The first warhead impacted early – Zyan only made it to three in his countdown. They felt it as a very faint tremor, transmitted upwards from the deck, through the pillar and the rail – or maybe along the sunstrip and down, who knew. The second followed precisely two seconds later, then another and another in succession.
Later analysis of the torpedo telemetry would show that it was the sixth warhead that breached the inner hull, it's destructive fury ripping open a huge, jagged hole in the habitat cylinder's rear wall. Atmosphere flooded out to join the slowly expanding debris field of rock that was all that remained of the colony vessel's stern. The seventh shot through the gap it's predecessor had made, screamed down the length of the ship in under a second, shielding vaporising as it hit atmosphere – Zyan, Alenda and Shara felt it's passing only as a pressure wave, but by then the atmosphere was tearing at them as it started to rush out of the hull – and hit one of the pillars near the bow. This damaged the sunstrip, causing it to dim to emergency levels: instant twilight. The eighth torpedo was intended to follow the seventh's path, but it went off course and instead took out the huge bearings that held up the rear axle.
The habitat cylinder came to a sudden catastrophic stop.
The three Ballybranners were quite close to the central axis. Zyan's plan had worked, so they carried over only enough momentum to give them a hard, bone-jarring shove off the side of the platform. They were immediately swept up in the gale-force wind that had been created by the energetic venting of the habitat cylinder's atmosphere. Like it or not, their destination was now open space.
Anything that had been closer to the outside edge of the habitat cylinder – which was to say almost everything – was not so fortunate.
Any object which was not bolted directly to the cylinder immediately started travelling sideways at a considerable velocity. Streams and rivers immediately burst their banks, exploding up into the air like huge, elongated fountains, snatched up immediately by the wind. Buildings were flattened, then rebounded off the surface as debris. Metal roadways flipped over, ripped themselves to bits and flew up into the screaming wind. Trees were ripped from the ground - the ground was ripped from the ground.
To Alenda, Shara and Zyan, still clinging on to each other, it looked like the entire habitat cylinder floor had exploded.
"Shard me," Zyan breathed, awestruck, then remembered this was a crisis and he'd better act like it.
Alenda beat him to it. "Status reports, please," she asked crisply.
"Well, I'm alive," Shara replied.
"Check your suit integrity," Zyan said. "Top right corner of the readout is the summary, green is good, any other colour is, well, not so good."
It took some rearranging of hands and arms to do this while keeping hold of each other, but everyone was green. They were hurtling along, a few dozen metres from the dim, flickering sunstrip.
Their suits didn't have any maneuvering capability – they were at the mercy of the wind. With luck – a lot of luck – they would be swept out of the gap into space. With a lot more luck, they wouldn't hit the sides on the way out: Zyan could see the jagged rent in the distance, near the terminus of the sunstrip. With yet another generous serving of luck, they wouldn't smash into debris once out, and with a final, hefty dessert portion of luck, they could contact the Sassinak directly at that point – Zyan darkly suspected that Saito was not passing along everything she heard to the crew. For all the general disdain he held the FSP in, he knew that their military had strongly held views on friendly fire, and any spacer worth his or her salt would go out of their way to retrieve someone in distress. If they could get through to an actual FSP naval officer, their chances of survival increased.
All of that, though, hinged on one further factor: that the Sassinak wasn't destroyed or disabled by the two hostiles out there.
"Anna is alive!" Alenda announced.
"Good for her," Zyan replied. "What's happening outside?"
"She doesn't know – she has no comms and no sensor access. I can barely communicate with her," Alenda reported. "She's moving up the lift shaft that you two came in on – she pressurised it before the torpedoes hit, and it still has atmosphere. It's not clear exactly how, but I think she's flying."
"She had a drone with rotors, I assume she's using that," Zyan said. "Wish her luck, tell her that her best chance is to get clear of this ship any way she can. If we live, and Saito doesn't kill us, we'll pick her up."
"Will you please think positively!" Shara snapped.
Zyan had forgotten about her issues with open spaces. Her expression, through her visor, was flat and angry, probably about as close as she got to scared. Being sucked out into space was going to be pretty high on her list of nightmare scenarios.
"Sorry, Shara," Zyan said. "Deep breaths."
"And use up my sharding oxygen?" She replied.
"These suits have a rebreather," Zyan said. "If that fails, there's a ten minute emergency air supply that'll kick in automatically. Even Vadansky's cut-price tat has to meet minimum safety standards. Running out of air is not going to be an issue."
"I'd feel much better with a standard problem that can be solved with violence," Shara said, although she sounded a little calmer.
Which reminded Zyan: "Any sign of the Overlord?" He asked Alenda.
"He is in some sort of body – of exactly what nature, I cannot tell. He is blocking me even as I am blocking him. He is-"
"Look out!" Shara called, somewhat too loudly for the suit comms, and immediately reached over her shoulder for her pulser. Alenda had the presence of mind to shift her grip to Shara's waist.
Shara fired – Zyan could only hear because of the suit comms. Whatever it was, she rated it as a threat, because she emptied a clip at it. Zyan couldn't see because he was facing the wrong way and it was almost impossible to orient oneself even if one wasn't hanging onto someone else – in his case, Alenda – for dear life. There was only one candidate he could think of, though.
Then something heavy and hard slammed into him, and he lost his grip on Alenda. He went spinning away from them, and caught a glimpse of something bulky and grey also spinning away after the impact.
"Zyan!" Shara exclaimed.
Alenda was more clinical and professional, although Zyan hoped she was also as concerned.
"That was the Overlord," she reported, "in what looks like a jury-rigged exosuit, appears armoured, may be powered, definitely has manoeuvring thrusters. He is not armed that I saw, but you're both pretty far away now, closer to the sunstrip and about a hundred metres behind us. He's trying to re-acquire you, expect contact at any moment."
"I have a shot," Shara said. "Alenda, hold still."
Shara's pulser sounded over the suit comms again, several long bursts.
"Shards!" She swore. "It's almost impossible to hit anything flying along like this. I knocked him off course a bit, but his suit must be armoured, he's veering back."
"Looks like I've got a scrap on my hands then," Zyan said, trying to turn around. "Can he-, can he control me?"
"Not while I'm within a few hundred kilometres of you, no," Alenda said firmly.
"Wait, hundreds of kilometres?" Zyan found time to be surprised, in between twisting around and trying to control his orientation. "Isn't that a bit of an upgrade?"
"Indeed," Alenda confirmed. "Exactly how many hundreds I'm not sure of yet, but definitely in that range."
Shara fired again. "I'm out," she reported. "I'd have better luck shooting in a mach storm, this is eating through ammo."
"Take mine," Alenda said. "You're the best shot."
"Thanks," Shara said. "Couldn't you, y'know, scramble it's brain until it dribbles out of it's ears or make it's head explode?"
"Shara!" Zyan protested. "A little sensitivity, maybe?"
"It's got it coming," Shara said, as she fired off another burst. "Shards, missed."
"It doesn't work that way: fortunately for the Overlord," Alenda said, unfazed. "Zyan, contact in three, two-" Do be careful! "One."
Anderssen shot past Zyan in an angular grey suit that indeed looked jury-rigged – pirate gear, he guessed. He then swung about and made a grab for Zyan, but missed. Zyan grabbed his ankle instead, and tried to pull his pulser round with his other arm, but had to abandon that to fend off Anderssen kicking at him with his other leg. They slammed into the sunstrip and bounced off.
"Zyan, are you okay?" Alenda asked.
"Yep," Zyan replied. "Bit of a deadlock, here, though," he added.
That abruptly changed when Anderssen spun in mid-air. Zyan swung round with him, Anderssen made a grab for his arm, and all of a sudden they were fighting face to face. They each had a grip on each other's arms – thankfully Anderssen's suit was unpowered, and although the not-really-a-man was prodigiously strong, Zyan had spore-enhanced strength to counter it. Zyan was free to kick at him, for all the good that would do – Anderssen's suit wouldn't allow his legs that high up, or so it seemed.
Anderssen had his faceplate retracted – this overclone had both eyes, but apart from that seemed identical. Zyan smiled grimly.
"Gonna enjoy watching you choke to death once we get sucked out into space, Anderssen!" He shouted.
"Unlike your pathetic forms, I am no longer a slave to atmosphere!" Anderssen roared back.
He didn't need to breathe. Great.
"Try and get me a clear shot!" Shara said.
"You're good, Shara, but not that good. Hold your fire," Alenda advised.
"I will crush the life out of you and make her watch!" Anderssen threatened.
Zyan shouted back something extremely rude.
Saito chose this exact moment to finally break radio silence. Her voice came over BlackTalk. "Jarvis, are you all still alive?"
"Oh, now you want to talk?" Zyan replied, with heavy sarcasm. "Figures. I'm a little busy right now fighting hand to hand with a sharding alien death clone but yeah, we're alive."
"No thanks to you, you ruthless sharding cowbag!" Shara added.
"Swear to me you are not compromised," Saito said. "Swear to me the countermeasure is real!"
Zyan was startled by a sudden deluge of what appeared, to all intents and purposes, to be rain – it was ground water thrown up into the air and then pulled along with it. With it were a few twigs and clumps of earth – and then a tree slammed into Anderssen and set them both to spinning.
"Whoa!" Zyan exclaimed.
"Zyan!" Alenda said.
"Watch out for flying trees!" Zyan cautioned Alenda and Shara.
"What?" Saito asked, confused.
"Fallout from your sharding torpedoes, that's what!" Zyan said. "Now listen, yes the- shards!" Zyan yelped as Anderssen made a concerted effort to pin his arms behind his back, but fought him off, back to their deadlock. "Yes we're not compromised and yes the countermeasure is real! Now concentrate your fire on those bloody cruisers and get a search and rescue shuttle to our position yesterday, we're about to be sucked out into space and if by some miracle we manage to avoid being ripped to bits by the mess of jagged wreckage you've created we'd sort of appreciate being picked up, because you blew up my bloody shuttle!"
"Both cruisers have been destroyed – they were not well-handled, they simply rammed us. We are badly damaged, weapons are down, we only have point defence capability left," Saito reported.
Zyan glared at Anderssen with hateful joy. "How long can you be out there without breathing? Gonna be fun finding out, 'cos both your rides out of town are shrapnel, shardhole."
"Then I shall simply take yours!" Anderssen roared back. "How many minds can your pale-haired saviour protect? A dozen? Two? Not, I will happily wager, an entire crew!"
Shards, Zyan thought. Alenda? He asked.
I do not have any hard information on that, Alenda thought back to him.
The hole was getting closer, or rather they were getting closer to the hole.
"Saito!" Zyan subvocalised. "How accurate are the Sassinak's point defence clusters?"
"I'm told very," Saito replied.
"Take out a human-sized target at your current range?" Zyan asked.
Anderssen tried his pinning trick again. Zyan hadn't tired as much as the alien thought he had, though, and he managed to keep him at arm's length.
"Yes, but there's a lot of debris out there. The captain tells me that sensors are degraded," Saito reported.
They were getting very close now. Zyan could just make out Alenda and Zyan – thankfully, they looked to be on a course which would take them clear of the edges of the hole.
"What if I can paint the target?" Zyan asked.
There was a delay, then: "That will work."
"Zyan, what are you thinking?" Shara asked, sounding worried. "Are you about to do a Zyanny thing? This is not the time for a Zyanny thing!"
Zyan, no! Alenda sent, as she had a quick look and divined what he was intending.
It's not what you think, Zyan thought back at her. "Shara, do an emergency shutdown on your BlackTalk unit now!"
"I hope you know what you're doing Zyan," Shara said, then: "Emergency shutdown now now now." After the final 'now', his BlackTalk unit confimed she was offline.
"Okay, it's off, and also I think we're in space now. Alenda?"
"Confirmed," Alenda said. Zyan be careful!
Promise, Zyan replied. "Saito, after a ten count, lock onto the remaining active BlackTalk unit with a point defence laser and fire!"
Zyan gathered all his strength and forced his right hand and head together, straining against Anderssen's grip. He released his helmet, and it snapped instantly back against his neck, flapping there in the wind. Then he dug his BlackTalk unit out of his ear and put it in his mouth, leaned forward as if to headbutt Anderssen, but instead spat the black crystal down the side of his neck, into his suit.
"Shard you!" He swore in the alien's face, then did headbutt him.
It took a superhuman effort to wrench his right arm free of Anderssen, but he managed it, just. Zyan reached over his shoulder, wrenched the pulser free, ripping it's webbing sling, and jammed it into Anderssen's suit.
"Hah! This armour is stronger than that!" Anderssen snarled.
"I'm counting on it!" Zyan shouted back, and pulled the trigger.
The impact of the rounds and the recoil combined to wrench the two of them apart. Zyan spiralled off, he didn't know where to, but he could see the Overlord similarly affected. He resealed his helmet, and then very, very suddenly he'd stopped. Zyan slammed into a hard surface, then immediately started being dragged along it by the howling gale.
He'd landed against the inner end of the habitat cylinder, and was now getting very close to a sharp, jagged edge of twisted metal. The gun was ripped from his grasp, bounced off a bent, ragged truss, and disappeared.
"Shards!" He swore, and desperately grabbed for a handhold. He got two fingers onto a protruberance, but couldn't hold on, then hurriedly re-engaged the magboots and shoved them against the surface.
Zyan! What's happened? Alenda asked, in his mind.
He scraped to a halt just inches from a huge blade of tortured steel, bent up by a torpedo's explosive fury.
I landed on the inner cylinder hull. I'm in one piece. Are you okay? Is Shara freaking out? Did they get him? Zyan asked.
Instinct made him check his suit status, and it wasn't good - it was reporting multiple small breaches.
Shara and I are both fine, we're floating free. I have Saito on suit comms, now. She reports that the target has been eliminated.
Zyan snorted in satisfaction. "Gotcha," he said.
He unshipped the duct tape from his tool belt and started taping up the breaches. They all seemed to be on his front – shrapnel from the pulser burst. Come to think of it, his stomach felt a bit tingly and wet: someone was going to have to go digging around in there later, in the meantime, well, the spore could earn it's keep.
That was a gamble, Zyan, Alenda thought at him, with a definite edge of fear.
I know, I know, Zyan said. But the Overlord stays on here, couldn't risk him getting within mindsharding range of the Sassinak.
Cuts duly sealed – or hopefully sealed, anyway – he assessed his other problems.
"Oh," he said.
The rebreather was out of action – Zyan felt over his shoulder to where it was located, and there was nothing there. His suit was telling him he had 11 minutes of emergency air.
A search and rescue shuttle is inbound, Alenda told him.
"Well, I'm on emergency air, so-" Zyan realised his suit comms were shot, too. Great. I'm on emergency air, so ask them to put the pedal to the metal, please. No comms. Suit probably holed in a few places I haven't been able to patch, and the ones I have patched are patched with duct tape, which in case you couldn't guess isn't the ideal material for spacesuit repairs.
Oh, Zyan, Alenda said. I'm sorry. Sorry for what I did, sorry for dragging you all the way out here. I'm- Zyan, I can feel the Overlord again. He's in another body, Alenda said.
Persistent little sharder, isn't he? Bet he's got fallback after fallback. Can you contact Anna, tell me where to go? I'll grab her and then we'll get the hell out of here, Zyan sent.
Alenda's mental help was much better than Anna's mental help – she gave him a definite bearing and a distance. That'll get you to an access airlock.
As suddenly as if a tap had been turned off, the wind stopped. All the internal atmosphere is gone, Zyan sent.
While he clunked across the surface of the metal, Zyan looked down the length of the habitat cylinder. It was now very dim, but huge chunks of debris could be made out, floating here and there, and there appeared to be a lot of ice crystals. Every now and again there would be a flash of something shorting out in the sunstrip, and the whole murky mess would be briefly illuminated, like lightning through thick cloud.
"Well there's something you don't see every day," Zyan said to himself, then realised he'd better save his air, and then recalled being told, by an NCO back on Djiel, that it was a myth that talking used more air. He made a mental note to get some hard data on that, if he was going to be doing this sort of thing very often.
Are you and Shara safe yet? Zyan asked.
We're being picked up now, Alenda replied.
Great, I'm nearly at the airlock, Zyan replied, which was good news since he was down to six minutes left, and it was beginning to float to the top of the list of things currently making him very nervous indeed. Still, it should be enough to grab Anna and get clear enough to be picked up by the shuttle. Then, he was looking forward to letting all this be someone else's problem: although he did admit to himself he didn't want to miss seeing this ghost ship, and it's insane master, get reduced to atoms.
Zyan, something's wrong! Alenda sent. The shuttle is empty. The cockpit is sealed off and- oh no! Alenda, Zyan thought, felt scared, but above all angry. Saito is telling us she can't risk the Sassinak being compromised, the shuttle is being flown back remotely, there's gas, there's, Zyan I love you!
Alenda! Alenda! Zyan sent, but he was just shouting into his own mind. I love you too, he thought.
It was hardly surprising that Saito had shafted them, or rather specifically him. He might have made the same call, in her position, not knowing whether they were truly under Anderssen's control or not. He'd probably damned himself with the words 'Guildmember Falkstrom has an effective Steeplejack countermeasure'. Saito knew that if she had Alenda, she had the countermeasure. Once that was accomplished, risk avoidance was the logical choice.
"Ruthless sharding cow," Zyan muttered.
Five minutes of air left. It hardly seemed like a problem that the Overlord was loose in here somewhere, and Alenda unconscious and probably already several hundred kilometres distant, unable to defend him.
Almost on queue, he felt a weak, fluttery presence in his mind, a calling out. It wasn't the Overlord, though – it was Anna, although far weaker than she'd been before. He carried on to the airlock, shone his light through the hexagonal viewport. Inside, he could see the insectile service drone from Anna's office. It was clinging on to the wall.
A sense of questioning, what now?
You stay put, I'm coming in. You've got air in there, might aswell live a bit longer, Zyan thought.
He had to work the airlock door manually, but got it open. Anna's drone continued to cling to the wall, motionless, radiating a sense of worry.
Two minutes of air left. Zyan opened the inner lock, and felt atmopshere hiss in. He unsealed his helmet and took a deep breath. Fairly awful, mouldy smelling air, but air nonetheless. His suit bleeped to tell him it was refilling the emergency air tank. Yay, another eleven minutes of life.
"Hey Anna," Zyan said, after he'd taken a few more breaths. He felt odd, fuzzy-headed. Either Anderssen was trying to break into his mind, he was suffering from the early stages of oxygen deprivation, or he hadn't quite yet processed the facts surrounding just how utterly, irretrievably sharded he was.
Anna was questioning him. He didn't know the exact question, but she deserved to be brought up to speed.
"We got done over by the FSP. Story of my life, sorry it turned into yours. Shara and Alenda escaped, and we killed the Overlord – twice, because he now has an endless supply of Anderssen-shaped bodies, which means he's probably on his way to us right now looking for payback. On the plus side – and I'm fully aware that there isn't much of a sharding plus side right now – the FSP is probably gonna come back in force and annihilate this wreck properly, so we won't suffer for long. Alenda can't help us because a total cow named Saito has tranquilised her and Shara and whipped her away out of range," Zyan said. "We're pretty much done. Sorry."
If there was any gravity, he would have sat down and put his head in his hands. As it was, he just started swearing.
There was a low whirring noise, fading away. One of the drone's legs patted him on the shoulder, then the whirring died away. Anna tried to project a sense of sympathy, but all she managed to get through to Zyan was a sense that he wasn't alone at the end.
There was a dull thump, as some large piece of debris bounced ponderously off the inner hull nearby.
His suit beeped. Eleven minutes of air again.
The drone appeared to be bereft of power. The thump knocked it loose from where it was clinging to the wall and it drifted free. Anna was reduced to a single, rectangular unit with a cracked casing, wired up to what looked like a battery and attached to the drone with a few loops of wire.
A thought occurred to Zyan. Shard it – he'd rather die doing something than wait in here for whatever miserable end awaited him.
"I'm going to get out of here," he said. "Not gonna hang around waiting for the big bad wolf to come and screw with my brain. You want a lift? I've got a luxury carriage for you right here."
He shrugged his bag off, took off his jacket, and undid the wire holding Anna to the drone.
Another sense of questioning.
"Once I'm out of this passage, I've got eleven minutes of air – almost certainly less, as my suit's probably leaking. It occurs to me, though, that you aren't plagued with the weaknesses of a biological body like I am. You might hang on long enough in open space to get picked up by someone, after the dust has all settled and they're scanning every last cubic centimetre of this system to make sure they hit the target," Zyan said, as he wrapped Anna's hardware in his jacket and placed her in the backpack.
A sense of thanks. "You're welcome," he said. "Best I can manage, sorry it isn't better."
They went up and out – the shaft Anna had come up was the same Zyan and Shara had gone down earlier. It wasn't far to the original set of doors they'd come in through, only a hundred metres or so. Zyan resealed his helmet, and then had to jimmy the door open.
The stern of the ship was gone – turned into a huge field of metal and rock debris. Some of this was reflecting light from the system primary, which illuminated the incongruous sight of the bodged rail car he'd rode in with Shara, it's tracks pointing up at nothing, then sheared off after what looked like a couple of hundred metres.
"Anna, I've got a crazy idea," Zyan said. "Help us put some distance between the Overlord and us." He started clumping towards the car.
There was a faint acknowledgement.
"Might aswell," he said, climbing into the car, "since, like pretty much everything else after Opal, it's the only game in town."
Stop! A voice sounded in his head: Anderssen.
"It's getting awfully crowded in here," Zyan said. "Also, no."
He could feel Anderssen trying to get to him – not to extract information, this time, but to crush and dominate. His grip was weak and spidery, though. Zyan guessed he was too far away, or otherwise impaired.
"Coming up short again, Anderssen," Zyan said, then visualised a very clear picture of a very rude gesture, and pushed the lever forward.
The car hummed along the rails, gaining speed. Zyan felt the alien's presence fade from his mind. Then they were off the edge of the rails and floating free, and the stricken colony ship was growing smaller and smaller behind them.
Zyan checked his suit. Seven minutes left.
"Well, we made it," he remarked.
Anna's acknowledgement was very faint. Zyan hoped she could survive losing power. It seemed likely that the FSP would spend a lot of time and resources scanning this system in a forensic manner – she might actually be in with a cha-
He was interrupted by a sudden, familiar tingling. Not Alenda, or Anna or Anderssen, but something more more familiar.
Was that...black crystal?
How is that possible? Zyan looked around, in every direction, then back at the asteroid-ship: just in time to see it obliterated.
It started faintly, which was good because it gave his suit faceplate time to darken. A perfectly straight line of light pierced the darkness of space to play, for a moment or two, against the bow of the colony ship. Then it brightened, and became blindingly bright, so that even though Zyan put his hands up to his darkened faceplate and closed his eyes, he could see it bisecting the cosmos.
Then it shut off abruply, leaving only an afterimage. The nerve-tingling impression of black crystal faded. It was a good two minutes before he could see again.
The colony ship was just...gone. There wasn't even any wreckage. Zyan checked his suit readouts: radiation was only at background levels. Whatever had happened had been incalculably powerful but also unbelievably tightly contained. Power like only a sun possessed, but as precisely employed as a surgical laser.
He only knew of one set of beings who could do that, and only one person they might have passed that knowledge on to.
He remembered Alenda's words: "Reducing this whole place to it's component atoms would be better – nothing must escape."
"Holy sharding hellfire," Zyan whispered, as he realised what it was he'd just witnessed.
Anna was questioning him.
"The ship has been destroyed," he said.
The question remained: how.
"Alenda," he said.
It was over. The Overlord was dead – absolutely and truly dead, nothing could have survived that.
There were just the few closing moves to make, then. Zyan checked the charge on the stun pistol: he had a few hundred shots left. He would run out of air a long time before the pistol ran out of charge, even firing shots to spell out a pattern in morse code: SOS. He began, pointing the pistol ahead. Three quick shots, three wider spaced, and then three more like the first.
The minutes ticked down. He carried on firing.
"Hey, Anna? I'm sorry, but I'm not intending to be awake when I run out of air. It's no way to go, not for those of us that have to breathe for a living."
He snorted grimly, and fired off another SOS.
"When it starts getting hard to breathe, I'm cracking my helmet open and this pistol is going against my forehead," Zyan said, finding a modicum of determination in the act of saying the words. "Should be point blank enough to do the trick, even with my advantages. In the meantime, it's the closest thing to an emergency beacon we've got."
He received a mix of faint sensations in return – sorrow, anger that it had come to this, but acceptance and thanks.
"You're welcome. Sorry it was such a sharding poor escape plan. If you get out of this, even if it's like a millenium before they find you and hook you up to something, do me a favour and convey how very, very disappointed I am with Exigency. They're supposed to be the elite, best-of-the-best, impossible missions a speciality. Frankly they've been shard-poor all along, and I want any of my tax credits spent on their salaries to be refunded with immediate effect."
He fired off another series of shots. Anna sent him an impression of a question, affection, Alenda.
"She knows," he replied.
Yes, Alenda replied, as his mind was filled with the sense of her presence, her relief and triumph that he was alive, she very much does.
A shuttle matched velocities with the car – a big military model, all armour plating and grey paint. The troop lock opened to reveal FSP marines in exo-armour – a grappling hook was launched towards him. Zyan made it fast to a truss.
"Well look at that," he said, glancing at his suit readout as he was winched in. "Had a whole two minutes left, I was worrying about nothing."
Alenda's laughter filled his mind, and it was the sweetest sound he'd ever not heard.
- o O o -
An awful lot had happened after Alenda and Shara were reeled in by the shuttle's winch. The executive summary went something like this.
Alenda and Shara were brought aboard the Sassinak. The marines who'd rigged the shuttle with anaethetic gas – already not happy about orders to gas friendlies - considered Saito's suggested dosage (calculated with the spore in mind) to be dangerously high, and had lowered it to levels they considered safer.
Alenda and Shara, therefore, awakened very shortly after being lifted onto stretchers. Shara was in favour of an instant mutiny. Alenda asked her to put that on hold for a few moments.
She immediately established her credentials as a senior member of the Heptite Guild and managed to make her way to the bridge faster than a heavily armed boarding party with overwhelming numbers. She paused only to shoot a poisonous look at Saito before demanding, and getting, access to the Sassinak's black crystal comms. She didn't even need to resort to influencing the captain or crew – at that particular moment, all it took was one look at her face and hasty co-operation was assured. The communications officer immediately evacuated his seat.
She then screwed up her courage, said a last goodbye to Zyan, and did what needed to be done without hesitation.
Sentinel hadn't held anything back in her download. Alenda drew on her knowledge to channel her powers through the black crystal, out towards the system primary, and to create a precisely targeted solar flare - with a coronal mass ejection chaser, traveling far faster than a naturally occurring CME had any business going. This wiped the asteroid vessel and what was left of the Norseman off the face of the galaxy. She felt the Overlord scream and die, and took a grim, dark satisfaction in it.
"I have remotely triggered a self-destruct mechanism," Alenda said in hollow, leaden words. She collapsed into the comms chair. Nobody argued, even Saito.
Linked to the black crystal, Alenda could sense everything in the system. Even through her grief, she wondered if this was how singers felt when they installed them. Probably not, she reflected. Singers could probably not feel the dying echoes of the Overlord's rage reflecting back from distant wreckage, or sense the shock and awe of everyone on the ship, or hear something else, something faint but familiar.
When it starts getting hard to breathe, I'm cracking my helmet open and this pistol is going against my forehead.
Alenda smiled. "Not on my watch," she said to herself, getting up. "Captain Delisle, I have reason to believe CS Jarvis has survived but is critically low on air. Please prep the shuttle for immediate re-launch. I shall be accompanying the search and rescue team."
The Captain was still shocked by the destruction she'd just witnessed, and forgot to be military. "Who could survive that?"
"Zyan Jarvis could," Alenda replied.
"Guildmember, the debris field would make it almost impossible to scan for life signs, it would take hours, days even-" the Captain started to vacillate.
Alenda prepared to reach out and influence the Captain. It was Saito who intervened, however: she appeared to have undergone a change of heart, when faced with Alenda's cold fury. "Launch the shuttle, Captain," the agent said. "We should be absolutely certain."
Alenda was on the shuttle less than a minute later. She was able to give the pilot a precise heading – the sensors picked up stun pistiol fire a few moments later. Alenda had never felt so relieved in her life.
This was the last matter on which Captain Delisle deferred to Exigency, however. On arrival back at the Sassinak, everyone – including Saito – was arrested and thrown in the brig by the cruiser's CO, who had clearly run out of patience with the whole sorry affair. For Zyan there was only a very brief diversion to the medbay, to have nine pieces of shrapnel excised from of his stomach. The ship's doctor was predictably amazed at how quickly he healed, but not at all surprised that he declined an anaesthetic: Zyan surmised that heavyworlder marines had a disdain for pain relief. Shara and his military ranks didn't avail them of any sympathy at all: not even a salute.
The Captain's attitude was understandable. While there had thankfully been no fatalities among the crew of the Sassinak, the cruiser was still very badly damaged - expensive damage which would at some point have to be explained to an Admiral who, Zyan speculated, was not going to be very sympathetic towards whatever cover story Exigency were going to cook up to explain it. (In the end, they went with 'unscrupulous pirates attempting to use and/or monetise unknown ancient alien weapons technology, which then blew up in their faces'. The Admiral did not believe this for a nanosecond, but Delisle received a commendation nonetheless. The media helped keep things secret, or at least plausibly deniable, by generating reams of sensationalist speculation once this story was leaked, none of which came even vaguely close to the truth).
Heptite Guild IDs came equipped with the magical phrase 'access to the Session of the Federated Sentient Planets', and Shara had managed to hold onto hers, somehow. This got Zyan, Shara and Alenda out of the brig in reasonably short order, and under guard in guest quarters instead. Zyan also demanded a toolkit, a comunit, a neolithium battery and his backpack, and (with a few hints from Anna, via Alenda) was able to jury-rig a connection to provide the AI with the means to keep running and to converse.
They let Saito stay behind bars, though. Erring on the side of caution might have been tactically advisable, but when one has barely escaped being collateral damage, one is not inclined to be sympathetic to the person who made the call. Later on Alenda would tell Zyan that she had insisted the shuttle be sent out again, and that would moderate his opinion of her: but not by much.
The jammer had, somehow, survived the day's proceedings. Zyan flicked it on.
"Hey Alenda, you know I love you, right?" Zyan asked.
Alenda nodded. Now that everyone was back aboard the relative safety of a FSP cruiser, and the fireworks show was over, Alenda had become somewhat withdrawn. Zyan supposed that unleashing the destructive power of a sun with nothing but the power of your mind was the sort of thing that shook you a bit, the first time you did it.
"Good. Nothing is ever going to change that. Believe me this time?"
Alenda nodded again. They embraced.
Shara snorted. "Get a room, you two,"
"This is literally the only room we have, right now," Zyan replied. "You can see that because you're locked in it with us."
"We love you too, Shaz," was Alenda's response.
"Yeah yeah, I know, whatever. So, Lenny, did you just-?" Shara made a exploding gesture with her hands and then said, "boooooom".
Alenda nodded silently.
Shara took a moment to take that on board. Her eyes went wide, then she grinned and said: "That is so, sharding, awesome."
Shara, at least, didn't think there were any philosophical ramifications of her friend possessing terrifying destructive powers.
"Okay, for the record: yep, 100% agree with the 'sharding awesome' analysis. Can't see any downsides to that," Zyan said.
Alenda looked somewhat startled. "Neither of you think that what I just did was wrong?"
Shara looked genuinely confused. "You killed the bad guy and rescued the damsel in distress, what's not to like?"
"Just for the record, Anna is the damsel in this situation, right?" Zyan asked.
"Whatever helps you get through this experience, Zyan," Shara smirked.
"In all seriousness, though," Alenda said.
"Pfft," Zyan said. "We can moralise later if we want, but they let people have access to tactical directed energy weapons, what's the difference?"
"There are safeguards, procedures," Alenda objected.
"You're a lawyer, write some and then stick to it, if it makes you feel better," Shara shrugged.
"There you go. I've told you before, if anyone has to wield next-level powers, you're the one to do it," Zyan said.
Shara nodded. "Yeah, I can totally see how it might be a bad thing for me to be able to incinerate huge ships with my mind, because I have just a teensy-little bit of an attitude problem sometimes and might do it just for fun."
"Might?" Zyan asked her.
"Okay, I one-hundred-percent would – I am self-aware, I know myself, someone would wind me up and end up getting roasted into atoms. But Alenda?" Shara turned to her friend and squeezed her shoulder. "You'll be fine."
"I can assure you it is possible, Guildmember Falkstrom, to live with these burdens – and so far you have used your gifts far more wisely than I," Anna chipped in.
"Call me Alenda," Alenda told the AI. "Thank you, all three of you."
"No worries," Zyan grinned, but squeezed and held her hand. "So, moving on: Lenny? Shaz?"
"We train together, we have nicknames," Shara shrugged, then turned to Anna. "Hey, Annie, you okay in there?"
"Does literally everyone get a nickname except me?" Zyan asked.
"Yes, now shush, I'm talking to our friend," Shara said.
Alenda laughed.
"I am fine, thank you CS Ferozacorazon," Anna replied tinnily, over the comunit.
"Call me Shaz," Shara said. "You can't see right now but I'm smiling, also this is my way of saying that I no longer think you're a danger to human life that should probably be extinguished and I'm officially okay with your continued existence," she stated.
"Yes, thank you Shaz, I did understand the subtext," Anna replied. "For the first time in a long time, I am also okay with my own continued existence."
"Good," Shara said, patting the AI's housing then standing up. "I'm going to go and pester the marines outside to let me use up ten days' worth of water rations for a very long shower. The blood of my enemies is an amazing look, but after a while it starts to smell bad. I plan to be doing more cavorting with your cousin in the very near future, and princesses have high standards for hygiene and presentation."
"There's a shower in here, you know," Zyan pointed out. "These are officer's quarters, rank hath it's privileges and all that."
Shara rolled her eyes. "You really aren't the brightest sometimes, Zyan," she said, then rapped insistently on the door until it was opened, and began to argue with the marines as she closed it behind her.
"Could you disconnect the comunit for a while, please Zyan?" Anna said. "I have internal processes that need seeing to, in a low-powered state, and it would help to be incommunicado for a while."
Alenda smiled. "Thank you, Anna," she said.
Zyan twigged. "You do subtle a lot better than Shara," he laughed, and disconnected the comunit as bid.
"So – my boyfriend has royal connections?" Alenda asked, with a raised eyebrow. "Tell me all about it, Prince Zyan."
"You can just look, you know," Zyan told her, indicating his head.
Alenda shook her head. "No. It is, as ever, a privilege that you esteem me so highly that you wouldn't think twice about granting such intimate access, but from now on I shall be using that capability only when strictly necessary. You have no idea, Zyan, how liberating it is to finally be alone in my own head. You'll have to tell me, like a normal human being, and I shall very much enjoy listening. Over a drink or two, I think. But first, although we are neither of us as covered in filth as Shara, I think that we should adjourn to the shower cubicle. Lead the way, your highness."
She smiled and stood up. Zyan was only too happy to accept the invitation.
- o O o -
That wasn't, of course, the end of it. Even the most secret, rarefied echelons of the FSP had endless procedures and bureaucracy, it seemed.
The Sassinak limped back to Maxim under partial power, and, upon arrival, Shara once again played the FSP Session Access card to gain entry to the BX Are We There Yet? Saito they left to fend for herself – Zyan reckoned that a nice long protracted argument with the FSP Navy and the Maxim authorities was the very least he owed her.
Brendan was in a pretty poor state, although he was doing better than Moran. Alenda intervened – the road to recovery was a lot quicker when you had a friendly telepath to help you along it, especially one who knew what you'd been through and wasn't holding any grudges about the whole kidnapping thing. They paused in orbit only long enough for Zyan and Shara to send messages to Merisa and the Queen assuring them that everything had gone well and promising to return soon, and headed back to Ballybran – Zyan wasn't taking any chances with Alenda's symbiont, she'd already been gone too long. She didn't seem to be in imminent danger of coming down with the spore shakes, to be fair – she was back to her perfect, poised and elegant self, but having just got her back he wasn't going to muck about.
They translated out in the teeth of protests from the Sassinak, or at least from Saito: Zyan got the impression that the cruiser's CO was just glad to have them off her ship. Alenda said that the Guild would be co-operating with the appropriate authorities (just which authorities were appropriate, she left very vague) but the medical welfare of herself and the two crystal singers came first.
(The Guild didn't forget about Vadansky – it just took a little longer to get around to him. A few days later he was freed from custody on Maxim a debt-free man: in return for signing a very voluminous non-disclosure agreement, which was probably even scarier than the FSP Secrets Act he was also forced to sign. Twenty thousand credits free and clear, though, went a long way towards making his disposition less sour. The Guild only put up ten, but Zyan felt guilty enough to chip in another ten himself. Shara couldn't have cared less).
Once back on Ballybran, and given the all clear by Presnol and Donalla, there was an emotional reunion between Alenda and her great-to-the-power-of-whatever uncle, grave thanks for Zyan and Shara from the Guild's ruling couple, and then a very long debriefing. This was followed by an almost equally long and serious injunction to never, ever talk to anyone about what had happened – in fact it hadn't happened, they'd just been on holiday visiting Zyan's long-lost relations on Maxim.
Not a single one of the Locusts believed a word of that, of course, but they were understanding about the gagging order. It had, after all, come from the Crystal Singer. The more spiteful and envious of the other singers, of course, gossiped about preferential treatment and shady deals, but Zyan found that he could loftily ignore them all, now.
Ussa and her partner forgot completely about the discourtesy charge, and nobody saw fit to remind them about it.
The communiques and top-secret conference calls dragged on for weeks, and all three of them were debriefed multiple times on Shankill by Moran and Saito's superiors. Alenda had to make a couple of off-world visits, but she informed him at the end of it that the Guild had, true to form, come out on top: Exigency in particular, and the FSP intelligence apparatus as a whole, owed them a very big favour.
Alenda appeared to be absolutely and completely in control of her capabilities, just as she was in absolute and complete control of every other aspect of her being. She was still a formidable negotiator and lawyer, though, and still suspiciously perceptive when it came to what people were thinking, especially if those people were Shara or Aviczue and the thinking was going on in a dojo. She always seemed to know the right thing to say and she always knew if someone was lying but, she said, it wasn't a burden anymore: it was just how she was.
"Somewhat, one supposes, like a fish. It doesn't have to think about the water, the current, the ebb and flow of the tides: it just swims," she explained it.
She wasn't having people's thoughts broadcast into her brain anymore or finding them agreeing with her in uncanny ways: she was just naturally, subconsciously aware of people. She just had a good sense of what was going on in the room – or the continent, if she stopped and thought about it.
Although Zyan trusted her implicitly – he loved her without judgement, in fact – she was still a spy to her core and definitely had her secrets. She was consulting with Donalla a lot, which could only be a good thing, but she'd also started behaving in ways she hadn't before. She'd taken to wearing various bits of black crystal jewelry, for one thing. A necklace, earrings, some rings and a bracelet - it varied but she almost always had at least one item on, even when, well, even when she wasn't wearing anything else. This gave Zyan the tingles whenever she came close, but then again that had already happened anyway. This must have been phenomenally expensive, and Alenda had not before been given to overt ornamentation, but when he asked about her new direction in accessories, she would only say that she was experimenting.
One thing that had unequivocallly changed, though, was that she was very clearly much happier, much more comfortable in herself, and was completely at terms with being probably the most powerful woman in existence.
Everything, it seemed, was working out for the best.
"We've got one last thing to do, though," Alenda said. "There's going to be a meeting, on Opal. Our attendance is, I'm afraid, mandatory."
"Shara too?"
"Shara too," Alenda confirmed.
"She's been bugging me about going to see Merisa again anyway," Zyan said. "Any chance we can swing past Maxim afterwards?"
Alenda smiled. "I've already informed your aunt Sunita we'll be visiting."
Brendan took them back to Opal. Anna – still lacking, as far as Zyan was aware, any sort of official status – had remained on board. Zyan understood that she'd been helping him with his recovery: as had Alenda, when he was in Ballybran orbit, anyway. He'd been zipping about to various places, on some business or other. She joined their conversations en-route as a disembodied voice, but a stronger, more assured one than she'd been before.
Back on Opal, Sothi was politely pleased to see them again, and Klerney was positively delighted.
"Since your last visit, we've made breakthrough after breakthrough," she said. "It's never been such an exciting time here! I know you've got the hush-hush thing to go to, but catch up afterwards, okay?"
In a ceremony in front of Big Hungry, Alenda was christened Sees Clearly. Zyan's partner was usually a very reserved, self-possessed woman, but tears stood out in her eyes as she was seen and given a name.
The actual meeting took place in Sentinel's cave. The attendees were Zyan, Alenda, Shara, Saito and Moran (in environment suits) and a Brendan-drone.
Zyan had by no means forgiven Saito for her actions, even if he could understand them. Alenda counselled him to be diplomatic, though, and for her sake he remained civil and polite.
"We're just waiting for one more person," Brendan said.
"Who's that?" Zyan asked.
"Here she comes now," the drone said.
A very tall, very blonde and very hard-muscled woman entered the cave, barefoot and dressed only in a simply-cut pair of trousers and a blouse – not an environment suit, although she was carrying an appropriately oversized one, neatly folded: she must have been wearing it for appearance's sake until just then.
Zyan recognised her straight away – her face was a young version of one he'd last seen on an alien screen. "Anna?" He asked.
Anna smiled. "Hello, Zyan," she said. "Meet the new brawn of the BA Are We There Yet?" She gave a twirl. "Anna Lund, entirely normal FSP citizen."
"Wow, you have a great body," he said. "Wait, that didn't come out right at all. Shards, I mean that in engineering terms that is an exceptional piece of, um, no, I think I just mean 'you're looking well'," Zyan finished lamely.
Anna laughed. Shara looked ceilingwards and sighed. "We really can't take you anywhere, can we?"
"So that's what all the flitting about has been in aid of," Alenda said.
"We've been consulting various experts in various labs, not the least of whom was your own dear Clarend," Brendan said airily, "but the construction, I'm happy to say with an appropriate level of smugness, is entirely down to us. We wanted to wait until now for the big reveal."
"Are you actually in there, or is that a drone?" Zyan asked.
"I'm actually in here," Anna said, and touched her heart. "It's a bit bigger than what I had in mind, but we needed some extra internal space for the microfusion reactors, and going full valkyrie was the only way to keep me in proportion."
"You are rocking the full valkyire look, Anna. Can you bench-press a tank and jump over buildings, wait, can you fly?" Shara asked.
Anna grinned. "Totally," she replied.
"Shoot lasers out your eyes?" Shara pressed.
"No, but there is this." Anna raised her arm, palm outwards, and pointed it at some bare rock. There was a buzz, and a stun bolt shot out to fizzle into the ground.
Shara's eyes widened. "You are so unbelievably hot right now," she said.
"Shara!" Zyan said.
"Oh, come on. Tell me that isn't cool," Shara replied.
"You didn't say cool, though, did you? You said hot," Zyan reminded her. "That's a little less than appropriate."
"So? Sue me, grandad," Shara snorted.
Anna smiled. "I am glad to be so well regarded by a friend."
"Are you still, y'know, psychic?" Zyan asked.
"I am the psionic bionic woman," Anna replied, with a twinkle in her eye.
"Also known as She Who Survives," Sentinel added. "It seemed a fitting name."
"We should get started," Saito said.
"I suppose so. Hey, Moran, how's your head?" Zyan asked.
"They tell me I'm healed," Moran replied, somewhat stiffly, then: "I'm sorry I shot you."
"In the back," Zyan said.
"Yes, in the back. Sorry," Moran repeated.
"It really hurt," Zyan added.
"No it didn't, stop winding him up," Shara put in.
"Okay, fine," Zyan relented. "Apology accepted, you weren't yourself. In related news, have you got anything to say to me, Saito?"
"Zyan," Alenda said, warningly.
Saito held up a hand. "It is fine, Guildmember Falkstrom. Zyan – and Anna – I am truly sorry. I wish I'd never had to make that decision. If I had better information at the time I would have decided differently. But as for how I feel about it, ask Sentinel what the Junks called me."
Zyan looked up towards Sentinel's shimmering form, and raised an eyebrow.
"Does What Is Needed," Sentinel replied.
Zyan supposed that answered that. "Okay, Saito, I read you loud and clear. No hard feelings, I suppose. Why are we here?"
"Welcome," Saito said, by way of answer, "to the first – and hopefully only – meeting of the Steeplejack Task Force. If a Steeplejack situation is declared, you will be activated, but only in those circumstances."
"Yeah, right, like Alenda ever left FSP Intelligence," Shara snorted. "On the other hand it does sound quite mysterious and cool, so I'm in. Do we get paid?"
"You do not get paid," Saito answered.
"I am not okay with that," Shara replied. "I may not be in anymore."
"This is very important to FSP security," Moran said. "You're needed."
Zyan snorted. "Needed for opportunities such as travelling to interesting new worlds to trade pulser fire with interesting new people," he said sarcastically.
"Oh! In that case I'm definitely back in," Shara replied readily.
"I hasten to remind you will only be activated if the Steeplejack Protocol is invoked," Saito said.
"Yeah, right," Zyan said. "Various bits of the FSP seem to keep coming up with little jobs that require a Guildmember or two to go and do something weird somewhere weird, that's not likely to stop any time soon, is it?"
Saito gave a slight shrug. "I cannot speak for the rest of the FSP, and it is up to your Guildmaster to decide who he will task with any off-world assignments."
"Whatever," Zyan said.
Stop being such a shardster, Zyan, Alenda sent privately. You don't have to like the woman, but I really need your help on this.
"But fine, I'm in," he added.
"Good," Saito said coldly. "Everyone here is aware of what we just narrowly defeated. Everyone here brings a valuable skill to the table. If the Steeplejack Protocol is invoked, you'll be contacted by Guildmember Falkstrom."
"Why not you?" Zyan asked.
"Two reasons," Saito replied. "Unlike everyone else in this chamber, we have only a normal human lifespan. Guildmember Falkstrom will be around long after Moran and I are dead, and she is, as I have told at least one of you but I suspect actually two," she shot a look at Zyan and Shara, "a legend in this business. That is the first reason."
"The second," Moran said, "is that as of this moment, the only beings in the entire FSP who know about the Steeplejack Protocol are standing in this chamber. When we are finished, Guildmember Falkstrom will – with our full consent – replace both mine and Saito's memories of the incident with the official version, and repress any knowledge that the Steeplejack Protocol ever existed."
"Wait, what?" Zyan was startled. "Why would you-?"
"Because I've got a head full of memories I do not want," Moran replied. "I wake up sweating every night, remembering what that sharding alien did to me. I can't look at my wife and kids without wondering if I could be made to hurt them too, I-" He stopped, and brought himself under control. "In my case, Alenda'll be doing me a favour."
"Also, we learn from our mistakes at Exigency," Saito said. "The Overlord found Guildmember Falkstrom by hijacking the protocol. If he had been more perspicacious, he would have realised he'd been handed the location of the Junks, too, who have similar capabilities. He could have neutralised them both."
"He would have been welcome to try," Sentinel interjected ominously, her patterns turning momentarily dark and sombre.
"If there is no official protocol, then the next Steeplejack threat won't be able to do the same thing," Saito said. "You will be able to act against it in complete secrecy. This is the only logical course of action."
"You really do do what's needed," Zyan said, with more respect. "What about your superiors?"
"Already dealt with," Saito said. "Everyone involved was agreed that this was the logical course of action."
Ah – Alenda's off-planet trips, Zyan recalled. She'd been mind wiping Exigency agents.
"And if we need your help, we have to persuade you to believe us?" Shara asked.
"In Guildmember Falkstrom, Miss Lund and Sentinel's cases, that will not even present a trivial barrier," Saito replied. "However, we have taken the precaution of making recordings, with the appropriate clearance codes, which will be made available to you. If you need to secure our co-operation and bring us up to speed, show them to us."
Everyone nodded.
"Are you sure?" Alenda asked Saito and Moran in turn.
They both nodded.
"Anna, you'd better get back into your environment suit, for appearance's sake," Alenda advised.
Anna stepped back into the transparent suit.
"Hey, Saito, Moran," Zyan said. "You're alright."
"We'll still know who you are, CS Jarvis," Saito said. "Most things that happened will still have happened, for us – we shall just remember the pirate version of the story, rather than the true account."
"Nevertheless, what you're doing takes integrity and guts," Zyan told her.
"Thank you," Saito said, then turned to Alenda. "We are ready. Will this take long?"
Alenda smiled at Saito in a slightly puzzled fashion. "I'm sorry, Agent Saito, what was that?"
Saito didn't even blink. "I wish to once again convery the apologies of the Director that the Guild, Opal and the BA Are We There Yet? were dragged into this affair."
Alenda maintained her smile. "No need, Agent Saito. We were happy to be of assistance."
"Then we shall leave you. Good day," Saito said. Moran repeated it, and then they both walked out.
"Whoa," Zyan said, after they were out of earshot. "So just like that, then?"
"Just like that," Alenda answered, "Let us hope that I never have need of those skills again."
And so the thoroughly unofficial Steeplejack Task Force was created. The mobile members of the STF stayed on Opal for a little longer, Zyan and Shara caught up with Klerney, and then everyone carried on to Maxim for - this time - a normal holiday. His aunt and cousin were delighted to see him again, and although Shara decided to stay a little longer, Brendan and Anna conveyed Zyan and Alenda back to Ballybran a few days later.
After that, it was back to being a normal crystal singer for Zyan and, a few weeks after that, Shara too. Zyan made an extra special point of always wearing his gloves, always packing straight away, and following Donalla's recommendations to the letter: he had someone very special to get back to, after all, and he didn't want to risk forgetting a moment of his time with Alenda. The Locusts continued to rack up credits – they made enough, in fact, that they took the very un-crystal-singerish step of making some off-world investments, the income from which was enough to give them a comfortable living even if all of their claims were to be destroyed overnight. The Guildmaster did convey his wish that they keep busy, however. They might not need money, but the Guild needed crystal.
Zyan was prospecting on the southern continent with Q'Tonisa, Marin and Aviczue when the That'll Do blared out the alert that signified a communication from the Guild Cube. Zyan activated his wrist unit, which was filled with his girlfriend's perfect features.
"Hey, Alenda, what's up?" He asked, smiling.
"Hello dear. Uncle Lars would like to see us at our earliest convenience," Alenda reported. "There's a little job that requires a Guildmember or two to go and do something weird somewhere weird. Would you care for a little off-world jaunt?"
Zyan grinned. "I'm on my way."