Basil and Siân walked the deserted corridors of the strike cruiser for what seemed an eternity, with Basil's psychic locator leading the way and the stasis box floating behind them. Onward the locator led, past the Librarium. Downward, it led to the ventral side of the ship.
They stopped at the entrance to the drop pod bays, a closed blast door.
"I should have known," Basil said. "The Librarian was supposed to have guided it here in order to return the Condenser from where it was stolen. Of course, it would have been in the drop pod bay."
"You said all the drop pods had been used," Siân interjected. She glanced around nervously. "I feel like we are not alone," she added.
"I believe I was mistaken," Basil said. "I think that the Condenser is shielded in some way. Perhaps that shielding, whatever it is, prevented me from locating the drop pod." He glanced at the control mechanism on the wall then reached up to it and entered a command. SEAL BREACHED, was the answer it gave. "The environmental seal within is not intact," Basil said. "Prepare for vacuum."
Siân simply walked to the open blast door behind them and waved her hand over the control mechanism. The door slammed closed and she placed her hand on the stasis box to hold it in place.
Basil grasped the Warp, fashioning a protective envelope around himself, then manually activated the blast door. It slid open and the air in the small pocket between the two blast doors was quickly stripped away, but the volume was too small to create a wind capable of moving him or Siân. The box struggled against her grasp, but she had little trouble holding it in place.
The first thing Basil saw was the body on the deck, the body of a space marine in full power armour with a force staff in its grasp. On the right shoulder pauldron was the heraldry of the Void Spectres, the silver skull and tabard overtop a black field, while the rest of the power armour was blue, marking the marine as a Librarian. The Librarian. The one who had guided the Purgation through the Warp.
Basil, Siân telepathically said in his head with an urgency that made him look up.
Before him was a space marine in power armour, identical to the one on the floor, but helmet removed. And the back half of his head was gone, but he still stood there. Basil quickly realized what was happening. He's a ghost, he said to himself and Siân.
"So, you have finally come," said the space marine ghost, his mouth moving and voice traveling across the void separating him from Basil and Siân as if it were filled with air. He glanced at Siân and a look of anger filled his eyes. "What is she doing here?" the Librarian snapped. "She sullies the Fires of Purgation with her very presence."
I am working with her, Basil answered. I fight with her against the great Enemy.
The ghost glanced down at the Inquisitorial symbol on Basil's chest and his expression softened. "You have been granted His permission to do that as you see fit. That is enough for me." His gaze returned to Basil's face. "You must take control of the Condenser." His gaze quickly flickered to Siân and back to Basil. when he spoke, anger had returned to his voice. "Do not let them take control of it," he snapped. "That would be as bad as giving it to the Tech-Priests of Vichka."
What happened to you? Basil asked. Were you shot?
"No," laughed the ghost. "I'm no Navigator. The strain of piloting and guiding the Purgation through the Warp by myself was too much and I paid the price with my life. I only made it this far from the bridge by His grace."
I will tell your Brothers what you have accomplished, Basil said. The Librarian's eyes lit up. Three of your Brothers yet live. I am taking the geneseed stored onboard with me and will give it to Apothecary Fynn. I will also see Epistolary Ansgar and Forge Master Attalus. May I have your name?
"Tell them you spoke with Brother Boyana," the ghost said. "You will need the codes. They are long. I will send them to you telepathically." He stared at Basil for a moment, sending the long code, then stepped aside.
I will take your remains too, Basil added. Your Brothers can then give you a proper farewell and your armour can be used for future Void Spectres as they work to rebuild your chapter. Boyana nodded in response.
Siân exchanged stares with Boyana as she passed him by into the drop pod bay, but Basil remained focused on the task at hand. He drew forth a strand of the Warp and raised Boyana's armoured corpse above the deck, then turned into the bay, trailed by the stasis box and the floating armoured corpse.
The ghost simply faded away.
The bay was black as the night. A handful of light fixtures shone as points of light on the bulkheads and ceiling, but no shadows filled the bay, everything switched instantly from light to dark. The points of light stretched across the deck until the far bulkhead was reached. Or rather, where the far bulkhead should have been. Nothing was there. the bulkhead was gone with the only trace being a rugged edge where it had been blasted away or ripped apart. Beyond was the black void with scattered stars. But alone, in the middle of the bay, sat a drop pod.
It was a supply pod, used for dropping consumables and important gear to marines who had already landed upon the surface of a planet. The drop pod had four silver flattened 'legs' that supported its midnight black body in an upright position. Basil walked directly to the pod, still trailed by the corpse and stasis box while Siân stood to the side and silently watched him.
Even behind the mask, Basil said to himself, I can tell something is on her mind. He pushed the thought away and opened the hatch. A small rush of air blew out as vacuum quickly claimed the interior, but Basil ignored it and stepped inside.
The drop pod was dark, save for a few scattered lights on a control panel, but on the deck was a darkness that swallowed everything around it, the Condenser. Basil struggled to concentrate on the hexagonal structure, but had difficulty focusing it, forced to concentrate merely on the edges of the strapping which held it in place on top of a wheeled shock carriage. I guess the gravitic lockdowns don't work on it, Basil decided.
He reached down and touched the Condenser. Basil immediately saw a great celestial form of debris, gases, and plasma drifting through space and recognized it. The Bennu Cloud. And a great light shone from it illuminating an enormous gate. And he saw what lay on the other side. It was a gigantic structure of obsidian material, just like the Condenser, which stretched for hundreds, if not thousands, of miles and Basil intuitively recognized what it was he witnessed. The final destination on the road of Saim-Hann, the Quest for Enlightenment.
Scholomance, the nest of the Cosmic Serpent.
After staring at the Condenser for a moment longer, Basil snapped his gaze free and glanced around. He quickly noted the supply pod also held three shock carriages designed for space marines and then set himself to work. First, he telekinetically positioned Boyana's corpse into one of the carriages and locked the armour into place. Secondly, he placed the stasis box on the floor and activated the gravitic lockdowns to safeguard it. Why is she still outside? Basil asked himself, then projected his thoughts to her. Come in, he said. It is time we leave.
Without answering, Siân stepped into the drop pod and stared at the darkness in the middle. She kneeled down to look at it more closely, placing her hand upon it as she did so, then quickly sat into one of the two remaining space marine carriages.
Basil pulled the hatch closed and then actuated the control panel. Air rushed into the pod, filling the void. He reached out to the bay's control center and telekinetically activated the launch, feeding into it the code Boyana had given him. The pod exited the Purgation's ventral side and began its descent to the surface of Ceg Y Neidr.
Minutes passed as the pod continued toward the surface. A hum grew, filling the pod, as the atmosphere grew thicker and pummeled the craft. Basil stared at Siân, but she did not return his gaze. "We do not properly fit into these carriages," he said. "They are not made for people like you and me. We will need to telekinetically hold ourselves into place and hope to properly shield ourselves from the shock of landing."
Siân did not acknowledge his words.
"What is it?" Basil snapped at her, growing frustrated. "What is bothering you?"
"You are bothering me," she said in Aeldari but Basil was barely able to hear her over the growing hum.
"I don't understand," Basil said. "What have I," he began but didn't get to finish.
"I am willing to fight against my own people at your side, but you merely acknowledge me as a tool to fight the Enemy," Siân snapped.
"But I helped you long ago with nothing in it for me," Basil screamed so as to be heard.
"As you said, that was long ago," Siân smugly answered. "Four Terran standard years. Such a long time. But that was before you put that on your chest and served as an Inquisitor's apprentice," she added, pointing to the Inquisitorial seal on his breastplate. "You did not claim me as friend or trusted ally when Boyana snapped at me. You claimed to be working with me, like a smith with his hammer." She stared at him through her featureless mask. "What if the Imperium comes for the Exodites to murder them or for my craftworld? You know they will. What then? Who will you stand with?"
"That's more difficult to figure than this," Basil said. "I…"
"Is it?" Siân snapped.
Danger filled Basil's senses and he realized impact was upon them with neither having grasped the Warp to shield themselves. He desperately snatched the Warp and wrapped it haphazardly around Siân before trying to wrap it round himself.
Pain filled his senses, followed by blackness.
