The funeral, if one can call heaving a body out into the depths of space a funeral, was mercifully short. Two guards hefted the skrull's body into the airlock and sealed it. Few were morbid enough to stay and watch it be sucked out into the vacuum of space, and even less stayed to watch what effect space would have upon the body. D'Tar was one of those who did not have time to fulfill his morbid curiosities. He had a code to unravel.
D'Tar sat in front of his computer staring hopelessly at the readout. What little had been recovered from Tes'ral's computer that was still reconstructable was of no use. "Now...universe...stop...Cryst." The mere existence of the message was a more useful clue than anything it contained. Even the code itself was corrupted to the point that only a few blocks remained in tact. Slowly D'Tar ticked off the clues they had on his fingers – it was a short list. Tes'ral was communicating with somebody other than the council. This person was trying to make the message look as if it had come from the council headquarters. Tes'ral was dead. They had a portion of a message code. D'Tar sat straight up in his chair, eyes widening a fraction as he set his fingers flying over the keyboard in front of him. The code was the key. Subspace communications had to be embedded within other coding strands in order to protect the core message from deterioration within the radiation of space. This 'shell coding' was more complex the farther the broadcaster was from the recipient. If D'Tar could break down the outer coding of the message the equation used to produce it, he could in essence determine how far away from their current position this person was. It was a longshot, but at least with a search radius they had a decent chance of finding something more substantial. After about twenty minutes of typing away D'Tar started to cringe, this was going to be yet another long and sleepless night.
* * * * *
"Off!," was all Lilandra had to say for the guards to back down from Ailon and allow A'nok the chance to rise and straighten himself. "I believe, councillors, we have some important information to discuss?" It was not a question. Staff of office in hand Lilandra used it to all but hook A'nok by the back of his robe and drag him into her chambers, an icy stare ensuring that Ailon followed meekly behind, carefully teasing the doors silently shut behind her. "Out!" she shouted at the few guards remaining in her quarters, who for once didn't bother to argue, but merely let themselves out a side door. "Talk!"
Ailon went to open her mouth, but A'nok raised a finger stalling her. "You must understand, your majesty, that we cannot reveal the identity of our source, for the person's own safety." Lilandra's lips quirked into a slight smile at that.
"I am sure that you sent this person away with my regards for the duty they have performed for the Empire."
"Certainly Majestrix." A'nok too smiled at the version of a cat and mouse game that Lilandra and Mirdlan continued, both aware of the other but voluntarily remaining 'ignorant' for the other's behalf. "Our source tells us that there are a group of brigands who have been hired by this unknown threat. They have been stealing communication equipment, subspace technology, frequency enhancers, and other such machinery."
"Nothing out of the ordinary." The Empress commented off hand, motioning for the two to take seats. "What does this have to do with the Crystal?"
"They are bringing all this machinery to the Hentaan Moon, Majestrix, where it is being turned over to a building crew to construct some form of massive array which broadcasts frequencies in short powerful bursts." Ailon explained.
"Hentaan is, as I'm sure you know, Majestrix, the closest uninhabited moon to the Crystal." A'nok added.
"And I've no doubt that this broadcast array is what is causing the Crystal to become active. So the question remains who is paying these space pirates to cooperate and the engineers to construct this thing." She sat staring at the two, wondering how much information they would be able to give beyond this point.
"It is a very good question indeed, your highness. Unfortunately our informant is merely working as a security officer, and does not know who it is that is supplying his money, the skrull was our informant's contact. Tes'ral is also working for this man, your highness."
A'nok's answer didn't surprise her, but for once she was one step ahead of him. "Indeed councillor, that is why Tes'ral is no longer breathing." The vehemency in her voice made Ailon jump slightly in her seat, A'nok simply nodded. "I am sure, councillors, that this informant had some idea of where the pay was coming from or you would not have been contacted."
Both looked at each other before looking back to the Empress and nodding.
* * * * *
Sam was having a dream – a good dream at that – about home. Not home as in the X-Mansion, which had never felt as comfortable to him as it did to most of the other residents. No home was a field in Kentucky, tall grasses surrounding him as he walked out to the pasture where his father kept some of the horses. Mr. Guthrie raised race horses, a very noble profession in the 'Blue Grass' state, where horse racing was second only to high school football. The sun was warm and golden on his face and shoulders, it was a good heat and in the back of his mind it made Sam wish he could fly. He finally reached the pen where his dad's prize stud was roaming around, grazing here and there. This horse had the choicest grazing grounds in all of Kentucky, two and half acres of the lushest grass that God and irrigation could provide. Something wasn't right though, Jacob was in Jumping Jack Flash's pen. Poppa was gonna be so sore at Jacob if he found out. "Jacob, whatcha doin' in there?" Sam shouted at him from where his chubby arms just reached the second rung of the post.
"Poppa said I could ride 'im soons Ah turned fourteen, so Ah'm gonna ride 'im." Jacob shouted back. Now Sam could see the bit and bridle dangling loosely from Jacob's hand. Sam counted the days in his head carefully, today was June 24th, and he was pretty sure that Jacob's birthday wasn't even until July 2nd. Besides, he was certain that Poppa hadn't meant that Jacob could corner and attempt to wrestle himself onto the stallion without an adult's help.
"Not today ya ain't!" Sam yelled back, climbing over the fence and dropping into the pen himself.
"Ah sure am, an' don'tcha dare go runnin' ta Mamma or Ah'll whip ya mahself." Jacob was pretty close to 'Jack' now, and Sam could see him fingering the bit. Sam felt the wind turn on his way towards Jacob, and saw the horse get the scent of both boys in his nostrils. The unfamiliar smells made the horse rear, and start to run, neighing loud enough that any of the hands in the nearby barn would be certain to hear.
"Come on Jacob, it's time ta go, ya done scared 'im an' now everybody's gonna come runnin' ta see what the fuss is about." Just then the boys heard voices coming from the direction of the barns. Jacob, not looking, tossed the bit and bridle at Sam, who not expecting it let them fall to the ground. With that he started running for the fence as fast as his two legs would get him there. Sam started running after him, before he stopped and turned back. "Jacob wait, I forgot the bit and bridle! Jacob!" But it was too late, the farmhands were there and now all they saw was Sam standing in the middle of the pasture with 'Jack's' tack around him. It didn't look good. "You coward," he muttered in the direction that Jacob had run before trudging back toward the men along the fence, letting the reins drag in the mud for good measure.
* * * * *
It always felt good to have your feet on solid ground, Kurt decided, regardless of what those on his team with the power of flight claimed. Nothing was more disconcerting for Kurt, than to be free floating through space. It was almost as unsettling as the idea of how fast this had turned from a 'seek and destroy' mission into a 'search and rescue'. A 'search and rescue,' he briefly reminded himself, that involved a teammate, a very close friend, and his sister. Not for the first time did he push those thoughts aside along with a very brief prayer that they were all alright. "So zis is ze Crystal zat is causing all of zese problems?"
"Yup." Kitty commented from next to him. For once she was completely speechless, which Kurt figured wasn't necessarily a bad thing.
"The good news is it hasn't changed much in all these years." Jean stated, eyeing it closely as someone would eye a valuable that they had just recently recovered. "I don't see any new damage, which is very good."
"Good thing we brought along the expert." Betsy commented dryly, stretching her muscles out of the stiffness that traveling with Kitty could sometimes induce. "So what is it we do now?"
Kurt saw Storm eyeing her team in the same way that he began eyeing his, and it became clear that Cyclops had arranged the teams as he had for a reason. One team was an infiltration team, the other backup. "Storm," Kurt said, grabbing her attention. " I am of the opinion that you and I should switch leadership roles. I understand that Scott would have wanted you in ze Crystal because of your powers, however, I feel zat I would be more an asset on the inside than you."
Storm nodded slowly, taking in the same references that Kurt had made. It was obvious that Cyclops had wanted Storm to lead Colossus and Psylocke into the Crystal, but she had to agree with Kurt. Not only was she useless in tight enclosed spaces, which they might run into inside the Crystal, but her powers were as well. "Done." She said, turning to the assembled teams. "Betsy, Piotr, you and Kurt will enter the Crystal and find our teammates while Kitty, Jean, and I wait here. You three are the best we have in terms of close quarters fighters, and we need a telepath on the inside. Do not take offence, my friend," Storm said, turning to Jean, "but this is about as close as I feel comfortable letting you get to the Crystal."
To her relief, Jean smiled. "None taken, I feel the same way. But before you go into the Crystal I have something for each of you." She opened one of the utility pockets on her Shi'ar style space suit and removed three generic looking utility watches. "These," she said, holding them out for everybody to see, "are frequency trackers, they act like a type of homing device. Walking into the Crystal is not like walking into a building, you will become disoriented. These watches are set to follow the frequency being emitted from a transistor that is strapped on under my suit. The frequency follows a two minute, two minute, one minute recycling pattern. These watches will make sure that you exit out of the Crystal into the right reality."
All three took the watches and strapped them on tightly. "And where did these come from?" Piotr asked skeptically.
"Another 'gift' from Lilandra." Jean stated. "Now a last word of advice before you go. In order to find Logan, Sam, and Rogue you must find one of the Crystal keepers. They are all named Jahf, they will know where to lead you." That being said, there was no more to do, and Betsy, Kurt, and Piotr walked toward the Crystal in the hopes that they would eventually walk out again.
* * * * *
Logan had given up slapping Sam to try and wake him up out of it after multiple attempts had given him no better success and Jahf had reminded him about the definition of stupidity. He was just glad that Sam was still physically there, he hadn't started to fade into one of the rainbowesque strands that floated through the room. To pass the time Logan had decided to simply start asking this little creature questions. "So what is it you do around here anyway?" He asked, lounging carelessly in what appeared to be the middle of nothing. He desperately craved a cigar and a beer to complete the image.
"I keep the lines of reality from tangling. See every thread in here is a reality, a possibility, and sometimes they touch and it causes a blip in both realities. Like have you ever been walking down the street and thought you saw somebody around the corner, then they weren't there. Or have you ever put something down, but when you look for it, it isn't there, even though somebody else finds it in that exact spot a few minutes later. Those aren't random bouts of 'seeing things' or 'losing it' like you humans think. That's what can happen when two threads touch briefly."
"Makes sense. So you keep that from happening."
"I try." Jahf said, letting out a frustrated sigh as whatever he was searching for continued to elude him. "But my main priority is to keep the reality strands untangled. I just explained what happens when they briefly touch, imagine if two became knotted together?"
Logan let out a low whistle. "Could be bad."
"Just think about what hundreds of them getting tangled together could do, could be the end of the universe."
"I wouldn't go that far."
"I would." With that the conversation ended and Jahf returned his entire focus to his work. It was a long time before his laughter caught Logan's attention.
"What?" Logan asked, managing to walk over to where Jahf was closely eyeing a single thread.
"I seem to have found your elusive teammate."
* * * * *
It had been days now, and her memories of the past few months were still gone. Remy was trying his best to cover for her, understanding that she dreaded the Professor going through her mind as much as he did. Whatever was causing the memory problems wasn't having any affect on her physical health, or the baby, so they were content to ignore it. Certainly there were times when it was annoying, and Rogue still was experiencing what Hank had long ago coined as contact anxiety, but life was pretty good, and today Rogue was enjoying something she had never thought to experience. Storm had taken her baby shopping.
"This one is absolutely precious, Rogue." Storm said, holding up a tiny scrap of pink and white that from where Rogue was standing looked more like a washcloth than the dress she was sure that it was.
She couldn't help but laugh. "Ro, Ah told ya, Ah ain't buying clothes till Ah know what Ah'm havin'." She took a closer look at the little pink dress covered in white flowers. "It is cute though, they're all cute." A wistful smile came over her, and Storm smirked.
"Well I am sure that you are going to be having a girl." She said smugly, moving along to pick out matching socks and hats and other accoutrements.
"An' Remy just knows it's gonna be a boy." Rogue laughed.
"Remy does not know what he is talking about." Storm said, putting yet another dress into the shopping cart.
Rogue held her hands up in mock defeat. "Ah'm not gonna argue with ya there sugah. All Ah know for sure is that at least one o' ya is gonna be right."
"Of course, child. Me."
Rogue dubiously eyed the pinks, purples, and yellows that had inundated her shopping cart. "Let's hope so, 'Ro. Cuz Ah'd hate to have ta bring all this stuff back."
* * * * *
"This a private party, or can anyone join?"
Wordlessly Remy reached out with a leg and hooked another chair with his foot dragging it to the table for Corsair. He didn't even look up from his cards. Corsair took the seat and Gambit gathered the cards, dealing out another hand. "So what're we playing?" Neither of the them answered, Bobby just ignored the question and Gambit simply dealt him seven cards. After a few moments Bobby dropped three and Gambit silently dealt him three more. Following suit and guessing Corsair dropped two and Gambit dealt him two. Finally Gambit dropped four, dealt himself four more. Bobby placed his hand face down, not a bad hand three pair. Corsair mimicked him with his three of a kind. Gambit just sat, staring at his cards the color slowly draining from his face. One by one he let the cards fall, nine of spades, ten of spades, jack of spades, queen of spades, king of spades, ace of spades, only one card remained clutched desperately in his hands.
"Non" he whispered as it floated down to the table. It was the Queen of Hearts, but her eyes on either side had been blacked out somehow. His eyes broke from the card only to meet Bobby's. "Dis some kind of sick joke, homme?" The look in his eyes made the whisper more menacing.
"You dealt the cards, Cajun. You should know." Bobby answered, a sheet of ice starting to form over his skin. "You think I wanted this to happen? The only person I'd be glad to see stranded out there would be you." Once again it was Gambit who broke the tension, breaking away from the stare and walking from the table. "Where are you going, Gambit?" Bobby shouted after him.
"Do de only t'ing I can right now, pray." Frustrated with himself and with the Cajun, Bobby slammed his fist down and walked back toward the main cabin of the Starjammer, leaving Corsair standing there wondering what had just happened.