The group assembled in Science Lab 1. Cat and Jarod manned the controls for the holo-table. Seated around them were Robert, Julia, Lucy, Meridina, Gina, Miko, and Liara. Megaera took up a chair as well, looking more like she was observing than intending to participate.

The Life of Reshan was laid on the table with Gartanam's guide to the old High Gersallian of that time. The holographic display above it was loaded with all of the material decrypted from the book, including Ledosh's efforts and their own.

Robert noted Miko was absorbed with reading the material. "Wait. The writer knew your names. The book is three thousand years old and the writer knew your names."

"It is possible that Reshan's connection to the Flow of Life permitted him to see much of our timeframe," Meridina said. "He was known for having a truly expansive swevyra."

Liara kept reading. After skipping over the gibberish elements she read the translated poem. "So this is what led you to that station. Why did he express it in a poem?"

"Reshan had a sense of humor, if a wry and sarcastic one," Megaera remarked.

Robert shot her a questioning glance. He was getting the impression that their traveling companion had seen Reshan in the flesh.

"So what did we learn at A Famoso that can tell us where to find Reshan's Temple?" Lucy shook her head. "Nothing in Tisiphone's attack or the Alekto's little hand-torturing box is related to it."

"I still think this segment is a code itself." Robert indicated the block of nonsensical text. "We just need the cipher key to decode it."

"Could it be an anagram of some kind?" Julia asked.

Jarod shook his head. "I've already run every possible permutation, there's no way to arrange the letters to form a coherent sentence in any way relevant."

"So we're looking for a substitution cipher."

"I have an idea," Liara said. "In my galaxy, many Prothean researchers like myself have to deal with relic hunters or Hanar extremists attempting to take over our work sites and exploit new finds. For centuries many have turned to codes to relay information about new dig sites or findings. One popular method involves substituting numbers for letters. Maybe the letters here are meant to stand for numbers too?"

"That's a good idea." Jarod started tapping at the controls in front of him. "I'm going to run a simple substitution, each letter becoming its number in the alphabetical order."

On the holoscreen the Gersallian lettering transformed into numbers.

"Wait." Cat took over. A certain gleeful anticipation shined in her hazel eyes as she stared at numbers, even as her fingers operated her console and arranged them into three lines. An excited shriek of triumph came next. "Yes! I knew it!" She stood from her chair and went to the door. "Come on!"

"Where are you going?" Miko asked.

"Main Astrography," Lucy answered for her, standing up as well. Julia and Gina were already doing the same while Jarod put away the books. "Because those numbers are interstellar coordinates."

The Aurora's lift system brought everyone to Deck 12, into the forward sections of the ship. Much of the deck was set aside for the medbay and related spaces, plus some of the crew quartering, making Astrography the only major ship function on the deck not involving the ship's medical services.

Cat was the first to arrive, taking over the central console and loading the coordinates provided into the system. By the time everyone was in the room she'd already put the coordinates on the main holo-display, a great holographic projection of the Milky Way. "Aw," she sighed, seeing a blinking red indicator well off into the empty void of intergalactic space.

"Of course it can't be that easy." Julia walked up beside her and set a reassuring hand on Cat's shoulder. "It was a good idea though."

"Could the numbers mean something else?" asked Miko.

"Maybe, but coordinates would make the most sense." Robert focused his attention on the map, testing his connection to the Flow of Life to see if he could get any insight there.

"Maybe it's not a simple substitution," Lucy offered. "Maybe there's a cipher to it, and the numbers should be ordered differently?"

"'By my name the way to the truth will open.'" Gina's spoken words brought her everyone's attention, although Megaera's seemed more bemusement than interest. "That came before the encoded segment. Reshan's name could be the cipher."

"That makes sense," said Jarod. He brought up his omnitool and displayed the encoded segmente again. His fingers moved over the holographic hard-light keys that formed over his forearm. "I'm going to re-run the substitution with the first letter of Reshan's name as the number 'one'." After several seconds Jarod finished projecting a new set of coordinates onto the map.

The icon changed. Now it was inside the galaxy, but in a section of open space.

"Maybe the temple's a space station or something?" Cat proposed.

"Even if it is, that location was beyond our ships' range in that time," said Meridina.

"The Temple will be on a garden planet," Megaera added. "That much I'm positive of."

"So we're still missing something," Robert said.

"Maybe, but I think I know what it is." Jarod grinned. "We're using Gersal as the basis for these coordinates, since that's how the Gersallian system works. That's our problem."

"So we should track it from, what, Earth?"

"Not Earth. Think about that poem on A Famoso. It stated the station was necessary to find the Temple. We went there for the Alekto's little test, but I don't think that's what the book message meant."

"Oh, duh!" Cat ran her fingers over the controls. "He wanted us to use A Famoso as the base position for the coordinates!"

Cat swiftly shifted the display again by resetting the base coordinate. This time the icon moved into the midst of a star cluster near the border of Gersallian and Dorei space. The system zoomed in until fifteen stars were laid out in a rough line. She brought up the records for the nearby stars. "The Domaram cluster," she said. "Known in S5T3 as the Divoran cluster and in E5B1 as the Serpentis Cluster."

"Serpentis. Part of that cluster was in Darglan home space," Julia noted.

"Yeah. There are a few habitable planets in the Cluster. In N2S7 the Gersallians settled one of them, named Domaram as well. And the library computers have two garden worlds marked off for the presence of sapient native life."

"Well, it's a place to start," Lucy noted. "Maybe it won't take long?"

"You're still looking at some pretty intensive surveys to figure it out," said Jarod.

"There has to be another way to make sure," Liara insisted.

At that Robert laughed. "Reshan's being clever," he said. When everyone gave their attention to him for that remark, he grinned. "Space is always moving, right?" When the others nodded he continued, "Well, that means that coordinates will change over time. Reshan said his name was the key, but what if it's not just as the cipher? What if you used the cipher to render his whole name as a number, and it's a year or a date?"

"It would change the starting position," Jarod said. He grinned. "Clever."

Everyone watched intently as he turned the name into a number. Cat took the number and set the galaxy map to that date.

The indicator shifted slightly… and stopped over a single G-class yellow-orange star.

"Domaram H," she said. "Or Lambda Serpentis, if you want."

"One of our colonized systems in E5B1 and other universes," Julia said. "There's a Darglan ruin in the E5B1 universe version."

"Yeah. But here, the system has a native species," Cat said. She brought up the system's information profile. "They're in a pre-industrial state of society and technology with some signs of being on the cusp of an Industrial Revolution." An image showed a series of humanoids, a species that had long ears like the Dorei but angled outward instead of backward on the head. The skin tones and hair colors ranged from Human-like ones to bluish or gray.

"If Reshan didn't want any Gersallians to disturb the temple for all these years, putting it on a planet with a less-advanced species seems a safe bet," Jarod said. "He might have anticipated they would leave a species like that alone."

"Yeah." Robert looked to the others. "Anyone feel otherwise?"

There was no disagreement.

"Alright." He keyed his omnitool. "Dale to Varma."

"Varma here," said Kaveri.

"We have coordinates, Captain, can you get us underway? Jarod's relaying them now."

"I will see to it right now," she replied.

With a destination determined, Kaveri emerged onto the bridge. Locarno stood from the command chair and returned to the helm once she resumed her watch on the bridge. "Commander, set course for Domaram H. There is an inhabitable planet in the system."

Locarno entered the system name into his astrogation systems. "The Gersallians have the system on the protected list, the planet's got an indigenious sapient species."

"Acknowledged. Set the course anyway, Commander. This is what we and our enemies have been searching for."

"Yes ma'am," he said. "Setting course now, engaging at Warp 9.2."

Kaveri sat quietly, her mind intent on the arguments she would present to their superiors when the call inevitably came.

After seeing to guest quarters for everyone, Robert returned to his quarters with Julia. Once they were in private he took a seat beside her on his couch, resting a hand on her shoulder. She shivered, and not at his touch. "It really was a living nightmare, Rob," she said. He sensed her try to push away the fear that still lingered, just for it to come back. "I mean, Noveria, now this. And the one that attacked Jarod and Angel. Are these things going to keep coming after us?"

"It sounds like it. We'll just have to be careful."

"Careful?" Her voice took an edge on. "These things are beyond careful. The one on Noveria almost got us, and this one… I mean, every time we face them, we lose. Somebody else has to come along and save us from them! What happens when that doesn't happen?"

"I wonder if that's why Megaera's been ordered to stay with us," he said aloud. "To make sure of it."

"She can't be everywhere at once." Julia smacked her hand on her knee. "And on top of all of that, Schneider's been pushing me about doing anything but going back to starship command."

"It sounds like she has an agenda. I wouldn't put it past Davies to manipulate the system to get one of his people in place to stop you from coming back." Robert tapped away at his omnitool. "I sent Chief Almerda a message asking about things. He hasn't given me a full report or anything, but he mentioned they picked up those Eclipse mercs. He was happy to hear you're fine."

"What about that poor man's body?"

"They'll be examined. One set of remains was so badly decomposed they can't do anything about it. The one who attacked you was named Pascal Mbanga, one of the Makossa musicians. He emigrated after the Alliance was founded. The family reported him missing yesterday morning."

"They must have spent the day making him… whatever he was turned into."

"Yeah. I warned Almerda to be careful with the remains. His people are already trying to figure out what happened. I'll probably have to come up with something."

"Yeah. The last thing I need is to have to tell people I got attacked by a vampire, then I'll look really crazy."

Robert leaned in and embraced her. He could sense all of the emotions she was struggling with, her terror and frustration and fear for her future, and used his gift to project into her his confidence that it would all work out.

She returned the embrace. "I've missed this," she said. "I've missed you."

"I've missed you too," he said.

"You've still been shaving, I see."

"For when you got back. I didn't want you to think I was going to become a hermit again."

She giggled at that, and he laughed as well.

Liara's guest quarters were not the same as she'd had in her prior time aboard the Aurora, but they were just as comfortable as the other set. Compared to the Normandy and other military vessels she'd seen, the Aurora was more like a passenger liner, and better than most ships she'd ever traveled on in her life.

After synching her omnitool to the room Liara decided to visit the ship's lounge. After all of the stress and surprises of the day she could use a good meal, and the Lookout lounge always provided that, even if it wasn't Asari.

In this case she picked Dorei food, enjoying the texture and crispness of sesham vegetables and a strip of baked kunar. At her request, a glass of Serrice ice brandy was provided by Hargert, who welcomed her back personally before going off to see to other meals.

She started at seeing the mysterious Megaera with the wrap of cloth hiding her eyes in the corner, having created a bubble of space around her by her mere presence. But Hagaert braved the standoffishness to take her order, and she was now eating some special concoction or another. That humanized her a bit, and Liara wasn't bothered by her presence.

Liara was partway through the meal when Cat arrived. The ship's science officer was still in a state of excitement over the day's findings. "That was clever," she said to Liara. "The idea of the code being numbers changed to letters."

"A number of my colleagues recommended it," Liara answered. "After regaling me with horror stories of looted dig sites, or worse, Hanar beating us to them."

"They worship the Protheans," Cat recalled. "So yeah, I guess they don't like you digging stuff up."

"Some don't mind, but there are groups who do."

The tone in Liara's voice betrayed the true state of her feelings. "So, how have you been doing? Since we left you on the Citadel, I mean?"

A sardonic smile crossed her face. "Oh, I've been busy. At first it was giving testimony about my mother's holdings and involvement with Saren, reminding me how her name has been utterly ruined. Then I provoked the most powerful data broker in my home galaxy so that he wants to kill me."

Cat winced. "I'm sorry it's all been so bad for you. You deserve better. Have you thought about joining up as a civilian specialist? I know you were on New Liberty to help Julia, and I really want to thank you for that. But now that you're here…"

"I have applied, actually," Liara said. "But I haven't heard back yet. I was warned the applicant list was quite long."

"It is." Cat grinned. "But I can help you there. As a chief science officer in the fleet, I can fast track the application. I can even request your assignment to the Aurora, if you'd like."

"You can?" Liara's smile became a warm one. "Really?"

"Really!" Cat giggled. "It helps that I've gotten some recognition in a few fields, it makes the Stellar Navy Science Division look good."

"If you'll have me, I'd love to be on your ship," Liara said. "I understand your missions won't always involve my speciality, but your computers and systems would let me continue my research into the Protheans." Left unsaid was that the research would also be into finding out more about the Reapers. "And I would love to get to see more of the other universes."

"I'll look right into it," Cat promised, more than happy to get Liara onto the crew.

After finishing her conversation with Robert, Julia knew where she had to go next.

She found Kaveri in her ready office, drinking chai and reading from a digital pad. "Captain Varma," she said respectfully.

"Captain Andreys." Kaveri looked up from her device. "It is good to see you are doing so well."

"Thank you. For that, and for how you've handled my crew." At Kaveri's inviting gesture Julia took a seat. "I'll always worry about them, of course, but they are in good hands with you."

"I admit they are not the kind of crew I would have ever expected to command, and to command so well." Kaveri smiled and it was clearly one of bemusement, in part. "It has been a learning experience."

"A good one, I hope."

"It has not been bad. And it has been useful." Kaveri sipped at her chai. "Would you like something?"

"No thank you," came the reply. Julia considered the sight before her. Kaveri looked something like an old grandmother, quietly cherishing the simple pleasure of a favored drink. "I won't keep you long. I just wanted to give you my thanks, and I hope that if everything turns out, you'll be going home to Shai'jhur soon."

"I am looking forward to that, more than I can say." Kaveri turned openly thoughtful. "For thirty years I mourned her, not certain if she found a way to survive or not. Had the necessities of the war with the Reich not intervened, I might have remained in retirement and stayed at her side happily, but she needed the experienced captains in her fleet."

The mention of Kaveri's relationship with Shai'jur, the last Warmaster of the Dilgar and the leader of the Union of Tira and Rohric, prompted Julia to remember one of her less-proud moments of the past year. "I would like to apologize again for when I insisted that Meridina scan you," she said. "I felt like it was something I had to do given the crisis at Tira, but I was wrong to ask that of you. I'm sorry."

"It is good that you hold the regret, and offer the apology freely, Captain. May the memory serve you well as a teaching moment in the future."

A tone filled the room. Kaveri checked her monitor. "It is a hail from Command in Portland. It would appear that we are about to get new orders."

"Then I'd better go," Julia said. "Good luck."

Kaveri accepted the wishes with a single nod. Once Julia was gone she accepted the call, already forming her coming arguments with Maran.

But it wasn't Maran who appeared on her screen.

Admiral William Davies appeared instead.

Kaveri kept the same respectful expression on her face she'd intended for Maran. Even before her transfer to the Aurora she'd heard of the animosity between Davies and the Aurora crew. She could understand some of it, given what she knew of Davies' history as a tried military commander, but she did wonder about the full scope of it. Her own presence as the Aurora's captain was undoubtedly due to Maran's concerns about Davies pushing a permanent replacement for Captain Andreys.

"Captain Varma. I assume you've completed whatever operation Captain Dale brought you into?"

"We have retrieved his vessel, yes," Kaveri answered.

"Good. Because we need the Aurora elsewhere. Admiral Maran is already with his flagship responding to a Cylon fleet concentration near Doreia."

"The enemy again penetrated our frontier sensor outposts?" she asked.

"We suspect they had SS Exile assistance with that, but all possibilities will be explored. Anyway, we want the Aurora warping toward the fleet right away." As he spoke the coordinates of the fleet concentration were relayed to Kaveri's screen and the Aurora astrogation computers.

Kaveri did the mental calculation based on the distance. "If there is a battle, I doubt we will arrive in time, even if we go at maximum warp."

"Agreed, but you would be there in time to deal with stragglers or to help rally a counter-attack if the first fleet is defeated."

Kaveri considered what the others said in the briefing and the reports she read. "Admiral, we have reason to believe the Cylons may be pursuing a target other than Doreia."

Davies let out an exasperated sigh. "Captain, I'm aware of this theory that the Cylons are tied to some ancient Gersallian mystic group, but we have no firm intelligence from sources without recognizable bias." Kaveri could read between the lines there, Davies didn't trust the Order of Swenya or anyone linked to them, so he didn't accept their eyewitness accounts of the Cylon attack. "I hope you can see that Captain Dale and those officers closest to them have an agenda on these matters that doesn't conform to military reality or Alliance interests. This entire thing is a waste of time."

Kaveri considered her reply very carefully. Whatever her own beliefs or understanding of Gersallian metaphysics, she was in agreement that there was something to the Temple of Reshan and the contents of the book. But if she just outright stated it that way, Davies would likely dismiss her and insist on the order.

"Admiral, there is another element to this situation we must consider."

"Oh?"

"Whatever we feel about Gersallian beliefs, there is no denying that the Cylons clearly have an interest in the matter. Consider their attack on Gersal. They deliberately targeted sites associated with Swenya in the opening strike, except they spared the Great Temple of her organization until after they made an attempt to raid it. They went after relics and the contents of the Order library and only employed atomic weapons on the site after their raid concluded."

Davies nodded. "That, I concede, is true. The relevance?"

"Consider this fleet operation. Their arrival point may be in the vicinity of Doreia, but it also isn't far from the Dorei-Gersallian border zone, including the star cluster that Captain Dale suspects is the site of a temple built for the Gersallian figure Reshan. A temple which was lost to the Gersallian records after the Kohbal uprising, an uprising that clearly has connections to the founding history of the Colonies of Kobol and the Cylons, and may have some significance to them as well."

"You believe they may have found something in the Order library that gives this temple's location?"

"That, or whatever their connection to the Gersallians in the past, it includes fragmentary knowledge that provides a possible location."

Davies settled back into his chair. The expression on his face continued to ooze skepticism, but there was calculation in his eyes. "You make a good argument, but tell me this. What are you getting at, Captain? What are you wanting to do about this?"

"Allow me to support Captain Dale in seeing this through," Kaveri said. "If there is something of value there, it could prove vital to Alliance security. The Aurora could serve as an anchor to bring in responding ships should the Cylon fleet arrive, or otherwise aid him against detached Cylon squadrons."

There was obvious conflict on Davies' face. He does not wish to approve of this, Kaveri thought. Seeing the sentiment on his face she couldn't help but come to a conclusion about him. He can't hide his distrust and resentment of Dale and the others. Something about them angers him. I can see why Maran was so intent on forestalling him in replacing Captain Andreys.

She waited patiently for the reply. When it came it was preceded by a nod of Davies' head. "Your argument makes sense, Captain. Very well, For the time being, you're cleared to continue on course to wherever you're going."

"Domaram H," Kaveri informed him.

"I hope this pans out, Captain. Keep Command informed. Davies out."

It would seem I have fully cast my lot in this matter Kaveri thought. Whatever their flaws from a military mindset, these people formed the Alliance, the entire Multiverse, as we know it. Why does his resentment of them run so deeply?

After seeing to her duties for the day Meridina set off to see to another matter that her heart and mind could not put off any longer. A quick inquiry with the ship's computer pointed the way to Holodeck Chamber 2. When she arrived at the location she noted it was active. With a tap of a key Meridina verified the holodeck doors were not sealed. Out of politeness' sake she tapped the intercom key. "May I enter? I wish to speak with you."

"Yes, you may," the voice distantly answered.

"Thank you." Meridina tapped the door key and let the double doors enter, admitting her to the holographic chamber.

Inside was the bustle of an intense scene in a market-place. There were tourists walking about-humans, predominantly-and there were grand columnaded buildings with iron balconies fronting a park with statues, while toward what seemed a river there were cannon on a monument, and on the opposite side of the square from it, there was a grand human Cathedral, flanked by two buildings of a very old style. Meridina found herself standing toward the river, where looking to the right, she could see a long and low market-place with vendors selling wares and shops stretching on with a mixture of carriages and cars around it. Megaera was sitting at a table in an open-air cafe under the roof of the end of the market place. Most of the people were speaking English, but the uniformed waiter took the order in French flawlessly before she turned.

"Do you want any? Coffee and beignets, the only things on the menu, or else water, but it's all vegetarian," she observed, her blindness not hurting her ability to detect people at all.

"A coffee would be useful. I have spent much of the day dealing with the backlog of my duties," Meridina replied while approaching. She glanced about the square. "Aside from the Alliance capital of Portland, I have not visited many Human cities."

"Deux café," Megaera amended to the waiter, and reached to stretch out a chair to Meridina. "A very dear friend of mine loved this place above all other places, so I recreated it, since it was in your data-banks. It was called the Place de Armas in the common tongue of the Earthreign, and this café was simply Café du Monde, the Café of the World. It apparently exists under that name in many universes, which surprised me," she confessed, and her lips turned to a smile. "Welcome to Nouvelle-Orléans."

Meridina took the offered seat. "Nouvelle-Orléans." As she considered the pronunciation she recalled where she'd heard a similar name. "Would that be related to the Human city of New Orleans? I recall Captain Sisko on DS9 mentioning he came from that city, and that his father owns a bistro there."

"It is the same city, but in the history of the Earthreign, it was dominated by French speakers by the end of the 21st century, my friend explained to me once. Well, as part of explaining some other things," Megaera allowed.

Meridina nodded in understanding. "You miss your friend, I sense." It was one of the few things she did sense from the woman, whose mind was closed to her, and even through her swevyra all she could sense was the innate darkness that made Megaera something of a mystery. Such darkness was usually accompanied by violent, uncontrollable behavior, but Megaera was nothing like that. She was controlled in a way that Meridina thought she recognized, even though she could not recall it at the moment.

"I miss a lot of things," Megaera answered, accepting the two cups of milky coffee cut with chicory and the bag of beignets from the waiter. "Likely, you can't even imagine how many things I miss."

For a moment Meridina felt that melancholy through Megaera's mental walls, a deep one that made her blink. She feels like she is old beyond reckoning.

The feeling also struck something in Meridina. Her own loss, and the things she missed, came to her. "I am familiar with loss, although mine was recent."

"I have not lost everything, but only almost everything," Megaera allowed, taking a drink of her still quite hot coffee, her head bowed toward the cup. "Gersal is a lovely world. I am sorry for the bloodshed upon her."

The memories of that horrible day came back for an instant. Meridina nodded and fought back the tears that formed in her eyes, pushing the memories back as well. She distracted herself with the drink. It was hot on her tongue, but not painfully so. "We lost much. The Cylons, the Brotherhood, they went out of their way to try and destroy the memory of Swenya on our world." Meridina took in a breath while glancing about at the fascimile of the square around them. "I was stunned to feel her presence at A Famoso. I knew she fought in the ancient Darkness War, but to follow her actual footsteps, to sense the imprint of her Light at that garden, it made me wish my people could experience it."

"Her light may have imprinted the garden, but what was wrought at A Famoso was a terrible day in a terrible War, Meridina."

Between the way the words were spoken and the sense her talents picked up from Megaera, Meridina wondered if Megaera herself had been there in some way. "You sound as if you fought in it yourself."

"I did," Megaera answered.

Meridina couldn't keep her surprise off her face. She felt no deception in the statement, but if true… "That would make you older than the oldest Asari Matriarch."

"The Alekto uses me when I'm needed," Megaera shrugged. That was also true, but it also sounded like something of an obfuscation.

Is she kept in some kind of stasis when she's not needed? It was a possibility, but Meridina sensed she would not get any further with this line of discussion. "I have never felt a being like the Alekto before. It was like she had no swevyra, no connection to the Flow of Life to speak of. Not even the unfelt connection all beings possess. If I had not seen her moving and speaking as she did, or sensed the power, I would have assumed she was a machine intelligence."

Megaera smirked. "The Alekto is not a machine. She is beyond life. It is very difficult the first time you encounter her, certainly, but that is the truth."

Beyond life? The concept was alien. "And the Box device she used. It made me feel as if my hand were being melted off my body. Even my swevyra insisted it was happening, but it was all an illusion. I have never seen technology that can fool my senses like that."

"It is technology grounded in the fundamental truths of reality," Megaera replied unflappably. "That is the currency The Alekto deals in: A truth so great we cannot fully fathom it."

Again she sensed Megaera's complete sincerity in the remark. But it didn't quite make sense.

She almost asked for more information about the Alekto. She will not share much more with me, though. She will keep her master's secrets.

"On the Citadel, you spoke High Gersallian to Robert and Lucy," she said. "And you say you witnessed the ancient war with the Darkness. Did you… did you know the Grand Foundress?"

"I did," Megaera shook her head. "They called her that within her own lifetime and she justly detested it." She took one of the sugar-coated beignets and started to eat it idly.

"So I have been told before." Meridina took another drink of the coffee. Questions rose in her mind, too many to ask. By the time she swallowed it she settled on one. "What was she like?" At seeing Megaera's interest in the question, Meridina explained, "Kohbal destroyed as much of her memory as he could, though he failed to make us forget her. There's so much of her life we don't know of. Her upbringing, her parents. Why Reshan chose her."

"She was brave and didn't seem capable of appreciating fear," Megaera answered. "Her confidence electrified those around her, though she could be iconoclastic and rigid. To her there was very much One Truth, One Right. But she was capable of pity and compassion for darkness, her rigidness never deviated into cruelty. I liked fighting at her side. She infuriated the Alekto, though, My Mistress sees the Cosmos in functional terms and is equally convinced of her own right. They quarrelled about the Ends justifying the Means or not." Megaera shrugged. "In the end, she convinced even the Alekto to let her try to win by her doctrine of Right, and she succeeded in stopping the Darkness… For that time. A final victory eluded her as it long has my Mistress, however. Truth be told, I doubt it's possible." She looked up with her concealed eyes, with no way to know what was really there. "Swenya and the Sword counterattacked back into Darkness-place, but they barely escaped with their lives, and only when the Alekto came to aid their retreat. It is a fool's hope, that entire realm is oblivion given form, I do not think it can ever be defeated, just stopped, like the legend of the Wall of Gog and Magog."

Megaera's description met rapt attention. Her description of Swenya was an honest one, one that the Order would never use, but it did nothing to tarnish Meridina's view of her homeworld's greatest heroine. If anything it bolstered it, to know that Swenya risked herself so openly trying to strike the Darkness down in whatever their home space was, and could face down even a being like the Alekto. She does not seem the type to accept dissent against her views. That Swenya persuaded even her…

"Thank you," she said. "I can feel the honesty in your words, you indicate flaws we have forgotten, but that she tempered her own flaws with her compassion. It is what I would hope for." There was a slight relief in her voice as well. Given all she'd learned of the Order hiding things, such as the last line of the Prophecy of the Dawn, it was reassuring to know Swenya herself was as she was imagined to be.

"As I said, I was pleased to fight at her side," Megaera shrugged. "There are many dead who I remember, and she shines bright among them."

Meridina nodded. She considered Megaera quietly for several moments, drinking her coffee as she did. That she was immersed in darkness was evident. That she did not let it drive her was equally so. "I have had my own experience with darkness," she admitted. "I remember striking down Dralan Olati on Jarod's home Earth and feeling joy at the kill, only to become disgusted with myself."

"I suppose you think you are a better person than I for that," Megaera answered dismissively, head bowed, seeming to be staring down hard into the bottom of her cup with concealed, sightless eyes. Who knew what the contemplative gesture meant.

"No, I…" Meridina shook her head. "Perhaps I feel something like that. I have been trained to see darkness as a terrible thing. But I…" She wrestled within for the words she wanted. Her own emotions conflicted. She indeed felt an instinctive disapproval of darkness, and embracing it. All of the teachings of her life told her such darkness reduced the Flow of Life. That it was something to be stopped.

But those teachings came from Swenya. The same Swenya who clearly meant something to this woman immersed in darkness, who recalled her with such warm sentiment.

"I do not know your story. Why you came to hold such darkness within you," she admitted. "But if you were truly given over to it, as I understand darkness anyway, we could not have this conversation. You would not have let Robert and Lucy go at the Citadel without an attempt to strike them down."

Megaera sniffed. "Principled self-interest. That's all. No, you don't understand my story, or where I came from, or what I have done. But pray you never have to face the Darkness. If you do, you might have to be Swenya to avoid being touched by it."

For all those words, Meridina wondered if that was all there was to Megaera's sentiment. That her actions were only principled self-interest, and not a sign of something else. She chose not to speak on that, as it seemed unlikely to go anywhere. "I hope with all my heart and swevyra the Darkness does not come back," she said, even as she dwelled on the final, suppressed line of the Prophecy of the Dawn. Swenya herself foretold their return, after all. "But if that dreadful day comes, I will do what I must to stop them and protect those I hold dear. If it requires me to live up to Swenya's example, I will do so, whatever the cost."

As she spoke those words she glanced at the hand she'd placed in the Alekto's terrible box. The limb she'd been ready to sacrifice, if it came down to it.

A tone sounded in the holodeck, accompanied by a blue light over Meridina's left hand. She tapped it. "Meridina here."

Kaveri's voice came over the line. "Commander, I would like to speak with you. We are en route to Domaram, and there are personnel matters to consider."

"I understand, Captain. I am on my way." Meridina took a final small drink of the offered coffee before standing. "Thank you for your time, Megaera, and for your words. I will cherish your recollections of Swenya, and hope that I may live up to her standard in our relations." She bowed her head respectfully. Megaera returned the gesture before focusing on her remnant meal and drink.

After the door slid close behind Meridina, Megaera raised her head, and very softly, hard to hear over the 'crowd', began to sing:

"Gil-galad was an Elven-king.
Of him the harpers sadly sing:
The last whose realm was fair and free
Between the mountains and the sea.

His sword was long, his lance was keen.
His shining helm afar was seen.
The countless stars of heaven's field
Were mirrored in his silver shield.

But long ago he rode away,
And where he dwelleth none can say.
For into darkness fell his star;
In Mordor, where the shadows are."