Wind, Essa thought. Altogether, she had spent more than a decade in space, much of it well beyond the orbitals around Thessia. Often months at a time, crammed into a too small ship with too large a crew. Tight quarters never bothered her, or the dehydrated food, or the uncomfortable and noisy sleeping arrangements. She had always been able to get along with almost anyone. She didn't miss the pull of gravity or the comfort of solid ground beneath her feet. What she missed, the first thing she wanted to feel when returning planetside was weather: wind, rain, sunlight. And here it was, blowing ancient leaves along the dead ground.

Twilight from the little star fell over them as they went deeper into the dead garden. The light made it feel warmer, but it was still cold. All the plants had been dead for a long time, and the leaves crumbled into dust when she touched them.

Neela, after a moment of stunned silence, had strayed off on her own. Already the lamps from her suit were shining between the trees, fifty meters away. Over the comm, she said, "Do you recognize these trees?"

Essa wasn't sure.

"You should," Neela said. "Splitleaf, trifolia, northern spike pine."

Essa shined her lights upward, into the branches. She'd studied botany at university, but she didn't see anything familiar now. She'd always preferred engineering. "I don't know plant species."

"You understand what I'm saying, don't you? These are all from Thessia."

"I suppose it only makes sense," Essa said.

"No, you're not understanding me," Neela said. "The northern spike pine has been extinct for—I don't know how long. Perhaps more than fifty thousand years. Sometime during the Third Migration, when the tribes expanding northward needed fuel to survive over winter. They were wiped out. The forests came back, but not the pine. We've only ever found specimens that sunk into deep, oxygen poor fresh water. Or in the fossil record. It's been gone for millennia, at least. Probably much longer."

Essa had almost reached Neela, but found herself obliged to crawl over a mound of interlaced roots nearly as tall as she was. Breathing hard, she tumbled down to where Neela stood, examining clumps of ferns, their leaves disintegrating at her touch. Neela began taking pictures. "We've got to preserve this," she said. "They're going to finally have to give me tenure at Serrice when they see these pictures. If we make it back, I should say." After a pause she added, "Where do you think the commandos went?"

Essa made a sound at the back of her throat, not wanting to think about it. The bigger problem, as far as she was concerned, was that the ground curved up and away from them in the distance, eventually arching up overhead. The gravity seemed to be holding things to the floor, no matter which way the floor was pointing, but she was having trouble making sense of it all. The commandos could have gone anywhere, and unless they started answering her calls over the radio, in an installation this size, it seemed unlikely they would find them. Not before hunger and thirst, or exposure took them.

Neela was moving again, and Essa followed her.

"This was a footpath," Neela said. She traced a groove cut into the ground by thousands of moving feet.

"Meaning what? Animals?"

"No," Neela said with a laugh, "I think this place was a garden."

"Why not, I suppose."

They kept going. There was no sign of the commandos, but every so often, Neela muttered something about extinct species of trees. Before long, they reached a stream. Arching over it was a narrow bridge with no railings. Here Neela stopped and bent low over the bank of the stream.

"Look at this," she said. She was snapping pictures in the mud. "That's a footprint."

"Razia and her band?" Essa said.

"Not unless they all have two toes."

Essa let out an exclamation. "I suppose nothing should surprise us, after everything that's happened."

"See, something barefoot came across the stream here." Neela pointed to a very faint outline. Pulling something from her belt, she sprayed foam into the print, whose outlines Essa could scarcely see. After a moment she pried it clear and held it up. "See? Only two toes. It's been here for a long time. No wind or rain to rub it out." She slipped the lump of foam into her bag of gear then continued on, plunging into the water that reached almost to her waist. At the edges of the current, slushy ice bobbed among the stones and stuck to the mud of the bank. Neela moved carefully, and called back for Essa to come after her. "Don't fall down," she advised. "If you do, your suit will fill up with icy water and you'll drown in less than a minute. I won't be able to help you."

She found more prints on the opposite bank. "Same individual, I think."

"And they're not still here?"

Neela shook her head. "I don't think we'll find anything living. Might be nice to find a skeleton."

"Then we need to keep looking for the commandos."

They walked for a good distance, following the upward slope of the garden, and searching among the clusters of trees and brambles and rocky outcroppings for another exit.

For some distance they found none, and so they walked up the long upward slope of the garden, until they had reached roughly the midway point between the two arms. The little blue star still hung suspended directly over their heads, and the place where they had entered receded into the distance, and the chilly fog that swirled through the treetops that bordered the stream hung in a layer below them. Out ahead, more of the same territory awaited. Clusters of trees, long overgrown, and dead. Clearings full of tall grasses and ferns, most of them familiar from Thessia, that sometimes disintegrated when touched. They were alone, but for each other, and for the dead trees, and the ghostly presence of a long dead alien race, suggested by the occasional footpath, or bridge, or broken stone bench stationed at the edge of an outlook.

At length, Essa said, "Who do you think lived here?"

Neela didn't answer, but only stopped to photograph a few more trees.

"All the way out here at the edge of the system," Essa said. "All the technology in the world, it seems. Here we are sticking to the floor. We were stuck to the floor all the way back down there. But the floor was pointing in a different direction back there. Why put something this big this far away from the only habitable planet. After all, it seems like whoever they were, they were more or less like us. They needed oxygen and light, and—whatever this is."

Neela made a sound, but again didn't answer. A fallen tree blocked their way, and the two spent a good five minutes getting around it. On the other side of the massive stump was something that looked like a park bench, made of polished stone. The bench was situated at an overlook, and Neela took a moment to sit down. "I'm tired," she said. Essa took a seat beside her. They had, she saw now, been climbing the slope of relatively tall a hill. They were above the layer of fog. Stands of tall trees and other hilltops rose up through the haze that shimmered silver in the low light. Essa let out a gasp as a cold gust of wind blew a cloud over their vantage.

"It's beautiful, don't you think?"

Neela agreed. "I wonder, too. All this effort, for what? Anyone that could have built this—we're lucky they meant us well. Or that we were so insignificant it seemed pointless to destroy us."

Essa got up to turn out of the wind. "And they did come to Thessia. I wonder what they thought of us when the arrived."

Neela shrugged. "Not enough to make an impression in the historical record, I suppose." She looked up at Essa. The markings on her face seemed to glimmer in the light from the star.

"I never noticed before," Essa said, "that you had the Diadem."

Neela seemed to blush. "Not many do. It's very faint, except in certain light." She got up and stretched. "We should keep going." And after they'd walked for a while, she said, "I'm glad you saw. My birthmarks, I mean. Not many people see them for what they are." She reached out and gave Essa's hand an affectionate squeeze.

After about an hour they found a rock outcrop that concealed an opening that lead back into the station. Within they found a similar corridor where they left muddy footprints, and where after having traveled some distance they discovered a passageway leading to a series of rooms that appeared to have been living quarters. They hadn't seen a sign of the commandos since the long tunnel they'd entered earlier.

"We'll never find them," Neela said. "Not like this."

There was another room, a mess hall, perhaps, spotlessly clean and orderly, with tables and chairs made for creatures roughly the same size as an asari. Essa realized she was hungry, but decided to save the rations she kept stored in her utility belt for later.

Up ahead they found a junction in the corridors where paths branched away in five directions. There was something that appeared as though it might have been a utility vehicle parked at the intersection, and Essa looked it over while Neela studied the markings designating the different pathways.

"Will it run?" she said.

Essa pushed a few buttons, but the machine, whatever it was meant to do, didn't respond. "I don't think so," and then, touching one more switch, the vehicle lifted up off the ground and hovered at ankle height above the floor.

Neela looked at Essa and shook her head. "I suppose nothing is every going to surprise me again."

A few minutes more and Essa had figured out more or less how to make the thing go. It was hard to control, slipping and sliding in every direction like a wheeled vehicle on ice. She and Neela climbed aboard. Neela indicated a direction, and they moved off down the corridor, slowly at first, then at greater speed. In short order they reached a set of doors that did not open when they approached. Neela studied it for a moment and pressed her fingers to a square panel in the middle. The two halves of the opening slid apart and they walked into a dimly lit room.

Glass screens partitioned off an inner area. The screens began to light up as they approached, and in the center of the room, a holographic projection appeared and slowly came into focus. Essa stood and stared. There at the center of the display was Parnitha, and surrounding that, the six planets, each in their position relative to it. Essa didn't have to study the display for long to realize that it was a real-time image. At the outermost edge of the display was a smaller shape, not to scale, of the installation they'd entered a few hours ago. A small orange pip indicated the Nixia, which Essa now saw had moved a considerable distance away from the installation.

"They've gone to recover the probe," she said. And as she said it, another small orange dot appeared at the outermost edge of the display. "That must be the probe itself."

"They'll come back for us, won't they?" Neela said.

Essa affirmed that they would. She looked more closely, then, reached into the display, wanting to touch one of the objects it contained. Her fingers seemed to close around Thessia, and as they did, she felt something solid in her hand. She pulled it to her, and as she did the image of the planet got bigger and bigger, until it began to show the locations of some of the larger orbital stations surrounding her home planet. There were dots everywhere now, Essa saw, other ships moving around the system: the regular traffic between Thessia and High Rock was marked by a line of ships following the weeks long route that connected their homeworld to the installation. There was a supply ship returning from one of the orbital stations around Athame. Dozens up dozens swarmed low orbit around Thessia itself.

"This installation knows everything about is," she said with a gasp.

Neela was standing beside her. "I wonder how much high command knows about it," she said.

The screens that surrounded the central display came alive, and beneath their feet, Essa felt something begin to hum, a low rumble that traveled through the floor and resonated up through feet and legs.

"I think we woke it up," Neela said.

"Do you see that?" Essa said. Another small dot—larger than the Nixia—had appeared near the edge of Tevura's outermost ring and was heading in the general direction of where they now were.

Neela squinted. She needed visual correction, Essa thought, but perhaps was reluctant to resort to surgery. Aboard ship, she sometimes saw her wearing spectacles to read. "What is it?" she asked.

"Maybe it's an asteroid that's been ejected from orbit, or pulled off track."

"We're a bit far out for asteroids that large," Neela said. "A comet, then? No, a comet would have probably broken up, so close in to the planet."

They studied the display some more. Essa began experimenting with the interface a bit more and soon had figured out how to move from one vantage point to another. Focusing in on High Rock, she pointed at a dozen small dots. "The blips all represent spacecraft," she said. "The planets are all considerably more detailed. There's even a display of local weather patterns on Thessia. And here, you can even see the space elevators."

They looked closely at more of the asteroids, many of which were fully detailed, their cratering and rugged shapes represented accurately when they zoomed in close.

The dot, meanwhile, continued to separate from Tevura's Psi ring, increasing its distance, apparently accelerating. The Nixia, meanwhile, continued on its path, drawing closer to the probe, and moving away from the installation.

"I wonder if they've detected that," Essa said, pointing at the dot again.

"We should probably get back to the launch," Neela said. For some reason she sounded frightened.

Behind her the board lit up, displaying a picture of the installation. Lines of something—important data, but written in an undecipherable language appeared beside the image. Essa went over to it as several sections of the diagram lit up, showing either red or green. Thousands of characters, grouped into what Essa knew were either numbers or words, or more likely both, appeared in a box on the screen to her right, and a faint pipping sound accompanied them.

Neela went over to that display and began comparing what she was reading to some of the images on her wrist tool.

"We need to get out of here," she said. "That thing seems to be headed directly for us."

"How soon until it arrives?"

Neela studied the console again, and again looked at her wrist tool. "No way to be sure." She pointed to a row of characters on the board that appeared to be constantly changing. "I think these are numbers, and they're getting smaller. At the rate they're going I'd say we have two hours, maybe less." After a moment, she said, "Look at this though." She touched something on the screen, and Essa heard not one but two sounds. A steady pip-pip-pip came from the console. Added to that a low growl that appeared to be coming from the object that was approaching them. "It sounds like they're communicating," Neela said. She tapped a button on her wrist tool and captured a portion of the signal for analysis.

Essa thought about how long it had taken the Nixia to draw near to the object where she now found herself and the rate at which this new contact was approaching. "All right," she said. "Let's go."

#

The door slid open, and Essa found herself staring into the barrel of a gun. Unseen hands grabbed her shoulder and threw her to the floor. Neela landed beside her. She struggled, but someone held her down and snatched away her sidearm before she could reach for it.

"The devil were you thinking Lieutenant?" Commandant Razia.

Essa got up onto her knees and looked. One of the commandos was standing close, looking like she was ready to send her back to the floor, either with a bullet or a hard kick to the side of her head. Razia came up beside her, carbine ready, but not aimed at anything.

Essa didn't speak.

"Is there a reason you're interfering with my operation?" Razia said.

Essa looked up. "After you boarded, the launch collided with the docking ring. Something pulled us in."

"Doesn't explain why you're here."

"Two of my crew were injured in the crash. One of them badly." Essa said, "It looked like we would find a breathable atmosphere inside, so we followed you through the airlock."

Razia looked furious, but said nothing.

"We followed you as far as you'd marked," Essa said. "But we lost your trail. Soon enough we found that—garden—and somehow it led us here."

"We saw what happened after you came through the airlock. We knew that you were tracking us and decided to lay up and see what kind of game you were playing."

Essa only counted four in the squad. There should have been one more. "Did you lose someone?" she said.

"Our medic. I sent her back to tend to your wounded." Turning to Neela, she said "You did a fine job with the projectile wound, or so the medic tells me. At least you remember your first aid training, because you don't remember a damned thing about following orders."

"As I said, Commandant, I was going to lose one of my crew."

"You're an officer. That's your problem." She suddenly turned away and examined the door from which Essa and Neela had just emerged. "And what were you doing in the command center?"

How did she know? Essa wondered. Before she could ask, Razia had pushed past her and opened the door. "Watch them," she said to one of the commandos, who made Neela and Essa get up on their knees and put their hands on top of their heads, faced away from the interior of the room.

Neela looked up at the commando, who kept her gun trained on them. "We need to get out of here," she said. There's something that's going to collide with this station in less than two hours."

The commando didn't react.

"Where are you from?" Essa said. After that didn't work, she said, "I used to live in a small town just outside of Armali. My mother designed prints for textiles." After another pause, "You must like to get dressed up on your days off, don't you? Do they even give you days—"

The comando's elbow stopped her sentence short. "Next one won't just quiet you," she said.

"We're all on the same side, here," Neela said. "How about if you tell us what's going on?"

"Maybe they won't tell her," Essa said. "Not important enough to know."

The commando hit her again, and this time the pain exploded across Essa's jaw. For a moment she thought the commando had broken it. One of her teeth felt loose, and a trickle of purple blood welled along her gums.

Essa spat it out onto the commando's foot, just to see what she would do. She didn't flinch or take a step back in revulsion. She didn't appear to notice it at all.

"How much longer are you going to keep us on our knees like this?" Neela said. "We need to get out of here."

"So you say," the commando said with a bloodthirsty grin. She looked like she was about to lash out again, but only pulled her weapon back in toward her body. In that moment, Essa saw everything as it should happen: she reached up and took the rifle, pulling it toward her. Surprised, the commando's hand clenched around the trigger and she fired a shot into the floor. Essa wrenched the weapon around, and placing her knee beind the commando's, pulled and shoved, and made her flail backwards, landing hard on the oxygen tanks of her suit. Not wasting any time, Essa dropped low and gave the commando two sharp blows from her elbow, and when these didn't appear to do the trick, two more that made her expression turn blank and her limbs go slack.

This, she thought later, was what she should have done, but instead the moment passed.

Commandant Razia was returning, in any event. She had a brief conversation with their guard, saying only, "We've got what we came for," leaving Essa to wonder what that might mean. To Essa and Neela, she said, "Right. Get up, and show us how this vehicle works. We should get out of here quick as we can."

"So you saw it, too?" Neela said, "The object approaching the station?"

Razia didn't answer, but her impassive expression suggested that she had.

The vehicle was big enough to hold them all, though it wobbled slightly whenever Essa tried to maneuver or accelerate. At least there was room for the commandos on the flatbed at the front of the little craft. They reached the end of the corridor, and came out into the ancient garden, where Essa deftly zipped up and over a mound of tangled roots, and began retracing the path she and Neela had followed on their way there. She began slowly, gaining speed as she gained in confidence. The vehicle shone a light that reached about twenty meters up ahead, and as Essa followed the track, she saw, and then attempted to swerve around something she thought she had seen running across their path. The craft spun, slipped sideways and struck a tree, throwing the commandos to the ground and slamming Essa's face against the controls.

Neela had split her lip open, and Essa felt like she'd broken her nose. A long trail of blood had formed in the time it took her to regain her senses. The commandos were mostly unhurt, aside from one who said she'd blacked out when she hit the ground, and probably had a concussion. One of them had lost her weapon.

"Search for it, and quickly," Razia said. "We don't have long—"

Everyone fanned out, and there in the lights from the hovercraft, was the thing Essa had swerved to avoid. Arms and legs, frozen in motion, one hand stretched out, as though reaching for something, the other, snapped off, legs bent slightly as though about to leap forward. Decapitated.

A statue. Perhaps representing the creatures that had built this place, though the body was ambiguous enough that it could still have been an asari, at least a small-breasted one. The broken arm lay at the base of the pedestal, but the head had been carried elsewhere.

The commando called out that she'd found her rifle. As she said this, the star that hung in the void above them glowed brighter, turning the twilight into day. Looking up, Essa saw that the two rings that held the star in place were turning much faster than they had been, were in fact, spinning so fast she could almost no longer see them. Razia looked up, her command presence suddenly broken. Everyone did the same.

A hum rose up through the ground and the trees and earth shook, filling the air with dust. A few moments later the sound became deafening, and the light nearly blinded them. The whirling rings disappeared, and what looked like a massive lightning bolt shot from the star out into space. The noise peaked and as it dropped away, Essa glimpsed a dark shape, lit by the energy passing into it that then hurtled away down the long rail of the station and vanished into the dark of space.

"What the devil was that?" said one of the commandos.

"I saw it, too," said another. "I think it was a ship."

No one answered, but just stared on in awe and the sort of terror reserved for things beyond all understanding.