A gibbous moon hung over the horizon, casting its light over a sea of clouds at peace, as far as the eye could follow. Far above, inverted mountaintops hung down from heights unseen, faces of stone lined by the cold glare; stars dotted the sky, among red-blue mists. Lost in the vastness, a dot sailed across the clouds. Neither submarine nor rocketship, the small vessel split the white foam as it passed, a row of razor-sharp fins along the keel showing every time it crested a wave, only to plunge into the next one a moment later. If one could stand close enough to the bridge windows, they might have heard a high-pitched voice, firm yet gentle, speaking distantly.
"Aether: the celestial ocean. These are the voyages of the dream-rider Spirit Walk. Its forever mission: to befriend more cool people and have a blast; to poke at corners no-one noticed before." Then, as loud purring was the only answer, "Isn't that right, kitty?"
Presently the ship's nose started to rise, until it was altogether above the cloud cover. Ripples of light came spinning out of nowhere to wash over its hull, a translucent tunnel that swirled and shimmered. The vessel surged forward, as if drawn into it by some new force, then both vanished in a flash, leaving behind nothing more than air bubbles. Distant thunder rumbled moments later.
Whitewater, a few weeks earlier.
A crowd walked the docks at midday, merry chatter mixing with music from barrel organs and the shouts of street vendors peddling their wares. Heat rose from the ground along with barbecue smoke; wherever there was room, handfuls of tables under an umbrella awaited patrons. In the background, brown brick buildings squatted heavily, and from behind them rose smokestacks. Farther out, the rising ground turned into a crescent-shaped slope dotted with small villas; varnished walls alternated with bright red rooftops. In the opposite direction, fluffy clouds lapped at the quay, among ships of all shapes and sizes. Across a channel, a smaller horn covered in greenery rose from the sea, completing the island. Overhead, the sky was bright and clear, but for the ghosts of inverted mountains and a huge moon.
Suddenly, a commotion. The din of metal scraping and tearing echoes from inside a warehouse near the docks. Terrified workers burst into the open, chased by puffs of dust. The last few close and barricade the doors. That helps little: moments later they start bulging outward, only to fall over noisily. Smoke pours out, further obscuring the air. A large shape moves in the fog. It bumps into a stack of barrels that clatter to the ground and roll away. Then it emerges in plain sight, and people scream anew.
It had a human-like appearance, if humans were made of metal assembled into geometric shapes, and towered over the crowd, two heads taller than most people now running. It ignored them, walking around ponderously, first without aim, then more determined, as if looking for a particular ship. Bells rang; a dozen men and women in uniform turned the corner, and immediately started shooting pistols and rifles. The thing retaliated with a jet of flame from the palm of its hand, that swept over the pavement to make a blazing wall. From the back of a truck, a machine gun opened up, making the iron giant stagger. It crashed backwards into a cluster of tables vacated by their occupants. As no other cover was apparent, it finally turned to face the sea, and with a loud pop jumped into the air, trailing steam. At the top of the arc, miniature stars lit up on its hands and feet, and it rocketed away over the waves.
Captain's log, the 3rd of Redden 530 D.E. We've been hired to investigate a series of incidents along the Azure Circle, that hint at a new hostile power making inroads in the area. Or so our prospective employers say. Council authorities are suspiciously tight-lipped about the whole story. Which of course only makes us more curious.
For a port of such ill repute, Clarkson's Nest sported everything from seedy dive bars to upscale restaurants. This particular tavern was somewhere in-between, a gloomy basement with low ceiling, a massive bar of polished wood to one side, and tables tucked into every corner. It smelled relatively clean; discreet musical notes coming from somewhere did little to cover the voices conversing quietly. Unusually for the area, most patrons sported at least animal ears and tails, if not pointy muzzles and fur. Only a couple were baseline human. One of them, an aging woman in brown and beige robes, gray hair neatly rolled up into a bun, held a protective hand over the arm of her companion: a wolf girl, barely out of her teenage years, whose ruddy face stood against airy off-white clothes. Both turned to look as the door opened.
The people who walked in were clearly a crew, despite differences. First came a tall anthropomorphic doe, bending down to enter. Her naval skirt suit sported colorful beadwork that contrasted with carefully tied brown hair. Next was a humanoid wolf, shorter than her yet muscular. Metal gleamed under his longcoat as he stepped forward to survey the room, ears swiveling. A young human with Asian traits followed, in blue slacks and a matching jacket with brass buttons. Last came a very large housecat, in a cape and hat the color of the night sky, reminiscent of a train conductor's uniform. His nose took in the disturbed air before green eyes focused on the two women, and he padded towards their table, companions in tow.
"You must be Captain Nadie," the older woman said, looking up at the doe. "Commander Renard of Sheridan Station speaks highly of you."
"He made commander, then? We'll have to send our congratulations. May we sit?"
As the woman nodded, the wolf pulled over another nearby table. "Two light beers, tea, and milk," he told the serving maid that had appeared next to them.
"Beer for us too," confirmed the woman. "We have business to discuss."
"I suppose introductions can wait," quipped the captain. "What can we do for you?"
"It's a long story, and we're not clear on the details yet ourselves. We can tell you more once we reach Whitewater."
"Wait. I think there was a miscommunication. We don't take passengers. You give us the information you have, and we take it from there."
"Our contact in Whitewater knows more," the robed woman insisted, "and won't trust anyone else."
"Please," added the wolf girl. "It's not safe for us here anymore."
The young man watched them both carefully before half-stating, "You're farmers."
"What makes you say that?" asked the woman. She examined him carefully.
"Yes, we are," interjected her companion. "Is that a problem, Mr...?"
"Mǎi Niǎo Nóng," he said, extending a hand. The girl shook it gingerly. "Lucia."
"No problem at all," the captain said quickly. Wolf and cat nodded. "Very well, we'll bite. But it's going to cost you extra. Ten thousand quarter shares, up front."
"Ten thousand?!" The girl forced her voice down. "We could book first-class tickets on the Regina Maria for that money. Both ways!"
The cat smirked. "Sure, if the Regina Maria ever sailed within a league of Clarkson's Nest."
"And you are...?" asked the older woman, eyeing him in surprise.
"Name's Claude. Lieutenant Claude LeChat, if you insist."
She nodded in turn. "Call me Benita. Benita Lopez Arriola. Listen, Captain. We don't have such a sum on us. But I can promise you two thousand now, and another fifteen thousand when we reach Whitewater."
The wolf whistled quietly.
"What do you say, Sand?" asked the captain. "We have a spare cabin. That kind of money could pay for some nice upgrades, too."
He grunted. "You're my Alpha, Kantuck. I trust your judgment. Welcome aboard, ladies."
"Let's drink to that," Benita concluded. "Beer's getting warm."
The waxing moon glowed brightly over a roiling sea of clouds. On the horizon, stars blinked. Much closer, countless fireflies danced around a crescent made of rock, partly submerged into the endless white. Some distance away, ripples of light came spinning out of nowhere. From this tunnel emerged a small vessel, shedding speed as the aether settled down around it. On its command bridge, four people watched eagerly.
"Transfer complete, Captain," announced Claude. He adjusted the ship's wheel and pulled at a lever while looking from the windows to his gauges and back. "We're in visual range of Whitewater. Your calculations were spot-on, Ensign Mǎi."
"Thank you, teacher," the young human answered graciously. He squinted at the sensor screen. "Kind of crowded out there today, isn't it?"
Without a word, Kantuck walked over to a corner of the bridge, hooves clacking on the deck plates, and leaned over the rangefinder. "I've never seen such a queue to enter port before. What in the Dream is happening."
Seated at the engineering station, Sand was already flipping switches with one hand, keeping the other cupped over his earpiece. "The port is closed. Apparently there's been another incident."
"Some incident. Get us in line, Monsieur LeChat. I'll go let our passengers know."
"I heard, Captain," Benita's voice came from the chart room. "I would be very grateful if you'd allow me access to your wireless long enough to place a call."
"Certainly." The doe walked back from the door to make room for the older woman.
"You're very kind," the latter said. She admired a section of the engineering console that looked much newer than the rest. "Is that a Layton? Where did you get one?"
"Straight from its inventor," answered the wolf. "Long story. You know how to use it?"
Benita nodded, and he handed over the earpiece. She fiddled with the knobs.
"Operator? Give me 5-3-7-9-1, please." There was a long break. "That's all right, thank you."
"Any luck?" asked Kantuck.
"They're not answering," explained Benita. "Not sure if that's normal."
"Captain." Mǎi pointed at a firefly that grew closer, moving the opposite way from all the others. "It's a patrol boat."
"Must be customs inspection," she mused, "but what are they inspecting if the port is closed?"
"I have a bad feeling about this." said the older woman.
"Me too. Get us out of here!"
Claude spun the wheel and leaned on the throttles, while Sand turned a series of rotary switches.
"Transference power in two minutes," announced the wolf.
"They'll be far behind by then," added the cat.
Thumping noises came from the ladder, followed by Lucia's voice. "Is everything all right?"
"Up here, quickly, and brace for transfer," Kantuck told her. "Claude, status."
"The patrol boat has left the queue and is following us."
"Captain, we're being hailed," called out Sand.
"Don't pick up. Signal an onboard emergency. Mǎi?"
"Fifteen seconds to clear aether. Ten seconds, Captain. Five seconds. Mark!"
"Energize!"
Nobody had eyes for Claude as he slammed his paw into a big red button. Outside the viewports, reality flattened and folded up on itself, turning into a tunnel of light. A high note sang, replacing the thrum of engines through the deck plates as the Spirit Walk surged forward, time and space blending together in a blur.
"You owe us a detailed explanation," Kantuck stated. "It better be a good one."
The little ship's galley could barely accommodate six people at once, so Claude and Mǎi stood outside, heads poking around the doorjamb at different levels.
"Of course, Captain," Benita said stoically. "Please accept my apologies. I didn't expect things to go downhill so quickly."
"We're only trying to find my parents," added Lucia. "You have to believe us."
"Let me guess," Kantuck said dryly, "so does law enforcement."
Outside the viewports, elongated rocks floated where the inverted mountains had been, stretching seemingly forever. Far below, the cloud cover slowly circled the moon, forming spiral arms.
"We had no idea!" the girl insisted. "Don't know why they'd be wanted."
Benita sighed. "It all started about four crops ago. The Staropravni Republic began doing military exercises near Tierra Roja. We appealed to the Council authorities, but they wouldn't do anything because we're technically in Aethereal territory, outside their jurisdiction."
"How convenient," commented Sand. "You tried to defend yourselves?"
"We're not fighters, sir," explained Lucia. "When things became too bad, my parents left to get help. They said something about weapons that could stand up to any army."
"I remember now," intervened Claude. "Republic forces withdrew from the area, citing unprovoked attacks by the Aethereals."
"That was last season, yes," resumed Benita. "Soon after, a fleet from the Council of Nations finally arrived. The admiral asked to talk to my brother and his wife."
"They didn't believe our story," Lucia added. "We've been spied upon ever since."
The older woman nodded. "A few weeks ago we received a message. Luckily it was towards the end of harvest. We went to Clarkson's Nest to sell our produce, and slipped away."
"We don't know where to go from here." Lucia looked ready to cry. "I'm so sorry."
Nobody spoke for a while.
"Ah... I have an idea," Mǎi chimed in. "Captain, you've been documenting these, uh, incidents along the way."
"That's right. Oh! I see where you're going."
"Exactly!" The young human smiled broadly. "If we plot them on a map, accounting for date, we can calculate probable escape routes and see where the lines cross."
"If we can, then so do others," pointed out the wolf.
"That just means there's no time to lose," retorted Kantuck. "Make it so, Ensign."
Kantuck's ears turned every which way as she stepped out of her cabin. The hatch at one end of the corridor stood open, and from the lower deck of the ship came insistent clacking noises mixed with voices. She walked past the ladder leading up to the chart room, stopping to peek up the rungs briefly, then finally down into the hold. Benita and Lucia stood among supplies, clashing with pikes almost as tall as they were. The tight space didn't favor the wolf girl; her swings fell on empty air or else the older woman's weapon. Then the latter counterattacked, hitting her painfully over the thighs and arms. Lucia stood there with tears in her eyes, ears and tail drooping, while Benita made her pike collapse into a short metal tube and leaned on a stack of crates, breathing heavily.
"Am I intruding?" asked the doe. Aunt and niece shook their heads. "If I may... Lucia, your grip is too tight. Hold it lightly. Let the pike dance in your hands."
The girl looked to Benita, who nodded slightly, smiling, and adjusted her stance.
"That's better," Kantuck told her. "Now thrust. Again! Block. Swing low. See?"
From behind her on the ladder came a gruff voice. "Martial artists. Give me a good gun any time. No offense."
"None taken... Chief Sand Wolf, right?" said the older woman. "It's just that guns are too easy, and too lethal. That's the whole point."
"If you say so." He shrugged. "May I? Got to look at the water tanks."
Kantuck moved aside to let him pass. "How's it going up there?"
The wolf grinned. "I think the navigation computer is starting to smoke. Didn't think there were so many different ways to run quickly out of a single port, let alone several. But Mǎi and Claude say they're getting somewhere with the cross-referencing."
"I'll go check up on them. Carry on," she added, to no-one in particular.
She almost ran into Mǎi as the young human climbed down from the chart room, carrying a double armful of rolled-up paper. Claude waddled after him, holding onto yet another bunch.
"You're just in time, Captain, we're essentially done," they said, echoing each other.
The doe's ears perked. "Good work! What's the verdict?"
"We have good news and bad news," quipped the cat.
Mǎi looked from him to Kantuck. "Right! So, it turns out most of those egress routes circle a small region of the Dream. It's not far from here."
"Except," Claude said carefully, "there's nothing on the maps. Place is supposed to be deserted."
"Well then," she concluded, "we'll have to go and see for ourselves soon as we can. You two go get some shut-eye in the mean time."
"Thank you, Captain."
"Thanks, Cap!"
Kantuck smiled and reached for the intercom while cat and human chased each other out.
Moonlight from below refracted endlessly through ice floes drifting overhead, among inverted crags, on the distant backdrop of stars. Closer to the unbroken cloud cover, ripples of light gradually died down around the Spirit Walk. Behind them, the phase vortex collapsed into a point of light and winked out.
"Transfer complete," Sand announced gruffly. He squinted through the wheel spokes at the compass. "Bearing one-two-seven mark three-four-eight at forty knots."
The doe looked up from the navigation console. "Slow ahead, Chief. Let her bleed out excess speed, and level out on the surface."
"Aye-aye. Where are we, anyway?"
She examined her scopes again. "Right on the edge of our target area. Anything on sensors?"
"Not a peep. Looks every bit as empty as the map indicated. We're gonna have to sniff and dig around some."
"Isn't that what we do best?" Kantuck winked. "I'd better go wake up Claude and Mǎi."
"Let me!" Lucia said excitedly, and scampered down the stairs without waiting for an answer. Benita followed more slowly. "I'd better clear the bridge as well, Captain. Thank you for having us."
Human and cat were still buttoning their coats as they climbed from below the deck.
"Morning, Cap. Chief," drawled Claude. He waddled over to the helm and took over.
Mǎi swapped places with Kantuck. "Are we there already?" he asked.
"Indeed! Any idea where to start looking?"
"Hmm." The young human rubbed his chin. "Maybe from a higher altitude? Clouds can hide much even from sensors."
"I don't know..." countered the feline. "That will drain our fuel reserves fast. Let's just prowl around some. Any hideout must have an entrance."
"What if it's below the surface?" asked Sand.
The doe pointed at him. "You may be right. Go secure the hatches just in case."
"Me and my big maw," he complained, but his tail said otherwise as he trotted out. "I mean, aye-aye, Captain."
She couldn't suppress a giggle. "Monsieur LeChat, let's try it your way for now. Half ahead, and turn up the sensors. Ensign Mǎi, make sure we stay around the right spot."
They acknowledged at the same time, and soon the thrum of engines made the deck plates rumble. The ship picked up speed, passing through the frayed end of a cloud.
"It's pretty out here," Claude said after a while. "Empty, but pretty."
"Not that empty," Mǎi corrected him. He pointed at long shadows snaking through the atmosphere above them. "Look! Aether-drakes!"
"Wonders of the Dream," commented Sand, coming up the stairs. "Hatches are secure, Captain. Sorry for the delay."
"That's fine, Chief. Hey, what's over there?"
On the horizon, a brilliant point of light flared up then died down again, leaving behind a shining needle.
"We have company," announced Claude. "It's a big one."
Kantuck walked over to the rangefinder and turned it around. "No kidding. That's a Kingmaker-class battleship."
The cat ear-flicked. "Think they've seen us already?"
She sounded doubtful. "They're holding course, roughly parallel to ours. No signals."
"What do we do, Captain?" asked Mǎi.
"Silent running," ordered the doe. "Claude, get ready to dive."
"Why are we hiding?" asked Sand, but he walked to the engineering console and started making adjustments. The ship quieted down, hull sinking lower into the aether foam. "We're honest sailors after all, on a legit cruise."
"We were honest back on the Alice Queen too." Kantuck sighed. "But powerful people have a different definition of honesty."
Outside the viewports, clouds obscured more of the landscape. Claude focused on his scopes for a while. He adjusted a knob, then another. "I'm getting reverb here. Another ship?"
Kantuck leaned over the rangefinder again. "They've launched a boat. Make that two. They're circling around from different directions."
"They're going to spot us soon if they haven't already," pointed out Sand.
"Agreed. Claude, take us down."
"Aye-aye, Cap." He reached for the depth controls and the ship's nose pitched, gently lowering them into the thick aether. Ambient light turned a deep shade of cyan. After a while, shapes became apparent into the murky depths: a maze of crystalline rock formations growing in complex patterns. Weaved among them was a latticework of cylindrical shapes crisscrossing at right angles. Only there was no light or movement.
"Good guess, Chief," said Mǎi.
"Thanks." Sand leaned over to squint out the nearest viewport. "But nobody's home."
Claude steered the ship gently as they continued to descend, winding a cautious path through the obstacle course. Algae clung to the rusty scaffolds; schools of fish scattered in front of them. Then, "I'm getting sonar echoes. It's a boat."
Right on cue, a geometric shadow passed overhead.
"Time to go a-knocking," announced Kantuck. "Take us in."
"There! Looks like a docking bay," indicated Mǎi.
"I see it," confirmed Claude. He turned the wheel. "Kind of. It's too dark."
"Sand, floodlights," said Kantuck right before a string of lamps turned on along the large cylinder's underside, highlighting an entrance. "Never mind, belay that order."
"It's quiet. Too quiet."
Benita's hoarse whisper pulled Kantuck out of her reverie. She eyed her surroundings in the scant emergency lighting, nostrils pulsing. "What is this place anyway?"
"Looks like a phlogiston refinery if you ask me," stated Sand. His voice echoed.
"As a clandestine operation, even," Benita pointed out sourly.
"Wars have been fought over the stuff," the doe reminded her.
"There might be another one soon," retorted the wolf. "What are we looking for?"
"Wish I could tell you what Ani and Paquita were up to." Benita sighed. "They said something about champions who could stand up to small armies."
Sand cocked his head at her. "Sounds like a fairy tale."
"Perhaps, but it's a clue," Kantuck told him. She pointed at a large doorway along the corridor, where the floor changed. Pipes along the walls ended abruptly on either side. "That's a new addition."
The wolf stared into the darkness beyond the threshold, then back the way they came. He grumbled, shrugged and fished a piece of chalk out of his pocket, which he used to make a large visible mark on the floor. He looked at his captain for approval.
"That will have to do," she said, and walked in first.
Lamps flickered faintly in the distant ceiling. Large machine tools were arrayed in a geometric maze, all still and silent. Among them were strewn body parts made of metal: arms, legs... a massive torso, its chest plate open, revealing a human-shaped cavity inside. Not much farther, another was filled with machinery instead. The power core in the middle pulsed with a dull glow.
At the end of the maze, another doorway admitted bright light and a din that shook the floor. Sand lifted a hand, then quickly signed something. Kantuck had time to cast him an odd look before Benita grabbed her armed and pulled her against the wall, while the wolf circled around the cone of light to the other side of the opening.
Numerous metallic humanoids, taller than the doe, milled ponderously around a large structure of unclear purpose, either assembling or disassembling it. One or two stopped to look at the doorway, then resumed work. Sand made another sign, and this time the meaning was obvious. They pulled back.
A few minutes earlier
Lucia paced the little dock along the side of the Spirit Walk. From the upper deck, Claude watched her with a tick-tock motion. After a while the wolf girl stopped and faced Mǎi inside the port hatch, hands on her hips.
"Why do they get to explore while we sit around doing nothing?" she asked.
"Somebody has to watch the ship, Miss Lucia," the young human pointed out. "We could have company soon."
Claude cautiously made his way down the ship's superstructure, then across the plank. "There's a time for exploring the world, and a time for lying in a moonbeam," he said.
"Which time is it now, teacher?" asked Mǎi, following the cat ashore. He stood on the dock, stealing glances at the wolf girl while she eyed the pressure door at one end.
Claude's tail was making figure eights in the air. "I hate to disobey the captain, but you have a point," he told Lucia.
She positively beamed. "What are your orders, Lieutenant?"
"Ha ha, only serious," said the cat. "I say we open that door and spread out a little. Just enough to get an idea of our surroundings. But don't go far and stay in sight of each other, you hear me?"
"Aye-aye, sir!" Mǎi answered without hesitation.
Lucia looked between them uncertainly. "Sure thing."
"Great! Let's go!" Claude made a beeline for the exit, the others right behind him. The wheel in the middle of the door turned easily in the young man's hands, and he put his weight against the slab of metal. It moved little. The wolf girl added her strength, leaning very close to him, and the crack in the door widened. Claude snuck right through and was gone in an instant.
It was a not-too-large room, with the only furniture being opened crates strewn along the walls. Lucia circled around slowly, trying to look inside.
"See anything?" asked Mǎi.
She looked funny at him. "In this light? There could be a kraken for all I know."
"I brought an electric torch," he said, and promptly demonstrated, casting a beam of light over the walls and floor. "Oh... they're empty."
"Could have told you that," said Claude, poking his head out of a bigger crate behind them. He blinked, eyes shining. "I found a couple of screws, and wire ends."
"This one has unwashed jars in it," added Lucia.
Claude hopped out of the crate and walked over to her. "Yuck. Never mind, let's move."
"Which way, teacher?"
"Up, obviously." He pointed his nose at the ladder near one wall, going up to a catwalk at mid-height. There was another door, this time more easily opened. They emerged through an alcove into a wide, tall corridor lined with pipes. It went onward into darkness one way, while in the opposite direction it soon ended. The wall had another pressure door in the middle. Loud banging could be heard from the other side.
"Uh-oh," said Lucia right before the door swung open, admitting a dozen people in dry suits, lightly armored and carrying needleguns. They walked right on, barking orders down the chain.
They stood right outside the cone of light from the doorway, watching the mechanical activity mere steps away.
"Are they people in armor?" asked Sand.
"More like automatons," suggested Benita.
"Robots," Kantuck corrected her. "They react to the environment."
As if on cue, one of the machines paused what it was doing and came over to the doorway. It stopped right past the threshold, looking inside the workshop with glowing eyes. The three intruders held their breath while it scanned the gloom. Then it ponderously turned around and went back to work.
Wolf, doe and human retraced their steps.
"This must be what my little brother was talking about." Benita paused. "But where are all the people?"
"Maybe we can ask these machines," Kantuck offered. "They seem smart."
"Not so much talkative," pointed out Sand.
"Maybe they don't need to talk among themselves?" asked the older woman.
The doe pondered. "None of the reports I saw mentioned attempts at communication. Newspapers paint them as rampaging monsters."
"Tabloids." The wolf snorted.
"Are you suggesting..." started Benita, but Kantuck silenced her with a raised hand. Soon they too heard the sound of steps and voices. Armed people in diving suits marched down the corridor they'd come from, leaving sentries at regular intervals. The light of an electric torch swept through the workshop briefly, then went away.
"Federal expeditionary troops," said Kantuck. "How much do you think they know?"
Sand hesitated briefly. "They were carrying some curious equipment."
"We need to warn our hosts," decided the doe.
"We need to get back!" Benita contradicted her. "What if they find your ship?"
The wolf made an "oh, crap" face.
"Well, that's not an option right now," Kantuck stated the obvious. "What are the machines doing?"
"I'll go look." The older woman slid across the floor silently, navigating the darkened maze of workbenches with ease and grace. She vanished into the shadows for a while, then reappeared in front of her companions. "Swarming like bees in slow motion. I think they already know. Spotted a few of them leaving through another door."
Sounds of construction gradually died down in the next room over, then the heavy steps of machine men also grew distant. The trio walked over cautiously, but no-one was there anymore. In the painful glare from overhead lamps stood a smaller enclosed space, spiral columns rising in fractal patterns to form intertwined arches higher than they could reach, while deep within a translucent floor so dark they couldn't see it, countless points of light swirled endlessly.
Lucia sat on the edge of a packing crate, shoulders drooping. "What do we do?"
"We have to warn the others about these intruders," suggested Mǎi.
"And what are we, honored guests?" Claude asked. "Fine, whatever. Let's see, there must be another way in."
He took a roundabout route across the room, climbing every item in his path. Near the opposite end, what looked like a shadow on the wall turned out to conceal a passage, going perpendicular to the corridor above them. It soon widened into a hallway with peeling paint going halfway up the concrete walls and an abandoned box cart rusting away in a corner. A handful of doors stood closed. The farthest one had bright light coming over the threshold.
Lucia tiptoed along the hallway and leaned in. "I don't hear anything," she whispered.
"It smells empty," Claude agreed, putting his nose near the floor.
"How do we open it?" asked Mǎi. The sheet metal door looked solid enough, and so did the padlock to one side.
"Stand back," Lucia instructed. She took out her folded pike and placed its end against the padlock. There was a high-pitched whine that made Claude flatten his ears, and the padlock snapped open.
"That's not an ordinary fighting pike, is it?" asked the cat.
"No." The wolf girl held up the weapon, showing off the ruby cordite crystal embedded above the grip. "Auntie says it used to be my father's."
She held the weapon ready while Mǎi opened the door. It creaked a little, but nobody seemed to notice.
Beyond the door was a stairwell. Open steps made of metal grates and tubing vanished into the floor and ceiling, surrounded by a generous landing. The double door of a freight elevator took up the opposite wall. A lightbulb burned in a cage over it, and more light came from above.
They were more than halfway up the first flight of stairs when sounds of gunfire met them, mixed with the roar of flames. Lucia jumped over Claude and ran up ahead, extending her pike while still in the air.
"Oh, no," meowed the feline. "After her, Mǎi!"
"So much for discretion, teach?" asked the young human. They followed as fast as they could, into a larger recessed space bordering a wide, well-lit corridor. Tracer rounds trailed past them from one side, only to be answered with long streaks of fire. And Lucia was nowhere to be seen.
"There's a time for rushing into danger, too," Claude answered. "This wasn't it!"
"We need to go in," stated Benita.
Sand stopped her. "Is there even a floor?"
"Let's see." Kantuck extended her pike and probed ahead. "Seems solid enough."
"It could still be a trap," pointed out the wolf.
The woman's face was determined. "I must know. Stay out if you think that's better."
She stepped forward before they could react, to walk the twisted path leading into the center of that structure. Insubstantial snowflakes danced in the air around her; strange reflections washed over her face as she watched something in wonder. Something only she could see.
"I'm going in after her," the doe announced, and followed through. Sand hesitated for another moment before doing the same.
It was like floating in open aether, watching a distant moon through a moving curtain of red-blue mists against a black emptiness full of stars. Gradually, something more became apparent: a pair of glowing orbs, each surrounded by a swarm of swimming shadows. They turned and looked at the intruders like a pair of eyes, while a ghostly human face formed around them; then there were two of them, splitting apart, a man and woman. They were saying something that almost made sense, while other, fractal shapes bloomed and wilted in turn, always just out of sight. Only in one place did the illusion break down, an electric glare radiating in through an unfinished portion of the inner room.
There were other things, too. Ships and machine men; explosions and fields of debris. One image returned again and again: that of an island with strange contours. Sounds, too, like the crying of children in a troubled sleep. The roar of flames, mixing with gunfire.
"It's coming from outside!" Kantuck exclaimed all of a sudden, and ran from the room.
Wolf and human followed. There was another doorway than the one they'd come through. In the next room, a wide ramp descended among giant machinery of unclear purpose. Along the wall, stairs climbed up to a short catwalk where a sliding door stood open. The doe took cover to one side, waiting for Benita and Sand to follow. But the precaution was unnecessary. Across a corridor, not far from their position, Claude and Mǎi waved at them desperately, through a hail of iron and fire.
Behind a cluster of thick pipes going from floor to ceiling, Lucia crouched with her eyes closed, hands over her ears. Those guns weren't so loud, but that was relative inside a maze of concrete and corrugated iron. After a while it became obvious that the soldiers were retreating. Only a handful of machine men pursued them, then only a couple. In the end, only one was left.
Then darkness fell.
When her eyes adjusted to the emergency lighting again, Lucia could see the lumbering man of metal turning around in confusion. A couple of soldiers backed away slowly in front of it, and the machine swung at the air ineffectively. Then two more approached from behind carrying a long pole, and used it to stab at the creature's back. The light in its eyes dimmed, motions growing less coordinated. Others swarmed it a moment later, tying it down with thick chains. It took them a while to finish the job. In the end they left, marching down a wider corridor lined with pipes, perpendicular to the one where she and the captive machine were.
The wolf girl waited to make sure there were no guards before leaving her hideout to approach the towering shape. It turned towards the sound of her steps, holding its head straight, and rattled the pairs of chains holding each of its limbs tied to the corners of a platform. Additional panels leaned against the walls.
"Hey," she whispered. "Can you hear me? I'm here to help."
The man of metal tilted its head at her voice and pulled more forcefully, to no avail.
"You can't talk, can you?" Lucia took another step forward. "I'm going to try and set you free. Will you hurt me?"
In response, the creature lowered its head and arms.
"Here goes nothing," the girl said. She folded her pike and pressed its end against a chainlink. There came the high-pitched whine, and the chainlink split, but not far enough. She tried again, and this time it snapped open. She quickly undid another one, and the man of metal used its free hand to try and untie itself the rest of the way. That wasn't enough, and it gave up, instead trying to reach something on its back.
"What do you have there?" asked Lucia. It turned out to be some sort of box stuck to an armor plate. She used her pike again to loosen the device before prying it off with her bare hands. Right away, the machine man's eyes glowed brightly again, and it tore off the remaining chains like tissue paper. It took a few teetering steps forward, towards a patch of light in the distance, then stumbled.
"Wait," the wolf girl called. "There must be some way to turn the light back on."
She bent over to prod at several boxes strung along the wall, tied together with thick cords. They turned out to be portable floodlights with a battery or generator. "Aha!"
When the lights went out, Claude and Mǎi didn't need another cue. They darted across the corridor and into the waiting arms of their crewmates. Without a word, Benita waved them over, and they followed back onto the factory floor with the inner room.
"Where's Lucia?" asked the young man, huffing and puffing.
"I thought she was with you!" replied Benita.
"She ran off right ahead of us," Claude explained.
"Maybe she went back to the ship," offered Kantuck. "Why did you leave, anyway?"
Claude did his best to look guilty. "We didn't want to be caught unawares."
The doe giggled, and everyone else followed suit. "Good call, kitty. You found another way around, then? We might need it."
"Yes we did," Mǎi answered instead, looking around curiously. "What did you find?"
Kantuck didn't have time to answer. Heavy steps announced a handful of machine men walking back into the room. A couple walked straight to the projection device and circled it carefully, while two more advanced towards the intruders, eyeing the doe and especially the young man with suspicion.
"Wait, please." Benita took a step forward raising her hands. " We mean you no harm."
The nearest creature tilted its head at her. She queried, "What do you have there?"
It was a flechette stuck in the seam between two armor plates. Just one of many. She reached towards it, and after a brief hesitation the man of metal leaned closer to let her work. She pulled out one projectile, then another. Soon everyone was helping out one of the hosts. They started milling about, moving more easily; one stopped in front of the inner room, pointing at the darkened doorway into the adjacent workshop.
"Fine, we're leaving," said Kantuck. She waved everyone along. Once they were out of earshot she added, "Let's move before they figure out we entered their inner sanctum."
Claude ear-swiveled. "You did? Aw, man. Found out anything?"
"A clue, hopefully," she replied, leading the way assuredly through the maze of industrial equipment. The chalk mark they'd made was still on the floor, near the other entrance, barely visible in the low light. She sniffed the air. "They only just passed through. Be quick now."
They were halfway along the corridor they had followed on the way in when the pressure door at its end opened, admitting a squad of soldiers. One of them was talking.
"You shouldn't have left that thing unguarded, corporal. You know we're not... Hey! Who goes there?"
"Don't shoot!" Claude answered quickly. "We're honest sailors, looking for salvage."
"And I'm the queen of Nova Roma," the man countered. "Come closer so we can see you."
The Spirit Walk's crew backed away instead. The feline insisted. "Aw, come on. Let's make a deal. We don't want any trouble."
In response, the soldier held his gun up and chambered a round noisily. "You're not going anywhere. Corporal, arrest these people."
He was answered by the sound of metal scraping and tearing from behind the corner. Then lights came on, flooding the corridor. Five shadows melted along the walls right before a towering shape approached with thunderous steps, breathing fire.
"Over here!" called Lucia from behind it, and led the way towards the recessed stairwell she had used minutes before.
They were crossing the hallway of many doors when Sand raised a hand to stop the others and pointed at his nose. Claude perked up, tail turning into a question mark. The wolf nodded briskly, and his feline crewmate vanished into the shadows. He came back a moment later, retreating near the stairwell to speak.
"There's five of them in the storeroom, guarding the door to the docking bay."
"I can take two of them with my eyes closed," said Kantuck, "but three are a problem."
Benita fingered her weapon. "Wish I could say as much nowadays. What do we do?"
"With your eyes closed?" Mǎi took out his electric torch and cranked up the brightness. "Captain, I have an idea."
The doe smiled broadly. "Good thinking, Mǎi. Now all we need is a distraction."
"Leave that to me," the older woman said, and slid across the floor without a sound.
A moment later, the pressure door rang like a bell. No-one in the room noticed the robed figure pointing a metal tube at it from behind a stack of crates.
"What's that?" asked one of the soldiers, getting up. The door shook again.
"I thought we had the dock secured," answered another. "You two, go and check."
He followed in anyway, with the rest of the squad. A minute passed, then another. They started filing back in.
"Not a soul. Must be this old wreck of a place," mused one of them. He stepped aside, and that's when he saw a dark shape in a corner. "Hey, who goes there?"
A bright light came on, shining onto his helmet visor. He backed away, hitting another of his squad. Then a tall whirlwind of hooves and steel was upon them, followed by a ghost in flowing robes. There wasn't much time for shouting.
"Only four," Kantuck pointed out, stepping around the bodies that lay on the floor, barely moving. They looked at each other and nodded.
Near the prow of the Spirit Walk, the remaining soldier watched over the deserted dock. Sounds of struggle from behind drew his attention. He turned around just in time to see the pressure door open and a snarling wolf in a longcoat burst in. The blow that followed was only partly cushioned by his suit. He staggered, and then a large fuzzy shape ran between his legs. The floor came up at him really fast.
The dream rider was only out by a few ship lengths when one of the boats from earlier left the docking cradle one level up, churning aether. Except it didn't seem to be in pursuit. More like running away from the machine men streaming out of another opening to swarm around, little thrusters on their hands and feet making them more agile than any vessel. A couple sailed by the bridge windows of the Spirit Walk, and seemed to recognize the people inside, because they left it alone and joined their friends on the other hull, pummeling every exposed surface. The viewports gave out first.
Captain's log, supplemental: I knew it! The Council is involved somehow. Too bad that limits where we can go next to pursue our investigation. We have new clues, but it seems the more answers we fish out of the aether, the more questions surface to take their place.
"I'm too old for this," declared Benita, gritting her teeth. She perched on the lower bunk bed in the passenger cabin, holding out a leg that sported an ugly bruise. Next to her, Lucia hugged a first-aid kit on her lap, while Kantuck sat cross-legged in front of them, tending to the older woman with one of her mysterious ointments.
"Maybe we should turn back," suggested Lucia. "It's too dangerous."
She sounded uncertain and disappointed. Aunt and niece exchanged a guilty look.
"You couldn't have known," mused Kantuck. "If anything, I should have guessed. But we've come this far. Don't you want to know what lies ahead, at least?"
"Speaking of that, Captain?" Mǎi stood on the threshold awkwardly. "Sorry, the door was open."
"I'm done here anyway." The doe got up with a small groan, moving less gracefully than usual. "What's the news?"
"We went through all twelve volumes of the Dream Atlas, but couldn't find any island that resembles your sketches."
Kantuck nodded. "I'm not surprised. Please take this to my cabin. We need to find a safe place and get some rest before making any decision."
She handed him the first aid kit and looked meaningfully at the two passengers before going out in the corridor. Lucia smiled faintly and got up to close the door.
On the bridge, Claude and Sand took turns checking the various consoles, one of them watching for any other unwanted visitors at all times. The barely-there hum of generators made for a reassuring backdrop. Hurried steps on the ladder broke the calm.
"Captain, you need to see this." Mǎi held a little steel box with a thick round window set into its lid and flowery decorations around the rim. Only the window was pulsing with an inner light, and the fractal-like motifs appeared to move around subtly, like an optical illusion. "Is it supposed to?"
"Is that the gift from Harbormaster Bulut?" asked Sand. "I knew that projection chamber looked familiar somehow."
"Indeed," confirmed Kantuck. "But it hasn't done much of anything since we had to open it that one time."
Claude perked up. "Should we go ask the harbormaster what this means? We can reach Sheridan Station easily from here at this time of the lunar cycle."
"You miss that little eatery with the fish pond?" The wolf snickered softly. "Really, I wouldn't mind going back, but is it safe? Especially after last time."
"Renard took our defense then," pointed out the doe. "And he's in charge now."
"Should I plot out a course, in that case?" asked the young human eagerly.
"Make it so, Ensign. I'll go inform our passengers. Chief, you have the bridge."
"I have the bridge," he echoed, and moved onto the captain's chair while she trotted down the ladder again.
If a water lily was made of steel, glass and reinforced concrete, its mile-wide flower might look like Sheridan Station: a circular platform, terraced like an ancient amphitheater, with skyscrapers slanting outward around the rim, and a dome covering the lowest part in the middle. Ships large and small were moored to docking tubes of various lengths bristling out around the bottom of the structure. This ensemble floated above the cloud cover, half-lit by the distant moon, while the inverted mountains overhead glistened with clusters of little lights. A keen eye might have spotted a small fish-like ship with razor-sharp fins along its hull easing into one of the docking tubes before the gates closed.
The grand circular corridor right inside the docking ring reverberated with steps and voices from countless people milling about. Opposite the round airtight doors leading to each docking tube stood open curtains of sheet metal, revealing storerooms that often acted as impromptu shops. Exposed power lines affixed to the ceiling supported bright lamps spaced out too much, so that light and dark alternated constantly. From a radial passage blew fresh air, bringing whiffs of ozone and rubber. This way the visitors went, as sounds of welding and hammering from doors on either side took over from the earlier hubbub. Up a flight of stairs lay a smaller hallway, with rounded edges and irregular walls. Behind several bends, it finally opened onto a room where the reinforced concrete took organic shapes. Light from windows pointing at the inside of the station, under the ceiling, made it feel like they were immersed in the aether.
Someone came out to meet them, clad in a bulky diving suit that bulged and rippled as if filled with liquid, who sounded like a babbling mountain spring. Kantuck found herself swept off her feet into a big hug.
"It's good to see you too," she laughed. The host let her go and patted Sand on the back with a huge hand, while Claude rubbed on those heavy boots, purring up a storm. "Mǎi, meet Harbormaster Bulut, an old friend. Ensign Mǎi is our newest crew member."
The young man looked up at the suited figure. "Um, how do you do!" It earned him a friendly laugh and a handshake. The miniature aether clouds visible through the faceplate flowed into new shapes, an inner light glowing brighter.
"Am I interrupting?" asked a new voice from the door. A bipedal fox in a blue uniform trimmed with gold padded in silently, hands behind his back.
"There you are, old fox!" exclaimed Benita. They squeezed each other's shoulders.
"Look who's talking," he countered. "Long time no see, Ben. And you must be Lucia."
The wolf girl nodded, smiling. "Commander Renard, I've heard much about you."
"Jean, please," he said. "No need to be so formal. This title fits me like a pair of stiff new shoes."
Bulut's voice dripped and splashed, the harbormaster pointing quizzically at Renard.
"Good point," said the fox. "Sit down, everyone, and let's hear what brings you here. This is no courtesy visit, if recent rumors are any indication. No offense. Drinks?"
One hour later
"What do we do now?" asked Lucia. She looked with big eyes through the windows of the funicular as it climbed out of its tunnel and at the base of a terrace.
"We wait," Kantuck answered matter-of-factly. She looked around, but there was no-one else in the small cab. "Bulut said something about needing help to coax the dreaming song of water out of his box."
"I'll stick to machines you can fix with a wrench," quipped Sand. As they came to a full stop, he opened the doors and walked out, followed by the others.
Lucia tilted her head back, gawking at the transparent arcade covering the station, where several... streets? corridors? came together. She promptly collided with a short person sporting feelers and honeycomb eyes, who chittered at her, spreading the two halves of a colorful cape.
"Yikes! So many people!" She carefully kept to the middle of the group as they walked on, between wood-framed store windows that held wares from clothing and curios to clockwork that seemed to defy geometrical laws, as people with scales, feathers or fur mixed with humans in fancy hats.
"Is there something we can do in the mean time?" Mǎi wondered. "Maybe visit the local library?"
Claude looked up at him, tail flicking. "Hiss, you. No research on an empty stomach."
The crowd thinned as they followed a covered pathway towards the central dome. It soon emerged into an open space, forking time and again as it meandered among duck ponds and clusters of berry bushes. Further in there were fruit trees, and vegetable gardens behind rustic buildings with signs in front; chickens clucked softly as they ambled around without a worry. Flimsy clouds drifted overhead, riding warm air currents that rose to meet the light reflected from rotating mirrors, alien like aether itself.
"Tsk," Mǎi spoke again. "They're not trimming the trees on time."
Lucia eyed him more carefully. "You're a farmer too. That's how you figured us out so quickly."
He raked his foot across the crushed gravel before turning to face her. "Yes. My family name is Chénguāng. But I renounced it and ran away from home."
"Why?" asked the wolf girl. Benita watched them, but said nothing.
"I had no future back home," the young human answered. "And it was... it wasn't a nice place. Not like here."
"Do you think I have no future on Tierra Roja?" Lucia insisted.
He got all tongue-tied. "Uhh... that's not... I mean, it's not the same thing."
"Look at you. All prim and pretty in that uniform. You're just like dad!" she accused, and stormed off.
Mǎi looked from Benita to Kantuck, and finally Claude. "What's that supposed to mean?"
Claude sat on his haunches and scratched behind his ear, feline style, while the doe cast her passenger a curious look. The older woman changed the subject.
"Captain Nadie, I believe you were saying something about your favorite eatery? We could all use a good meal right now."
They hit the library after lunch anyway. It was a little old building on the main ring of the station, sharing a front yard with the offices of a local trade union. There were a couple of small rooms overflowing with books, leaving little space for six eager researchers, so Kantuck grabbed Benita and Sand again and dragged them over to the archives instead.
Neither party had much luck identifying the mystery island.
Four disappointed sailors and their passengers met at the docks a few hours later, but there was no message from Renard or Bulut, so Kantuck led them to the funiculars again, and into the station's upper levels. The receptionist at the Garden Palace gave no sign of recognizing the Spirit Walk's crew, but offered the same suite as on their last visit. They were now two to a room, which suited them just fine. On the wall, a twenty-four hour clock still ticked away the time. Its big hand moved more than a quarter around the face before the travelers stirred again.
A small crowd had gathered in front of the hotel, staring and pointing at a strange object floating above the station's central dome. It looked as if aether clouds had condensed and solidified into a definite, regular shape that drifted slowly in the moonlight, letting out puffs of steam at not so regular intervals.
"Is that a hot air balloon?" asked Mǎi.
Lucia cast him a curious look. "A hot air ball-loon? What's that?"
"They were a kind of transportation on Earth," he explained. "I've seen pictures."
Kantuck covered her muzzle with a hand. "That's funny, but unless my eyes are deceiving me, it's the Mehloop-drip-swoosh. We fought alongside Captain Murup-bloop-whish! once. That was before you joined the crew, Mǎi."
Lucia ear-perked, and Benita examined the doe more carefully.
"I didn't know Aethereals built ships," said Mǎi.
"I didn't realize you speak Aethereal so well," added Benita. "You pronounce the names right, not phonetically like most of us."
The doe looked embarrassed. "Anyway, let's head back to the docks. I have a feeling we should greet our old acquaintance."
They weren't first. Renard and Bulut already stood inside the docking tube connected to the Mehloop's hatch with a few other people, some in station uniforms, others in coveralls. The two groups had time to exchange pleasantries, but not too much.
First to walk in was another figure in a diving suit, resembling Bulut's except more colorful. The two Aethereals hugged, something passing between them like a charge of static electricity that could only be felt. Then the newcomer turned towards Renard.
"Captain Murup," the fox said stiffly, but he could barely contain a goofy grin. "What's a pirate like you doing in a respectable port like this?"
Murup made a sound like boiling water, pointing at the Spirit Walk's crew.
"Hey, we're respectable sailors!" protested Kantuck.
Sand gave her a side look, quirking an eyebrow. "Since when?"
Everyone laughed, the two Aethereals holding their bellies. There was little need to translate Bulut's speech as the harbormaster waved everyone over.
Bluish light danced on the rounded, irregular walls. There weren't enough seats. Sand leaned against the wall, and so did Renard, like guards flanking the door. Claude sat like a little sphinx in the middle of the floor, well away from the ornamental fountain in one corner. A shimmering pool could be seen in a side room, surrounded by tree-like shapes.
"The Staropravni Republic has accused Council nations of developing a secret weapon with Aethereal technology," Renard translated as Murup gave them the news. "Is there anything you're not telling us, Signora Lopez?"
She gave him a long hard look before answering. "Me and Ani, that would be my brother Anastasio, we're former military. Thought we could get away from that past, but it came after us."
"I knew he would go back to that life someday," added Lucia, "but how could mom go along with his schemes?"
The older woman wrung her hands. "Paquita was always the tinkerer, don't you know. Keeping everyone's tractors going. Ani liked to say she was his little mad engineer."
"But the federal navy is looking for them," Mǎi pointed out. He trailed off when everyone turned to look at him.
"The Republic's leadership can't know that," noted Kantuck. "Either way, we have to find them first."
"Before a war breaks out," agreed Claude. "Question is, how? Our trail is cold."
Murup reached out and took Bulut's hand, chirping calmly while he gestured towards the glowing box sitting on a table nearby.
"Maybe not," translated Renard. "It appears that someone left you a message. They'll just have to give it some love to figure out what it says."
"Sounds good. I've got work to do on the ship in the mean time," offered Sand.
Bulut's voice dripped and splashed as the harbormaster got up, ending in a snort.
"You're always fussing over the Spirit Walk," translated Kantuck. "Step back now and then, let her chug along."
She got up anyway, followed by everyone else. They were headed for the door when the intercom chimed. The fox was closest. "Renard here, go ahead."
"Thank the Moon, boss, I've been trying to find you," called a voice urgently. "A big-ass battleship under Newhaven flag parked itself a couple of miles out. Says they're the Hornblower, on official Council business. They've sent a boat."
Little towers of crates and bags on pallets were placed in zigzag along the docking tube, making the Spirit Walk hard to see clearly, let alone reach. Near the prow, a tarp hung sloppily over part of the hull. It just so happened to cover the name painted there. Lights on the pier were dimmed as well; one flickered. It had been working perfectly the other day.
"They were looking for a small ship, but couldn't give us a precise description, or tell us why exactly," the mechanic told them. He was a human with long hair in a ponytail, dressed in worn-out coveralls, cobalt goggles on a strap around the neck. "We had to improvise something quickly. Luckily they didn't care to get a close look. On paper your ship is now salvage, brought in by some treasure hunters recently."
"But they'll spot us the moment we try to leave," pointed out Kantuck.
The mechanic nodded. "Boss thought of that too. We have a courier bound for Whitewater soon. They'll tow you out of dock and through the first transfer."
"Playing dead." Sand snorted. He winked at the doe. "It's becoming a habit."
Mǎi looked doubtful. "You'll have to time it so the station is between us and the Hornblower until we've put some distance behind ourselves."
"Precisely," answered the mechanic, "So it has to be right away. Sorry about that."
They left less than an hour later, the full moon high over the horizon making the station shine like a crown of pure silver behind them. Ahead of the bridge windows stretched a towing cable, to another vessel that wasn't much larger.
"This is weird," commented Claude, but held the wheel anyway, watching his gauges.
"Too bad we couldn't stay to learn what message the box holds," mused Kantuck.
"What's between Captain Murup and the harbormaster anyway?" asked Mǎi.
She blinked at the young human. "Huh? They're, um, partners I guess. Their word for it literally means entangled-yet-distinct."
Sand sat straight in his big chair at the engineering console, cupping a hand over his headset. "I'm receiving a transmission. It's from the station."
The doe walked over quickly and leaned over him to watch as he scribbled something down on a notepad. "It's a set of coordinates, deep in the inner phases of the dream."
"Just in time, Cap," announced Claude. "Brace for transfer."
The shifting, prismatic walls of light rushing past the Spirit Walk slowed down, unfolded and fell away.
A vast empty space opened around the dream rider, orbited by aether clouds. High above the horizon, a huge moon cast its light over a forest of black spires in the depths, now and then obscured by a passing ice floe. In the middle of that vastness floated a sphere made of concentric layers, each assembled from interlocking rings like the gears of a gigantic mechanism. It filled the forward bridge windows and half the viewports with its brass shine, spinning hypnotically.
"Transfer complete, Captain," Mǎi said uncertainly. "We're right on top of Bellawood Station, but..."
He tightened his grip on the wheel and leaned forward to read his scope more closely. "We're off course by about, uh."
"Thirty miles," Claude informed him, tapping a dial on the navigation console.
"Sorry, teacher. What do I do now?"
Kantuck looked discreetly over Claude's shoulder. "Adjust course three degrees to port and five up. Switch to thrusters in... three minutes and twenty seconds."
"Th... thrusters? Won't that be too fast, Captain?"
"We'd spend days on approach otherwise," she explained, turning towards him. "It's a really big place. Speaking of which. Chief, hail Tonoes Port and get us in the queue."
"Aye-aye, Cap." The wolf busied himself with the wireless.
Steps could be heard from the bottom of the ladder. The doe looked over to see Benita peeking up at them. "What are we doing on Bellawood Station anyway?" asked the woman.
"Resupplying. We left Sheridan Station in a hurry. And we need to know what the word is on the grapevine."
"We risk discovery," Benita insisted. "Please make it quick, Captain."
Lucia's voice came from deeper inside the ship. "Aw, that's too bad, I hoped we could stay and visit. Bellawood Station is supposed to be very advanced."
Sand swiveled in his chair. "It's mostly inhabited by people who came to the Dream from outer space, not Earth."
"Don't you have friends there, too?" asked Mǎi.
"Sort of," Kantuck told him. "It's where we bought the Spirit Walk."
"It's where Cap got her license," said Claude at the same time. They shared a look.
The young human made an aha! gesture and checked his gauges.
They stood inside a crystal bubble mounted in steel and brass. Corridors went off in odd directions, sometimes up or down, but never in a straight line. Moonlit clouds could be seen through the transparent canopy, and all around them walked people in diving suits, with carapaces, or sporting tentacles.
A clearly marked phone booth awaited across the intersection. It contained a console with a round screen, in front of a narrow bench.
"Guess this is how you find a merchant around here." Sand shrugged and began thumbing through the directory. Kantuck sat next to him and closed the door. "We'll only be a moment."
Lucia turned her head every which way, tail wagging. Parlors of some sort put up little light shows, but the air was kept clean of smells. Closer to the group, another door drew her attention.
"Any idea what that is, Mǎi?" she asked, elbowing the young human.
"Oh, that's a photo booth," he explained. "You put in a coin, and it takes your picture."
"Can we?" she asked, and dragged him in without waiting for an answer. They pulled the curtain and shuffled inside, giggling, while Claude and Benita shrugged at each other.
"It's not doing anything," the wolf girl called from inside after a moment.
"Let me see." The cat poked his head in from the side just as the flash went off.
They were walking back to the docks a few minutes later when a familiar shape blocked their way. A machine man filled the corridor, carrying a bundle the size of several people. It scanned the crowd warily, but hardly anyone seemed bothered. Farther away, another could be seen inside a workshop, holding a large chunk of sheet metal while smaller humanoids welded it to a frame.
"What do you know about them?" Benita asked a nearby shop owner.
The anthro big cat shrugged. "They come and go. Never many. Since a few cycles ago."
"That's interesting," Kantuck said aside. "Everyone, let's grab a bite while we wait for our supplies, then we'd all better get some rest."
Kantuck always felt strange standing on the bridge of her ship at anchor, engines stopped, not having to hold the wheel or watch the scopes. On the horizon, bright stars winked through curtains of red and blue mist. According to scientists, Constructors likely hadn't intended to make the Dream beautiful, but she wasn't so sure. Were they not of the Great Maker as well?
A somewhat closer point of light drew her attention, moving slowly across the aether, and she leaned over the rangefinder to see better. Even at peak magnification, its shape was barely discernible: a battleship; she had no doubt anyway.
Her big sensitive ears swiveled at the shadow of a scraping sound on the ladder.
"Did you sleep well, Cap?" asked Claude. He stretched from nose to tail tip and brushed against her knees.
"Yes, thank you, kitty. I woke up early, is all."
He picked up on her tone of voice and looked up. "Something the matter?"
She told him what she'd just seen. "Even if they're just passing through, that's a bad sign. What if they get ahead of us?"
"It can't be helped, Captain," Benita said from the deck below. She proceeded to climb onto the bridge. "May I? Thank you. We were only one of their leads, probably."
"Either way we need to know what's going on," Kantuck decided. "Follow me."
There were no travel advisories from the harbormaster's office, but their berth mate was more helpful.
"Warships have been passing through a lot lately. Mostly Feds, but the Beardies have been making noise too." She was a big, smilodon-like woman in airy clothing, looking down from the poop deck of a sailboat longer than the Spirit Walk. "Funny how they're never around when pirates are stirring up trouble."
Sand waited until they were some distance away to speak. "That boat looked familiar."
"They only build them like that at Donovan's Needle," agreed Claude.
"Why, what do you have in mind?" asked Kantuck. "Donovan's Needle isn't on our present route. Right, Mǎi?"
"It would have been a week or two ago, Captain," the young human pointed out.
Lucia raised a finger. "I know! We can swing by the aether-graph office if you want to check in with your friends."
"Good idea, but we're very late as it is," Benita reminded her, looking at the doe for approval. The latter nodded and waved them back to the ship.
The Spirit Walk was underway for many long hours after departure. At one point Sand took the helm, then the doe. They shifted twice, first into a phase where the calm sea of aether clouds gleamed in the moonlight, only broken up here and there by a pillar of black rock rising far above the horizon. Then into a different kind of place, where pillars instead descended from murky heights, almost touching the dark, roiling clouds. The dream rider drifted; Claude gently replaced Kantuck at the wheel again.
More time passed. New light grew ahead of them. Then the aether opened wide, revealing a grand sight.
An island with familiar contours rose from the clouds, covered in greenery from which sprung towers in daring shapes. Countless dots of light moved back and forth through the air envelope, in elusive patterns. Crowning this scene was a halo of titanic proportions, emerging from the clouds on both sides to circle the island at an angle. It appeared to rotate, yet stood still, fractal patterns cascading around its circumference.
Between the dream rider and its destination floated warships of all sizes, from battleships with guns as big as the Spirit Walk, to cruisers bristling with torpedo tubes and sleek, menacing destroyers.
"Full stop," ordered Kantuck. For a moment, the bridge was still and quiet. Then a light started blinking on Sand's console. "Captain, we're being hailed."
"Let me do the talking," Benita said, leaning in from where she stood in the chart room. "Wish me luck."
The doe turned towards her. "Be my guest. On speakers!"
"Unidentified ship," crackled a cold, wary voice, "you're trespassing into a restricted area. State your business."
The older woman took a deep breath. "This is Colonel Arriola, of the 4th Expeditionary Unit. Who am I speaking to?"
"Captain Trumbull here, of the Admiral Harrington. Did you say the 4th, ma'am?"
Benita put her hands on her hips, looking much bigger. "That is correct, Captain. The Shadow Regiment. You've heard me."
"Thought you were retired, Colonel." The voice at the other end became just a little more friendly. "How may I assist you?"
"It would be wonderful if you could let us pass, Captain Trumbull, so we may land."
There was a pause in the transmission. "With all due respect, ma'am, what do you hope to accomplish?"
"Why, to avoid undue losses on both sides. I'm sure your superiors would approve."
Indistinct chatter rose in the speakers before being muted again. Then a beep.
"Phase vortex off our stern." Claude turned to his scopes. "Make that six. Lots!"
More large ships splashed out in the distance behind the Spirit Walk, ripples of light scattering from them. They looked similar to those already there, yet different, with angled armor plates and spiky protrusions.
The speakers crackled to life again. "Very well, Colonel. Get behind us and see what you can do while we hold off the Beardies. Talk fast."
Nobody answered their attempts to hail the island. Machine men came flying to meet them halfway, but didn't attack. They circled the ship, looking through the bridge windows, before flying away again. Aether clouds splashed against a beach of reddish sand, from which extended a rickety pier made of wood. The wolf was out first, jumping onto the wooden planks even before the dream rider stopped completely, to catch the mooring line Mǎi threw him.
A small group waited for them on the shore, gathered around a pair of humans. The woman looked like an older version of Lucia, long black hair with just a hint of gray tied in a generous bun. The man next to her instead resembled a younger Benita, with slick hair combed straight back and a thin mustache. His left arm and leg were encased in bulky metal, anchored to a breastplate cutting diagonally across his body, that matched the half a mask on his face. Tubes and cables went from a plain helmet to the box on his back. An Aethereal awaited a small distance behind them, in a well-worn diving suit, and more machine men stood watch over everyone.
Lucia took a faltering step forward, then another. "Mom? Dad?" She broke into a run and all but fell into their arms.
"Dad?" she repeated, "What happened to you?"
The man smiled sadly. "You give up a few things, chasing a dream." He turned towards the rest of the group, right hand wandering towards the revolver on his hip before he caught himself.
"Little brother," Benita greeted coolly. "You're hard to find these days."
"Took your time, sister darling," he retorted. "Thought you'd never make it. Who are these people?"
"Friends of a friend," the older woman explained dryly.
"They helped us find you, dad!" added Lucia, her enthusiasm waning. She looked at the rows of little lights circling each other through the haze off the island's shore. "We're not too late, are we?"
They sat on folding chairs around a piece of disused lab equipment, drinking a brown creamy liquid from tin cups, in the shadow of a white building like a jumble of interlocking boxes, floating stairs clinging to the walls in unlikely corners. A pair of bird-like people kept going in and out the nearby glass doors, clacking their beaks at each other in annoyance. There wasn't room, so Mǎi and Lucia took refuge on an upturned boat off to the side, Claude perched between them.
"We tried to build suits of armor at first," explained Anastasio, "but couldn't fit a person inside with all the machinery needed to keep them alive."
"They had to become robots," added Paquita, "But the state of the art... leaves to be desired."
Kantuck and Sand exchanged looks. "We've had some experience with that," he said.
"Then you can guess what happened," resumed Paquita. "The early models were... savage. Mindless killing machines."
Anastasio snorted. "Not savage enough. This is war. We were forced into a war."
The Aethereal sitting next to him babbled calmly.
"Yes, Doctor, you told me so." Anastasio sighed. "But look where this pacifism of yours got us."
Paquita placed a hand on her husband's arm. "Doctor Tuzlu Su is right, and you know it. Song-spinning jewel craft was never meant to be used this way."
"Ma'am?" Kantuck asked quietly. "What is it you did, exactly?"
The woman looked over to the Aethereal, who gave a watery sigh and started talking.
"Great Maker..." the doe said, and translated for the others. "They adapted the same kind of device we had for a while to use as robot brains. Each one by itself isn't worth much. A lone machine man is dumber than a bumblebee. But these are communication devices, meant to form a network."
"Captain Nadie," Benita asked carefully, "does that mean what we saw back there...?"
The doctor's voice tumbled with echoes like water through a tunnel, and Kantuck translated again. "That's right, it wasn't a simple projection chamber. The machine men were building themselves a collective consciousness."
Silence descended over the small group for a moment. Then distant thunder rolled over them from clear skies. They ran around the building only to be met by flashes of light flaring up on the horizon.
"Commander!" A bear-like man came running from the direction of a nearby watchtower. "The Feds and Beardies are fighting! Whoever wins..."
"Let them try," Anastasio interrupted fiercely. "The halo is fully operational."
"But that's just it!" The watchman pointed up at the great arch looming over the island. It writhed like tall grass in a storm, ghostly shapes chasing each other along its length with lightning bolts.
A storm was brewing, in more than one way. People in lab coats or coveralls came out of the building, only to stop and look up in amazement if not fear. More machine men came running. One of them took the lead, only stopping in front of Anastasio.
"Epsilon 5," the man acknowledged it. "Take your siblings, and the Iotas too. Get up there and stabilize the structure. Just like last time. We'll send you more power."
Epsilon 5 nodded, or maybe bowed its head, and turned on its heels before running away again. More gathered around it along the way, coming from all directions; one by one, they jumped into the sky then flew straight up until the haze swallowed them. Few remained on the beach.
"But we can't from here, sir," pointed out a little round woman in a lab coat.
"That's where I come in," replied Paquita. She turned towards the guests, pointing towards a tower farther inside the island, across treetops. "We need to reach the main power station, crank up the boilers and redirect the flow through that."
Kantuck looked from her to the intervening forest and back. "Is it safe?"
"Just hilly terrain and wild animals. We're used to it."
"I'm going with you," Lucia decided.
Mǎi looked from Kantuck to them and back. "You'll need help. Captain?"
The doe nodded. "Go with them."
Everyone looked to Anastasio. He waved them away, and they ran off without another word. Claude meowed plaintively.
"You too, kittycat," added Kantuck, and he scampered after the trio. She turned around to see Sand pointing at a smaller warship drifting slowly towards shore, away from the battle. It was close enough for its angled, spiky shape to be clearly visible.
Anastasio looked at one of the bird-like people. "Tsubasa, fetch my binoculars."
"Hai!" The avian skipped towards the building, wings flapping, and returned a moment later with the requested item.
"I think it's listing," Sand suggested.
"Could be a trick," Benita reminded him.
"Either way they're launching boats," announced the cyborg, adjusting his binoculars. "Lots of them."
"Are we there?" whined Lucia, dragging her feet along the forest path.
"Just over the next ridge," Paquita assured her.
"You said that two ridges ago," said Mǎi. He stumbled on a tree root and flailed.
"Should have sent one of your machine men, mom." Lucia suggested.
"I'm not sure what needs to be done," explained the older woman. "Can't give them instructions like this."
"Shush." The young man stopped and stood straight. "Do you hear that?"
They looked along the path that joined theirs, coming up the hill from another direction. When they looked again, they were surrounded.
The four men were burly, if poorly fed, ill-shaven if at all and wearing unwashed sailor's garb, armed with maces and knives. They spoke in a language that flowed and meandered, grinning menacingly.
"What are they saying?!" asked Lucia.
"Come here, pretties," repeated one of them, showing off rotten teeth. "Ponimaesh?"
"Like hell," the wolf girl countered, extending her fighting pike. Two of the attackers immediately turned to face her, laughing and taunting between tentative lunges. One overreached, so she promptly disarmed him, then tripped him up: he hit the ground hard and stayed there. The other one only attacked more furiously, her longer weapon barely keeping his blade at bay as she took a step back, then another. The sailor watching Paquita glanced briefly in their direction; the older woman wasted no time grabbing his wrist and wrestling him to the ground, where they struggled against each other. That made Lucia look too. In an instant, her opponent slashed her arm.
"You leave her alone!" screamed Mǎi, grabbing the man's shirt from behind. It was like trying to hold onto a runaway truck, but it gave the wolf girl time to strike. Once, twice, thrice, and the sailor fell backwards into a thorny bush.
"Shoo, you little...!" exclaimed the last one, and swung his huge fist at the young man. He missed. A fuzzy missile struck between his shoulder blades, sending him face first into the dirt. Lucia's pike fell hard.
A couple of paces away, Paquita elbowed her opponent one last time. He also stopped moving, and she gratefully accepted Mǎi's help to get up.
"What kept you?" she asked Claude, who sat smugly on his defeated opponent.
"I don't know what you mean," he answered innocently, then ear-perked at distant gunshots. "Let's go! Wherever these came from, there are more."
The power station looked like a giant raygun pointed straight up. It was rusting in places, and herbs grew around its base. Inside, things were a little better: machines hummed along, and little dust had settled.
"We need more hands," explained Paquita. "You know anything about boilers, young man?"
"Yes, ma'am," answered Mǎi. "From back home."
"Good. You turn up the steam, we're going to need a lot more pressure. Lucia, help him while I start the emitter again and make sure it's working right."
"What do I do?" asked Claude.
"Stand watch. Like you said, there must be more of those people."
Further up the beach, between the pier and the watchtower, there was a recessed portion of the shore lightly protected by a slope lined with rocks, and that's where most boats were headed.
Sand and Kantuck could clearly see them by now: open-top launches carrying maybe a dozen people apiece, all rowing hard. A few had cobalt goggles or respirators, usually those wearing a semblance of naval uniform, but most had to make do with strips of cloth wrapped around their heads. Some pointed, shouting something indistinct.
"Hold your fire," ordered Anastasio, leaning between two boulders, pistol in hand. A few paces away, Sand checked his own revolver. But there was no concealing the two machine men looming over the small group.
As the first boat ran aground, and the newcomers jumped off, one of them kneeled while another helped him prop up a shoulder cannon. There was a deep thumping noise, and a machine man fell to the ground with a hole in its side. Anastasio fired once, twice, thrice, taking out the gunners, then dove for cover as a bullet whizzed by his head. Sand's big iron boomed in turn, downing the officer. Another boat reached the shore, but this time Anastasio shot first. Ten invading sailors found themselves facing an intact machine man. Their officer also brandished a gun. Sand's shot laid him low.
"Hardly any guns between them," remarked Benita, extending her fighting pike.
"They're not so big either," added Kantuck, and followed suit. Anastasio laughed cruelly and drew out one of his own.
Then the attackers were upon them like a crashing wave. Kantuck danced back and forth, swinging her pike in wide arcs. Benita instead moved little yet forcefully, breaking blades and bones with equal ease. A couple of sailors running away found themselves facing a very angry wolf. He body-slammed one, grabbed his hatchet, and struck down the other. Now he had two hatchets, but there were few opponents left to fight.
Anastasio had borne the brunt of the attack, using his brass-plated limbs as much as his weapon to smite his enemies. One had managed to pick up the wooden siding of a ruined shack that stood nearby, to use as a shield. The cyborg grew more annoyed while they traded blows around it. The tip of his pike began to glow, and he drove it straight through the plank, burning a hole. The man behind it crumbled, howling in pain, and the victor stood over him. "Your head is next!"
"Ani, no!" In an instant, Benita was by his side. "Stand down! That's an order!"
At length he let his arms drop. His pike stopped glowing, then retracted. She knelt next to the injured man and asked something Kantuck and Sand couldn't understand. He weakly answered in the same way.
"He says their ship is wrecked," translated the older woman. "They were ordered to take the beach or die trying."
"But what do they hope to..." the doe started asking. Gunshots from the top of the watchtower stopped her. They ran that way, to see Anastasio's people finish off the crew of another boat, while someone sniped at the stragglers from on high. But there were two boats.
They found the bear-like watchman at the base of the tower, in a pool of his own blood, surrounded by the mangled bodies of half a dozen invaders.
"There must be more of them somewhere," concluded Sand.
Everyone turned to look at the distant power emitter just as it came to life, casting a bright beam towards heaven.
The halo was beginning to settle down by the time they made it back to the main building. Only it was taking on new shapes, all cold geometry and harsh edges. More people gathered, some in lab coats, others in fatigues. Anastasio waved to one of the latter. "Status report?"
The man saluted. "We have one dead and five injured. Two of them badly. No damage."
"And the landing parties?"
"They've taken heavy losses. Survivors are tending to their own wounded. We're trying to keep an eye on them with the people we have."
"It will have to do," the cyborg concluded. "Let's go inside."
A hallway lined with columns went around the ground floor, sheltering an open space further in, where control panels hummed and beeped at their operators, all roughly cut particle board with prominent screws and mismatched holes. In the middle of the room stood Tuzlu Su, directing people around with ample gestures.
"What's the word, Doc?" asked Anastasio. The Aethereal's voice splashed and tumbled.
"Have the Epsilons and Iotas returned yet?" pressed the cyborg. The answer was a big "no" sign. "What about my wife and daughter?"
"We're back," Paquita said from the door. "Sorry for the delay, we had to entertain some unannounced guests."
Anastasio glanced at Lucia's bandaged arm. "So I see."
"Boss!" interrupted the little round woman in a lab coat. "The battle is slowing down. A handful of warships from both sides are closing in."
The cyborg's voice was cold as steel. "It's time. Initiate the firing sequence."
Several other people turned to look. The woman hesitated.
"We'll never be free unless we teach them a lesson, Mathilde," added Paquita. "This is what we've been working for."
"You're the boss," Mathilde said slowly. She turned to her control panel and started turning switches, assisted by several others.
"There are people on those ships," Benita dryly reminded.
Anastasio cast her a venomous look. "There are people on Tierra Roja, too."
Round screens were perched on stands around the room, and windows under the ceiling offered a fragmented view of the halo. Still, it was plenty. Crystal-shaped points around its circumference began to glow. One by one, they emitted rays of light, that gathered into a single bright beam not far from the shore, and kept on going. As this beam struck the nearest warship, its spiky angular shape burst into flame. Explosions followed, scattering debris throughout the aether.
"Recharge," commanded the cyborg, but all eyes were on the scene taking place outside. "I said recharge!"
A tall man reached over Mathilde's head to turn the switches for her. Soon another beam shot out, with similar results.
"The others are slowing down," announced the uniformed assistant.
"Hold your fire," called out Paquita. But the halo was already glowing again. "Hold your fire, dammit!"
Mathilde and the tall man looked at her in horror. "We're not doing anything."
"It fired again," reported the one in uniform. "That was one of ours!"
"What's happening to the halo?" asked someone else. "I think this scope is broken."
Lightning flashed around the great arch in the sky as Anastasio and Kantuck ran outside, followed by their respective crews. Then images started forming within it. Burning homes. Burning people. Faces distorted by hate into grotesque caricatures. Two of them in particular, a man and a woman, with eyes like stars.
All through this, the halo fired twice more, hitting ships from both sides. With each shot, pieces of the structure broke off and fell towards the island.
"Oh no, you don't!" shouted the cyborg as dark clouds gathered. "We're not done here!"
"Yes we are!" Paquita raised her voice over the thunder. "I'll try to shut it down!"
"This isn't over until every one of those ships are dust!" he retorted, pointing with his mechanical hand. "Get Epsilon 5 on the wireless!"
They ran back inside, followed by many of the others. Kantuck lingered for another moment.
"Sand, Mǎi, run to the Spirit Walk and get her ready to go. Claude, with me. I don't know what we can do, but we have to try."
That's when she noticed part of Anastasio's crew hadn't gone back in either, and more kept coming from other buildings, looking at each other uncertainly.
"Do you have a way off the island?" the doe asked them. "Then go! Save yourselves."
The control room was much quieter as she and Claude ran back inside. Half the consoles were unattended; amber lights blinked on the others. Tuzlu Su was at the largest one, adjusting levers.
"Is it helping, Doctor?" asked Anastasio, pushing buttons at the other end of the same console. The Aethereal signed a big "no" again, without turning around.
Anastasio swore. "At this pace we'll run out of halo before they run out of ships! What are the Epsilons and Iotas doing?"
"At a guess?" quipped Claude. "They left."
The cyborg turned sharply to face him. "Don't talk like that about my children."
"Your children have been learning to live on their own," the cat insisted.
Paquita placed a hand on her husband's arm, as their remaining assistants looked up from their posts. "Ani, he's right. Our work here is done. Give the evacuation order."
"Never!" he shouted, shoving her aside. A big crash nearby shook the building. The cyborg was distracted for a second, then plugged his mechanical fingers into a row of holes on his control panel. Lights started dancing on it and the nearby consoles. "Back to work! All of you!"
"Belay that order!" snapped Benita. She stood at the entrance, hands on her hips. "You are relieved from duty, Major."
Anastasio looked over his shoulder. "There you are, big sister. Still ordering me around."
"You always had to be reined in, little brother." She advanced, unfolding her pike. "Now step away from those buttons."
In response, the cyborg rolled his eyes and reached for his sidearm. But the holster was empty. He pulled back his mechanical hand, which was now holding his own pike. It snapped open, and he clashed with the older woman, weapons flashing and sparking, while Lucia helped her mother get up. From across the room, Kantuck gestured widely at Tuzlu Su, her voice like water rushing through a pipe. The doctor started guiding everyone out.
The sky over the beach churned furiously, turning day into a ballet of red shadows. Debris rained down, some splashing into the aether, while others crashed onto the sand, or in the forest. The halo had a hole in it now, but still fired from maybe half its crystals, each scattered shot setting another ship ablaze. At long last the power station's beam sputtered and died. The main building went dark for a moment, before emergency lighting came on. Then something big crashed through the roof. Moments later, smoke and dust poured out of the exit. Benita stumbled into the open, coughing.
"Are you all right?" Paquita asked, catching her. The older woman signed yes. They both turned to look at a man in fatigues running towards them.
"Ma'am," he saluted. Paquita gestured at him to speak. "Remaining personnel has evacuated on the tender."
She clapped her hands. "Good. Everyone, to the spinward jetty. Take the fishing boat."
"What about you?" asked Mathilde.
Paquita looked at the Spirit Walk, all lit up at the end of the pier, two people waving at them from the deck.
"Oh, I'll be just fine. If you'll have me, Captain?" she asked of Kantuck.
"We have room for one more," the doe said.
They were halfway to the dream rider when Lucia stopped. "Wait, where's Doctor Su?"
Claude was the first to spot the gray-green diving suit a short distance along the shore, aether splashing over its boots.
"Doctor, come on!" shouted Paquita. "What are you doing?"
The answer sounded like waves crashing onto the sand.
"Atone for your deeds? How?"
The Aethereal's answer was drowned by a large cloud washing over the beach. When it retreated, not one trace remained.
"Nooooo!" The distant scream made them all look. Anastasio stood in front of the main building, now in flames. As they watched, he crouched down and with a loud pop jumped into the air, trailing steam. He landed on the concrete pad at the base of the pier. Benita met him face to face and they clashed again, pikes gleaming red in that strange light, while the rain of debris intensified.
"There's no more time! Let's go!" Kantuck called, but they kept fighting as mooring lines were released, the plank pulled in and the little ship sped away.
The rain of flaming debris abated as the island remained behind. Soon Claude could stop swerving. Their wake straightened, and with the aether clearing up around them, large shadows became visible. Ships on fire; listing ships sinking in slow motion while their lights flickered; gutted hulls further breaking apart, debris floating on the clouds. Not one tried to hail them, or stop them.
Two large shadows emerged from the haze in front of them, becoming a pair of Republic ships, damaged yet in motion, closer together than the length of the Spirit Walk, and coming straight at the dream rider.
"We'll have to pass between them!" announced Claude, gripping the wheel more tightly.
"Negative. Negative." Kantuck tensed in her chair. "Dive out of their way."
"I'm trying. They're matching our motions!"
Cables shot out between the two vessels, reaching across the gap like prison bars.
"Watch out, teacher!"
"I see them, Mǎi. Hang on!" Claude pulled at a lever, and the engine thrum through the deck plates changed. The little ship bobbed up, then down, and the sawblade ridges built into its hull tore at the obstruction, strands of steel snapping like the strings of creation. The Spirit Walk raced ahead, out of the vise and above the clouds, towards a distant light.
A waning moon rose into the sky through curtains of red-blue mist, making even the brilliant stars fade. Beneath stretched a sea of clouds like the breath of a sleeping god in the cold aether, drifting slowly through time. Somewhere out there sailed a bulbous shape with rows of razor-sharp fins along its metallic body, between spires of black rock that rose from below until the eye lost them into unknown heights.
It was quiet on the bridge, but for deck plates vibrating steadily. Overhead, a twenty-four hour clock ticked away, punctuating the soft hiss of air conditioning. A good luck charm swayed.
"Are we going to be in trouble?" asked Lucia.
"I don't know," Paquita answered her. They were sitting on opposite stools in the chart room, watching dials turn on the engineering console.
"What about us, teacher?" added Mǎi. He looked small in Sand's usual seat.
A pair of cat ears perked up in the captain's chair. "When haven't we been in trouble? We'll wiggle out of it somehow."
"I don't understand..." the wolf girl looked about to cry. "Dad walked away from his old life precisely so this sort of thing wouldn't happen."
"Some people carry war in their souls," Kantuck told her, climbing up the ladder.
"Do I?" asked Sand, following close behind. She looked at him, and lowered her eyes.
"Captain," greeted Paquita. "I have something for you."
She rose to her feet, proffering a wooden case. The doe hesitated briefly, then took it and looked inside. "This... is a stash of high-grade ruby cordite crystals!"
"It's worth quite a bit more than we asked for," added the wolf.
"We won't need them any longer," Paquita told them. "I've learned my lesson."
Mǎi briefly eyed Lucia, then averted his gaze. "What will you do now?"
"The planting season must be in full swing. Won't you come with us, Mǎi? Our school could use another teacher."
"I'm still learning myself," he pointed out. "But, maybe someday."
"Aren't we all?" Claude remarked. "Maybe you should take a shore leave and visit."
Lucia perked up, tail wagging. "That would be awesome. I could use more pike lessons, too," she added, looking at Kantuck.
Her mother raised a hand. "You're all invited to dinner anyway. But no more of this fighting nonsense. Just take us home, Captain, we're tired."
The End
Claude LeChat,
16 December 2022