Artona was uncharacteristically nervous as Inta held her hand and led her to the Med Bay, followed by the rest of the Nestia Crew. Her friends and soon-to-be family followed them down the hallway in silent anticipation, fully aware of the solemnity of this occasion.

  “Rex, Love,” Inta said, looking up into the face of the much taller Urarc woman. “You are surrounded by those who care for you and love you.”

  Artona took a cleansing breath. “I know, but it’s a pretty big deal.”

  Inta nodded her head in agreement. “That’s true; a Bonding is a momentous occasion. You will forever be connected to me, us, and the ship; but let me ask you this: would you feel any less committed if you weren’t?”

  The Arc had already given her heart to the slight silver girl; this was just confirmation of what was already true. “You know the answer to that. I would die for you.”

  Inta’s ugh was like a tinkling crystal. “Let’s make sure it doesn’t come to that.”

  They entered the med bay, and the rge tub of silver precursor fluid awaited them in the back corner. Inta, naked as she usually was on board, climbed up and sat on the edge of the tub, kicking her legs as they dangled off the floor, waiting patiently for Artona to ready herself.

  June, Will, and Ben stood close behind Artona, while every Toparian who could attend stood close by among the examination beds. Thea stood towards the back, leaning against a workbench along the wall and clenching her thighs. Even without being connected, she could feel the electric tension in the air as Artona let out a breath intended to calm her amped nerves.

  “Whenever you are ready, Sweetheart,” Inta said soothingly. “We are here for you; take as much time as you need.”

  Artona squared her shoulders and steeled herself for what was to come. “This is ridiculous,” she murmured suddenly under her breath, “I’ve faced death down a dozen different times, and now I’m afraid to get into a tub!?” She broke through her st resistance and began undressing.

  She unbuttoned her red vest, slipped it off with her breast wraps, and then let them drop to the floor. Then she did the same with her pants and panties and stood before Inta, and everyone assembled, every inch of her muscur, furry body exposed.

  “Uh, are you going to say something profound now, or do I need to?” Artona asked, unsure of the ritualistic protocol.

  Inta giggled. “No, my Love, there’s no need for any of that. You just need to climb into the tub with me.” With that, she swung her legs over the rim and dropped in. Inta stood in the waist-deep silver fluid with no clear delineation of where she ended and where the bath began.

  Artona easily stepped over the side of the tub, the silvery fluid barely reaching to the top of her thighs She towered over the slight, silver girl, facing her.

  Inta reached up and gently stroked the brown Artona’s cheek. “After today, my beautiful warrior, we will be Bonded and as close as anyone can be. You will never go without love again.”

  The fluid they stood in swirled around Inta’s waist and lifted her to Artona’s eye level, then they embraced her for a passionate kiss. Artona returned the embrace and kissed her. Inta’s eyes started glowing bright, and fingers of electric discharge began crackling across the surface of the silver fluid.

  Inta dipped the huge Urarc as if they were ballroom dancing to the sparking surface of the fluid and submerged beneath it with her. Artona’s mass was enough that it should have dispced enough fluid to spill it out over the lip of the tub, but it only rounded up on top, Inta’s control of the surface tension absolute.

  The members of the Nestia crew in attendance knew that beneath the surface, Artona was enraptured, filled, and connected in ways difficult to describe. She was experiencing the ecstasy of being imbued with the silver essence right down to the core of her being.

  The electric arcing on the surface of the silver fluid reached a crescendo and then dropped off as Inta and Artona reemerged from the bath. Silver liquid matted her fur, obscuring her face, and when Inta brought her back to a standing position, Artona gasped air loudly, eyes blinking wildly. “Oh, Fuck! That’s intense. You all feel like this, all the time?!” she asked the others who had already bonded with Inta, and they chuckled in response.

  “Yeah, she’s going to need to fuck you senseless for a month, at least, to keep the edge off,” Ben said, and Artona practically hummed in anticipation.

  Still standing in the tub, Inta waved her hand down Artona’s naked body, and the precursor fluid swiftly ran down her muscur form, leaving her fur clean and dry. Her new silver markings running all along her body were revealed, the same shared by all who had Bonded with Inta. Artona’s markings also extended to her fur. The delicate pattern of silver fur glowed a soft blue, evidence of her freshly made Bond.

  Artona felt the warmth of her new family's love, and the patterns on everyone who bore the silver markings glowed blue in response.

  “Oh, that’s new,” Will said, surprised, as everyone looked around at each other and marveled at their glowing outward sign of belonging. Toparian, Human, Andranari, and now Urarc were all bound together tighter than family.

  Inta stepped out of the tub and offered a hand to Artona, helping her step out as well. Then, before she could dress, Artona was mobbed in a crush of hugs from her newly affirmed family, offered words of welcome, praise, and love.

  “Cut it out, you guys, you’re going to make me cry,” said the massive Urarc, in a moment of uncharacteristic tenderness, as she hugged them in return. Then her eyes went wide as she felt a surge of arousal stronger than any she had ever felt in her life. “Aw shit, you all keep hugging me like this, you’re all gonna have to fuck me cross-eyed.”

  Everyone chuckled as Inta took her by the hand and led Artona away to her bedroom. “Not so fast, I get first dibs,” she said with a sultry smile. “Your deepening has just begun, and I need to give you some proper ‘attention’. They can all get a crack at you after I’ve had mine.”

  Inta’s words of possessiveness stoked a fire in the Urarc, who, with a deep hunger in her eyes, swept up the diminutive silver girl in her arms and rushed her off to the bedroom, with Inta giggling loudly all the way.

  “We should hurry and get brunch out of the way before those two cast off enough ‘fuck me’ vibes to turn the Nestia into a ‘Dals 2.0’,” Ben commented, poorly hiding the fact he was eagerly anticipating that very thing.

  “Do you want some help in the kitchen?” June asked.

  “Sure, that would be great,” Ben replied. “I was thinking about making spinach quiche with fruit sad.”

  “Mmm. Sounds good,” June said, following Ben to the kitchen. Together, they started breakfast for the crew and smiled as waves of pleasure emanating from Artona’s room washed over them.

  ****

  The first thing Diana became aware of as she regained consciousness was an overwhelming nausea and a pounding headache, several times worse than the night she had drunk too much wine with some friends from art school. Her head spun, and it was everything she could do not to vomit.

  Lying ft on her back on a hard surface, she felt the cold air of the room and wondered why she was completely naked. She tried to roll over into a more comfortable position and found herself unable to do so. Wearily, she opened her eyes and stared at an unfamiliar high ceiling of rough-hewn stone.

  Diana tried to turn her head to look around but quickly realized she was restrained and could not; a strap held her head fast to the cold stone surface. She went to reach up to her face and examine with her hands what was holding her head, but her hands and arms were bound as well.

  Shakily, she tried to squirm on the hard, uncomfortable surface and found that she was completely immobilized, her head, torso, and limbs all secured to the surface she y on with dozens of straps tightened almost to the point of pain. She could feel that even her fingers and toes were held firm by dozens of tiny restraints.

  The details of her st few memories before she lost consciousness returned to her. There were men, with faces hidden in shadow, then a sharp sting… She slowly realized that she was in a lot of trouble, and panic rose in her chest as she strained against her bonds in a futile effort.

  “Master, the sacrifice has regained consciousness,” she heard a male voice say outside the range of her vision.

  “Excellent. Begin the preparations,” a woman responded, her voice cold and full of authority.

  Diana’s eyes widened as she heard lots of activity around her. She listened to what sounded like a dozen people moving around the rge echoey chamber but could not see what they were doing beyond the periphery of her vision.

  Her adrenaline spiked, ramping up her nausea but clearing the fog in her mind, and she again struggled against her restraints.

  Listening to the unseen swirl of activity around her naked and vulnerable position, Diana heard the striking of hard-soled shoes against the stone floor approach her. A woman’s hooded face appeared and hovered over her, looking down at her with clinical appraisal.

  Her face was gaunt, with high cheekbones and sunken eyes. She wore shoulder-length gray hair that hung around her wrinkled face as she looked down upon Diana with cold malice. The rough fabric of the sleeve of her red cloak rubbed against Diana’s bare skin as she checked the bonds holding her.

  When the woman looked into Diana’s eyes, dread settled into her heart. The woman’s pale green eyes held a look of contempt and hunger that unsettled the frightened young woman, and she felt like this person intended to devour her.

  The cloaked woman turned and seemed to gesture to the others that she could not see. She was handed a small wooden bowl with a small stick resting on the rim. With slow, solemn movements, the woman nodded to the unseen others and removed the stick from the bowl. It was a small brush, and as the hooded woman removed it from the bowl, she tapped it against the rim, knocking off the excess paint—silver paint.

  The hooded woman brought the brush to Diana’s face and began drawing intricate lines on the skin of her forehead, cheeks, and around her eyes. As she did so, Diana felt a dozen other brushes stroke lines all over her naked body, the paint leaving cool streaks on her skin as it began to dry.

  They covered every inch of her exposed skin with the silver lines and then carefully loosened one strap at a time to connect the lines beneath them, not allowing her to squirm away. As they proceeded carefully to decorate her naked form, she realized that there were straps every few inches along her body, far more than what would be needed to hold her.

  “What are you doing? Why are you doing this to me? Please, let me go!” Diana pleaded pathetically.

  “What are we doing?” repeated the hooded woman mockingly. “We are preparing you for sacrifice.” There was a smug satisfaction on the woman’s face, knowing with cruel intention what effect her words would have, as Diana began to hyperventite.

  They finished painting the designs on her skin and withdrew, and then Diana heard the hard clicking of the woman’s shoes as she approached her face again.

  “You will be sacrificed to the Divine, who will, in Their infinite grace, share your life force with us.” The hunger in the woman’s eyes grew intense, and Diana shuddered.

  “Please, don’t do this. Let me go; I won’t tell anyone, just let me go…” she wept and pleaded to uncaring ears. They ignored her pleas and continued their preparations.

  Diana’s eyes darted frantically back and forth as the woman gestured to others to fetch something, then leaned her face close to Diana’s.

  “It is important to the process that the sacrifice is fully conscious and aware of what is happening throughout.” Her face twisted into a sneer of perverse delight. “I will describe it,” she said as she began fidgeting with a bar suspended over Diana’s face. “A sacrifice must not be allowed to lose consciousness; the process is far more effective when the sacrifice is fully aware. An intravenous drip that will supply a stimunt to keep the sacrifice alert, as well as fluid and nutrients to sustain … until it is done.” A cruel smile crossed her lips again. “It will be a long, painful, beautiful process.”

  Diana stared at the woman in horror.

  Before she could resist, a set of hands shot out from the other side of her face, forced her mouth open, and jammed a rge steel ring behind her teeth inside her mouth, holding it open as far as her jaw would go to the point of pain. Then straps on the ring were csped behind her head, securing it in pce. “This is to prevent the ritual from ending too soon by biting the tongue off and choking on it. Happens more often than you might think,” the hooded woman expined wickedly.

  Diana’s panic was now full-blown, rational thought gone, and only terror remained. The hooded woman patted her cheek gently. “Good; almost ready.” Tears streamed down either side of Diana’s face, wetting her hair.

  On the bar over Diana’s head, the woman hung a clear fluid bag with a small tube connected to the bottom, then took a cap off the needle at the other end of the tube. “You will feel a pinch and a sting,” she said clinically as she stuck the needle under Diana’s skin, just above her cvicle.

  Diana felt a rush of crity as the clear fluid dripped into her system.

  “The lid cmps,” the woman said to someone standing close. As she mounted a small tablet to the bar just above Diana’s eyes, she felt rough fingers pull her eyelids back and slide rounded metal hoops between them and her eyeballs, holding her eyes wide open. “Mustn’t close our eyes; we need to watch the process,” the hooded woman whispered ominously. She patted Diana’s cheek again, ending with a hard, stingy sp.

  Diana cried wordlessly through the metal hoop, holding her mouth painfully open; her eyes darted all around. Sweat beaded on her forehead as her terror ratcheted up.

  With one final adjustment, the tablet sprang to life. Diana could see her supine form strapped to a rge stone table from several different vantage points; her knees held open wide. A heavy metal cage surrounded her body and limbs, except above her pelvis and exposed sex.

  She could finally see the dozen hooded figures moving around her immobile body, finishing their preparations. Above her head, she saw a small cube block with what might be a gem set in the center.

  Another view angled down her body and between her spread legs; across the room, she saw a rge digital dispy on the wall over a low door showing fifteen minutes. Diana could see an overhead track connected to the ceiling leading from the door to the foot of the table.

  A low guttural growl of some wild beast was emitted from behind the solid door, and Diana’s terror spiked anew.

  “We are almost ready to begin,” the hooded woman said as the clock began counting down. One of the other hooded figures handed her a pair of thick gloves, which she donned, then a scalpel and a small gss tube with a bck, viscous material inside.

  “This, my dear sacrifice, is a very peculiar bacterium,” the woman said, holding the small gss vial up to a camera so Diana could see it. “This bacterium is special because it slowly feeds on flesh and bone but leaves nerve bundles completely intact.”

  Diana stared at the little gss vial in horror, and her heart beat as though it would leap from her bare chest.

  The hooded woman continued, “The net effect is that as the bacterium devours your flesh, every nerve is left raw, exposed and intact, allowing the afflicted to feel every exquisite iota of pain. Most died of a heart attack before it completely consumes it’s victim, but you, my lovely sacrifice, will endure it to the st, thanks to the drugs now in your system.”

  The clock had ticked off five minutes as she spoke. With no more words, she stood and walked to Diana’s left hand. Diana winced as the woman carefully dragged the scalpel across her bound fingertips, leaving shallow cuts producing a single drop of blood on each digit. Then, with the tip of the scalpel, the hooded woman spread a tiny amount of the viscous bck liquid over the fresh cuts.

  At first, Diana’s fingertips tingled. Then, they quickly became itchy until they were slightly painful. But it didn’t stop. The pain in her fingertips continued to ramp up until they felt like they were on fire, and Diana began screaming from the intensity of it. And the pain didn’t let up, it continued to grow worse.

  The woman cut slices on the tips of all ten of Diana’s toes and applied more of the bacterium, causing pain to nce up her legs. The hooded woman then finished with the fingers of Diana’s right hand. She screamed until she ran out of breath, then screamed out her next lung full. The pain was excruciating, pushing out all rational thought. In mere moments, the only thing that existed in the universe was pain and agony.

  The woman handed off the scalpel and gss vial to one of her attendants, removed her gloves, and handed those off as well. She returned to the side of the screaming, tortured woman strapped to the stone table and bent low to whisper in her ear.

  “The pièce de résistance, my delectible sacrifice, is that until we are done, every time that clock finishes its countdown, a terrible beast will be led down that track in the ceiling to your waiting cunt. It will viote you, again and again, as it has its fill. Every time the clock expires. It will be delicious to watch; I can’t wait,” she said sadistically.

  “Oh, and it has one of those barbed penises,” the cruel woman expined off-handedly. “Very painful, I’m told. It has killed females this way before, but we’ll make sure that you get to experience it over and over.”

  Continuously screaming from the intense pain, Diana looked at the clock dispy on the tablet in utter terror. Her mind threatened to unravel, but the drugs being pumped into her forced her to endure. With her eyes wide and almost feral, she watched the clock tick down ominously.

  “Do you suppose your silver friend will get here before we’ve finished?” the hooded woman asked absent-mindedly, stroking Diana’s face lightly. Diana could not hear the woman’s words above her screaming and the immense pain shooting through every inch of her body.

  The woman shrugged, getting no cogent response from the tortured woman on the table. Then, she walked slowly to a rge granite seat just behind the stone cube at Diana’s head and sat on it. A gem matching the one in the cube was embedded in the high back seat, and it started to pulse and glow in time with the gem in the cube.

  A wicked smile crept across the woman’s face as she leaned back and watched the clock tick down: one minute to go.

  ****

  Artona slunk into the dining room, looking bedraggled and exhausted but wearing an enormous grin. She went to the table and fell into one of the chairs, panting. “By the Great Mother, that silver vixen has a hell of a lot of stamina.”

  Inta followed shortly behind, grinning like she had won every kewpie doll at the carnival. “I need every ounce of it with you, my lovely warrior. It takes all three of them to give it to me like you do,” she said, beaming.

  Will straightened up in his seat, grinning. “I take that as a personal challenge, Madam. I challenge you to a duel! What will it be? Dicks at dawn? Asses at sunset?” he said, the pyful gunslinger drawl earning some appreciative chuckles from the crowd assembled for dinner.

  “Anytime, anything, anywhere, Honey,” Inta purred, draping herself across his shoulders.

  The rest of the crew had already tucked into the hearty stew that Ben had made, so June brought Artona a rge bowl, set it on the table in front of the Urarc, and kissed her on the cheek. “That was just her opening salvo. She’s going to ride you so hard, you’ll walk funny for a week,” June said as she hugged Artona from behind.

  “Can’t hardly wait,” Artona said between rge mouthfuls, grinning. She shoveled down her first bowl quickly, got a second helping, then started on that one. “Alright, Inta. I’ll be ready for round two, in just a moment.”

  “But for the real question: is the bed ready for round two?” Will said with a broad smile. “I know you’ve already demolished two; I’d be surprised if the third hasn’t already been smashed into splinters.”

  Everyone chuckled in response, sat sipping assorted hot beverages, having finished their meal, and enjoyed the pyful jousting.

  “Last call for stew before I put it away; anyone need more?” Ben asked, getting ready to pick up after their meal.

  Before he got an answer, Inta’s expression got serious. “There’s a call marked urgent coming over Q-net from Jeremy,” Inta said, concerned.

  “Answer it please, and tell him we’ll be right there,” Will said, quickly setting his cup on the table and heading to the bridge. The rest of the crew followed closely behind him.

  When they arrived on the bridge, Jeremy’s face was dispyed on the screen, wearing an expression of deep worry that set their nerves on edge.

  “Jeremy, what’s wrong, is Sarah and the baby okay?” June asked nervously.

  “Yeah, they’re fine, but I just spoke with Commander Michaels. Inta’s friend Diana has gone missing.”

  Immediately, everyone was intently focused on Jeremy’s next words. “He’s not sharing details, and only said that he urgently needed to speak with you. Something’s spooked him; he’s doubled station security and posted officers at our apartment. He said he didn’t know how to get in touch with you, so asked me to contact you.” The crew looked at each other, their concern for the sweet hostess growing by the minute.

  “Thanks Jeremy,” Will said finally. “We’ll call Michaels right away. Give our love to Sarah and Tara. Take care of yourself.”

  “You, too, Will,” Jeremy said before ending the call.

  “Inta, can you route a call to Penrose Security?” June asked, a look of worry on her face.

  “Already on it. Connecting… now,” Inta said as the starburst pattern of the Penrose Security Force insignia spshed on the screen.

  After the insignia faded, a young blond man in uniform appeared on the screen. “Security, please state the reason for your call,” he said formally.

  “This is Will Foucault, crew member of the Nestia, a ship that had recently visited the station. We need to speak with Commander Michaels; it’s extremely urgent.”

  “Please hold,” the young officer said, muting the call. He turned his head and spoke on another line, then quickly returned. “The Commander was expecting your call. I’ll transfer you now. Please stay on the line.”

  The screen cut to the image of Commander Michaels sitting behind a desk, neatly organized, with a couple of tablets stacked on one side and several empty coffee cups on the other side of his desk.

  “Mr. Faucault, thank you for reaching out so quickly. Did Mr. Walters expin the urgency?” Michaels asked.

  “He only said that one of Inta’s friends has gone missing and that you urgently needed to talk to us," Will replied.

  “That’s correct,” the Commander began, picking up one of the tablets and reading the details of the missing persons' report. “Ms. Davis ended her shift yesterday, and from eyewitness accounts and station security footage, she walked home by an indirect route that took her up to the Observatory Viewport.

  There, several men accosted and apparently drugged her. The recordings show the men carrying her away shortly afterward, disappearing into the station's maintenance corridors.” The crew on the bridge shared a horrified expression at the Commander’s description of events.

  “After her manager reported her missing, the surveilnce footage was reviewed and a team discovered that one of the maintenance airlock’s security panel had been tampered with. We assume that Ms. Davis was removed from the station through this unsecured airlock.” A brief look of shame crossed the Commander’s face as he admitted the breach in security on his watch.

  He then pressed a couple of buttons, and a repy of the security footage from the Observatory filled the screen. As the timestamp in the corner ticked along, the image of the hostess, brunette hair up in a bun, came on screen, stared out the viewport, and eventually sat on a bleacher and gazed at the stars through the viewport, with a far off look in her eyes.

  Inta watched with tears forming in her eyes; she felt like if she stared hard and long enough, she could almost see the dreams and visions dancing around Diana's head like a halo.

  A few minutes ter, three men appeared, accosted her, and disappeared again, Diana slung over one of their shoulders. They appeared and were gone in less than thirty seconds.

  “Those were professionals,” Artona said, experienced in such situations. “They knew exactly when and where to strike.”

  “We checked the Station’s traffic control records,” Michaels continued, turning the video off. “There were no departures registered and no sign of a ship was detected leaving the station. We are still performing an exhaustive search of the station for her, but right now the working assumption is that Ms. Davis is no longer on the station.”

  The Commander paused, reached down to one side of his desk, and audibly opened a drawer to retrieve something, followed by the sound of the drawer closing. He sat upright and held an eight-by-five card before the view screen. “This is the only clue left behind as to Ms. Davis’ whereabouts, pced on her bag of art supplies left behind at the scene of the abduction.” He held the card out so they could read the words, handwritten in flowing script.

  “It’s addressed to ‘The Silver One’,” the Commander said, then paused. “Unless the abductors are speaking metaphorically, You are the only person who meets this description that Ms. Davis has come into contact with.”

  “She doesn’t have much time,” Ben said, reading the rest of the message. “Is that it? Just ‘hurry’? There are no other demands on the card? Is there anything on the back side of it?” He asked.

  “As a matter of fact, there is. I am really hoping that this means something to you. Forensics couldn’t make anything of it.” The Commander turned the card over, dispying the reverse side.

  On the back of the card were several geometric patterns, all scribed one on top of another in seemingly random patterns. Each pattern was carefully drawn in slightly different shades of ink without apparent rhyme or reason.

  The Nestia crew stared at the etchings on the card, hoping that their meaning would jump out at them and give some clue to the intent of Diana’s kidnappers, but nothing immediately stood out to them.

  Ben looked deeply at the patterns, and a sense of familiarity emerged, though he couldn’t pce it immediately. “Commander, can you please hold that closer to the dispy,” he requested.

  The Commander obliged, and Ben got up from his usual seat at the back of the bridge and walked closer to the front screen. He stared at it a moment longer, then blinked as a sudden insight struck him. “Oh... I think I know what this might be.” He had everyone’s immediate attention.

  “It has the feel of an object projected down from a higher dimension, kind of like when you draw a cube on a ft piece of paper using angled lines to represent perspective. Look, see this line here,” he said, pointing to a curving line intersecting two others, “This could be a corner of an object. And these fainter lines could indicate vectors," Ben paused his analysis. “But it doesn’t quite make sense; there’s something missing…” He said, fading off, scratching his chin, turning it over in his mind.

  “Commander, are there any more details that you can see that we’re missing?” June asked.

  He turned it back over so the Nestia crew couldn’t see it anymore and examined it closely again for the hundredth time. “Well, there is a small water stain, here in the corner.” He turned it over again to the dispy. “I didn’t think anything of it before, but now when I look at it, it seems a little too perfect a spot to be just a random drop of water.” It was faint, but there was something there.

  Ben’s mind went into overdrive as he tried to assemble the geometric figures into a meaningful pattern but came up short. “We’re missing something. I just can’t figure out what it is,” he admitted.

  “Commander, can you send us a detailed scan of both sides of the card? I’d like to keep working at this,” Ben requested.

  “I’ll have someone send the scan at once.” The Commander momentarily set the card on his desk, then folded his hands in front of him, contempting the situation.

  Will spoke up. “Commander, do you think this might be in retaliation for the sve shipment Inta and the others disrupted?”

  The Commander nodded softly. “The thought had occurred to me, and I haven’t ruled it out, though we don’t have any direct evidence that the abduction is directly connected. You folks are the only circumstantial connection between the two events. ”

  Michaels picked up the card again and reread the single sentence. “They said, ‘hurry’, like they expected you to personally attend the matter. They must not know that you were halfway across the sector at the moment. I hope that detail doesn’t harm Ms. Davis’ chances…” He didn’t finish the thought.

  During the entire discussion, Inta stood silent, wrestling with her emotions and feelings of helplessness. Commander Michaels's unspoken specution caused something in her to snap into focus, and a look of steely determination crossed her face. “Commander, we’ll be there in four days.” Everyone on the bridge turned to Inta, startled looks on their faces. “Keep looking for her, expand your search to neighboring systems, do what you must to find her. And don’t lose that card! It is the one link that could help us find her and bring her home. We have to bring her home!”

  “Four days? How do you pn on doing that? It would take the fastest frigate in the navy a minimum of two weeks to get here from Centrailia.” Michaels looked at Inta as though he thought she had become delusional.

  “Yes, four days. Promise me you’ll do everything you can until we arrive," Inta demanded.

  The Commander looked at her with pity, seeing how special Diana was to her, and chalked her cim up to desperation. “I promise we’ll do everything within our power to bring her home,” he said with an unintended grim finality, betraying how he believed this situation would eventually py out. “You have my word. I’ll send the scan as soon as we end this call.”

  “Thank you Commander, I appreciate you doing what you can. Please let us know if you find anything new,” Will said.

  “I will. Michaels, out,” he signed off and ended the call.

  All eyes of the crew on the bridge turned to Inta.”Four days, Inta? Are you saying that the Nestia has enough power to dispce now? That you’re strong enough now?” June asked.

  “Yes, if just barely. If my calcutions are correct, if I focus solely on ramping up the core’s power, we’ll have enough energy to make a small jump. We’ll need to do that a few times to get back to Penrose," Inta said confidently.

  “Your sole focus? Does that mean only one of you around for a while? Lucky Artona, getting all of your avaible attention," Ben said jokingly but with a hint of sadness in his voice.

  “No, unfortunately, not even one,” Inta expined, “In order to manage the instabilities in the power core at the needed levels, I’ll need every scrap of focus I can muster. I’m not sure that I’ll even be able to whisper naughty things in your earpieces,” she said mischievously, with a small flirty smile.

  “And you’ll be fine, right? You’re not going to hurt yourself attempting this?” Will asked, his expression full of concern.

  “I’ll be fine, Lover. Just preoccupied,” she said while lovingly touching his cheek. “Oh, we just received Commander Michaels’ transmission with the scan of that card," Inta said, suddenly looking up.

  “Can you send it to this workstation? There’s got to be something I missed,” Ben said, sitting back in his usual spot. The console lit up, and Ben immediately examined the scanned card for any detail he might have missed.

  “And the dispcement,” Will continued, “do we all need to get a dose of anti-nausea meds before we jump?”

  “That shouldn’t be necessary,” Inta expined. “Most of the Nestia’s mass is already in 4-D space and should shield everyone from those disorientating effects. It’s only an issue when you’re close to it with only a thin yer of something around you.”

  “Before you get started, Inta, we should brief everyone on the situation and prepare them for your absence," June decred, knowing the rest of the crew would feel Inta’s absence as much as she would.

  “I just expined the situation to De’noke and the rest of the Toparians in their quarters, and they understand the situation," Inta reported.

  Occasionally, Will was caught off guard by how good she really was at multitasking, and though he shouldn’t have been, he was surprised.

  “Artona’s taking a breather at the moment and I’m expining it to her while we snuggle. She seems to be one part disappointed, and one part relieved to have a break,” she said with a pyful smirk. “And before you ask, yes, I need to repair the bed, again.”

  “Well, I think that settles it,” June decred. “I don’t know if I’m mentally prepared not to hold you in my arms for four whole days, but it seems everyone agrees that it’s the right thing to do.” June paused and took both of Inta’s hands in hers. “Are you sure you’ll be fine?”

  “My Sweet, this is literally what I was meant to do. I’ll be fine," Inta said, a small tear in the corner of her eye, overwhelmed by the entire crew's love and concern for her.

  “There’s no time like the present,” Inta decred, but before she could store away her bodies wherever she kept them, everyone on the bridge rushed to hug her in a group embrace.

  Inta soaked in their love for her, and after a few moments, they reluctantly released her. She gave them a smile and a quick wink, then shrank until she disappeared from view.

  “June, can you navigate us out of the major shipping nes then bring us to subluminal speeds?” Inta requested over her earpiece. “Once we’re no longer FTL, let us coast and I’ll continue to ramp up the core; every little bit of distance we can travel brings us closer to Diana.”

  “Sure thing, Honey,” June responded, sitting at the navigational controls again. After several course corrections, June eased the gravity drive back, quickly reducing their speed.

  Artona joined them on the bridge just as the rainbow streamers of the red-shifted stars on the forward dispy screen squeezed back into pinpoints of white light. The Nestia rapidly decelerated until they were coasting subluminal, only under the effects of inertia.

  “Ramping up the core,” Inta informed everyone over their earpieces. “We’ll need roughly twenty-two hours before the core is at the levels we need to make our first dispcement, and then at that level, we’ll be able to jump every eight hours after that until we get to Bordan space.”

  Will shook his head, looking confused, “Every eight hours? Then why twenty-two the first time around?” he asked, looking at the ceiling as if that’s where Inta was, instead of all around him.

  “The power core can theoretically output an unlimited amount of power; but the price is increasing instabilities until they become completely unmanageable, even for me. The trade off is exponential, almost to the point of being asymptotic. No one had found the upper limit of what the dark matter cores could do, other than pushing too far beyond their ability to control the instabilities.”

  Inta’s tone became contemptive. “There was a researcher I remember reading about who was sure she had solved the problem and pushed her power core too far and ended up atomizing an entire star system. Everything went up, just like a supernova," Inta expined absent-mindedly.

  June looked up in wide-eyed surprise, her mouth hanging open. “Inta, did you just remember something from your past? And it didn’t seem traumatic at all!” she said excitedly.

  “Yeah, I guess I did, didn’t I?” Inta said, herself surprised. “Maybe it’s because I didn’t have much of an emotional connection to it, happened a long before I was born, but still had bearing on the current situation.”

  “That’s as reasonable a guess as any,” Will said. “Maybe this means you’ll start remembering more things from your past more easily now.”

  Artona, quietly leaning against the wall in her usual spot, listened to their exchange with an undecipherable look in her eyes and did not comment. “Well, I’m going to get a workout in and then hit the sack; what’s left of it anyway. I’ll miss you, silver girl,” she said with a slightly downcast look.

  “I thought after today, you’d be sleeping with the rest of us in the lounge,” Ben said off-handedly, not looking up from his study of the kidnapper’s card.

  “I was looking forward to cuddling,” June said, soft and enticing.

  Artona beamed a big smile. “The cn often slept in a group, with the young ones in the middle. When I was small, there was no better feeling than falling asleep surrounded by warm bodies and mountains of fur.”

  “Well, we can’t do much about the fur, but we’ve got you covered with warm bodies,” Will said, wiggling his eyebrows.

  “Really?” June excimed with a chuckle. “Even in a situation such as this, you’re as bad as Inta.”

  “Insatiable,” Inta whispered in their ears, and they broke out into ughter, breaking the tension.

  ****

  As they waited for Inta to raise the power core levels so they could dispce, the crew found tasks to keep themselves busy.

  Artona, Will, and Thea spent their time in the corner of the hangar set up as an exercise area, where Artona ran them through drills to sharpen their hand-to-hand combat forms.

  June kept watch on the bridge, monitoring long-range sensors to ensure that the Nestia stayed clear of traffic in the space nes and that no ships wandered into their vicinity.

  As she sat at the navigational controls, she could, if she closed her eyes and concentrated, reach out through the darkness with her thoughts and feel vague impressions of the crew bound to Inta and the Nestia.

  June had asked Inta once if this was common, but she couldn’t say; there was still so much of her memory that she couldn’t recall, but she could confirm that she seemed to be the only one of the crew who felt the others in the same fashion as Inta did, however dimly.

  Though foggy, June could feel Will the clearest, presumably because he and June had been Bonded the longest. Ben was a close second, followed by the Toparians, though the Mothers seemed to shine brighter in her Mind’s eye. Artona’s impression was becoming stronger, and curiously, even though she wasn’t Bonded, June could detect the faintest of whispers from Thea.

  June felt Ben’s frustration spike as he leaned back from the console where he was studying the kidnapper’s cryptic message and grunted in frustration.

  “How are you holding up?” June asked.

  Ben stretched his arms over his head, trying to release pent-up tension. “Okay, I guess,” he said. “The more I look at these designs, the more I’m certain that there is clear intention in the pattern and design, but I’m struggling to make sense of it. It feels like it’s right at the edge of my fingertips, but just out of reach.” He gave a heavy sigh. “I’m missing something, but I can’t say what.”

  June got up and hung an arm around his shoulder. “ Try to expin it to me. Sometimes it helps to work through it out loud.”

  “Yeah, I think a fresh set of eyes might help," Ben said. He pulled up the scanned images of the front and back of the card Commander Michaels had sent them and moved them to the upper left corner of the dispy at his workstation.

  “The message on the front is too short to be any sort of cypher-key for the designs on the back.” Ben then dispyed the designs separately on another section of his dispy. “Each of these have every indication that they are connected to one another, but they don’t seem to fit logically.” He spun and rotated each pattern individually on his dispy. “I’ve tried every orientation, every transformation and algorithm that I can think of, but I can’t make them fit. I’m confident that they are parts of a whole, but I don’t see how.”

  June's brows furrowed as she watched Ben’s screen over his shoulder. “And what about the water spot Michaels found at the corner?”

  “It’s just a faint, circur dot,” Ben said, zooming into the portion of the image containing the spot. “It seems intentional, but unlike the other sweeping lines, all there is…” Ben’s words trailed off as he stared at the zoomed-in dot. Then almost frantically, he zoomed the image closer in until the dot filled the entire screen.

  “Holy shit,” he excimed under his breath.

  “Huh? What is it?” June asked, perplexed.

  “I can’t believe I didn’t see this sooner; well done, June!” Ben said excitedly. She waited patiently for Ben to expin, still perplexed by what ‘she’ had found.

  “Do you see it? Around the edges of the dot," Ben said, zooming the dispy in even closer until just the edge of the dot filled the entire screen. At this resolution, the edge of the dot seemed to blur a little.

  “I don’t see anything; it just gets blurry,” June confessed.

  “Precisely! The scan Michaels sent us is extremely high resolution. Here, let me show you.” Ben quickly zoomed out the image and then focused closely on the letters written on the front of the card, then zoomed in to the same level as before with the dot. “Look how crisp the edges of the lettering are. You can practically make out each fiber making up the paper and how the ink dyes it. Super clear.”

  Then Ben zoomed the dispy back to the edge of the strange, faint dot. “Look at the edge of the dot here. Blurred. At the resolution that this was scanned, there’s no way that this should be blurred.” Then Ben turned away from the dispy and grabbed June’s shoulders excitedly.

  “Have you ever watched Inta step into 4-D space closely? I mean real close. When she does it, she’s utilizing some of the Nestia’s gravity effectors, and if you watch, the edges of her blur ever so slightly. It’s a kind of gravitational lensing, like how light bends around the edges of a star due to gravity. I was right; there’s a piece of this message we can’t see because it’s hidden in a higher spacial dimension. I bet with the rest of it, we can decode what this means.”

  June pondered Ben’s discovery for a moment. “If there’s more to this message hidden, then there’s no doubt that this message was intended for someone who can see in higher dimension. This was specifically for Inta,” she said to Ben. Then, speaking to Inta, “Inta, Honey, can you see anything else on the scan of the card?”

  Almost fully occupied with managing the power core, Inta took a heartbeat longer to respond. “No. Scan is 2-D image of 3-D object. Commander not equipped to see 4-D.” Inta’s reply was terse and abbreviated; evidently, she had little attention to spare from her task.

  “We’ll need to let Commander Michaels know that there’s more to the message on that card, and that he can’t let anything happen to it,” Ben said.

  “I’ll send him a message right now,” June replied, returning to her station. A few moments ter, “Message sent. And acknowledged.” Then she swiveled her seat to face Ben. “You really are one of the most clever people I know,” she said in open admiration. “You deserve a treat,” she said with a smoky look.

  “We do have a couple of hours before Inta is ready for the first dispcement… And Inta needs all the energy she can get, after all, right?” he said, returning the look with a wink.

  ****

  “Half hour till dispcement,” the crew heard Inta say in their ears. It was the first thing she had said since her comments regarding Ben's discovery. They had all grown accustomed to her seeming to be everywhere all at once; the silence following her absence was deafening.

  Everyone made their way to the bridge, greeted by June and Ben, who, despite their previous intentions, never returned to the lounge and ended up enjoying each other’s company right on the bridge.

  Larce, the designated Toparian this evening, sat swinging her four legs on the bench designed with Toparian physiology in mind. The Grove had collectively decided that it was unnecessary to have more than one present on the Bridge where they could communicate telepathically directly with Inta and any other member of the Grove. Having one Toparian on the bridge was as good as having them all there.

  ‘Ten minutes.’ Text appeared on the front viewscreen, followed by a countdown.

  “Inta, you okay? Not pushing yourself too hard?” June asked. Though the situation was radically different, seeing Inta reduced to only being able to type short sentences felt a little too close to when they almost lost her.

  ‘All good. Need to concentrate.’ Inta replied in text on the viewscreen.

  The crew looked around at one another, recognizing the same nervousness on the others' faces as they felt on their own.

  “So what’s the procedure if this goes wrong?” Thea asked, looking to take any measure of control of a situation she could do nothing about. “This is the first time she’s put this much load on the power core in what, several thousand years? Would we have enough time to make it to the shuttle?” she asked, unconsciously wringing her hands.

  “If something went wrong with the power core, which Inta would never allow, by the way,” June expined, “everything within two light years would be atomized, instantly. We wouldn’t even have time to register the fact before we simply didn’t exist anymore.”

  “That’s not as reassuring as you think it is,” Thea said with a smirk.

  “Inta ran very thorough diagnostics before ramping up the power,” Ben said, completely non-plussed. “Andranari technology seems to be extremely resilient.”

  The countdown was almost done, and as it reached zero, everyone held their breath no matter how confident they were in Inta’s abilities or the ship’s tech.

  More text on the screen was dispyed.

  ‘Pre-dispcement destination probe deployed.’

  ‘Destination coordinates clear.’

  ‘Dispcement initiated.’

  They had grown accustomed to the white points of light of the dispyed starfield red-shifting and stretching out into rainbow streamers, the only visual indication that they were traveling faster than Einsteinian limits. However, this was a different experience entirely.

  Each star in the starfield exploded into a technicolor, kaleidoscopic maelstrom of swirling colors and dancing refractive light. It was like they were watching every possible permutation of expression of what a star was, being represented simultaneously, all bleeding into one another, filling the viewscreen with chaotic and indecipherable color. The light show was accompanied by a strange sensation of sliding down a slope without moving.

  The psychedelics on the screen only sted a few moments, and as quickly as it started, it returned to a normal starfield.

  ‘Dispcement Successful.’

  ‘Next dispcement, 7 hours, 42 minutes’

  June brought up the star charts and waited for the gactic positioning system beacon pings to reach the Nestia so she could update their position. When they finally came in, June confirmed Inta’s assertions. “We just skipped across nearly two and a half light years. If Inta can keep doing that again every eight hours, we’ll make Bordan space in four days easily.”

  Thea came down to the navigational controls and looked over June’s shoulder to see the star charts with her own eyes. “That’s incredible!” Thea excimed. “No one has anything that can cover that much distance as quickly. Even the Navy’s fastest courier ships would take eight days.”

  June leaned back from the controls and swiveled her seat to face Thea. “I’ve learned that if Inta says something that seems outndish, or impossible, that I should take her word on it.” June put her hands behind her head and leaned back in her chair, becoming contemptive.

  “Despite how utterly foreign Inta and her whole situation is compared to the rest of the gaxy, it seems normal to me now. Ben might, but I don’t understand half of how Inta does what she does, but I trust her completely. If she told me to jump off a cliff, and I would grow wings, I probably would.”

  Thea looked to the other silver-marked crew members on the bridge and saw their silent agreement and looks of absolute devotion to one another and Inta. She realized that Diana, in whatever small way, had been included in this tight circle. A second ter, Thea also realized that this circle of care and devotion also extended to her.

  The sudden feeling of simultaneously being exposed to and being cherished by these people she had met just a short while ago was overwhelming. Their complete acceptance of who she was despite their differences was something she hadn’t felt since Janice took her under her wing when she was small, unsure, and vulnerable.

  They had opened themselves to her and, almost without effort, penetrated the hard, cold walls she erected to protect herself, inserting themselves into a pce in her heart. Unbidden, a tear threatened to fall from Thea’s eye. But instead of hiding the previously supposed weakness, she leaned down and wrapped June in a tight embrace, trying to convey what her words would not.

  June reached up and returned the hug, saying without speaking that she understood and that Thea was loved.

  Ben watched the two embrace and saw Thea’s expression soften as she lowered her defenses and allowed June’s token of acceptance and love into her heart. She was like him in so many ways, and it brought him joy to see her happy.

  “It seems that while she is pulling off yet another miracle,” Will began, “our ‘Gaxy’s best multitasker’, is going to need to focus solely on the task at hand. I don’t think that there’s anything we can do directly, but we can be ready to jump in and help the moment she does need something.”

  “There isn’t anything I wouldn’t do for her,” Artona asserted firmly, seated in the new chair Inta specifically sized to fit her. “What did you have in mind?

  “Inta is operating at her limits, and if she needs something, we need to be able to help immediately. She’s pushing herself to do a dispcement every eight hours, so we should take shifts on watch so there’s always someone here for her.

  I’ve become so used to her managing things while we slept I’ve almost forgotten how ‘mere mortals’ usually operate. We took shifts when June and I were running on the Saturn’s Heart. There’s enough of us to break up the time needed on the bridge into manageable chunks without losing sleep or burning anyone out.”

  There was a murmur of agreement among the gathered.

  “What do you propose for a schedule?” Artona asked.

  Will thought for a moment. “I think it would be best to mirror Inta’s; three teams in eight hour shifts, aligned such that each watch overps during a dispcement. Likely that’s when she’ll need someone the most.”

  “That’s good war footing,” Artona commented. “Everyone stays fresh, and has a retively stable sleep schedule. Not too dissimir to how the Cn would operate during long missions,” the Urarc warrior said, evoking the comparison with ease, seeming to finally be at peace with her loss.

  “If being compared to an Urarc war tactic isn’t high praise, I don’t know what is,” June said cheerfully. Artona gave her a wink, a hint of sharp canines showing through her smile.

  Will continued. “How’s this: June and I will take first watch, then Ben and Thea, followed by Artona and Larce, or whoever’s the designated Toparian at that time.”

  All around, heads nodded in agreement. “Great! All right folks, go get some rest, June and I will hold down the fort.”

  “If you don’t mind, I’d like to sleep with you guys in the lounge tonight,” Larce said. “With some of us staying up on watch, I want to make sure Artona gets a proper ‘cuddle puddle’ to sleep in.”

  Artona scooped up Larce in her strong, furry arms. “Ah! A snuggler after my own heart,” giving her a warm hug, all four of Larce’s legs dangling off the ground.

  Will and June chuckled and watched longingly as they trouped off to bed.

  “Almost like old times,” June said, leaning close to Will.

  “No, much better," he said, leaning the rest of the distance between them, giving her a passionate kiss. Then, they settled into their posts and began their vigil.

  ****

  The crew took keeping watch in stride, and the next few days passed without much drama. Whoever was not on watch would help with the meal, and servings would be brought up to those on watch. When it was Ben and Thea’s turn on watch, Ben became fascinated by the riotous spectacle dispyed on the viewport, so he studied it in depth while on watch, trying to see the patterns and fit them in with his growing understanding of the underlying processes utilized by Nestia’s systems.

  Everyone had their means of passing the time, and when it came time for the final dispcement that would pce them at the edge of Bordan space, the crew discovered how Artona was passing her time on watch.

  Ben and June put away the remnants of the devoured lunch while Will and Thea washed the st of the dishes.

  “About fifteen minutes until the st dispcement,” June said to the others. “I think we all should be on the bridge for it.”

  “Feels appropriate. I’d like for us to be all together when Inta finishes and can finally rex again,” Will said.

  “When you can get a piece of the silver ass again, you mean,” June said, with one eyebrow raised. Thea snickered and nearly dropped a gss.

  “That too,” Will conceded with a smile. “I miss her, as I’m sure everyone does.”

  They all nodded in agreement, each with a faraway look in their eyes, some memory or fantasy of Inta at the fore.

  They finished cleaning up, and when they got onto the bridge, they were greeted with low growling punctuated with cries of “MORE!” and “HARDER!”

  They found Artona bent over the Tactical station by Be’tule, the only person rge enough to make Artona look small. Be’tule’s broad, muscur back flexed and shone with sweat as he plowed into the Urarc violently. With one set of hands, he gripped her hips tight; another hand held both her arms behind her back while he pressed her face down onto the console with his remaining hand.

  “Give me that fucking monster root, you god-damned tree beast!” Artona shrieked, then came hard, squirting a deluge all over Be’tule and the seat at Tactical. Be’tule grunted loudly, sounding like a mix between an oak bending in the wind and an avanche. “Take it! Take all of it, you furry bitch!” as he came hard into her, pumping what must have been several quarts of viscus cum into her fiery depths.

  The crew watched with equal amounts of mirth and envy as Artona and Be’tule came down from their shared climax, panting, reveling in their release. Artona’s stomach bloated from Be’tule’s massive load, looking like she had eaten an enormous meal. They looked up and suddenly realized they had an audience. They sheepishly gathered up clothes, which were discarded all over the bridge.

  “Looks like you’ve found an outlet while waiting for Inta,” June said, teasing.

  Artona shook off her embarrassment and decided to lean into it instead. “Can you bme me? look at the cm hammer he’s packin’.” Be’tule, like most of the Brothers, was well endowed. Even as his erection defted, it was enormous.

  Artona staggered a bit, then found her footing; she looked half delirious and just about ready for another go-round, undoubtedly in no small part due to having her libido driven sky high by her Deepening.

  “Honey, perhaps you should go get a cold shower and take a rest,” June said empathetically, remembering the raging inferno of her libido during the strongest parts of her own Deepening.

  “Yeah, maybe that’s a good idea,” Artona said dreamily.

  “Please, allow me to escort you to the lounge,” Be’tule offered generously, his motivation as pin as the member swelling once more beneath his robe.

  “Oh, how chivalrous. Thank you, Be’tule,” Artona cooed, accepting Be’tule’s crooked elbow and let him lead her from the bridge. No one on the bridge doubted what would happen when they got to the lounge. The only question would be how much of a mess there would be to clean up.

  Inta fshed the final countdown for their st dispcement on the screen a couple of minutes ter.

  ‘30 Seconds Until Dispcement.’

  The crew watched the countdown with anticipation. “After this one, Inta should be able to come back to us,” Ben said, clearly missing the silver girl.

  The countdown went to zero, and the sequence of events they had grown accustomed to was called out on the screen as they occurred.

  ‘Pre-dispcement destination probe deployed.’

  ‘Destination coordinates clear.’

  ‘Dispcement initiated.’

  The dizzying dispy fshed and dazzled across the view screen for a few moments, and then the stars returned.

  ‘Dispcement Successful.’

  ‘Ramping down power core.’

  After the st message, no one on the bridge spoke a word, waiting for what, they weren’t sure. It seemed like an eternity, but only a single minute ter, Inta’s cheery voice whispered in their ears.

  “Oh boy, that was a lot!” Inta said. The crew let out a breath they didn’t realize they were holding. “Just a few more minutes, my Loves, and I’ll be able to give you all a big hug. Thank you for letting me do that!”

  True to her word, Inta’s silver sprang into view and grew to her normal stature. At once, everyone leaped to their feet and rushed to hug her.

  They peppered her with praise: “That was amazing!” and “You’re incredible!” and many confessions: “I missed you,” and “Gd you’re back.”

  “Okay, okay, I love you and missed you all, too,” Inta said, buried in a group hug. “But we need to get going.” After several smooches and long hugs, the crew composed themselves and returned to the business.

  “We’re just outside of Bordan space. At full speed we’ll cross the border in less than thirty minutes,” June reported after confirming their coordinates.

  “Okay, let’s get a move on!” Will said, jumping into the seat at Tactical, suddenly reminded of the mess when, with a squelch, he sat in the result of Artona and Be’tule’s lovemaking.

  “Hmm. I think I’m going to need a towel,” Will said, to a room full of ughter as June fired up the gravity drive, and the Nestia shot off, heading into Bordan space and towards Penrose Station.

  ****

  Unlike the first time they crossed into Bordan space, they had an official transponder to announce their presence and were subsequently greeted with a hail over comms rather than armed cruisers ready to deal with them if they proved to be a threat. “Ship Nestia, this is Bordan Traffic Control. Please state the nature of your visit.”

  “This is Captain June Harding,” June replied, “responding to an emergency communication from Commander Michaels on Penrose Station. This is an Alpha-One emergency; please reach out to the Commander and grant us priority transit to Penrose.”

  There was a short pause on the comms. “Understood, Captain. Please maintain course and heading while we confirm your request.”

  Will looked at June nervously, and Inta stood between them, her hands tensing slightly on each of their shoulders.

  “Captain Harding, we have the Commander’s confirmation; please proceed on the flight path I just transmitted and dock at slip B1. Welcome to Bordan. Good luck, and I hope everything turns out okay, Captain,” the traffic controller called.

  “Thanks Control, we hope so too,” June replied, then closed the channel.

  Ignoring reguted port speeds, June piloted the Nestia along the provided flight path as swiftly as she could get away with, then slowed upon final approach to Penrose. The station grew in perceived size as they approached, and although it looked exactly the same as when they left just a short time ago, they felt none of their previous excitement, just mounting worry for the sweet and shy hostess they had left behind.

  Being much rger this time around, the berth the Nestia was assigned was on the very end of one of the Station’s arms, making it much easier to dock. As soon as the airlock seal was secure, Inta raced off the bridge heading to the airlock, followed closely by the rest of the crew. There had been no time to remodel, so the airlock still wore the ‘faux shuttle’ facade. Only this time, when Inta opened the outer door, she didn’t bother closing the interior door to the rest of the ship.

  The door melted open with a thought from Inta, and Commander Michaels stood there, waiting, wearing a sober expression. Inta gestured for him to enter.

  “I wouldn’t have believed it if I didn’t see the proof standing before me,” he said, stepping in through the airlock door. Ever observant, he scanned the room, recognizing it as the same yout of the small shuttle that had departed weeks ago, and raised one eyebrow in their general direction. “You folks continue to be full of surprises.”

  He shook his head and dismissed the unspoken question. Inta gestured for the Commander to take a seat on a couch. Will and June sat on either side of Inta on the opposite couch; Thea sat in the engineer’s seat while Ben stood leaning against the door frame to the rest of the ship.

  As he stood there, an enormous furry figure came up from behind him in the hallway and pced a gentle hand on his shoulder, followed by her even rger Toparian shadow, Be’tule.

  He gnced up at Artona, smiled warmly, nodded to Be’tule, then stepped aside so they could join them in the increasingly full ‘faux shuttle’.

  The Commander got right down to business. “We’ve completed the search of the station and found no other signs of Ms. Davis other than what we discussed previously. We’ve made inquiries and put out an all points bulletin to all the nearby systems, but as of yet, haven’t gotten any hits.”

  The crew was disappointed at the news.

  “Did you bring the card?” Ben asked urgently.

  The Commander reached into his jacket, retrieved the eight-by-five card from a pocket, and handed it to him. “I hope you have better luck deciphering it than we did,” he said, ashamed of his ck of progress.

  Ben held the card like a precious object, immediately examining the ‘water spot’ on the back. “It’s just as I thought; look here, see how it blurs?” He said, pointing out the detail to the Commander, who nodded but didn’t understand the significance.

  Then Ben handed the card to Inta. “What do you see, Hon?”

  Inta’s eyes went wide, and her jaw dropped in astonishment. “You were right, Ben. There’s more to this design. I’m not sure who would know how to do this, but there are more designs printed on this card, in 4-D.”

  Inta and Ben ignored the Commander’s confusion and immediately went to the small holographic projector at the ‘faux shuttle’ controls. On a hunch, Ben asked, “Inta, can you transpose the 2-D designs and what you see in 4-D onto the 3-D dispy for me?’

  She quickly did so, and Ben’s eyes lit up. “I recognise this. It’s a 3-D projection of a higher dimensional diagram, just like our suits,” he said, tapping a finger on his silver bracer. “This looks complete; Inta, can you extrapote this back into the original higher dimensional geometry?”

  The look of surprise and concern on Inta’s face worried the crew. “It’s coordinates, specifically 6-D coordinates, just like my own star charts.”

  “Six dimensional coordinates?” June asked, shocked. “Who else would know about 6-D star charts, let alone print them like this?”

  “That’s not all,” Inta said in a ft tone. “I know where this is.”

  A stilled hush fell over the crew. “It’s the pnet where June and Will crashed and rescued me from oblivion. This must be where they took Diana.”

  Will’s intuitive hackles rose on the back of his neck in warning. “Something doesn’t sit well with me about this.”

  “It’s a trap,” Artona said pinly. “And Diana is the bait.” Everyone looked to Artona, their eyes pleading for further expnation.

  “It all fits. They specifically targeted someone who meant a great deal to Inta, left a message with directions that only she could read, to a pce where she has deep, painful history. All of it has been carefully designed to put you off kilter, expecting you to rush in. It’s the perfect setup.”

  There were pained looks all around as the truth of the statement hit home.

  Artona’s years of working security for various diplomatic envoys were paying dividends in this moment. “But, now that we recognize the fact, we now have the advantage. They’re expecting Inta to blunder unwittingly into their trap, but now we’ll spring it, and crush them with it.”

  A glimmer of hope shone in Inta’s eyes as tears began to form.

  Artona crossed the small space and embraced the slight, silver girl. “We’ll get her back, I swear it to you.” Unable to form words, Inta hugged the rger woman tight, burying her face in her fur.

  Releasing Inta, Artona turned to the Commander. “How many ships from the Bordan patrol can you muster?”

  “When it comes to the safety of the station’s citizenry, as many as you need," Micheals said confidently.

  “I think a half dozen should do,” Artona said thoughtfully, rubbing her chin. “How quickly can they be ready to depart?”

  “I can have them scrambled and ready to go within the hour," the Commander replied.

  “Good. Instruct them to rendezvous with us just outside Bordan space. We have some preparations to make.”

  The Commander rose to his feet. “I’ll get on it right away.”

  Before he could leave, Inta stopped him. “Wait, take these and give one to each ship,” she said as she handed him seven white cubes. The pnet is located inside a nebu that disrupts normal communications. These will allow us to communicate through it.” Then, seeing his confused expression upon counting the number of devices, she said, “The st one is for you so we can let you know when we have her.”

  Artona put a rge hand on his shoulder. “Thank you, Commander. It is an honor to have you at our side.”

  The Commander had known enough Urarcs that he knew they didn’t speak of honor lightly. “We do what we must to protect our own," he said, echoing Artona’s unspoken sentiment.

  She released his shoulder and gave him a big grin, exposing her sharp canines. “Good Hunting, Commander.”

  “You too," he replied, then left the Nestia to mobilize the Bordan patrol ships.

  “We need to get underway as soon as we can,” Artona said. “And we need to discuss the pn of attack.”

  ****

  The Nestia raced out of Bordan space at full speed to the rendezvous point, where it would await the Bordan patrol ships.

  Having returned to the bridge, they sat in their usual spots, chairs swiveled to face one another.

  “Now then,” Artona began. “We’re going to need to hit them fast and hard, with as much stealth as we can muster. That means the team needs to be small and efficient. I’d like Will, June, and Ben to accompany Inta and myself when we strike.”

  “And what of the Grove?” Be’tule said, slightly confused, holding Artona with an arm around the waist while two hands kneaded her well-muscled shoulders.

  “Darling, you’re a savage lover, but a lover all the same,” Artona said, gently holding a hand to Be’tule’s face. “I don’t doubt your heart, but what we’re about to do will require the hard won cunning and guile that you can only get with training for battle. I wouldn’t want to put you, or any of the Grove into a situation you haven’t been trained for.”

  Be’tule stubbornly refused to let the matter go. “And I suppose Inta has had the requisite training?”

  Artona paused, lost momentarily in the memory of the fight on the Dals, then spoke. “I’ve personally witnessed Inta in action. She’s deadlier than any Urarc I’ve ever known.” A shadow crossed Inta’s face but was gone before anyone but Artona noticed.

  “In this matter, you know best, my ferocious Maiden,” Be’tule conceded, kissing the side of her head lightly. Inta gave Artona a sacious smirk and watched as a blush crept up Artona’s cheeks.

  “With that settled, we have just enough time for a quick meal,” Ben offered, to which everyone happily agreed. They returned to the dining room and found some quick finger food in the kitchen. They all helped set the table and ate a quick meal while waiting for the Bordan patrol to rendezvous. The mood around the table was light but serious; conversations were at a minimum as their family prepared to rescue their dear friend.

  They ate quickly and returned to the bridge, and within minutes, bright fshes of light announced the arrival of the Bordan contingent. Six frigates, whose fttened, wide noses and swept back lines, bristling with weaponry all along their surface, evoked images of some oddly juxtaposed porcupine turtle.

  “We are being hailed; putting them on screen,” Inta said. Suddenly, the image of the ships against the backdrop of stars blinked, and a uniformed man sitting in his bridge’s command chair repced it.

  He was tall and thin, with jet bck hair slightly unkempt and flopping to one side. Something about the way he held himself and his wrinkled uniform spoke of a slight eccentricity, but his eyes were sharp as he surveyed the eclectic crew of the Nestia.

  “Greeting; I am Robert Hall, Captain of the Palisade and Commander of this task group,” then paused, squinted at them through the screen. “I apologize, I usually can only pick out the captain because they’re sitting in the big chair," he said patting his own. “And yours would be…”

  “That would be me,” June chimed in, taken a little aback by his unusual manner, “Captain June Harding, of the Nestia.”

  “Ah, a Captain that likes to take matters into her own hands and pilot the ship, good, very good.” He said jovially. “So, a rescue party, how exciting. My orders are to accompany you and provide support as you require it. So what’s the pn?”

  Artona stood and addressed Hall. “We are engaging an unknown enemy. Judging by the efficiency of the abduction and their clean get-away, these are professional operators who have very likely set a trap for us, using Ms. Davis as bait. Commander Michaels gave you a thorough briefing?” she asked.

  Captain Hall knew the reputation of Urarc warriors well and accepted Artona’s estimations of the situation as fact. “I have. What’s the py?”

  “The target is a pnet about four light years from here, towards the Uncharted Sectors, in a barely explored nebu. Deep inside it is a star system with a single pnet. That is where we believe Ms. Davis to be held.”

  Captain Hall nodded his head as he listened. Artona continued, “An extraction team from the Nestia will go pnet side, infiltrate in stealth, and exfil with Davis. We don’t know numbers, so your job will be to provide backup should we find ourselves out numbered or out gunned, but primarily to keep anyone from slipping away should we be discovered as we attempt recovery.”

  The Captain scratched his chin thoughtfully. “Seems like you’ve thought of everything. Alright, I concur. We are ready when you are.”

  “We’re transmitting the coordinates now,” June said, gncing at Inta.

  “Got ‘em,” Captain Hall said after conferring with his comms officer. “These coordinates are three days away," he said soberly, all cheer leaving his face. “Plus the five since she was taken, that’s a long time. He paused, struggling to broach the subject, “I don’t mean to be cruel, but I wouldn’t get your hopes up for a happy reunion at the end of this.” His sigh was heavy and sad. “Even if she’s still alive when you find her, she might…” Hall struggled to find the words, “... the person she was might already be gone.”

  Artona knew Captain Hall was correct. Decent people rarely survived encounters with the darker side of the universe; if they did, they were never unscathed. She watched Inta’s reaction and felt a swelling of pity for the silver girl.

  Inta’s tone was defiant. “No, Captain; we’ll find her, and we’ll save her.”

  Captain Hall settled back into his command chair, resigned to the fact that whatever they did, it was likely too te. “Lead on, then.”

  ****

  The Nestia and the Bordan task group formed up and sped away, heading back to where it had all started. Due to the Nestia’s unique flight characteristics, she accelerated away from the task group, reaching top superluminal speed, then the task group jumped into FTL flight, following the same trajectory shortly behind.

  After three days of travel, the little rescue armada reached the debris field that marked the location of the Saturn’s Heart’s desperate battle to escape the pirate raid. Not much remained: scorched hull fragments of a corvette and empty cargo containers, picked clean by scavengers.

  They turned in formation and entered the nebu, the thick swirling clouds of ionized gases partially obscuring the view of the other vessels.

  Once inside, Inta called out over the communications units, which were given to Commander Michaels for the assisting ships. “Captain Hall, can you hear us clearly?” Inta asked.

  “Loud and clear, Nestia," he responded.

  “Our sensors don’t have much trouble with this nebu, so we’ll rey position and heading information on all your ships to help with navigation,” Inta offered.

  “Much appreciated; this nebu is thick as soup. You must have quite the sensor package if it can cut through this stuff,” Hall replied.

  “That’s right, Captain. The Nestia is something special,” Will chimed in, patting Inta’s hand resting on his shoulder.

  June thumbed across the chart currently dispyed on her console and hit the comms button. “It should only take us an hour to reach the asteroid field surrounding the system. We’ll need to hold there momentarily to take stock of the situation before we proceed.”

  “Understood, Nestia. We’re right behind you,” the Captain called back.

  June felt the echo of unease she felt the first time they made this trek into the depths of this nebu. The st time, they were desperately fighting for their survival, which in some ways was easier to deal with than the dread of what they might find at the end of this journey.

  They made swift progress and finally came upon the edge of the asteroid field, where the nebu began to thin. They called for a full stop for the task group and surveyed the system with Nestia’s powerful sensor array.

  “Oh shit, It’s absolute bedm in there,” Will said, looking at the reading from the sensor array.

  What was once a stable and orderly shell of asteroids surrounding the isoted star system was now a chaotic jumble of rocky debris, practically filling the space around the red giant. In spiralling, decaying orbits, the asteroids were carried to a fiery end, plunging into the star at the system’s center.

  Inta stared, the horror of her past repying in real time. She knew that while most of these tumbling asteroids would eventually be captured by the star and swept clear, many would find their paths crossing the pnet’s, raining fire and total destruction on the surface.

  Artona couldn’t hear the memories of pained and panicked voices calling out to Inta in her mind, but she saw and felt her reaction and swiftly gathered up the silver girl in a warm, comforting embrace. “It's okay, Hon; you’re safe, we’re safe,” she soothed her. “We won’t let anyone get hurt.”

  Inta broke and began sobbing, the memory of deep loss suddenly fresh again. She clung desperately to Artona, burying her face in warm fur, and cried, for the loss of her family, for the loss of her people, for the eons endured, alone.

  Artona held her protectively for a long while until Inta’s tears ran out. Sniffling, “Alright, I’m okay now. Sorry about that, we can continue.”

  “There’s nothing to apologize for, Honey,” June said, her cheeks wet with tears in sympathy. “We’re here now, and you’ll never be alone again.”

  Inta smiled bravely. “You’re right,” she said, straightening up. “Let’s save Diana.”

  Captain Hall interrupted them, calling over the comms. “Nestia, we’ve finished our initial scan of the system; I’m afraid that there’s no way we’ll survive entering the system. There’s just too much bouncing around in there; we’ll be pulverized in no time ft.”

  “Captain,” Artona addressed Hall, “I think the better use of your ships is to setup a mini-blockade. Spread out your ships on the boundary edge here, and make sure that no ships escape, should they try to flee if we are discovered. If, in our escape, we are pursued, we can lead them into your ambush.”

  “Sound tactics, Battle Mistress,” Captain Hall commended her, “We’ll do our part, you go get Ms. Davis.”

  Artona looked agitated. “Captain, do not address me so,” she said as her nostrils fred. “I have not earned that title; ciming that for which you are not worthy is an honorless act.”

  “Apologies, I meant no disrespect. Quite the opposite. If there’s anyone who can bring Ms. Davis safely home, it is you.”

  Pcated, Artona turned back to the conversation on the Nestia’s bridge.

  June looked over to Inta as she crystalized what she wanted to say. “What do you think of our chances, Inta? I can dance the Nestia around to avoid most of this, but how will we hold up against accidental collision?” June asked.

  “The hull’s pretty tough, we’ll be alright,” Inta said, her usual cheeriness slowly returning.

  Will rubbed the back of his neck, the warning feeling of unease rising as he looked through the angry swarm of asteroids zipping around this sor system. “I really don’t like how we are going in blind; there are way too many things here unaccounted for.”

  “I don’t know that we have any other choice,” June countered. “Our best shot is to get in undetected, grab Diana, then Dispce back to the ship and get out of there.”

  “In, out, no one the wiser,” Will said hopefully.

  “Otherwise, hit ‘em hard, hit ‘em fast, before they know what hit ‘em,” Artona said, completing the thought.

  The Nestia crew looked around at each other and softly nodded. There was no more time for talk; now was the time to act.

  “Captain, we’re heading in. Listen in on the comm device we gave you; it can’t be traced. We’ll keep the channel open so you’ll know if and when the shit is heading your way," Artona said.

  “Will do. Good luck. Bring her home," Captain Hall said, then went silent, monitoring the comms intently.

  “Okay June, let’s go,” Inta said, rubbing June’s back, more to soothe herself than June.

  June took a deep cleansing breath, then activated the drive to bring the Nestia deeper into the chaos of tumbling rock and ice.

  The outer edges of the asteroid field weren’t much more active than their first passage in the Saturn’s Heart, and with the shielding effects of the gravity drive, and June’s expert piloting skills, the Nestia smoothly weaved in, out and around the floating array of boulders. But as they progressed deeper through the asteroids, the rocks moved more quickly and changed directions unexpectedly as they collided more frequently with one another.

  Sweat beaded on June’s brow in fierce concentration as she drove the Nestia with impossible agility, narrowly dodging the fast-moving asteroids. Soon, even June's uncanny abilities and the Nestia’s lightning-quick mobility were no match for the sheer volume of rocks hurtling their way.

  Some were deflected, impacting the Nestia’s silver-colored hull at oblique angles, but more and more were directly impacting, crashing thunderously, causing the ship to shudder and shake.

  Will’s eyes met Inta’s with unspoken concern. “We can handle this,” she reassured him. He id his hands on the weapons control panel, preparing to bst anything he deemed too rge a threat. Artona leaned down and spoke softly into his ear, “Hold fast. We fire now, we’ll have announced our presence just as clearly as if we shouted hello.”

  Will rexed slightly, trusting in June’s abilities, but still ready to act. For all of June’s impressive piloting skills, the rate of impacts ringing on the hull continued to climb until it reached a crescendo and then diminished. Within a minute, the rocky debris had thinned enough that June could again dance the Nestia around the asteroids, avoiding impacts.

  The tension in June’s face rexed, but she remained ser-focused on the task at hand. “Looks like we’re through the worst of it,” she said, breathing out a subtle sigh of relief, “but this stuff is everywhere. We’ll need to actively pilot Nestia all the way to orbit.”

  As June weaved and bobbed the ship through the isoted star system, the unnamed pnet grew closer, filling more of the viewscreen with each passing moment. The rocky traffic cleared for several minutes before they settled into a por orbit while the uninviting globe rotated beneath them.

  Reading through the information already coming through on passive scans, Ben announced, “There have been some minor strikes on the pnet’s surface already, though none catastrophically rge, so far.” Concerned faces watched him as he spoke. “It won’t be long until a big one hits, though. We’ll need to get in and out as quickly as possible.”

  Will silently cursed the pirates who bulldozed their way through the asteroid field in their haste to catch up with the Saturn’s Heart. Then he turned his attention to the task at hand.

  “We need to find the needle in a pnet sized hay stack,” Will said, thinking out loud. Then he had a fsh of inspiration. “Inta, can you pull up the data we archived from the Saturn’s Heart computer core? Before we hooked the main computer up to control the power core, I’m pretty sure we kept our original surface scans we made looking for a suitable site to crash nd.”

  “Suitable site to emergency nd,” June corrected him with a smirk.

  Will smiled back, gd for the moment of levity. “Yes, emergency nd," he chuckled, then continued. “We can compare that old data to our new scans and look for any differences. With any luck, they’re just parked on the surface and we can pick out their location.”

  Inta quickly dispyed their live passive scans alongside the Saturn’s Heart data on the front viewscreen, and every set of eyes on the bridge studied the details scrolling past. Their por orbit allowed them to scan the surface efficiently while the surface rotated beneath them.

  After about forty minutes, Thea called out, “What’s that?” June immediately recognized the valley of the final resting pce of the Saturn’s Heart. Memories of their time there, both the good and bad, flooded June’s mind.

  “The crater at the north end of the valley is where the Nestia left the surface,” June expined.

  “No, not that,” Thea said, “just south of that, about two hundred kilometers down the mountain range. Collectively, their eyes immediately locked onto the detail Thea pointed out. On the western slope of a mountain, a rge rectangur area appeared to have been recently excavated and fttened, looking like a perfect pce to nd.

  “That definitely wasn’t here the st time,” June said. “It has to be the pce.”

  “Hmm. On first inspection, it looks just big enough to nd the Nestia,” Will said, estimating the size of the fttened area.

  “The jaws of the trap,” Artona replied definitively. “I don’t see any other ship, though they probably have been hidden.” She scratched her chin in thought. “It would be unwise to put our only means of retreat within reach of the enemy. I suggest we take the shuttle, descend and approach from the east, flying low, keeping the mountain between us and this nding area, then swing around it to the pad, st minute.”

  They all nodded in agreement with Artona’s pn of action.

  “We’re going to need someone to stay with the Nestia as pilot and manuver in case any of the asteroids get too close, or we need air support. Thea, you think you’re up to it?” June asked.

  Thea appeared shocked by the suggestion. “I had assumed that I was going with you on the rescue.”

  Artona interjected. “We need a top-notch pilot to keep the Nestia safe and provide backup, should it be necessary. Plus, you’re the only one here not Bonded with Inta. Her influence has clearly made us tough to kill," she said, gncing meaningfully at Will. “I don’t want to put anyone in harm’s way unnecessarily.”

  Thea reluctantly agreed with Artona’s logic. “The Nestia’s controls are simir enough to those of the attack pod, I should be able to handle it, no problem," she said confidently.

  “She handles just as well,” June chimed in, “though she’s a bit wider in the ass," she said with a grin.

  “Just how I like ’em,” Inta said pyfully, spping Artona’s butt, surprising her. She looked torn momentarily, her raging libido fring, and for a fraction of a second, she wondered if they should ‘take care’ of her issue so she could focus properly. The moment passed, and she regained her self-control, but she swore that little silver tease was going to make it up to her. Inta gazed up into her eyes innocently as if she knew exactly what thoughts were going through Artona’s mind.

  After clearing her throat with a cough, Artona said, “Okay, time is of the essence. Let’s go. "

  They made their way to the armory to gear up, then headed to the lift and rode it down to the hangar. Several Toparians, including De’noke and Be’tule greeted them.

  “Don’t take any unnecessary risks and come back safe,” De’noke said to Inta, holding both of her hands in his, as he pced a third softly on her cheek.

  “Fight well, my Ferocious Maiden,” Be’tule said, pulling the slightly smaller but still rge Urarc into a tight, four-armed embrace.

  She returned it without reservation. “I expect a hell of a rutting when we get back,” Artona said in a growl, libido fring once more. They exchanged a passionate kiss, and then she moved to join the others, already walking across the hangar towards the shuttle.

  They boarded the shuttle, and the door melted closed behind them. The interior had been remodeled to resemble the faux shuttle, though it was a little bit smaller. June and Will took the pilot and copilot’s seats while Inta and Ben sat on the couch, sandwiching Artona.

  June and Will ran through a quick pre-flight checklist, and when they were ready, they gave Inta a thumbs up. With a thought, the atmospheric shield snapped on, and the rge hangar doors opened.

  June gnced behind her to the others. “Ready?” They nodded they were, then silver spread out across the surface of the shuttle’s hull as June engaged the drive, then eased the shuttle up and out the hangar doors into the vacuum of space beyond.

  The Nestia grew smaller into the distance above them, and the shuttle shook slightly as they entered the atmosphere. They descended with iron-willed determination to take back who had been stolen from them.

  The shuttle passed through some clouds and swiftly dropped low into the craggy pass to the east of the mountain that was their target. Flying low, a scant dozen meters above the surface of hard-packed dirt and tumbled-down boulders, June took them around the North side of the mountain, circling its wide base in a counter-clockwise fashion, only slowing as they got close to the fttened, presumed nding area.

  June touched down lightly with an expert pilot’s grace, and then the silver fled from the hull, returning it to bright white, faintly reflecting red from the light of this system’s star. Directly in front of the nose of the shuttle, a wide, round tunnel mouth opened into the inky bckness heading in towards the heart of the mountain.

  The invisible hackles on Will’s neck stood on end as he looked into that darkness through the forward shuttle viewport. His every instinct told him not to venture in, but it was precisely because of it that he knew that somewhere in that darkness was poor Diana, alone and afraid, and that they could not waver.

  “Listen, all of you,” Artona said authoritatively, rising from her seat. “You will obey every command I give you, and follow any order I give, instantaneously, understand?” Her tone brooked no discussion. “I can and will keep us all safe; I have been on missions like this my entire life, and I know what it will take to survive. Trust in me; trust in each other. Now let’s go get Diana.”

  Everyone except Inta checked their rifles and side arms one st time, and then Artona nodded to Inta, who opened the shuttle door.

  “Exiting the shuttle,” Artona said in a soft whisper to those in orbit overhead, listening intently.

  They exited single file, keeping close to the side of the shuttle, and moved towards the nose. Artona paused momentarily, watching the dark opening for any signs of movement or activity. Seeing none, she motioned for the others to stay put as she moved more swiftly and silently than one would have guessed a person her size could move, until she was against the wall along the outside of the opening.

  Carefully, Artona crept to the edge of the round opening and paused, listening for a moment before taking a quick peek inside and standing back ft against the wall. Seemingly satisfied there was no immediate threat, she gestured for the others to join her against the wall.

  In a slight crouch, they swiftly joined the Urarc, tucking in behind her against the wall. Artona waited for three heartbeats to pass before stepping around the corner of the entrance. Her weapon swung a full arc across the opening, leaving no part of the tunnel unchecked.

  Artona took one step into the tunnel, covering the area in front of them. Then the others filed in behind her: Will covering her left fnk, June and Ben her right, and Inta bringing up the rear.

  Now inside, they could see that this tunnel had been excavated quickly with immensely powerful boring sers, used by many mining companies, to heat the rock to the extent that it didn’t just melt, it boiled off, leaving the walls with a wavy gss-like obsidian finish. The walls of the tunnel were rounded and curved in a great arc, almost completing a circle before joining the ft, sloping floor on the other side of the passage.

  “We’ve entered the tunnel,” Artona whispered, barely audible, trusting that Inta’s comm system would properly amplify her words to the listeners on the other end. With a small hand gesture, she gave the order for forward movement as they began their trek inward.

  The tunnel ran down at an angle, and as they got further from the entrance, the light from outside grew dimmer and the darkness thicker. Yet, to Will’s surprise, only the color faded from his sight as the tunnel and their own shapes took on an odd gray-scaled coloring as if he were wearing night vision goggles. He turned to look at Inta, who smiled back and acknowledged that, yes, it had been her doing.

  “Very clever, Silver Girl,” Artona said quietly, in an approving tone. They continued onward and downward, and then it became apparent that the tunnel was no longer progressing in a straight line. Instead, it started corkscrewing down into the roots of the mountain.

  They followed the spirally curving corridor down a long way, Artona calling out nearly sub-audible check-ins every ten minutes. Every part of the sloping spiral corridor looked like every other part, and soon, it almost felt like they weren’t moving down, but the corridor was sweeping up past them.

  It almost took them by surprise when they encountered a sudden change in the corridor. They found themselves in front of a four-way intersection, continuing forward and off to either side into the quiet darkness. The small, questing group paused, looking for a sign that indicated which passage would lead them to their objective.

  Artona, unable to discern the proper course, turned back to the others. “Thoughts?” she whispered.

  “The Nestia’s sensors can’t penetrate so much rock,” Inta said glumly, slightly upset she couldn’t be more helpful.

  Will thought about his time wandering the hallways and corridors of the Dals, searching for his prey, and closed his eyes, rexed, and listened to that inner warning system. “Left,” Will said with certainty, his voice cutting through the silence. Inta squinted her eyes as she looked at Will, then nodded her head in agreement. Artona, June, and Ben first looked to Will, then Inta, then each other, and coming to a unanimous decision, silently took the left-hand corridor.

  This new corridor spiraled down like the st, and they came to another intersection and paused.

  “Forward,” Will decred softly, and they proceeded onward after carefully checking the left and right for movements.

  Again, the smooth-walled corridor spiralled downward until, this time, it ended at a sharp left-handed turn. Artona gestured for them to press against the wall as she crept towards the corner and slowly peered around it. Then, she swept her weapon around the corner, cutting the angles until she was facing down the new direction.

  She continued to watch the forward direction as she gestured for them to fall behind her. Then, as a unit again, they continued onward, but this time only for a short distance.

  The tunnel opened onto a small terrace overlooking an immense, wide, and deep chasm. The roof was several hundred meters over their heads, and the bottom disappeared into unseen darkness below them. Across the chasm, roughly a hundred meters, was another terrace, level with the one they stood upon, with a tunnel that continued into the depths. It was clear that the terrace and tunnel across the chasm were the way forward, but whatever method the delvers of these tunnels had used to cross the distance, they did not leave behind.

  “This doesn’t make sense,” Ben said as they stood at the end, staring across the void. “Why go to all this effort and not build a bridge?”

  “In any case, it’s clear that the way forward is on the other side,” Will said. “Easy enough,though; Inta carries us across.” He turned to Artona. “Do you see anything on the other side?”

  Artona stared across to the other terrace, momentarily deep in thought. “None of this makes sense. These tunnels are new; the walls are still warm from the boring sers. But we’ve seen nothing indicating any other activity, no ships outside, no equipment left behind inside, just a couple of obstacles. This whole business is ringing every warning bell in my head; I’ve never seen anything like it.”

  “Maybe they were dropped off and they’re just deeper in the tunnels,” Ben suggested.

  “There’s something ahead, I’m certain of it,” Will added.

  “I don’t think it changes what we need to do. We already know we’re heading straight into a trap, and that if we don’t find Diana, no one ever will,” June said, summing up the situation succinctly.

  “Then let us proceed,” Artona said, almost a low growl. “But stay sharp.”

  They nodded in agreement, and Inta gestured to gather close to her. She took one st gnce across the chasm to the terrace on the far side, then wrapped her arms around the others. They huddled around the silver girl, who suddenly became fluid, covered them completely, then shrank away into 4-D, only to re-emerge on the far terrace.

  Inta reformed, and the others only took a moment to shake off the disorientation, helped by strong anti-nausea medication in their systems and the familiarity of doing this several times before.

  When they were sufficiently recovered, Artona gestured silently for them to form up and continue their march into the depths.

  They had only been walking down this new tunnel for a few minutes when suddenly, Will’s intuition lit up, screaming a warning. Just as he called out, an enormous form fell upon Artona, who was leading the group on point. A loud, low snarl broke the silence as an enormous cwed paw shed out, batting Artona’s weapon from her hands. Her leather vest, tougher than it appeared, protected her from the sharp cws but sent her flying into the tunnel's far wall with a sickening crunch.

  A huge cat-like beast growled loudly, its powerfully muscled body already coiled and springing across the short distance onto its stricken prey. It fell upon Artona’s prone form, the bouldered muscles of its shoulders rippling as it shed out with its cws, ready to tear flesh to shreds.

  Artona instinctively rolled to one side, the beast’s ssh missing its target and going wide. Artona’s roll brought her to a crouch, legs tucked up beneath her, and she sprang forward, catching the cat-like monstrosity in the midsection, knocking it back against the far wall in a full-body tackle.

  As Artona grappled with the beast bare-handed, the others stood back with weapons raised, looking for a clean shot. But as they watched Artona struggle, they held their fire, worried they would hit her, not the beast.

  Now inside its guard, Artona bellowed a roar, wrapped an arm around one of the beast’s thick, muscur forearms, and twisted viscously. The beast’s roar of pain drowned out the sharp sounds of crunching bone and tearing ligaments.

  The beast reared back, clearly not anticipating its prey being so fierce. Artona rolled with it, finding her feet, and threw an uppercut so hard and fast that the rge cat’s head snapped backwards at an odd angle at the base of its thickly muscled neck.

  It fell to the floor unmoving, save for the involuntary twitching of muscles reacting with no instructions from its brain; Artona had managed to snap its neck with that titanic blow.

  She fluidly extricated herself from the limbs of the beast, panting in a crouch, ready to deal with the next threat. After a moment, when nothing else came, she looked back to the group to check they were all right, then retrieved her weapon.

  She walked the few steps back to the group and gave them an almost gleeful smile, her sharp canines on dispy. The Urarc's reputation as fierce fighters was well earned, evidenced by the rge dead cat behind her.

  “Yeah, remind me not to arm wrestle you anymore,” Will joked, trying to relieve his anxiety with humor.

  “You’re not hurt are you?” Inta asked, rushing to Artona, rubbing and poking her all over, checking for wounds.

  “Naw, I’m good. Haven’t had a good fight like that in a while," she said, rolling her shoulders. Her eyes were wide, gleaming with a fresh intensity that bordered on frightening.

  “Everyone else good?” she asked, checking in with the group. Aside from the shock from the startlingly intense, but brief battle they just witness, they confirmed they were fine.

  “Good, let’s continue. And check overhead as we go, too,” Artona said, gncing up at the hidden alcove the beast had been lying in wait. “We don’t want any more surprises.

  ****

  Far above, through a thousand of meters of stone and kilometers of sky, the Nestia continued to orbit the pnet. Thea, De’noke, Betule, and Larce sat on the bridge with Inta, monitoring the party’s progress in the tunnels far below.

  They collectively gasped as the listened to the sounds of Artona’s fight, and when it was over, Larce asked, frightened for her friend, “Is she okay?”

  “I checked her over, she’s fine,” Inta reassured the Maiden. “Artona’s strong and tough, a little more so now, with my help," she crified.

  Thea, sitting at Navigation, monitoring the heavy asteroid activity in the immediate vicinity of the pnet. “It’s starting to get real hairy out there. The swarm of asteroids is still expanding.”

  Inta shifted her attention to the sensor array and began plotting the speed and trajectory of every object the scanners picked up. Her expression suddenly became solemn. “Oh, no," she said, covering her mouth with her hand in dread. “The bombardment has begun.”

  ****

  Artona led them deeper, and the number of intersections they encountered increased until they had lost count. With unerring certainty, Will selected what path to take, the others trusting his intuition. Inta suddenly gasped, and they stopped short, scanning all around the tunnel, looking for hidden enemies.

  The ground shuddered, and they heard a deep rumbling travel through the stone. They turned to each other with questioning looks.

  “What was that?” June asked, startled, then grew worried.

  “We don’t have much time left. The asteroid bombardment of the pnet has started.” They looked at each other in concern.

  “How bad will it be?” Will asked, already suspecting the answer.

  “Apocalyptic,” Inta answered grimly. “Nothing on the surface will survive. It’ll be…” she stopped, suddenly choked up by memory. “It’ll be worse, much worse, than… the st time.”

  The group nodded solemnly. “We’d better get to it then,” Artona said, teeth gritted in determination.

  They hurried down the tunnel, distant thunder rumbling through the stone surrounding them. Will continued to pick the path through the now byrinthine maze of tunnels, and as they swiftly moved, Inta began feeling something odd about the walls of the tunnel.

  “Hold up a second,” Inta whispered, and they stopped to investigate. Inta pressed her palm to the smooth wall, feeling along the gssed stone, and her eyes went wide with surprise.

  “What is it?” June asked with concern in her voice.

  “I don’t know how, but behind the wall is a 4-D construct.” They looked at her with confusion. “The walls, the mountain, everything on the pnet exists in 3-D space, but behind these walls," she traced her hands down the wall, and kneeling, “and under the floor is a 4-D structure.” She continued to examine the floor and the far wall and then looked up at the ceiling. “It’s constraining our connections to the Nestia through the open space of this tunnel.”

  They looked at Inta, not understanding the ramifications. “If we need to leave, even if we travel through 4-D space, we’ll have to pass through this particur path. I won’t be able to bring us out directly through dispcement.” Understanding sprang on their faces. When they rescued Diana, they would need to make it back to this point in the tunnel before they could dispce to safety.

  “That changes our exfil pn a bit,” Artona said, judging the situation, but we still won’t need to travel all the way out the way we came. If they went through all the trouble of building a frickin 4-D box this deep in a mountain, they can’t be far from here.” Then she came to a decision. “The pn only changes a little. Get Diana, get back here, dispce home.”

  They thought about it momentarily, then voiced their agreement, the periodic rumble through the stone increasing in frequency.

  “Okay, let’s go,” Artona said with a look of grim determination.

  Thoughts of the apocalyptic hellscape developing on the surface overhead loomed as a threat as they walked, occupying their minds until they heard voices echoing down the corridor in the distance.

  Artona put a finger to her lips, indicating silence, then gave a hand gesture for them to proceed carefully.

  A pale yellow light shone ahead from the direction of the voices; the rescue party crept closer, concealed by the shadows of the corridor.

  The tunnel opened into a wider room carved from the rock, the squared surfaces of the walls and ceiling showing evidence of being hewn by some mechanical excavator rather than a powerful boring ser. Men with rifles slung on their backs stood in one corner chatting around a small table that several others sat around, apparently passing the time with a game of cards. Two other men stood at attention, guarding a tunnel that led off into the distant gloom, holding their rifles at the ready.

  As the rumbling overhead continued to grow in frequency, the men around the table became more animated in their discussion.

  “I’m telling you, the pnet’s gravity must have captured some of those asteroids! What else could it be?!” one man standing next to the table said, becoming loud and belligerent. “If they don’t evacuate soon, we’re going to get stuck down here. How long do you think the food will st, huh? What happens after that? What do you think they’ll eat after that?!” The loud man was getting more agitated by the moment.

  One of his cohorts seated at the table tried to calm him down. “You can’t honestly believe they would risk getting themselves trapped down here on purpose?” the seated man said, trying to make the agitated man see reason. “They specifically said that the shuttle would remain on the pad outside for as long as it was needed. We’re still here and we need it to get off this pnet. They may be odd, but I’m sure they’re reasonable. Once they’re done with the girl, we’ll leave,” the seated man argued calmly, feeling his logic was airtight.

  The agitated man then leaned forward, spping both hands on the table, completely disrupting the card game. He spoke in a low, hushed tone, but his voice carried across the stone room, “Did you get a good look at those fels? I’m mean a real, good look. They had a strange gleam in their eyes. Eyes that said they have a funny sense of ‘reason’.”

  The Nestia crew hid, listening to the argument escate. Everyone around the table had their attention on the arguing pair, but Artona was watching for the two guards' vigince to slip. When the argument became so heated that even they were focused on the impending fistfight, Artona signaled it was time to strike.

  Artona popped out of the corridor, fnked on one side by Will and the other by June and Ben. Artona’s expert marksmanship decapitated the two guards, a single headshot to each, spraying the contents of their skulls on the wall behind them. Will, June, and Ben mowed through the men standing around the table with a series of two-shot bursts, dropping them all in short order.

  Artona swung her rifle around and single-shotted three of the four men seated at the table and cleanly blew the leg off the fourth, sending him screaming to the floor. Artona was on him in an instant, pressing a rge booted foot against his trachea, cutting off his scream.

  “WHERE IS SHE," she said, the menace in her voice promising swift death. The stricken man, his stump of a leg bleeding profusely, looked up at the furious Urarc in terror. Unable to speak with her boot pressed against his throat, he gnced down the dark corridor the guards were protecting.

  “How many," Artona hissed. The man didn’t respond and began weeping. “HOW MANY!” she repeated angrily, grinding her boot into his throat. Shakily, he held up two hands, indicating more than ten. Artona whipped out a rge knife and slit his throat, permanently silencing him.

  She quickly wiped her bde on his shirt and then resheathed it. “Hurry, they must have heard that,” Artona said, jogging down the dark corridor, the rest close behind her.

  The rumbling in the stone of the mountain’s heart had grown louder now, and so frequent as to be continuous.They were acutely aware their time was nearly up.

  The crew of the Nestia burst into a much smaller room than that st and was shocked and sickened by the sight that greeted them. A stone table occupied the center of the room, surrounded by a dozen red-robed figures, hoods pulled up, concealing their faces; several of them were in the process of dragging out another of the rge cat-like beasts out of a stone pen, though this one looked in far worse health. Its fur was patchy, eaten away to the bone, oozing bck puss all over its body. Even though the hooded men prodded it, the beast barely had the strength to hold its body off the floor.

  It wore a colr around its neck, with some sort of electronics on it, and attached was a vial of green fluid in an automatic syringe. A light blinked on the colr, and it shot the green fluid directly into its neck. It howled pitifully, then it emitted a deep rumbling growl from deep within its chest. Almost immediately, a rge organ emerged from between its hind legs, covered in blood-stained spikes. Its pupils dited as much as they were able, and the beast’s focus locked onto what y on the table.

  Inta gasped in horror as she looked upon the table and what occupied it. On it id a woman’s body, torn and bloody, strapped down, unable to move. Where her arms and legs must have once been, only bck viscous puddles of goo dripped from the table onto the floor. Dangling from the bckened stumps of her arms and legs were fine, branching networks of spidery threads, a rough outline of the limbs that were no longer there. From Diana’s held-open mouth, a soft, raspy sound poured out with every breath, a continuous scream rendered inaudible by long torturous days of use.

  The hooded figures drew crooked daggers from under their cloaks and rushed them. Every st one was cut down in a hail of ser fire by the rescue party, falling where they stood into a disorganized pile of red-robed corpses.

  The beast, now freed from the prodding, turned its attention to the rescuers and took a single step towards them, but Artona fired a single shot through its brain case, and it dropped heavily to the floor. Inta and the others rushed to the table to free the bound Diana.

  “STOP!” Artona bellowed, and they froze. “Don’t get any closer. I’ve seen that stuff before; it’ll strip the flesh off you," she warned.

  “I don’t have ‘flesh’, so to speak,” Inta said defiantly. She continued over to Diana, careful to avoid touching the bck ooze. Diana screamed soundlessly and couldn’t recognize Inta for who she was. Stroking Diana’s face, trying to comfort her, Inta removed the needle from her neck and said softly, “We’re here, you’re safe now.”

  As Inta bent over Diana, still strapped to the table, a woman sprang out from behind the tall granite seat at the head of the table and plunged a long, wicked-looking knife deep between Inta’s shoulder bdes. Inta spun in an instant and grabbed the woman by the throat, then thrust her against the wall with one hand.

  A manic look came into the woman’s eyes, and she cackled, seemingly unhinged. “It’s true! The Divine was right! You’re here!” she rasped through a choking breath in glee. Inta looked her coldly in the eyes, down at Diana, still writhing in pain, then back to the woman in her iron grasp.

  Reaching behind her back, Inta grabbed the handle of the bde still embedded deep, withdrew it, then jammed it forcefully straight through the woman’s gut and into the wall behind her, pinning her to the wall.

  The woman winced in pain, then gave a twisted smile, coughing up blood. Inta left her dangling off the wall and returned to Diana, Inta’s face full of sorrow.

  She looked at Diana’s wasted limbs and realized what she had to do. “I’m so sorry, my Sweet,” Inta said softly, tears flowing freely. Then looking to the others, she said, “We can’t allow it to spread any further.”

  Inta's face became a mask of regret as her two arms became four. Then her hands thinned, fttened out into razor-sharp bdes. The four bdes began to vibrate and hum, growing white hot. “I’m so sorry," she whispered, then brought all four bdes down simultaneously, above the line of bckened flesh, severing and cauterizing what remained of all four limbs.

  No longer being pumped full of drugs, Diana mercifully lost consciousness.

  The constant rumbling from the surface reverberated loudly through the stone walls to the level where it was making conversation difficult. As the noise echoed off the hard stone, Inta quickly removed all of Diana’s bindings and carefully lifted her unconscious form, carrying her in her arms and gently cradling her head.

  Objective in hand, and their time running short, Artona barked, “Come on, let’s go!” with great urgency. As they turned to leave, faster than lightning, a clear, shimmering barrier snapped down, cutting off their escape. Inta wobbled and would have fallen to the floor if Will and June hadn’t caught her.

  June propped Inta up, throwing a silver arm over her shoulder, while Will took Diana’s naked and mangled form into his arms, holding her close to his chest.

  “Inta! Inta!” June, cried out over the din of rumbling rock. “What’s the matter? Are you Okay?!” Panic leached into June’s voice as Inta recovered slightly and stood on her own feet.

  “I… I don’t know how, but I’ve been cut off, they’re gone!" Inta said in a bewildered panic.

  The red-cloaked woman pinned to the wall by her own bde lifted her head and began to cackle loudly, coughing up bloody chunks of flem. “The Divine has foreseen all of this!” There was a madness in her bloodshot eyes. She turned her gaze to the empty stone chair at the far side of the macabre, restraint-covered altar. “I have done your will! The Silver One has come to me and will be destroyed! For You! For You!” She continued to chant her st two words until her voice faded off, and she once again lost consciousness, head slumped forward, limply.

  Inta broke free of June’s helping hands and ran to the clear barrier. “I can’t feel the ship or the others!” The walls and ceiling cracked with the intensity of the bombardment. Inta beat her fists against the barrier with every ounce of strength she could muster, but it did not yield. June rushed to her side as Inta slumped to the floor, falling onto her hands and knees, defeated.

  With one arm around Inta sobbing, June lifted her other hand and felt the clear barrier. She immediately recognized the feel of it; a simir construct protected Inta’s crystalline matrix aboard the Nestia.

  Channeling a rage born of a feeling of impotence, like a banshee, June screamed from the depths of her being, “NOOO!” Her emotions charged the word, and as it smmed into the barrier, it shattered under the onsught.

  As the mountain shook around them, dust falling from the cracking stone overhead, Artona recognized their chance for freedom. She pulled June to her feet while hoisting Inta’s distraught form up onto one shoulder and barked a single, clear order, “MOVE!”

  They ran as fast as their burdens allowed, sprinting back the way they came. They returned to the guard room, chunks of the ceiling having already fallen from the rough-hewn room. Another clear barrier barred the exit.

  A wordless scream flung from June’s lips. “RAAAAAAAHHH!” , and this barrier, too, exploded outward. The tunnel shook violently from the bombardment, and they stumbled as they ran, but didn’t slow their pace. Will guided them unerringly back through the byrinthine rabbit warren of tunnels until they ran into another barrier, just in sight of the terrace at the chasm.

  Another banshee wail issued from June’s lips, and Inta breathed a sobbing sigh of relief, in Artona’s arms. “Oh, thank the heavens, they are still there! I can feel them again!”

  Her joy was short-lived as the ceiling over their head cracked with a thunderous pop under the onsught from the surface and fell down to crush them all. Will, June, and Ben looked up and cowered, bracing for the inevitable crush of falling stone, but the rge chunk was arrested just over their heads.

  They quickly turned to look for the reason and saw that Artona had dropped Inta to the floor, and braced the titanic stone threatening to crush them on her shoulders. Her muscles bulged, and the veins popped in her neck and face as she held the tunnel ceiling up.

  “Get Inta. Get OUT!” Issuing her st command through gritted teeth, the enormous strain of her herculean effort slowly began to give way.

  They looked at Artona, stunned for a moment, but when she barked again, “GO!” they leaped into motion. Will ran to the open space of the terrace carrying Diana, and Ben followed close behind.

  June helped Inta to her feet and gnced at Artona, who looked back at her with acceptance of her fate in her eyes, her love for them so much greater than her sense of self-preservation. In that moment, June finally saw peace in Artona’s eyes, content to give one st measure of devotion to the ones she loved.

  Accepting Artona’s sacrifice, June started to pull Inta along to safety but suddenly couldn’t budge her. Bright blue radiance shone from her eyes as she shrugged off June’s hand and swiftly but calmly walked up to Artona.

  She pced a kiss on her cheek, then shifted her form and expanded upward, a dozen arms shooting upward, taking the full load of the falling ceiling. A couple more shot out from her midsection, grabbed Artona and June by their colrs, and flung them down the tunnel toward the opening near Will and Ben.

  They looked back and saw Inta smiling at the fact they were safe. Then the ceiling crumbled, crushing down, and Inta disappeared beneath the falling avanche of stone.

  The little group on the terrace was crushed by a weight heavier than the stones of the mountain. Tears streaked their dust-covered faces as they huddled close, seeking soce in each other’s embrace.

  The mountain rumbled around them, and the staccato sound of rock falling in the distance punctuated their despair. Then a familiar voice spoke soothingly from behind them, “Don’t cry, my Loves, all is well.” Relief flooded them as they rushed into Inta’s embrace. Recognizing their confusion due to the chaos, “Gaxy’s best multi-tasker, remember? Lost a finger but kept the hand," she said comfortingly. “Come on, let's go before the rest of the mountain comes down.” She wrapped her arms around them in a big hug, melted around them, and then dispced to the safety of the Nestia, still in orbit.

  ****

  The room quaked violently, and a crack split the wall to which the priestess was pinned, freeing the bde from the stone. She fell to the floor and slowly regained consciousness. Wheezing, she grasped the handle of the bde in her gut, wrenched it free, and tossed it toward the bodies of her dead acolytes.

  She coughed, and spat out the blood in her mouth, then looked to the gem set into the high back of the stone seat and dragged herself across the floor towards it, leaving a bloody trail.

  As the room rumbled and shook violently, she forced herself painfully to her knees, assuming a supplicant’s pose, and bowed her head towards the seat.

  “Oh Divine, I have tried to do your will, but have failed you. The Silver One has escaped," she said, then prostrated herself before the seat and the gem embedded in the high back of it.

  The gem fred with a bright green light, and a strong, feminine voice issued forth. “My child, you have done well, and performed just as I needed you to do.” The priestess raised her head, and, though in terrible pain, a wide smile crept across her face from the praise she received. “All has proceeded as I have foreseen; you have completed the task I set before you well.”

  “Thank-you, Divine,” the priestess said, bowing her head once more. “I live only to serve and spread your grace.” Having pulled the bde from her stomach, she bled freely, dark red pooling at her knees.

  “And the girl,” The voice asked, “did you finish your task?”

  “We did, Divine," she said with swelling pride, tempered only by the intense pain of her wounds. “We fractured her mind as you instructed," she said, breathing coming harder for her.

  “And the Bloom?” The voice asked, insistent.

  “Set, Divine,” the priestess said solemnly.

  “You have pleased me, child. There is but one st thing to attend,” the voice said, sounding cold. The priestess looked up in confusion. “It is time to return the gift given to you.”

  The priestess’ eyes went wide with panic, but before she could react, a light nced out from the green gem embedded in the seat, striking her. She screamed in agony as her life force was ripped from her body, causing her to writhe in pain on the floor. The beam flicked off, leaving only a desiccated husk where the priestess had prostrated herself. Then the gem in the seat faded; the green light within it returned from whence it came.