food, though." Adam nodded and put the device away.

When we were done eating, we agreed that we should travel in groups of three instead of two, in case the thing that had mauled the corpses of Rafael and Allon attacked us. Only Adam had a weapon, and he only trusted Michaela with it, so it was agreed that one of them would have to go out with every expedition. Since that meant they wouldn't be both out at the same time (or alone together), I wondered what that would do to their love life.

Michaela, Mikhail, and Stephen went out in the "afternoon," while Adam and I stayed behind with Fineas.

He woke up about an hour and a half after the other three left. He was still very disoriented, but at least seemed to remember who he was, and what the Ambassador was. He wasn't very talkative, though, and the two of us gave up trying to figure out how he survived the storm and explosion after a few minutes, and we talked to each other instead, mostly about Adam's past and his life in his native country.

When the other three returned, we ate supper (with Fineas this time), and then Adam, Stephen, and I went off to explore, looking for survivors and food.

We found absolutely nothing. No water, potatoes, survivors, shelter, or other foods. We returned to camp and reported our lack of findings to Michaela. She said we would have to visit the water pool tomorrow, as we were almost out of water. We still had plenty of potatoes, though.

Shortly after we got back, we settled down to sleep, with Adam – and Michaela as well, I think – taking the first watch.

30

" _Where would we be without individuality? The Communist states of New Testament and Enoch make plain my argument – without individualism, society will not progress. How many advancements have the Communist states made? How many new ideas? How have they raised the standard of living of their populace? No, all they do is remain stagnant, leaching funds from the Terran Home Rule and squandering them on useless items, rather than using them to promote progress!"_

~General Adaoniz de Charrique of Namibia, in a speech condemning the Communist philosophy

Adam shook me awake for my watch, and I got up relatively quickly. I was still groggy, so I stood up to make sure that I stayed awake. Adam was snoring in less than five minutes.

I stood there, alone, in relative quiet, reflecting upon the events of the past several weeks. My life had been turned upside down several times – I had gone from being a lowly dockhand to a stowaway on the greatest expeditionary vessel of all time, to a full-time member of the crew and a favorite of the captain, to one of six survivors of a terrible massacre by genetically engineered monsters, stranded on a distant planet. Not to mention I was being protected by some magical being, and hunted by another. I felt as if had no control over my own life, like everything was predetermined. I was beginning to believe that free will was a myth.

I began to walk in circles around my fellow survivors, and my thoughts changed course. I reflected on the family I had left behind – my mother, my father, Ryvan, Piter, and all the rest of my siblings. I wondered what they were thinking about me, or if they had even noticed I was gone. My mother and father probably rejoiced when I didn't come home after a few days – one less mouth to feed for them was always good. They had brought out celebratory alcohol when Tythan ran away – they probably had done the same for me.

I stopped walking and half-smiled. Despite being stranded on a distant planet with no hope of ever seeing Earth again, I was happy with the choices I had made. In Raheera, I had no real friends. While I still didn't really have any close friends, people actually liked me – Michaela did, Adam did, Vincent had, Ezekiel...

Ezekiel had loved me. Or lusted for me, I thought cynically. Like I had for him. If nothing else, stowing away had given me him, at least for a little while.

Of course, stowing away had given me lots of other things. Rafael had taught me basic self-defense, I had learned about spaceships and how they work – and I learned how to deal with death and grief. This expedition had taught me how to move on.

I heard footsteps behind me.

I whirled around, my heart rate jumping. I saw nothing. It was still light out, as always, so I felt that if there was something – or someone – there, I would have seen them. Unless they were hiding under the trees. I peered into the roots on both sides, afraid to venture into them, but saw nothing.

After a few more minutes of paranoia, I relaxed and dropped my guard. I must have been imagining things. Turning around to face the entrance to our shelter, I wondered why we had never gone any further down the path. When I had first discovered this place, I just hadn't wanted to go too far from the ship. Now that there was no ship, there was no reason not to explore further. I made a note to suggest the idea to Michaela when we were all awake.

I began to circle again, making sure to walk quietly so as not to awaken the others. I kept my gaze level, looking for anything unusual or out of place.

I heard the footsteps again. They came from behind me, as I was looking into the roots. I turned around, very slowly, looking at the spot where the others slept. Again, there was nothing. This time, I didn't drop my guard. I had a feeling that the footsteps had come from the roots on the other side of the path. I walked around the sleeping group, and approached the gap that allowed you to go under the trees. I was still terrified of the roots, and had no desire to venture under them, so I stopped just outside, peering into the dim light. There was nothing. I sighed in relief and turned around to face my sleeping fellows. I froze.

There was a figure standing in the center of the circle of sleeping figures. In the bright light, Vincent was easily recognizable, although his face was extensively cut and bruised. I broke out in a massive smile, my fear forgotten.

"Vincent! You survived! How did you find us?" I started to run towards him, but quickly slowed to a halt – something was wrong. I looked at his left hand, and saw that it was gone. Looking even more closely, I saw a massive gash across his stomach, hardly visible at a glance against his black uniform. Strings of flesh hung out of the hole in his body, and his clothing was stained with blood. I began to back away, slowly. "Vincent...?"

"Hello Jak." He smiled, but not in the way I had known him to smile before. I looked into his eyes, and didn't see Vincent behind them, but something cold and distant. There was something wrong with his voice, too; it was definitely his, but it was... changed somehow. "I've been wanting to talk to you."

"What happened to you?" I asked, still backing away. I kicked Michaela, trying to wake her. She didn't stir.

Vincent smiled. "They won't wake, Jak. Their minds have been put to rest. No one will disturb our conversation."

I almost tripped over Stephen as I continued to back away. "What's wrong with you?"

"Don't run away – it's not polite." I stopped moving. My muscles were no longer responding to me – I just stood there, helpless, only able to move my eyes and mouth. "Much better." Vincent walked up to me, until he stood centimeters away. He smiled and stroked my face. If I could have flinched, I would have.

"What are you doing?" My voice shook.

Vincent took a step back. "Your body is not nearly as delightful as your mind, I am sorry to say. What do you say we continue our conversation there?" I tried to respond, but found that now only my eyes would obey my commands.

My head suddenly felt slimy. Not the outside of my head, but the inside – it felt like there was water trickling down the middle of my skull. I would have shivered had I been able to move.

A voice spoke from inside my head. _Hello, Jak. It is good to meet you, at last, while you are conscious._

I immediately recognized the voice. It was Psy – the slug-thing from my dreams, who had then spoken to me through Fineas. A chill of fear went down my spine, and my vision went black.

_I have so been looking forward to speaking to you, not in that peculiar half-state you subservients call 'sleep,' but when your mental functions are at their peak._ I felt more violated than I ever have in my life, as if someone was viewing my thoughts and memories on a high quality monitor. _Poor Jakken – you have always been so alone and afraid. Do not fear. We are here_. I wanted to scream. _Screaming will do you no good – friends don't scream to one another, do they? I think we should be friends, Jak. We could be great friends_. I felt something take control of my limbs. I flexed my fingers – or rather, Psy did. I was not sitting in the pilot's chair in my own body, and I hated it.

_It would be so easy to just take you, to absorb you into my consciousness. But we want you separate – I am still alone, no matter how many we absorb. No, absorption is not the answer. There need to be other individuals, else what fun is Space?_ "Space" was very clearly a proper noun here, though I am not sure how I knew that.

_You have such a fascinating mind, much like my dear Andrea here_. Andrea?

_Yes, Andrea. That was the name he was born with, not this "Vincent" that you think of him as. It was one of his parents' first experiments on him, changing him into a male. They didn't want a daughter. They gave him then the name Andrew. Andrew Buckland Gale_. I recognized the name Gale – they were a family of infamous drug dealers back on Earth. _Yes they were. Andrea was born to Jonathan and Anita Gale, the heads of the family at the time, one hundred and seventy-two of your "years" ago. They subjected Andrea to all kind of terrible torments, both mental and physical. The pain it inflicted upon him twisted the tunnels of his mind in such unique ways, that I had to have him as ours – not as a friend, but as a part of myself._

_You, on the other hand, are not like her. Your mind is not shaped by the devices of torture, nor even of stress_. I begged to differ on that point. _Beg all you want, Jakken, but you know not yet of what you speak – your mind has been shaped by the eddies of the psyche of fate – the winds of the Apocalypse surround you, and so does its gods. Your mind was designed, just like the minds of your descendants will be – if they come._

_And that is why I must have you, but as a friend. We see now that even if I did want you as part of ourselves, I could not have you. We see now that I was wrong about you – you could never be absorbed into us – you are alien to me, set apart from your race by the Shivvos_. I didn't understand a word that was coming out of its mouth – or whatever it was using to communicate with me. _Our mind, Jak. I have no mouth, nor real physical body, as you would say – we are the sum total of the psychic energy at the creation of Space, and I wander the far reaches of this dreary place, collecting the most interesting trinkets for our collection_.

_And yet, I am lonely – our father abandoned us so long ago, leaving me for the flaming beings who dwell among the stars, and his god-children. Psy was forgotten, and left to roam, with no aim or goal in a goal-driven Space. We try to pass the time as best we can, exploring the minds of those around me, constantly searching for those that are different and unique_.

_But they are all the same_. I found that hard to believe. _No, it is true, young one. They have lived together so long, unified under the Juxtani Code, that they have become stagnant. The few civilizations that still exist outside of their physical space are irrelevant and primitive_. I, again, had no idea as to what it was talking about. That _is why you must join us, Jakken. I will teach you all there is to know, and we can live forever, not constrained by the limits of mere physicality_. I directed my thoughts at him, instead of thinking passively. So you have no physical form then?

_I do, and we don't. It is far too complex to explain in the limited time we have at the moment, before the Shivvos attempt to stop me_. Who are the Shivvos? _The gods of the Apocalypse, who will bring about the end of all of Space and exact a Final Judgment upon everything_.

Growing bolder, I asked more questions of him. And you said I was related to this Apocalypse – am I one of these gods? Psy hissed inside my brain, and it echoed in my mind more loudly than I could have imagined. _No, and you shall never be – but your descendants will be if you do not join me now! We must flee from this place before they send for me!_

I wondered why Psy did not just take over my mind and force me to follow him. _Because we do not want to join with you, nor can I join with you_. Couldn't you just physically compel me then? _We could, but I wish for you to come willingly to us_. For the first time, a truly threatening note entered his mental voice. _But I will do what we must_.

Its voice softened. _You can trust me, Jakken. I would never lie to you_. I didn't trust him, and I thought he was lying. He was just too disturbing and... different for me to trust him, or believe he was telling the truth. Moments later, those thoughts slipped out of my mind, and I found that I trusted Psy implicitly. If I had been in complete control of my thoughts, I would have been horrified. It seemed that even though Psy wanted me to remain an individual, he – or she, I suppose, although the voice was clearly masculine – was not above messing with other parts of my mind. I had a feeling that I would never be the same again, but I looked forward to that prospect.

_It is good to see you coming around, Jakken. You are such a wonderful person!_ Psy was truly delighted, and I reveled in his approval. A wave of pure pleasure went down my body. _It will be so good to get to know you, like I already know Andrea so well. That name suits him much better, don't you agree?_ I mentally nodded in agreement.

_It was a pity your society did not let him flourish, refusing to let him ease his mind and his need for violence, instead locking him behind bars for all of that time. But he heeded our call, and came to me, so that we could be one. It is a shame that your race does not appreciate genius – no, your kind has evolved much like the rest of the subservients, with your concepts of civilization and kindness._ I nodded. Yes, we had. I agreed very much with him, even though I had no idea what he was talking about. Psy's definition of an individual must have differed from mine, because I certainly did not feel like an individual, but like a part of him – a rather disconnected part, but a part nonetheless.

But still, there are differences between your humanity and the rest of Space. When you were cut off from them, your species went through the most fascinating devolution, and then re-evolved back to your former state, even without my help. We have been watching your species for quite some time, subtly influencing the regrowth of your civilization, rebuilding the Kordic language and much of its culture. Your race always believes that they're so clever, thinking that they come up with ideas all on their own. Of course, many ideas were wrong – such as that nonsense about the "fossil record."

_But now you are here, along with the culmination of my psychic experiments – Andrea Buckland Gale. I sent my waves from the star Q'Wiereieb-Gatyn towards your homeworld, and have summoned you both, along with a crew that could get you here safely. With some elements to stimulate your minds, of course._ I understood completely.

I felt Psy's thoughts shift away from me for an instant. _We must go now – we have no more time for idle talk, else they will find you. We shall be the greatest of friends! Let us go!_

I began to float – I felt my feet leave the ground, and I began to grow warm. I regained control of by body, and I smiled. I was going to go away from the struggles of life, and spend an eternity with Psy. At that moment, there was nothing else I would rather do.

"No." I opened my eyes, and fell down to the ground. I became cold. Vincent fell to the ground in front of me, his eyes looking behind me. I turned to follow his gaze.

A figure strode out of the roots, towards me and Vincent. Psy's grip on my mind eased, and I backed away from this approaching figure. It did not appear to have any depth – it looked like a black silhouette, and it had no definition other than that of the figure's outline. A cape moved in a wind that I could not feel, and a horned helmet sat upon his head. He had no eyes I could make out, but I could tell what his eyes gazed upon. In his right hand he held a sword, ablaze with black fire. He walked by me and stopped in front of Vincent. As I watched, he thrust the sword directly into Vincent's heart. Vincent was gone in an instant, engulfed in the same black flames that covered the sword. The figure sheathed his blade, and looked directly at me.

"Do not try to bribe me, Psy, it will not work. I have a much larger goal to accomplish." His voice carried unimaginable power – and not the kind of power that I would like to be on the receiving end of. "Let go of the boy. He is not to be touched." He paused. "It does not matter that my masters cannot harm you. You cannot put off their return. The time will come, and the boy needs to survive."

I felt grim amusement radiate from the figure, and felt Psy's grip on my mind weaken even further. I began to feel that I was myself again.

The figure spoke again. "Very well. So be it." He drew his sword again and pointed it straight up into the sky. He took off like a rocket, shooting up into the stars. Moments later, I heard a scream of anguish inside my head, and I fell down to my knees as Psy's presence was wrenched completely from my mind. My desire to be with him vanished, replaced instead by hatred and fear. I lay on the ground, gasping.

Michaela was at my side in an instant. "Jak? What's the matter?" I considered telling her what had happened, then shook my head. She would never believe it.

"Nothing. Just – a headache. That's all. Go back to sleep."

31

" _The Home Rule forgets itself – it is not the only power in the universe. Countless times – and they have admitted this themselves, in their search for intelligent alien life – they claim to have 'strong evidence' that there 'are currently at least a dozen or so interstellar, extraterrestrial civilizations out there in the universe.' The Home Rule cannot continue on its current path, knowing that there are others with power. Looking closer to home, we know – or should know – of one other: The Tyrrhish Nomads."_

~Derek Jonson of Jorland on Ulkind, in a speech criticizing the Home Rule's latest censorship policy

The next morning, after eating, Michaela, Mikhail, and I went out to go get water from the pool. The instant we stepped out of the gap in the trees, it started raining again. We hurried back to our camp, roused Adam and Stephen, collected all of our empty bowls and cups, and caught enough water to fill them all. Then the three of us left, to continue our search for... well, anything.

Not surprisingly, we found nothing. We returned back to camp to find that Fineas was mostly himself again. He knew who we all were, though he still was not particularly talkative.

Michaela was by far the best at getting information out of him, and after five or so minutes, she managed to learn how he had survived. He had, apparently, shortly after encountering me, simply walked out of the door and down another hallway, and exited the ship through one of the lesser-known exits. He claimed to have sensed that something terrible was going to happen to the ship, and hadn't wanted to be caught in it. After the explosion, he had wandered back, saw his destroyed vessel, and ran off again towards the plains in desolation and despair.

He had no memory of any storm, or of what had happened as he wandered. Michaela eventually gave up trying to get anything more out of him, and Adam and Stephen set off to search for food and water.

Mikhail took a knife out from one of his pockets, as well as a block of wood, and began to whittle something. Michaela, sitting by Fineas, who had closed his eyes, watched him intently. I found myself doing the same. His left hand was completely steady, unmoving, while his right was a blur, as he used it, and the knife it held, to cut away the wood. A shape began to form as the shavings fell to the ground at his feet.

He looked up, glancing at both Michaela and me. I looked down and blushed. Michaela's eyes didn't move. "What is that?"

Mikhail shrugged. "A Gyxoriant."

I blinked. "A what?"

He looked at me. "A Gyxoriant. It's a... mythical being from the legends of my people."

Michaela stood up and walked over to where Mikhail was sitting, and sat beside him. "Who are your people? All that your file said about you was that you were from Pallas."

Mikhail returned to his whittling. My eyes were drawn to the movements of his hands, even as my ears listened to his words. "I may have been born on Pallas, but that is not where I come from. Our Clan was just passing through the area when my mother had me – it was sheer luck that even had me born on a planet at all."

Michaela frowned. "But your file says..."

Mikhail waved the hand holding the knife. "Nevermind what the file says. The Home Rule never kept close tabs on us, anyhow. They like to pretend we don't exist – they don't like the idea of any authority outside their own."

I didn't know what he was talking about – the Terran Home Rule was the only authority in the universe, as much as the Edenite fanatics or the rebels on New Dominica disliked it. Except for any alien ones that might be out there... I remembered what Psy had said offhandedly about "Juxtani civilization." There was another authority out there, just no other human ones. The thought of intelligent aliens shocked me. I hoped they weren't all like Psy – and I hoped that whatever that black silhouette had done to him had gotten rid of him for good.

Michaela cocked her head. "Are you... a..."

"Tyrrhish nomad? Yes." Mikahil stopped whittling. In his left hand was a coiled worm of some kind, with the head of some kind of vicious beetle. He sheathed his knife and held his creation above his head. He looked at it carefully, then drew his knife again, and cut off a thin sliver of wood before putting the knife away again. "I'm surprised you've heard of us – we rarely touch down on planets, and interact as little as possible with other humans. Usually only spacers know of us, and the best that downsiders hear are exaggerated rumours from the spacers... if anything."

"One of my father's best friends was a runaway Tyrrh," said Michaela. "That's how I know of your existence – he was the one who transformed my father into a radical politician, with his railing about the injustices done to his people. Of course, nobody had ever heard of the Tyrrh, so he didn't get anywhere."

"That's how it works," Mikhail said softly. He examined his carving. After a moment of silence, he spoke again.

"Gyxoriants are supposed to be good luck charms – part space-serpent, part beetle. They ride the Ethyrian wakes of ships, and ward off anything – or anyone – that would try to harm you." He smiled. "I would have to tend the Gyxoriant altars every day on my Clan's ship – it was my special duty."

I was very confused, and I finally said as much. "What's a Tyrrhish nomad?"

Mikhail chuckled and put the Gyxoriant carving on his knee. "When humanity first began to venture beyond the moon and Sol's star system, back when Ethan Darievos invented the Ethyrdrive engine, our race was involved in a heated civil war. The policymakers all dwelt on planets, only travelling between them when was absolutely necessary. They had no real experience with the realities of life in space, and many of their laws harmed those who lived off of any planet. As such, many spacers became unhappy with the "Terran Confederacy," as the Home Rule called itself then.

"These disgruntled spacers eventually rebelled against the Confederacy, and gained surprising support. War erupted between the Spacer's Union and the Terran Confederacy. The Union had the advantage of higher ground and more abundant resources, while the Confederacy only had wealth and capital, which couldn't really be used for anything. Space travel and most interplanetary communications were shut down, effectively crushing the Confederacy.

"The Union began to bomb the major urban centers of the planets from orbit, and the Confederacy made one last gamble for victory. Ethan Darievos sided with those who funded his research – the Confederacy. They used Darievos' technology to create the most powerful weapon known to man – the Ethyrbomb."

"The Ethyrbomb?" I had never heard of it.

Mikhail nodded. "Aye. The Ethyrbomb. It was only used once, and never again, as the destruction it wreaked was too terrible even for the Confederacy. The Union was almost completely destroyed. Those few survivors, mostly those on the fringes of the system, fled into deep space, to the blackness between the stars, away from the Confederacy.

"Eventually, the Confederacy renamed itself, becoming the Terran Home Rule, and began to utilize the Ethyrdrive engine to travel to other star systems. By the time the technology had been applied to the ships and those ships sent to explore, however, the escaped Union ships had already arrived at many of the worlds that these ships "discovered." When the Home Rule arrived, any sign of human habitation on those planets was destroyed, and the Union inhabitants were forced to flee, again retreating to the places between the stars. They had their own Ethyr technology – not quite as effective or elegant, but still functional. But the old Union men and women began to tire of being killed whenever they set foot on a planet, and resigned themselves to forever dwelling in space. They began to wander between the planets and stars, only rarely setting foot downside." Mikhail smiled. "My mother wasn't supposed to be downside when I was born – she was sneaking off with my father to explore. My grandmother was not happy with her." Michaela and I laughed.

"Anyway, the Union people gradually became known as the Tyrrhish nomads, named after our greatest ruler, Lord Tyrrh. The Home Rule erased most of our history from their records – you will find no evidence of the civil war, nor of our being forced off of the planets that were rightfully ours. We exist now merely as a group of people sharing a culture and a religion, both of which are very different from what you downsiders have."

"So how did you end up on this mission if you're a Tyrrh?"

Mikhail looked at Michaela. "My ship was destroyed by a rogue asteroid – our sentry fell asleep at his post. Only three of us made it from the ship alive." He smiled sadly. "It's terrible luck to take in a survivor of an accident like that – no one would have us. We were forced to blend in with downsider society. I returned to Pallas, and got work there as a spacer for the Home Rule."

Neither Michaela nor I spoke for a long while after his story was done. Mikhail closed his eyes and leaned back, humming a tune softly to himself.

Michaela yawned and followed Mikhail's example, lying down on the ground. "I think I'm going to take a nap. Can you two keep watch?"

"Yup," I said. "Go ahead."

"Thanks," murmured Michaela. She was snoring moments later. Looking over at Mikhail, I noticed that he had stopped whistling, and seemed to be asleep as well. I was the only one awake.

I stood up and stretched. As I was stretching my left arm, facing away from the entrance, I heard the sound of running footsteps behind me. I whirled around, ready for anything, only to see Stephen and Adam running towards us, with another figure following closely behind. Michaela, Mikhail, and Fineas all woke up at the sound of Stephen's shouting.

"We found him! He's alive!"

Running behind Adam and Stephen was Vincent.

### 32

" _In response to General Adaoniz's arguments, I would like to point out that both Enoch and New Testament have a high state of morality, as well as a higher standard of living than your so-called 'individualist' states. I would also like to bring to light the fact that neither planet encourages the destruction of the individual – rather, we place more emphasis on the community. We will be the first to admit that individuals are important – however, in the end, it is the collective community that trumps all."_

~Abraham of Enoch, in a speech countering General Adaoniz de Charrique's criticism of the Communist philosophy

Vincent was smiling. He was also intact – there was no gash across his stomach, though his face was still cut and bruised. Mikhail looked happy to see him, Michaela slightly worried, and Fineas slightly confused. If I could have seen my own face, I probably would have described it as terrified.

Vincent had died – him and Psy, who I assumed had been possessing him, had been burned into nothingness by the strange black silhouette. He couldn't still be alive.

I backed away slowly as everyone else greeted him with smiles and laughter. Vincent turned to face me. "Jak! You survived too!" He broke out from the group and walked towards me. I stopped backing up.

"Stay away from me!" I snarled, shaking.

Vincent stopped, and a look of confusion crossed his face. "Jak? What's wrong?"

I glared at him, not moving, and I said nothing. Vincent hesitantly took another step forward. "Stay away from me!" I said again, and took a step back.

Everyone else had gathered behind Vincent. "Jak? What's the matter with you?" Michaela sounded concerned.

Vincent half-smiled. "Maybe he thinks I'm a ghost come to haunt him." Everyone else laughed nervously.

I did not laugh. I was terrified of this thing before me – I didn't even know if it was Vincent. "Who are you?"

Vincent again looked confused. "I'm Vincent? Don't you remember me?"

"What's your real name?" I wondered if he would say Andrea.

"Vincent. Vincent Cellitti Magritto. Or technically, Vinzetti Cellitti Magritto, but I prefer Vincent."

I stood there for a few more moments, staring at Vincent. He looked normal, he sounded normal – his eyes had that same life that they had always had. As I inspected him, I gradually became convinced that this really was Vincent standing before me. Maybe the Vincent I had seen earlier had been an illusion created by Psy, telling me a fake life story invented by the psychic being. I was still uneasy, though – if it had been an illusion, why did Psy include the massive gash, the unnatural eyes, and the changing voice?

Gradually, I forced myself to relax. I lowered my head. "My apologies. I – just had a rather vivid nightmare where you returned from the dead to kill us at the whim of some psychic thing."

Everyone laughed softly. "Is that what that headache was?" Michaela asked. "Were you half-asleep on watch?"

I nodded. "Sorry."

Michaela laughed. "It's okay. None of us died. And this really is Vincent. I promise." I nodded, and walked over to everyone else. I shook Vincent's hand, apologized again to him, and talked with him for a few moments. I still wasn't completely comfortable.

Then we all sat down in a circle and began to fill in Vincent on all that had happened since the mysterious explosion of the ship. I remained silent throughout most of it, watching Vincent, as well as Michaela and Adam. I was pretty sure that Michaela had been sleeping with Vincent before the explosion, and had rather quickly hooked up with Adam shortly afterwards. I felt a small pang of sympathy for Michaela, as she was in a rather awkward situation now. I wondered who she would choose.

After a few minutes, everyone present save Vincent had explained how they had escaped (Michaela had explained how I had as part of her story). Michaela turned to Vincent.

"Not that I'm not happy that you're alive, but how did you manage to survive? I saw the beast shatter your skull! Your brains were all over the floor!"

Vincent smiled. "I'm not entirely sure. Perhaps Gerald came back after the beast had run off, and fixed me. I honestly don't know. I remember the thing having my head in its jaws, then a burst of pain, and then... nothing. Then, the next thing I knew, I was awake, in the middle of the forest. I have no idea how I got there."

Everyone looked rather unnerved at this. I was, too – he had clearly been very dead before, and was now clearly very much alive.

Once our reunion was over, Michaela, Mikhail and I set out for our turn of searching. We went in the opposite direction of the plains, towards where the trees became extremely dense. The trees soon became a wall that none of us could slip through. We walked along the wall for several minutes, finding nothing, until Mikhail spotted a tiny gap in the trees.

As we approached the gap, I saw that it was the result of one of the trees in the wall having gone missing. There was a very short stump where the tree should have been. We all peered down the gap that it made. There was a single-file line of stumps extending back as far as we could see. In the distance, the path appeared to dip downwards.

"Alright, let's go." Michaela turned sideways and tried to squeeze through the gap, but couldn't fit through after she took two steps. Her breasts got in the way, much to my amusement. She cursed and stepped back out. "It's too narrow for me – Mikhail, can you fit?"

Mikhail shrugged and tried. He got about six steps in before he could advance no further. Smiling sadly, he came back. "Nope. I think Jak might be able to make it through though – the path widens again a few more stumps in."

They both looked at me expectantly. I looked at both of them, then swallowed. "All right." I turned sideways and squeezed in between the trees. It was a tight fit, but I did manage to get past the point where Adam had been forced to stop. He was right; a few steps later, I was actually able to walk forwards.

"I'm through!" I called back.

"Good! What do you see?"

"Nothing. I'm going to keep going."

"Be careful!"

I nodded, then realized that Michaela couldn't see that. "I will!" I walked forward, being careful not to trip over the stumps. As I advanced, the stumps began to grow shorter, until they had vanished altogether, leaving only dirt beneath my feet. The path began to slope downwards, slightly at first, and then rather steeply. I struggled to keep my footing as the path grew almost impossibly steep. I wondered how I was going to get back up.

Moments later, I slipped, and fell on my back. Yelping in pain and surprise, I slid and rolled all the way down the rest of the slope, rolling to a halt at the bottom. I slowly stood up, wincing at the pain in my back and joints. I rubbed my elbow and looked around me. In my mad slide to the bottom of the hill, the path had widened around me, until it was the width of six or seven trees. Unlike our current shelter, the trees here did not stay level, but remained buried under the ground. I was grateful.

As I continued walking, the path began to curve to the right. Shortly after that, it curved back to the left, and then made a sharp right, before sloping gently upwards in a short hill. Sighing, I decided that I would go to the top of the hill, then go back, so that Mikhail and Michaela didn't worry about me.

I reached the top of the hill in less than a minute, and stood on its crest, looking down.

Ahead of me was a large clearing, surrounded on all sides by an impenetrable wall of trees, save for a narrowing path from where I stood down to the clearing. In the center of the clearing stood the green-cloaked man.

Startled, I took a step back. The man shouted. "Run, Jak! You should not be–" He vanished, his sentence remaining unfinished. Worried, I took another step back, then stopped as the image before my eyes changed. I saw before me three gently swaying palm trees, scattered around the edges of a large pool of crystal clear water. On the fringes of the clearing were various types of berry bushes, and melons and squashes were scattered across the ground. A cool breeze flowed across my brow. I slowly began to walk forward, not really thinking about what I was doing. Everything around me seemed to slow down. Before I knew it, I was standing on the shores of the pool.

See what could be yours, Jak? All you need to do is join me. I leapt back at the sound of Psy's voice echoing in my head. I thought that the silhouette had killed him! Apparently I was wrong.

"Go away!" I shouted at him. "Get out of my mind!" My head began to grow cold, and the slimy sensation again entered my mind. My will to resist him diminished, and my affection for him returned.

Imagine it, Jak. This could be yours whenever you wanted. More food than you could imagine – go ahead, try some! I did as I was told, walking over to a nearby watermelon. I jumped on top of it to break open its rind, then reached inside to take out the fleshy insides. I shoved a handful of it into my mouth. It was the most delicious food I had ever had, and it tasted like so much more than just watermelon – it tasted of happiness. I ate more.

Somewhere in the depths of my mind, I knew that what I was eating wasn't real, just an illusion created by Psy in my mind. Don't be silly. Psy's voice was soothing. Of course it's real. Reality is relative – it is what we make it. The tiny voice in the back of my mind vanished, and I reveled in Psy's presence.

We must go now, Jak, before Lord Yttrios returns again to banish us. I fooled him, him and Loriel, the first time, but we might not be able to do the same a second time – they are immune to my mind games. We must depart!

I began to float again, up towards the sky, moving quickly. I lifted my face upwards, and closed my eyes for a few seconds. When I opened them, the landscape below me had changed. Instead of the red dirt and grey trees I was used to, I was greeted with a grey, dusty surface, covered in strange red fungal growths. I turned in the air, and could see Michaela and Mikhail, as well as Stephen, Vincent, and Fineas below me. A moment later, the landscape returned to being red dirt and gray trees.

What just happened? I asked Psy. Nothing to worry about – my attention was elsewhere. Was that this planet? I felt Psy pause for a split second. That would have been what you would have seen had we not altered your perception of it. But what you saw when you landed was just as real as that glimpse you just received.

That glimpse of the real planet, and Psy's cool explanation of his manipulation of my mind shocked me, even through the haze he had over me, into resistance. His presence lessened in my mind, and the voice in the back of my head asserted itself.

I won't go with you! I said. Let me free! A sadness filled my mind. But we could be such good friends, Jak! You and us, together for an eternity of paradise! Instead of floating above a cold planet, I suddenly found myself standing on a beautiful stone balcony, looking down over a glittering sea. I smiled despite myself.

"Jak?" I blinked, and turned around, startled at the sound of a voice I had never expected to hear again. My hands began to shake.

"Ezekiel? But... you're dead..."

My lover laughed. "No I'm not, Jak. See? I'm very much alive!" He walked up to me and kissed me passionately. My initial resistance soon gave way to the warmth of his mouth.

We broke apart after several minutes. I pulled away from his embrace. "What happened? Where are we? How did we get here? What happened to the ship, and the planet, and–"

Ezekiel stepped forward and kissed me again, more lightly this time. "Don't worry, my love, everything will be revealed in time."

I tried to stammer something, but I couldn't. Despite my earlier reasoning that I didn't love him, I found myself wanting, more than anything, to spend eternity with him. He smiled at me and took my hand, leading me towards a door at the other end of the balcony. I followed without saying another word.

***

I woke up next to Ezekiel. I wasn't wearing anything. I slowly slid out of bed, careful not to wake him, and walked out of the room and onto the balcony. Stretching, I stared out at the beautiful sunrise. I leaned on the railing and closed my eyes. I could spend an eternity here, perfectly happy and always content.

"Yes, you could," said Ezekiel, coming up behind me. He wrapped his arms around me and kissed my neck. I turned around and pushed him away.

"You... you're not real. You wouldn't be able to read my mind if you were."

Ezekiel shrugged. "Reality is what we perceive, Jak. This is just as real as that other world from which you left – but infinitely more pleasurable."

I snarled. "I don't want to live a lie! Get me out of here."

Ezekiel sighed. "I am disappointed in you, Jak – we are most displeased. If I cannot entice you, we will force you."

Suddenly, my brain felt like it was expanding, pushing against the insides of my skull. I screamed in pain as I felt my brain tissue begin to bruise. I fell to my knees, grasping my head, screaming for all that I was worth. Come with me, and it will stop – give in, and come to us – it will be much easier, for me and for you. I tried to resist, but the pain was too great. Stop it! I shouted in my mind. I will join you!

Immediately, the pain vanished, and there were no lingering aches. When I looked up, I found myself still floating above the planet, ascending very slowly. I looked up, and above me, I could barely make out through the green sky the vague outline of the slug-thing that was Psy. _Yes... come to us! I realized at this point that there was no hope of resisting him, and I gave in. You don't want to resist, Jakken. You know it is true; look deep inside yourself_.

"Don't." I was suddenly shoved aside by the black silhouette from before as he shot up again towards Psy, sword outstretched before him.

_No!_ I felt Psy scream in my mind. _I will kill him before I let you take him back!_ Good friends don't kill one another, I thought. Before Psy could respond, a shriek of pain reverberated in my mind, and I felt Psy's presence vanish. I saw the silhouette stab the body of Psy, and black flame spread across his body. The slug-thing shuddered, then shot off into the distance, heading away from the planet.

Then I began to fall.

### 33

" _Andrew Buckland Gale? He vanished long ago, when his parents died. Maybe he murdered them – both of his parents did appear to have been tortured to death. Honestly, though, we can't really blame the kid – he did us a great service in offing his parents. Just for that, I think, we can leave him be."_

~Inspector Joseph LaMont, in an informal interview looking back on his career

I screamed as I fell directly downwards, back towards the ground. I closed my eyes, telling myself that I was imagining things. I opened them again seconds later, to find that I was still falling. I was very high up.

Just as I thought all hope was lost, I felt someone catch me. Turning my head, I found myself in the arms of the green-cloaked man, closer to him than I ever had been before. His gaze burned into mine, and his eyes blazed with anger. I looked away. He slowly floated to ground, taking what felt like an eternity. When he landed in the middle of the clearing, he roughly dumped me to the ground. "Go. Psy will not return. Just survive until they come."

Getting to my feet, I turned on him angrily. "Just survive until they come? When everything seems to be conspiring to kill me? I don't even know who 'they' are! Oh, sure, very easy! I'll just somehow shield my mind from the mind-controlling floating slugs, become invincible so that mutant humans can't eat me, and maybe I'll learn to read other people's minds so I know whether or not they want to kill me! No problem!"

The man just stood there, motionless. After a moment, he spoke. All he said was, "I hope that the Witness is more intelligent than you are." Then he vanished, leaving me with nothing to direct my anger at. I screamed and ran at the nearest wall of trees, kicking and hitting it until my knuckles bled. Finally drained, I sat down on the ground and cried for the first time in a long while. I had just had Ezekiel wrenched away from me a second time, and come closer to death than I ever had before. My mind was a mess.

I took several deep breaths to calm myself, then shakily got to my feet. I slowly walked back up the hill, towards where Michaela and Mikhail were waiting. How long had Psy been in control of my mind? Had that all happened in an instant, or had I really been floating for a day? I broke into a run, ignoring the cries of pain from all of my limbs.

I quickly reached the ridiculously sloping hill and ran onto it, not slowing down at all. My momentum carried me surprisingly far, and as I began to slip, I moved towards the sides and slid my fingers into nearly imperceptible gaps in the trunks of the trees.

Or was it fungus? I shuddered at the thought of what I was actually touching, and kept going. I wondered why the planet still looked the way Psy wanted us too, and why it had not reverted to its real state. I decided not to question it too heavily.

I reached the narrowing of the path shortly after I reached the top of the hill, turned sideways when I needed to, and burst out of the trees. Michaela and Mikhail were sitting on the ground outside, talking. They looked up at me as I stood in front of them, panting.

Michaela leapt to her feet. "Are you okay? You're bleeding!" Mikhail stood up more slowly.

I nodded. "I'm fine. I just... took a fall. The path got rather steep." I took several deep breaths and shook my head to clear it. Once I could think clearly, I turned to Michaela. "How long was I in there for?"

She shrugged. "Twenty, thirty minutes, tops? Not too long." I breathed a sigh of relief. My dreams hadn't been in real-time.

"What did you find?" asked Mikhail.

I shook my head. "Nothing much. It was a dead end." I didn't want to go back there.

They both sighed in disappointment. "Alright. Let's keep searching, then." We continued walking along the wall of trees for another hour or so, then turned around and headed back to camp.

***

After we returned, we ate a small dinner, and then all went to sleep. Mikhail volunteered to take the first watch. Everyone else fell asleep in a few minutes, but I couldn't – I was too uneasy. I gave up after a while, and sat up. Mikhail turned to look at me. He was standing, facing the entrance. I stood up and walked over to him.

"Can't sleep, eh?"

I nodded. Psy's attacks on me were still weighing heavily on my mind, and I knew that I was more vulnerable in my sleep. The green-cloaked man had said that Psy would not return, but I was still too upset with him to really trust him.

Mikhail and I stood in silence for about half an hour. Finally, I summoned up the courage to ask him about his people. I was curious. "Mikhail?"

He turned to me. "Yes?"

"Why did the Terran Home Rule erase the records of your people?"

He smiled sadly. "Who knows but the Home Rule themselves? Perhaps they wanted to erase the cruelties that they inflicted on us, or consolidate their own power by eliminating any evidence that they were ever on the verge of defeat." He shrugged. "We don't question it, we just live with it. In the past lies stagnation – the only way to live is forward."

We passed a few more minutes in silence, then something occurred to me. The Tyrrhish Nomads had expanded beyond the Sol System before the Home Rule had – perhaps they had encountered some sentient alien species, like the ones that Psy had alluded to!

I asked him. "Did your people ever encounter any aliens? Not like the animals that we found, but intelligent ones?"

Mikhail regarded me with solemn eyes. He didn't respond for a moment. "No. We found only what you found; nothing more." His eyes dared me to challenge him. Slightly frightened, I lowered my head. I hadn't meant to anger him.

He put his hand around my shoulder. "You seem interested in my people. Do you want to know more about us? I'd be happy to tell you." I raised my head and saw him smile, his challenge gone. "Not many people ask me about the Tyrrh."

"I would, if you're willing to."

He removed his arm. "I already said I was. Let's see, where should I start?" I spent the rest of his watch listening to him talk about the stories, myths, and traditions of the Tyrrhish Nomads. By the time Mikhail's shift was over, and he had woken Michaela for her shift, I was exhausted. I fell asleep almost immediately.

***

The silence awoke me. I sat straight up and looked around. The sound of the sentry's pacing, the wind blowing through the trees; everything had stopped. I stood up, and I noticed that there was no one keeping watch. Looking at the bodies, I found that both Stephen and Vincent were missing. I considered waking Michaela or Mikhail, but decided to let everyone sleep.

I knelt down to look at the ground, near the end of our camp that was farthest from the entrance. Two pairs of faint footsteps were present in the dirt, leading down deeper into the forest. I hesitated, then ran down the path, following the footsteps.

The path sloped downwards relatively steeply, but not steeply enough that I was slipping down it. As I ran down, it began to curve to the right, first slightly, but then sharply. The trees on either side began to close in on me, until I could barely fit through them facing forwards.

It was then that I realized that I couldn't hear anything. Not my own breathing, not the sound of my footsteps, not the sound of my clothing brushing against the trees. It was completely silent. I shook my head, and pushed those thoughts out of my head. They weren't important.

I thought I saw something move far ahead of me. I slowed to a walk, peering intently at a dark blotch in front of me. I was so focused on whatever it was that I didn't pay any attention to the path in front of me. I stepped forward with my right foot, and it failed to reach ground. I looked down in a panic, and saw a hole about a meter long in front of me. I yelped in alarm, but I heard nothing. Flailing wildly, my momentum carried me forward into the hole. I stretched my arms and caught the opposite edge of the hole with my hands. The rest of me fell down into the hole, and my weight caused the ground that I was holding onto to collapse, and I fell down into the hole.

It wasn't a particularly long drop – maybe two and a half meters – but it still hurt when I landed. Wincing, I hurriedly stood up and looked around me. I was in some kind of circular pit, about three meters in diameter, surrounded by the tree roots. I quickly moved as far away from all of them as I could. The pit was fairly well lit by the light from Antarct. "Jak!" I heard someone shout behind me.

I whirled around, to see Stephen, held in place by the roots. They were slowly lifting him up, towards the bottom of the tree above him. Looking up at the tree, I saw that there was a cavity of some kind, like a mouth, with sharp points lining it. It was a bright red color, dripping some kind of similarly colored liquid. Stephen's eyes were filled with terror. "Help me!"

I ran to him, ignoring my fear of the roots, and began to pull on the nearest root, attempting to pull him back down to the ground. My efforts had no effect whatsoever. Frantically, I looked around for something that could cut the roots.

I found Vincent instead.

He was standing behind Stephen. As I looked into his eyes, he leapt forward at me, sending me flying into the clear space in the center of the pit. He pinned my arms and legs down, and looked down on me. "Come to rescue your friend? It's too late." He smiled the most twisted smile I had ever seen. His body blocked my view of Stephen, but I heard him begin screaming.

Vincent closed his eyes for a moment, and a true look of happiness cross his face. When he opened his eyes again, they were filled with anger. "I was intending to kill you all one at a time, enjoying your exquisite agonies as I slowly killed each one of you, but it appears that your damnable curiosity is going to alter my plans." He got off of me and grabbed my arms. I kicked out with my legs, my feet slamming into his groin. He let go of me and fell backwards, clutching his nether regions. Stephen's screaming abruptly stopped. I looked up at him, to find his head lodged completely in the tree, and his body motionless. Blood flowed down from the tree's cavity. I clenched my fists in anger, and looked back at Vincent.

He had recovered, and looked at me with pure hate. "Your curiosity was always your fatal flaw, Jak. I knew that one day it was going to get you killed – it seems as if that day has come. And I shall make you die slowly – even more slowly than he whose death you did not let me enjoy!" A mad glint entered his eye, and he charged me.

### 34

" _Very few people understand what a sadist is... I do. I am one. The common cow thinks that a sadist is merely one who enjoys inflicting pain upon others, but that is only half the truth – a true sadist gets it on when we sees others in pain – it is the most sexually stimulating thing in the world."_

~Vinzetti Cellitti Magritto, in his personal diary

I held my ground, not really thinking about what I was doing, as he ran forward at me. At the last moment, I leapt out of the way. Or at least I tried to – I wasn't fast enough. Vincent slammed into my shoulder and grabbed my arm. He spun me around and threw me into the nearest cluster of roots. As soon as they touched me, the roots grabbed hold of me, and began to drag me upwards.

Vincent turned to me, panting. His eyes gleamed. "No, no, this won't do. Much too fast." He took out a knife from his pocket and slashed through all but two of the roots holding me – one around both legs and one around both arms. For good measure, he cleared out the nearby ones as well. I don't think I could have escaped from the two roots holding me even if I hadn't been frozen with terror.

"Much better – two roots pull much more slowly than seven." Vincent grinned madly. "I was going to do the same to Stephen, but you found us remarkably quickly – I didn't even have the chance to set the plant on fire. But with you... I have time. First, I think, your skin will come off. Then your fingers and toes. One eye, an ear. Your tongue – and then I'll shove them all down your throat. Then, I'll play a little tune with your exposed nerve endings, burn them off one by one, until only a few remain. Then the tree will get you, and I shall set it ablaze, so you will both burn and be digested, and the last thing you will ever see will be the inner mouth of the tree." He let out a truly maniacal laugh.

I snapped out of my terror and began to struggle. "Psy, this won't get me to join you!"

Vincent, who had been slowly walking towards me, a sinister, expectant smile on his face, stopped. "Psy?" He laughed. "Psy is gone, boy. His presence has left the area. This is all me." He smiled. "He's the one who let me survive. If you believe anything strongly enough, it becomes reality. He made me believe that I wasn't dead – he entered my mind in my last dying moments, and he revived me. He took hold of my mind, and he carried me out of the ship. I ripped a hole through the hull with my bare hands, with his power at my disposal. I escaped, and then I wandered into the woods. He knew that the ship was going to explode – his enemies wanted it to be so, and he knows everything.

"I hid in the woods for a while. He healed my injuries almost completely, and he had taken control of every part of me, and I was only too happy to let him do so – he promised me satisfaction and eternal life. When I began to get hungry, we dug up Allen's and Allon's corpses, and found Rafael's at the top of a tree. It was my first sampling of human flesh – it's actually not that bad." He laughed.

"And then Psy came for you. I could feel some part of him elsewhere – he took my image and projected it to you. He had incorporated some of me into him, and must have acquired my appetite for pain, for he chose my form to torment you. Then Lord Yttrios came, and drove Psy away from the planet – but not too far. I wandered around for hours, dazed and powerless, after Psy left me, taking most of me with him – everything but my hunger for pain. Adam and Stephen found me then, as I was recovering, and dragged me back to camp. That was too bad – I had been planning on picking you all off one by one from the darkness.

"When I felt Psy return to the planet, but not to my mind, I was hurt beyond words, and as soon as I felt his presence again thrown from the planet, I made my move, taking Stephen away. I was going to practice on him, then take everyone else, saving you for last. Psy wanted you, and I want to cause him as much pain as I can – by taking you away from him in the most terrible way possible."

He began to walk towards me again. "So this is just me, the product of a deranged series of cruel experiments, inflicted on me by my uncaring parents. They never loved me – or each other. They were partners – their marriage was a business deal. Both were millionaires, a result of being in the drug business – Cytokin. Strong stuff.

"Everything that they did was for a gain of some kind. They taught me that kindness is a lie." He stopped walking forward, half a meter away from me, and nodded, his eyes going distant. "They taught me many good lessons. Never to trust, never to love, never to be kind. Always look out for yourself." He laughed sadly. "I took their philosophies to heart, Jak. My entire life has been one path to self-fulfillment and satisfaction – and I have enjoyed it. They instilled in me a love of pain, of power – it gave me the greatest of pleasures, whenever I could see it, pain inflicted on others. I have spent my entire life seeking the perfect pain, the most exquisite deaths.

"They went first, my parents. Both of them. My father died quite well – I hung him from the wrists with a dectafilament, so that the wire would slowly cut through his flesh. I gradually heated the wires, and they sank into his tough skin. Then I dropped him into a knee-high pool of boiling water." A dreamy look entered his eyes. "The screams – I'll never forget the way he screamed." He remained silent for a moment, then shook his head. "Then I injected him with Rythaxin – a chemical he had developed himself, to use for interrogations. A brilliant invention." He smiled happily. "He tested it on me at one point – only a small dose. That was why they raised me. I was a free test subject."

That explained so much.

"The drug takes over the brain, and causes neurons all over your body to fire, sending explosive waves of agony through your body. I gave him ten times what he gave me." Vincent's smile grew into a grin. "He died of pain. It wasn't the wires or the water that got him – it was the Rythaxin. His brain just shut down." He cocked his head. "Then he fell into the boiling water. That finished him for sure.

"My mother tried to escape. She couldn't run for long, though. See, after my father was dead, I had their house, their laboratory, and their secret storehouse. I recoded the house so that only I had access, and then I hunted her down. I spooned out both of her eyes, and served a delicious toast to her – eyeball jam and toasted foot. What a treat." He sighed, and his eyes went cloudy again.

He continued. "Her death was not as pleasing to me. I returned to my house, and I began to kidnap people in the surrounding areas, bringing them into my private testing chambers. I built the most exquisite death and torture chambers on the face of the earth. They were so beautiful..." A tear rolled down his cheek.

"It was a good thing my parents had never registered our house. It was hidden, below the ground, surrounded by sensory displacement fields. That's what kept me going for so long. I extended my life down there. The town of Heurkfortsheer, the closest one to me, gained the reputation of being haunted. No one could figure out where their children went." He giggled. "Of course, adults disappeared, too, and pets – but no one cares about them.

"I developed a drug to allow me to extend my life – I lived down there a hundred years before a freak earthquake forced me to move. I then entered the public eye, as the serial killer Vinzetti Chavez." I blinked. Vinzetti Chavez was a legendary figure, the most elusive and terrifying serial killer ever to walk the planets of the Terran Home Rule. When I was younger, my mother had used the threat of Vinzetti coming after us to get us to obey her. He had never been caught, and twenty years ago, had merely vanished. Everyone assumed that he had died, although odd murders were often still blamed on him.

As I drew my thoughts and attention away from his monologue, I realized that I was halfway between the ground and the tree. Maybe if I distracted him enough, I could die quickly and avoid being tortured.

Vincent went on, pouring out his life story to me. I briefly wondered why he was doing so, but all that I could think of was that he wanted to tell someone – and I just happened to be that someone. "Eventually, I got sick of always being on the run. It gets tiring. I vanished for a few years, then came back with a new identity – Vinzetti Cellitti Magritto – or Vincent Magritto, a security guard by training, from the state of Genova. I worked various jobs, restraining, for the first time in my life, my lust for pain. For sixteen long years I lasted, hardly killing anyone – only those that my job required me to.

"When I heard about the Ambassador expedition, I knew I had to get on the crew – it offered me a group of people with diverse backgrounds, all of whom had a relatively low expectancy of ever returning – and we would be isolated and separated from any real contact with humanity; the perfect place to fulfill my lust and end my life, dying happily. I had become rather famous in Genova for my successful defense of Xathron Laboratories against a rival organization, and I was quickly put forward by the Genovans as a representative for the crew. I was the obvious choice for chief of security, and I got the position, along with a few fellow compatriots to work under me, who thought I was some kind of god. All but Valerius – that's why he had to die."

He must have noticed my shocked expression at this comment, for he smiled cruelly. "Perhaps Psy was right – psychological torture is more effective than physical torture. No, I did not destroy the Diplomat – but I did not stand in the way of its destruction, either. Ivor hacked the computers, using a crude mechanism. I ignored it, with the full knowledge of what he was planning. I just made sure that Valerius was placed on the crew – along with Angela. She was always too intelligent for her own good.

"And Lazarus – he was my work, too. It was a rushed job – I did not have the opportunity to perform my full arsenal of tortures upon him, but I thought that killing him with his own cross was a stroke of genius – his pain at the realization that the symbol of his holy savior was involved in an act of murder caused his spirit to die." He giggled. "It's too bad Antiochus didn't give me a go at him – but he did himself in wonderfully. Brilliantly executed, and probably painful too. I only wish I had been able to see the act itself, before he shut off the cameras. My recipe was rather good though, don't you think? I added it myself, before anyone else saw the pot." I began to shake with rage.

He smiled. "And do you know what the best part is? I could always shift the blame away from myself – a perk of being in charge of security. Anakos and al-Jamullah, those damn scientists, died easily, and far too quickly to alleviate my lust for any length of time. Ezekiel, on the other hand, was a masterpiece, despite the extremely short time I had to do it – and doctored security footage made it easy to pin it on Korzos and take power for myself."

I couldn't contain myself any longer. I thrashed around wildly and screamed in anger. I pulled at the root binding my arms together, and it snapped. I was too upset and furious to be surprised at this, or at the root holding my legs snapping. Vincent was smiling wickedly, and moving his hand around his groin. "Coming to get me, Jak?"

I did. I ran at him, punching and kicking wildly. At first, he held his own against me, but my fury soon overcame him. He was pushed further and further back, across the clear space, and into the roots. Real fear entered his eyes, and I reveled in it. "Die, you fucking goddamn bastard." I slammed my hand, knuckles first, into his eyes, and he shrieked in pain, collapsing on the ground. I leapt into the air and landed on his chest. I felt his ribs and lungs give way, and his screams and movements suddenly stopped. Blood began to soak through his uniform.

I don't know how long I mutilated his body for, but I eventually stopped and stepped back, my anger having abated. I felt curiously content now, as if all of the frustration, despair, and anger I had been experiencing on this voyage had all left me as I demolished Vincent.

I stood there, standing over his body, and I summoned up the hate to perform one last act upon him: I spat on his corpse and turned away.

### 35

" _Reality is relative. Whatever one chooses to believe, if they believe it hard enough, is their reality. One might think that one thing is reality, and another may think the complete opposite, and they both are correct. You under-developed subservient races do not seem capable of understanding this basic concept."_

~Psy, in a conversation with Tracking Unit 12

I looked around the pit, searching for a way back up. After a moment, I decided that my best bet was to climb a root to the surface. After a moment of hesitation, I began to walk towards the most likely candidate, pushing back my fear. I gripped the root with my hands, and began to climb it. The root began to move and twist, trying to wrap itself around me, but I never let it get a hold. Two or three times I had to drop off of it and begin my climb again to stop it from doing so, but I eventually reached the top. I then leapt off of the root and grabbed the edge of the hole, hoping that it wouldn't give way. It didn't. I pulled myself up the rest of the way, back onto the path. I laid there for a moment, breathing heavily.

As I stood up, I realized that I was standing on the wrong side of the path – to get back to the others, I would have to jump across the pit. Sighing, I backed up several meters, then got a running start. I barely managed to leap the pit. My knees collapsed when I hit the other side, sending me flying forwards, but I rolled to a stop a meter and a half or so later.

I walked solemnly back towards the camp, trying to figure out how exactly I was going to explain what had happened. I had come up with nothing as the camp came into sight. There were three figures standing up there, and it looked like they were all talking to each other. I waved my arm, and one of them pointed to me. They ran towards me, and I made out the forms of Mikhail, Michaela, and Adam.

"Jak! What happened to you? Where are Stephen and Vincent?" Michaela sounded terrified, but Mikhail's face was impassive.

"They're... dead." Michaela gasped, and Mikhail lowered his eyes.

"How?"

"Vincent tried to... did... kill Stephen."

Michaela gasped again. "But... why?" Adam asked.

"Vincent was a... sick man. He was enjoying it." I clenched my hands. "He also is responsible for killing the scientists and the priest... and Ezekiel."

Neither of them made a sound for a few moments. "How do you know this?" Michaela asked, her voice quivering slightly.

I looked her in the eye. "He told me as he tried to do to me what he had done to Stephen. I broke free... and killed him." The enormity of what I had done sunk in. I had killed another man. Much to my amazement, I did not regret it. Something inside of me had changed. I did not want to cry, nor was I filled with despair. I had just done with what needed to be done.

"Where are their bodies?" Mikhail spoke.

"Down the path, in a pit. The plants will have eaten them by now. That's how he tried to kill us – he fed us to the plants." I wondered if they would believe me – no one had bought my story about the plants yet.

After a moment, Michaela nodded. "Alright. Okay... I guess we'll just have to go on like we always have." She nodded again, then turned around and walked back to where she had been sleeping before, and sat down. Adam followed and put his arm around her, murmuring in her ear.

Mikhail continued to stand next to me. "So Vincent was killing for the sake of the kill?"

"Sort of – he was killing for the sake of the pain." I took a deep breath. "I didn't want to tell Michaela this – but he was Vinzetti Chavez."

He looked at me. "I should probably know who that is, but I honestly have no idea. I've only been a true member of your society for ten or so years. Sorry."

It hadn't occurred to me that someone would not know who he was. "Never mind. It's not that important." He nodded, and we stood there for a few more minutes.

"Why didn't you wake Fineas up?" I asked. The helmsman was still sleeping.

Mikhail shrugged. "I guess we all assumed he was still out of it. We didn't really discuss it. Michaela was the one who woke up Adam and me – she was supposed to take over after Vincent, but found him gone, along with you and Stephen. We'd only been up for a minute or two when you appeared." He smiled cynically. "This expedition seems to have just been a very bad idea."

I could only nod in agreement. After a few minutes, we both returned to camp and tried to sleep. I don't think anyone other than Fineas could.

***

When it was time for our new day to begin, we all stood up and divided the exploratory shifts for the day. We were running low on both water and potatoes. Mikhail and I were to go out first, and then Michaela and Adam were next. Fineas would stay at the camp.

Mikhail and I set out shortly after we ate a meager breakfast, going in the direction of the plains. More familiar with the area now, we reached the plains in about twenty minutes. We found nothing on the way – there were no piles of potatoes, and the pool of water we had used had dried up.

We kept walking after we arrived, into the mounds scattered across the plains. We saw nothing unusual, and we walked farther in them than anyone else had dared go. The mounds grew taller as we walked forward, but there was nothing out of place.

As we were about to turn around and head back, something caught my eye over the distant mountains. A green swirl of clouds had appeared between the two lowest peaks. I tapped Mikhail's shoulder, and he turned around, his eyes following my pointing finger. He smiled cynically. "I was wondering when the next one would come – we'd better run."

We did so, making it back to camp in record time. Michaela looked cross when we returned so soon with nothing, but dropped all signs of anger at the news of the impending storm. We hurriedly moved what little we had left under the trees, and waited for it to arrive. I noticed that everyone else seemed more cautious of the roots this time.

The storm arrived forty or so minutes later. The howling blocked out all other sounds, and the air pressure dropped. I ended up closing my eyes and trying to sleep, but I did not succeed.

When the storm died down an hour or two – or maybe three – later, we moved everything back outside. Our lunch was even smaller than our breakfast – with the supplies we had left, we would be lucky to be able to eat and drink for another two days. Michaela and Adam set out a few minutes after lunch, half-heartedly swearing that they would not return empty-handed.

Just as they were about to leave our sight, Fineas, who was lying down with his eyes closed, sat up straight. "The cave!" he exclaimed.

Everyone, including the pair about to leave, turned and looked at him. There was a strange look in his eyes, almost as if he was possessed.

"There's a cave on the plains! With water and food, stock full! I knew there was something I needed to tell the captain!" He sounded more cheerful than I had ever heard him. I stared down at him suspiciously.

Michaela knelt down in front of him. "A cave? Where?"

He leapt to his feet. "Come on, I'll show you!" He turned around and took off at a very quick pace. He was out of the shelter in no time.

"Let's go! Don't lose him!" Michaela scooped up the last of the potatoes, hurriedly stuffing them in her pockets, while Mikhail and Adam grabbed the last few remaining water containers. We all hurried after him. As we each squeezed through the entrance, we ran after him, in the direction of the plains. He was barely visible up ahead, and we all tried our best to keep up.

I'm not exactly sure what made us trust him and follow him blindly to the plains, for he clearly was not himself – he hadn't been since the crash. Maybe, as he was one of the ranking officers on the ship, everyone had some built-in drive to listen to him – everyone except for Joseph, Ezekiel, Lazarus, and me had been military men (or women) in some way, even the scientists. Or perhaps it was just that we all knew we were doomed anyway, so really had nothing to lose.

Whatever the reason, we followed him, and soon reached the plains. He did not slow as he crossed the tree line, but kept running, in a perfectly straight line, through the gradually growing mounds. No storm was visible in the distance.

Fineas soon slowed to a walk, giving the rest of us a chance to almost catch up to him. We walked on the plains, mostly in silence (Adam kept muttering about the stupidity of this venture under his breath the whole time), until Fineas shouted something, and began to run again. We all jogged to keep up. By this time, we had ventured further out onto the plains than Mikhail and I had earlier that day. The mounds began to smooth out into hills, until we were in what looked to be the foothills of the mountains. Fineas picked up speed again, and he took off at a full sprint, heading towards a particularly tall hill.

He got there long before us, and skidded to a halt. We reached him a minute later, panting. He pointed excitedly ahead, a strange fire in his eyes. "In here!" He ran forward again, around the hill. We followed at a much slower pace. When we walked around the hill, we saw that a chunk had been taken out of it, and there was indeed a cave in the hillside. Fineas had vanished; he had probably already sprinted down into the cave.

The rest of us followed much more cautiously. The cave was perfectly dry, and had a strange stench to it. We walked down for about a minute, then reached the bottom. There was a decently large cavern there, filled with light from some sort of glowing stones in the roof.

In the center was the promised pool of water. Fineas slurped from it greedily. Around the cavern's edges were various edible fungi from Earth, as well as highly nutritious cave plants that grew on Ulkind.

There were also more potatoes. I had a feeling that we wouldn't be eating those for a while.

Fineas looked up from his drinking. "Welcome, my friends, to your new abode." There was a strange quality to his voice, and I stepped back. I wasn't the only one to notice it.

"Fineas? Are you okay?" Michaela approached him cautiously, her eyes nervous.

He didn't answer. He stood up slowly, and walked to the entrance of the cavern. He turned to look at us, smiled, and kicked the wall to the left of the entrance.

The earth began to rumble and shake, and everyone fell to the ground and dropped what they were carrying. We all jumped back to our feet, but found that the tunnel we had come through was blocked.

"Fineas, what did you do?" Michaela was angry.

Fineas tilted his head and smiled madly. "I am so lonely here – we have never had any real friends. Jak was going to be my first, and you were all to join us in our conglomerate intelligence. You all kept trying to escape, though, and we can't have that."

No one said a word. Fineas' voice no longer bore any resemblance to his own at all – it was Psy, speaking through him. I stood still for a moment, unbelieving – the green-cloaked man had lied! He had told me that Psy wouldn't come back!

"Don't let him take over your mind!" I shouted. Everyone else gave me a strange look, but Fineas looked directly at me.

"The being whose body this once belonged to – Fineas Sparten – has already joined my consciousness. He did long ago – he has been ours since before your ship crashed." My blood chilled. Psy's influence and power were beginning to truly terrify me.

"How did you get back here?" I almost shouted. "You've been driven back twice!"

"You overestimate the power of those who think to 'protect' you, Jak. I was never driven back – they only thought that we were. I am far older than any of them, and more powerful. We can never be denied, and you shall eventually be mine." Fineas turned to look at everyone else, and smiled kindly. "The rest of you shall be added to our collective experience, becoming part of something far greater than yourselves."

"You're a nut, that's what you are," said Adam, and drew his beam pistol. He aimed it at Fineas, and pulled the trigger. A red beam of light shot out from it, going through Fineas' throat. Adam slashed the beam both to the left and right, severing Fineas' head.

His body remained standing as his head fell to the floor. Everyone stared at the body, waiting for it to fell. Its knees finally buckled, and we all sighed in relief. The corpse fell to its knees, bent over... and picked up Fineas' head. It then quickly got back to its feet, cradling the head in its arms.

The head spoke. "Killing him won't do you any good – my bodily servants are legion, and you shall all fall to us eventually, and become mine."

None of could believe our eyes – a decapitated corpse was talking to us. It was impossible.

Then it hit me. "It isn't real! He's playing with your minds! It's an illusion!" I ran forward, straight at Fineas. My legs locked when I was almost there, and I stumbled forward. Fineas stepped back. "It's fake! Don't –" My mouth snapped shut. I couldn't move it.

_Clever boy. I always knew you were brighter than everyone else_. They're smarter than I am! They just don't know about you! _And you only know about me because of your exceptionality_. Which isn't even my fault – you said yourself it was the winds of fate that made me unusual! _Somewhat true – that is not to say that those winds are the only things that make you who you are. You are still a fascinating mind, even without the winds' influence_.

Your friends are strong, Jak. Their minds are disciplined, and they are unafraid. Even with our close proximity, I cannot fully break into their minds while they are conscious. We can make them see what you consider to be not there – but you forget my first lesson, Jak. Reality is relative – if you think and believe enough that something is real, then it is. Unfortunately, now that you have planted doubt in their minds, our projection of Fineas and my disguise of his corpse will become mere illusions. You are very clever, boy, but you shall be ours, one way or another.

To the point, though, while I can influence the thoughts of your friends, we cannot break into their minds completely while they are awake. But I think that they might be getting sleepy...

No! No? I hardly think that you can tell how tired they are. _They're exhausted, and it feels safe in here – it's a perfect place for them to sleep... and once they do, they will fall to us, one by one, until I have taken them in, and their bodies will be but physical shells, the remnants of the passing of independent minds._

_Or you could join us, and for you, I shall leave them all as they are, independent, without our guidance. The choice is up to you._ My body rolled me over, so that I could see everyone else. Little time had passed since I fell down at Fineas' feet, and everyone seemed to be moving in slow motion. Adam's hand was stifling a yawn, and Michaela's eyes were drooping. Mikhail's eyes were closed. _They really are getting sleepy, Jak. You had better make your choice soon – but know that either way, you will be mine. You are merely choosing their state of independence._

I was torn. I was beginning to believe Psy – it seemed I had no real choice. I could join him now, or he would haunt me for the rest of my (likely very short) life, until I was forced to give in. _That's right Jak – come to us. We can give you all you ever wanted_. Everything but freedom! If I could have spat that at him, I would have. _I told you already Jak, we cannot and do not wish to absorb you – you will retain your individuality_. That isn't the same as freedom! _I apologize for your undeveloped mind, that you fail to see how they are one and the same. We shall fix that. Choose quickly, Jak – I do not think that they can stay awake for much longer._

Psy suddenly shrieked, and his presence was forced from my mind. I gasped and scrambled to my feet. In front of me, Fineas' headless corpse lay on the ground, his head about a meter away. I turned around. Everyone was shaking their heads, as if trying to clear them. With a start, I noticed that the supply of food had become some strange kind of flowing fungus, and the pool of water was a sickly green color.

Michaela turned to me. "Jak? What just happened?"

I swallowed. I wasn't sure what to say. "Fineas was... taken over by a psychic alien being named Psy. He's been appearing in my dreams, and trying to do the same to me."

Adam and Michaela looked at me oddly. A look of understanding crossed Mikhail's face, but it vanished in an instant.

"Psy? How do you know what his powers are, or that he even exists, if he was appearing only in your dreams?"

I smiled sadly. "He appeared to me when I was awake, too. He showed me an image of Vincent – that night I had the 'headache' was the night I saw the fake Vincent. Psy used his mind powers to keep you all asleep during that exchange. He also tried to seduce me that time when I went alone between the gap in the trees – that's what I looked so bruised up. I had a few... incidents.

"Was he controlling Vincent then?"

I started to shake my head, then stopped. I decided that it would be easier for them if they believed that Vincent had been under Psy's control. I nodded instead.

Everyone looked thoughtful. "You said he had been driven out twice before?" Adam asked. I nodded. "How did he get driven out? Did the same thing just happen to him to make the... illusion... of Fineas and the rest of the contents of this cavern vanish?"

I hesitated. I wasn't sure I wanted to tell them about the green-cloaked man. I felt safe mentioning the silhouette, though. "A strange black figure drove off the two incarnations of Psy that I encountered. He did not appear this time though – maybe he attacked the real body of Psy."

"Why does he want you?" Mikhail's voice was quiet. He looked at me with a strange intensity in his eyes.

"He said he liked something about my mind, and that 'winds of fate' surrounded it."

Mikhail nodded thoughtfully, while Adam and Michaela looked at me like I was slightly deranged. I must have sounded crazy.

After a few minutes, Adam spoke. "So, what do we do now?" We all looked around, and Michaela laughed. "Apparently the stones in front of the exit were just an illusion too." She pointed behind me. I turned around, and saw that the tunnel to the surface had been re-opened. We all rushed out of the cave, leaving Fineas' corpse behind.

The world above was not the same as the one we had been stuck on. I instantly recognized the world that I had seen a glimpse of as I had floated high above the planet's surface, with grey dirt and mushrooms all over the surface – although there were no mushrooms in sight right now.

"What the hell happened?" asked Adam, his voice shaking slightly.

"My guess would be that the whole world we perceived was an illusion created by Psy – am I right?" Mikhail looked directly at me.

I nodded. "I saw the real world, like this, once before."

"Why didn't you tell us about him?" Michaela asked. "We could have helped you."

I shrugged. "Maybe, maybe not. I wasn't sure if he was real myself for a while." It was only a half-lie. "Plus, I didn't think you would believe me." That was the truth.

Adam smiled. "He's probably right. Leave him be – he's had a rough time."

Silence reigned for several minutes as we all took in the landscape before us. Looking up at the sky, I noticed that the clouds were now grey, not green. Squinting at a small gap in the clouds, I caught a glimpse of a starry sky. As I stared up at it, I saw something move across it: a distant, glowing, translucent, blue slug. I mentally bid Psy farewell, and he soon vanished from my sight. I hoped that he never came back to haunt me.

Moments later, a streak of light crossed the field of stars, then came back and stayed in the center of the gap, growing larger. I blinked. "Hey – there's something up there." I pointed.

We all looked at it as the light streaked towards us. Gradually, we began to hear a humming sound, then a deep rumble.

Michaela's mouth hung open. "Is... is that a ship?"

As it got closer, I began to wonder that myself. A silvery, shining object was moving at incredible speed directly towards where we stood, followed by a bright white trail. We watched it in silence as it slowed, then passed through the clouds, descending slowly towards us.

It was a ship. Light glinted off of its hull, which was made of an impossibly shiny metal, with no hint of any dirt or tarnishing on its surface. It looked like a strange dolphin, with a cylinder at the end instead of a flipper, and was about ten times the size of one of our landing crafts, but still smaller than the Ambassador. It had been coming at us with the "nose" pointed towards us, but as it got very close, it began to level off, until the nose was pointing at the horizon. It slowly descended, its belly facing the ground, until it landed with a soft thud on the grey dirt on top of the hill directly in front of us.

"That ship... it's not human." Adam sounded terrified. I was, too, but I couldn't bring myself to move – that damned Servidos curiosity again.

As we watched, the outline of a rectangular door appeared in the flawless hull of the ship. Bright light emanated from the cracks, growing brighter and brighter, until there was a rectangle of light facing us. Then abruptly, it went dark, revealing a dark hole leading inside.

Something stepped out of the opening and onto the dirt.

"Greetings," a deep male voice said in clear English.

### 36

" _What is fate but the driving force of all of existence? It is a fallacy to view fate as an omnipotent goddess, sitting upon some ancient throne, dictating the lives of those who labor below her. Fate is not a single being, nor is it many beings; fate is a force, as real as any laws of physics or of existence that have ever been conceived, if not more so. Fate is what ties us all together, every living and unliving thing, in the great race to the end of time, when all things shall be laid before our eyes and seen for what they truly are."_

~Kalkkis, Ayakk Seer, in his Musings

It was a human. Or at least, it looked like a human. He wore a snappy, dark teal uniform, looking much like what officers on earth would wear. He had short brown hair and beautiful blue eyes.

We were all speechless, and said nothing for several minutes. He raised an eyebrow. "Has the snarx got your voiceboxes?"

Michaela cleared her throat. "How... did you find us? We sent no transmissions back to Earth."

"Earth?" The man looked puzzled. "What is Earth?"

We all stared at him. "The homeworld of the human race? The place that we all came from?"

"Human race?" He tilted his head. "Am I to assume then that you are... humans?"

"Are you not?" Michaela sounded confused.

The man shook his head. "I am sorry, but I cannot say that I am. I am a Shortel." He peered closely at us. "You are... humans, you say?"

We all nodded.

He walked closer to us, and his eyes carefully inspected each of us. After a few awkward moments, he smiled. "You all appear to be Ayudari!" His face broke out in a grin. "Maybe a lost race! So there are really five of us!"

We stared at him blankly. He laughed. "My apologies. You appear to be members of a race that we had not yet discovered. We followed strong psychic signals here – we are tracking a being called Psy, as part of a project to monitor him. Perhaps you have encountered him?"

We all looked at him. I shivered. He must have noticed something in our eyes, for he frowned. "I see that you have. I am sorry that your encounter with him seems to have been so... unpleasant." He looked around. "Where is your ship? Or do you live here?"

Adam finally spoke. "Our ship was... destroyed. We have no means of returning home."

"My deepest apologies." He hesitated. "Do you wish to return? If you can give us coordinates or a general area, we could find your home world and bring you back."

We all looked at each other. We had no better options.

Michaela shrugged. "If it's not too much trouble... then we'll accept your offer."

The man nodded. "Follow me." He turned and walked back into the ship. We hesitated an instant, then filed in after him.

We were in a brightly lit corridor. I didn't know where the light was coming from – it seemed to come from all around us. We walked in silence, until we reached a room that resembled the bridge of our ship. There were four other "Shortel" in the room. They all turned to look at us, and smiled.

Our guide bowed. "Captain Hygarth, these people are the origins of the life signals we picked up – other than the Tigyrhuns and the Gorrixyt plants." Gorrixyt plants? I assumed that those were the trees. Or, I supposed, the fungus. I had no idea about what Tigyrhuns were, but the name reminded me of tigers.

The captain nodded. "Greetings. What race are you?" He had a strange accent.

Michaela spoke. "We are humans, sir." She sounded just as bewildered at this turn of events as I was – did we encounter some lost colony of humans? Or were these just aliens who happened to look exactly like humans and speak English?

The captain's eyes widened. "Humans?" He said the word in an odd way – I can't really describe it, but it was odd. "Not Elfviyat? Dassens? Ayakk? Or Shortel, like us?"

Michaela shook her head. The captain broke out into a grin. "Then it seems as if we have stumbled across one of our lost races! And a fellow race of Ayudari!" There was that word again – Ayudari. I had no clue as to what it meant.

My curiosity got the better of me. "Sir, what are Ayudari?" Michaela and Adam both looked at me, surprised that I had spoken. I chose to ignore their astonished stares.

"Ayudari is a term used to describe four – no, now five – races that all appear to be exactly the same, with only minor genetic differences. Made by Ayudarin, in her precise image."

"Ayudarin?" Adam asked.

The captain sighed. "It seems as if you have a lot to learn. You have encountered, it seems, your first members of Juxtani civilization – the largest conglomerate of races, peoples, and civilizations in all of known Juxtani Space. It will all become clear soon."

The man – or should I call him "the Shortel?" – who had led us here spoke then. "Captain, they wish to be returned to their home."

He nodded. "Fair enough. I didn't think this was your home – it is a rather inhospitable planet. It's a miracle that you survived down there. Unless..." he scrutinized us. "Did food and drink start mysteriously appearing from nowhere?"

We all nodded.

"Ah. I see. Well, I hate to tell you this, but none of it was really completely real. There was some substance of some kind, that Psy altered your perception of, to make it more... palatable. Whatever he made you eat probably was not very nutritious.

"As such, you will need to eat something real soon. After we're done here, you should report to our dietician and see what foods can be made for you."

We all nodded. Michaela pursed her lips. "May I ask a question?"

The captain nodded. "Of course."

"If... we aren't the same race, and are from different cultures... how did you learn to speak English?"

The captain frowned. "English? We are not speaking... English. Is that what you call this language?"

She nodded.

"Interesting. We call it Kordic, after the Korrikan race. It is the language of all of Juxtani space, as decreed by the unifier Chivak Warbringer so many dateyns ago."

We stared at him blankly again. "A what?"

"A dateyn? It is the unit of time we use to measure the passage of long periods."

"You mean... like a year?" Adam sounded curious now, and not at all nervous. These Shortel obviously meant us no harm.

"Sort of, but dateyns are not dependent on orbital periods. Tell me, do you have any memory of Juxtani Space anywhere within your race?"

"Not that we know of," Michaela said.

"So after the Rise of K'Shatryan – the time when Juxtani Space was broken and civilizations were lost – you must have degenerated and then re-evolved into what you were before! And re-evolved to have Kordic – a slightly different form of it, perhaps, but at its heart still Kordic – develop! Fantastic!" We were all too tired to share his joy and enthusiasm. He noticed this and smiled. "It looks like you need rest. Thyrak!"

The man who had guided us here stood up straight.

"Show our guests to the dietician, then give them a place in the spare rooms to rest." He paused. "We're going to have to make a stop on the way, you should know. We had an unfortunate encounter with Psy in the space above this planet, and one of our crewmembers was struck down with madness before we drove him off. We have to return to Port Ryfe to drop him off, and report our findings. Our observational shift is almost over anyway." He took a breath. "Unfortunately, we are also obligated by duty to report you to authorities. It might be a bit before you can return home, but we'll do our best to speed up the process."

Michaela nodded. "I understand. We can manage." She smiled wryly. "We weren't expecting to get home at all – a longer wait won't do us any harm."

The captain smiled. "Very well then. Do know that your presence will likely cause a stir throughout all of Juxtani Space – and will almost certainly result in us opening relations with your race."

Michaela nodded again. "Perfectly understandable."

"So we appear to be on the same page – good. Now, may we have the coordinates of your planet, assuming that your coordinates are somewhat similar to ours?"

Michaela shook her head. "Sorry, captain. That information will only be revealed when it needs to be." I was surprised that she even had the coordinates.

The captain nodded his head and smiled. "Very well. I can't argue with that." He cleared his throat. "I've detained you long enough. Thyrak – take them to the dietician."

Thyrak saluted, and gestured for us to follow him. He led us down a few curving corridors, until we reached a small room at what I thought was the back of the ship. The dietician was a very nice female Shortel. She took a sample of each of our skin cells, put them in a machine of some kind, and then spent a minute or so looking at the results. She then hurriedly prepared some kind of sludge – she apologized, and said that she would come up with something more appetizing once she had a better understanding of our metabolisms. The sludge actually tasted rather good. When we were done eating, Thyrak then led us all to separate rooms. I fell asleep almost instantly.

***

I was floating in a field of stars. Fear gripped my mind as I thought that I was again under Psy's influence, and I panicked. I felt a hand my shoulder, and I stopped moving. I slowly turned around.

The green-cloaked man removed his hand and looked at me. "You have survived. That is good." I wondered why he was invading my dreams. "My servant Yttrios did as he was bid, I take it?"

I assumed that that was the black silhouette. I nodded.

"Then all is well. Psy has been driven back – for now. Do not be too confident, though. Psy will return. He does not give up easily." I felt a note of pity in his voice. Yes, I felt it. "He will hound you for the rest of your life. We will try to keep him from your planet, now that we know where you are from. We will also end his influence there – he has been monitoring your planet for some time. It is entirely possible that he is the one responsible for your race's devolution and subsequent re-evolution, through his manipulation of psychic patterns. It is a crime that he did not report the planet to Juxtani Civilization – although he is, like me, separate from it. Be on the lookout, Jak."

"Why did you lie to me about Psy being gone?" I asked him, surprising myself at my boldness.

"Nothing is perfect, Jak. We are not as strong, nor all-knowing, as we may appear. Psy is a being of immense age, power and experience. Though he may act like a child at times, it is important to remember that he is not. He is the greatest manipulator of all time – what Psy wants, he almost always gets. You are the first real exception. He will not give up on you."

Another question entered my mind. "Why do you all think I'm so important?"

A chill entered the air. "That does not concern you... yet. Do not ask again." I remained silent for a moment.

"What was all that the captain was talking about? What is 'Juxtani Space?' What did he mean about us devolving?"

"Assuming I know what he was talking about, which I believe I do, although I did not hear the conversation, is that your race was once part of Juxtani Civilization. When K'Shatryan rose, ages ago, most of Juxtani Civilization became separated, and entire races and civilizations were lost. Your race was one of those lost, and instead of becoming an independent society, you degenerated somehow, but then re-evolved into your previous forms, complete with an ability to speak Kordic."

"But what about the fossil records?" I exclaimed. "They don't support what you're saying!"

"It is irrelevant what the fossils records say, Jak. I tell you truth. I cannot linger long here. It is exceedingly important that you survive, and return to your Earth. Do you understand?"

I nodded.

"Very good. Now, go, and fulfill your destiny." And he was gone without another word.

_The Official Crew of the Ambassador_ (Name, Country, Planet)

Captain:

-Jeremiah E. Korzos (Namibia, Earth)

First Mate:

-Sir Henry J. Mather (America, Earth)

Helmsman:

-Fineas Sparten (Egypt, Earth)

Commando:15

-Menthus Crydgar (Baja, Earth)

Chief of Security:

-Vincent Cellitti Magritto (Genova, Earth)

Security Staff:

-Scipio Deredus (No Official Affiliation, Rumano, Earth)

-Valerius Publiatys (No Official Affiliation, Sicilia, Earth)

-Cato Sireni (No Official Affiliation, Napolo, Earth)

-Claudius Appia (No Official Affiliation, Venicia, Earth)

Engineer:

-Matthias Newson (England, Earth)

Assisant Engineer:

-Methuselah of Enoch (Enoch, Newgarden)

Assistant Engineer and Physicist:

-Daniel Fetherkap (Eden, Eden)

Environmental Officers:

-Stephen Krafting (Miridian, New Dominica)

-Allon Rezzat Lazu (Indo-Australian Confederacy, Earth)

Environmental Staff:

-Allen Kahyyru Rasjane (Balladia, Ulkind)

-Fullen Khangrat (Mongolian Republic, Earth)

-Caleb Halfmoon (Zaimbabswana, Earth)

-Darien Lordhall (Wyrland, Adenia)

Cook:

-Joseph Antiochus (Lithestatvia, Earth)

Cook's Assistant:

-Ezekiel Yevon (No Official Affiliation, Ysrayel, Earth)

Physician:

-Gerald Forgeson (The Yegev, New Testament)

Crew Officers:

-Rafael Donnar (Kazk, Earth)

-Nemhet Ahuja (Afganisten, Earth)

-Peter Robos (Corgath, New Babylon)

-Daniel Ironton (Zeelind, New Babylon)

-Michaela Jonson (Jorland, Ulkind)

Crew Hands:

\- Ivoranov Karazkevitch Karonov (Ryussa, Earth)

-Adam Sansson (Ireland, Earth)

-Mikhail Nikkelei (Akroli, Pallas)

-Daniel Oldman (Kingdom of Antarctica, Earth)

-Jeen Xianqing (China, Earth)

-Angela Lorenos (Dorlash, Adenia)

-Aleks Vesselheff (Dutchland, Earth)

-Fetiz Calepernas (Mejica, Earth)

-Karl Greyson (Chercher, New Dominica)

-Abdul Yevash (Moroccan Empire, Earth)

-Timon Felzmad (Madagascar, Earth)

-Jonathan Terr (Sepra, Delos)

-Raheed Pesanamar (Indya, Earth)

-Seamus Drood (Keltas, Gallica)

-Makar Cuzcas (Peruvia, Earth)

-Lukas Fiefsson (Lordian, Nordica)

-Kroiso Norroika (Grecia, Earth)

-Mordred von Rattelstein (Darkytt, Siria)

-Ryan Donnelkan (Volvet, New Gibraltar)

-Kyle Jon-Derricks (United Federation of South America, Earth)

Priest:

-Lazarus Lanoné (Canadia, Earth)

###

More Books by Z. M. Wilmot

The Jakken Trilogy

The Loneliness of Stars

The Light of Civilization

The Libel of Blood

Other Books

Dark Aeons

Z. M. Wilmot on the Internet

Twitter: <https://twitter.com/#!/ZMWilmot>

Facebook: <https://www.facebook.com/ZMWilmot>

Website: <http://zmwilmot.com/>

Cover image from NASA's Picture of the Day Archive.

Novel edited by Noa Karr.
