Chapter 28 - Bless your Hearth - The Unforgettables: A ZeroYear litRPG

  Frank was the last to leave the ship. When he passed through the portal, he found Silas and Amanda talking while Petra, away from the conversation, walked restlessly back and forth.

  Silas started walking among what could soon be a metal city inside Petras Universe as he spoke, "So, Amanda, I did this following your idea that everything in here should be movable. I've already laid the foundations for three separate structures: one for the training dojo, another for our residences, and the last one for the factory with my laboratory."

  Silas continues speaking as he points to the basin of each building. "All these structures are already built and prepared to receive an atmospheric flight gravity engine. I was going to build them next, but now that we've realized the Golems are accelerating, this has become a priority. I'm thinking of buying these three components from the City of Spirits—and also a high-speed reconnaissance drone, some improved engines for the airbike, and probably base components for an oioi."

  Amanda gave her strange Suma smile. "Perfect; I can mediate this sale for you if you allow me. I think I can get a discount on the catalog prices, and it would be possible to register Liora's daughter in the City of Spirits. Doing so, they will send an aethernet connector to her free of charge along with the bank account."

  Frank, perceiving Silas's urgency that absorbed him, interrupted: "Wait a minute, team; I understand our hurry, but am I the only one who's a bit surprised that Liora's copy became independent overnight? It's almost like another person was just born!"

  Petra immediately stopped pacing and joined the others, saying: "Exactly, Frank, and now that I've stopped to think, I feel a bit guilty because I am afraid that I didn't treat the copy as I should have."

  Frank added, still lost in thought: "Laetilia, you can call the copy by her name."

  Silas smiled, but his eyes couldn't completely hide some worry. "Well, team, it's better to talk to Liora about this; I've known her longer, and I also know that most oioi don't even consider giving any freedom to their copies except when they intend to have children, but these are completely different things. However, Liora was once a copy without autonomy who became independent under extreme conditions. Since her university days, she has chosen to have an alternative approach with her copies because she thought that would be fairer, a decision based solely on her personal experience, even knowing that this kind of thing could happen someday. Now, about what happened today—and these are my hypotheses—things ended up happening much faster than she imagined, perhaps because of the super-accelerated powers she developed with her training, or perhaps because we forgot her copy alone for a few weeks.” Silas paused to think. Surrounded by the metal structures being constantly built with the help of the factory automatas, he concluded, “We're spending all our time inside this universe."

  Frank thought aloud, "But then, shouldn't we all be together right now to support her?"

  Silas, with some perplexity: "Certainly, Frank, but she asked for a private conversation tonight. I'm also apprehensive because I consider Liora more than a friend or adventure colleague. But let's take it easy, and we'll see tomorrow. In any case, tonight, I'll stay up a good while with Amanda, preparing our response to the increase in the Golems' speed. We need to warn Mosh and Vaud, change the order of the projects, and mainly prepare the ship for high altitude super speed in the coming days. We should rest because, by my preliminary calculations, if we ascend above the external layers of the atmosphere, go full throttle and without air resistance, and use Amanda's magic, our speed will be more than 20 times higher than it is now; therefore, instead of 80 days to reach the tower, we'll only have four days to prepare ourselves."

  Petra exclaimed, "Four days? We'll barely have time to train! If Liora's copy, I mean, Laetilia, goes after the Golems, we might not even know if things went well before we get to the tower."

  Silas opened an auxiliary terminal while speaking. "Precisely! Also, doing this, we'll almost certainly draw problems, and I was just finishing preparing your renewed weapons to present to you. In the case of the Flexoclavas, I used the material from your molten metal universe, and they turned out better than expected. I had to modify Liora's weapon radically. They're ready, and tomorrow you'll start training with them."

  Frank asked, already preparing to return to his room in the new structure: "Let us summarize the plan, Silas. We'll see if we can find Seneca in the region, then check whether the tower is open. If we find nothing, we'll leave as quickly as possible for the North. Is that right?"

  "Yes, and after leaving the tower region, we won't need to risk the ship flying high unless the Golems accelerate even more, and then we'll return to our previous travel routine," Silas planned, already operating on his terminal while speaking, with Amanda concentrating beside him, preparing lists of devices to be purchased.

  Petra and Frank went to their rooms. Frank took a while to fall asleep, while Petra couldn't close her eyes; she gave up trying to sleep in the middle of the night, haunted by her past. Petra remembered her family and especially her children, brooding on the idea of one day living in a safer situation in a world that she understands so little, unable to decide whether or not she would bring them back to life. She feels an empathic anxiety upon realizing that Liora might be experiencing a similar dilemma.

  Petra decided to leave her room to clear her head and noticed it was almost morning. Silas and Amanda had already gone, and only the automatic machinery kept working, building metallic leviathans. Petra decided to return to the ship alone, opened the portal, and went to the empty ship café. There, she realized Liora was still talking to Laetilia. Petra didn't enter the bridge and started preparing her coffee alone. She did her stretches like she did every day.

  Petra lingered in the coffee room, gazing at the ceiling, letting her breakfast grow cold until she finally remembered to eat. Midway through her toast, the bridge door opened, and she overheard snippets of Liora and Laetilia's conversation.

  Laetilia, playfully: "But that's still a lie!"

  Liora, more seriously: "Of course not! It's the kind of thing best left out of memory."

  Petra realized Laetilia now possessed her own body— smaller than Liora, closer in size to a human than a nailia. She wore brightly colored clothes and had black, slightly curly human hair.

  Petra stood up. "Good morning! I woke up a bit early, and I was anxious! I just got here, and I was preparing my breakfast," she said, showing the half-eaten, cold toast.

  Liora responded immediately, "Hello, Petra! Don't worry; everything's fine with us!"

  Petra pressed the back of her neck. "Good to know. I wanted to apologize for not giving Laetilia proper attention before."

  Laetilia seizing the opportunity: "No problem, Petra. I'm not as vengeful as my mother; you'll have several chances to save me in combat."

  Liora responded anxiously, "Combat?"

  "I'm talking about the distant future; I'll be leaving in a few hours and will be away for a while. We'll only communicate via comlinks," Laetilia replied casually.

  "I understand. Meanwhile, you must stay out of trouble." after a brief pause, Petra continued, smiling, "I like your style." The primary colors and geometric patterns in Laetilia's clothing evoked childhood memories in Petra.

  "Good eyes, Petra; I made it in the cube inspired by things I liked in the Seneca database; it's De Stijl!" Laetilia replied, always happy. "Too bad I'll be changing bodies so soon."

  "Don't worry; choose a room on the ship, and we'll keep everything there waiting for your return!" Liora said enthusiastically, while Petra remained a bit lost, trying to understand the situation.

  Laetilia smiled and headed toward the elevator. "Exactly what I'll do now! I'll take all my things to my new room, lucky number seven, and then I'll get ready to leave. See you later!"

  When Liora and Petra were left alone in the room, Petra noticed Liora's tension easing as she sat down at the table. She said, "I think everything will be alright, Petra, but I'm worried; none of this was supposed to happen now."

  Petra replied, "That's what I came to talk about. Is there a way I can help you? Forgive me if I'm thinking foolishly or interfering where I shouldn't, but I perceive she's your daughter, and I feel you're feeling something similar to what I am."

  Liora responded directly, "You're not wrong; I still blame myself for doing something that might have a worse outcome than with me. But perhaps that's not the case; Laetilia sincerely told me yesterday that she prefers us all as a family, compared to the past I had with my nailia guardians because, at least, we try to help each other. And even with the crises we endured, we treat each other as people, not as positions or according to each one usefulness."

  Petra agreed, "I was blaming myself, too. Maybe we made mistakes because we didn't know how to act. Then, with the new universe stuff, we ended up leaving her alone for too long."

  Liora spoke in a more melancholic tone, remembering the past, "That too, but it's too late for regrets. When I was very young, I dreamed of having a family—of marrying an oioi or nailia and having children in a world that was a fantasy sold to me by the wrong people. When they abandoned me, that dream was over, and I started questioning everything and everyone; perhaps I questioned too many rules, or perhaps I forgot to question my own rules."

  Petra asked, "Liora, are you sure it's a good idea to let her go today? We don't need to monitor those Golems, especially if the idea of ascending with this ship and going faster works well."

  "What idea exactly?" Liora asked, absent from the previous night's discussion.

  "Silas did the calculations last night, so you'll have to check with him, but if we use Amanda's magic and ascend like a satellite, we will reach the tower in four days, and by doing so, I think we will be far ahead of the Golems so it wouldn't be such a problem to lose track of them," Petra replied.

  Liora rested her head against the chair. "Ascending will be a great risk, but maybe I agree. However, there's another issue; you saw how easily the Golems destroyed a veteran Alpha yesterday and what they did to an archmage years ago, and that's before they got stronger. If there's a chance for Laetilia to get away from them, I think it's worth trying. Because she'll be a different person, and I hope the curse we have doesn't fall on our children."

  Petra froze, realizing the implication; she could barely speak, "And my children, Liora, if they're ever brought back to life?"

  Liora understood the situation; she thought and said, "I still don't have that answer, Petra. I talked about our situation with Laetilia for hours yesterday, trying to convince her to stay longer, but we didn't reach a consensus; she chose to go anyway. At least we'll know soon."

  Petra recalled, "She already tried once with the airbike right before we decided to go to the outpost where we found this schrogae ship, and the result was that the ghost created two more golems."

  Liora explained, "Back then, she and I were the same person, and that won't be true anymore as soon as she activates the identity module that's already on the airbike. But whether this will actually work, I don't know."

  Petra said, uncomfortable, "I think I understand the motivations and feelings, and the attempt to get rid of the Golems seems great, but it's still as if a person were to exist in parts, and that causes me strangeness."

  Liora thought for a moment and said, "Perhaps part of this strangeness is because you're trying to understand us as two humans. Despite having a great influence because of the Seneca Project, we're bound to an oioi interpretation of the human culture. And about the fragmented parts of a being, my biggest concern today isn't about the order in which the identity module will be activated because I discovered that Laetilia did exactly as I did, probably based on my memories; she ended up using alternative modules that weren't specifically designed for identity to function more or less as one. When she gets to the airbike and activates all the modules, that shouldn't be so relevant. However…" Liora paused, placing her hand on her face, mentally exhausted from the previous night.

  Petra stood up and hugged Liora, noticing the stress. "We're here to help, Liora. Let's try to make this all work out!"

  Liora, more consoled, continued, "What worries me is that we're not in the right conditions to raise a child. Regardless of how good the aethernet connector or communication magic may be. If she doesn't manage to get rid of the Golems, she'll return here, and part of me will even be calmer, but I'll need your help to try to keep the environment here less tense, if that's even possible."

  Petra tried to help: "Let's try to stay hopeful. Who knows, in a few years, we'll all be in Rocatrista, and Laetilia could enter the school that Ramirez's people are preparing. I sometimes think about whether I might have grandchildren. I died too young on Earth and don't know what my children did with their lives. Perhaps one day, they'll all be classmates."

  Liora was happy with Petra's attempt to help; she choked back a laugh. "Petra, I appreciate the perspective that in a few years, this will all be resolved and that a school in Rocatrista with other children would be much healthier. But thinking about it, I'm not entirely sure I'd be delighted with Laetilia becoming a mage apprentice."

  Petra thought quickly, "Well, we just need to convince Silas to retire from adventures and start teaching engineering and science to the children."

  Liora smiled, "Now that sounds like a good plan!" The two fell silent for a few minutes in lighter dreams until Frank woke up and entered the room for breakfast through the portal.

  Frank immediately asked, "How are things going, Liora?"

  Liora responded while reopening the communication channels to update everyone, "Everything's fine, Frank! Laetilia's going to the airbike today, and we'll proceed with the plan. First, we will send a more appropriate reconnaissance drone to follow the Golems. Then Laetilia will try to reach Rocatrista without being pursued by the ghost."

  Silas noticed the open channels and spoke through the comlinks: "Good morning, team! I'm awake, preparing to integrate the new suma technology devices we'll be using with Amanda. We’re going to the ship right now!"

  While waiting for everyone to gather, Liora accessed the extensive list of devices prepared. She found that the price was substantially lower than expected. Using the comlink, she commented, "I'm seeing the list here, Amanda; remind me to talk to you about a particular device later."

  Silas entered the room with several terminals connected. Amanda followed, floating behind, while Frank was already in his usual corner, arms crossed.

  Amanda responded to Liora as she landed on a seat at the table, "Of course! As you're seeing now, there are two sets of devices for Laetilia when she reaches the airbike besides the oioi body components. The first set came ready to use and just needs to be activated; those are devices that came mounted inside the reconnaissance drone to make it reach a maximum speed of more than 200 times that of the current airbike and a second embedded aethernet connection. The second set of devices are improvements for the airbike; in this case, Laetilia will have to stop for a few days to install them. Silas and I were preparing the instructions this morning."

  Silas said while operating his terminals, "In addition to all this, since we still don't know how much time we have without golems, in the next three days, I'll install gravitational engines in all the structures inside Petra's universe, and we'll keep everything moving."

  Liora said, somewhat impressed, "It seems you guys already imagined what our response would be. I'm not criticizing, but I see that the plan is already well-elaborated."

  Silas responded, "Negative. If Laetilia doesn't go—except for the oioi body components—these same devices will be sent through the portal on King's Mountain and placed inside the drone heading toward the airbike at full speed. The idea would be to improve the airbike and then pursue the drones with both vehicles, using the airbike only to do a wide-area scan. This would take around 20 days and would require borrowing a suma maintenance droid from Mosh to send along with the drone to set up the airbike. But if Laetilia goes today, we won't need to search for the golems since they are still detectable with the airbike's basic sensors, and we may be able to maintain tracking without interruptions."

  Liora nods. "I'm seeing it. Petra also told me that we could reach the tower in four days. Is it really worth risking it?"

  Silas sat down at the table and prepared the coffee: "That's right; we got some problems. I finished identifying Adarian's ship specs based on the complete audiovisual data from Northern Valley. It has a warp 8 space-fold engine if he hasn't modified anything. So, at top speed, it's likely that he will already be at the tower, but if he stays sub-light, we'll arrive well before him because the acceleration takes time. We should be prepared for both scenarios."

  "Or ignore the tower with our ship and continue our journey North at a safe speed, sending only a drone to that damned tower," Frank commented, until then silent, "I also haven't received a response from Ramirez's people yet; in the previous prediction we sent them, we would only arrive at the tower in 80 days, so they must be waiting for things to cool down."

  "Hmmm… That's not a bad idea, Frank!" Silas exclaimed. "But there are two problems: the drone would take longer than four days, and maybe it would be too late. And in case the drone finds Seneca, we'd have to figure out something other than just watching."

  Frank thought for a moment and said, "Well, if we put one of Petra's portal stones in the drone, that would solve the problem nicely; we could even make Seneca disappear from there if necessary. And if the drone takes too long, we can think of a mixed solution: go with the ship to a certain point, and then send the drone with Amanda's speed enchantment."

  "That sounds great; let's do it!" Petra became enthusiastic.

  "The mixed solution would be feasible on time, but we'll have to get very close with the ship. This way, we'll still risk traveling above the atmosphere, but it seems like a good idea." Liora concluded.

  "Well, we can stay inside Petra's universe and only appear on the ship when it's necessary to send the drone. That way, if something happens to the ship, we'll be safe," Frank suggested.

  Everyone looked at each other, pondering the idea for a while. Silas was the first to speak: "As far as I can see, it seems like a nice plan; upon reaching the drone's travel autonomy, the ship sends it and deviates to the North, and we get out of there while the drone explores the tower for us with one of Petra's portals embedded. Shall we do this?"

  Liora and Petra nodded while Amanda commented, "It seems great; only to cast the magic on the drone, we need to be present. If the ship gets to within a few minutes of the tower, for example, we'd still have more than enough time to prepare everything and return to Petra's universe. The drone would be super-accelerated for up to a day after investigating the tower."

  Laetilia, who had only been listening via comlink, said, "Team, I'm ready; I'm going down there."

  The others greeted her via comlink while waiting in the room. Before she arrived by elevator, Frank told everyone, "We should prepare a welcome party for her, or maybe a birthday party."

  Liora, excited about the proposal, says, "That's a good idea! But today, we'll have a few hours, and it's important to be fast. But let's prepare that party for when she returns!"

  Laetilia entered the room, animated with her improvised body from the previous night. Frank said, impressed, "Wow! I wasn't expecting to see you physically already. Welcome, now formally!"

  Silas finished noting the plan's modifications on his terminal and said, "Hello, Laetilia. I'm a little sad because I'm going to lose my best intern for a while."

  Laetilia said, a little lost, still adapting to the senses of a physical body instead of using only the ship's sensors, "So, people, everything okay? I'm already learning what it's like to feel anxious; let's get on with this trip!"

  Silas replied, standing up, "Ha! Just the preparation will take at least two hours, but we can start right now."

  "Wonderful, then let's get started; I want to resolve this annoyance with the Golems as quickly as possible!" Laetilia planned.

  "No need to rush! We ended up improving our planning quite a bit after a night of thinking. The coming days will be quite hectic, and we need to be prepared," Liora commented, also standing up.

  "It will be OK! We'll be full-time communicating, using both Amanda's gizmo and Frank's magic; what could go wrong?" Laetilia grumbled, full of confidence.

  "What could go wrong?" Petra grumbled back. "It doesn't seem to me that you're prepared to learn how to use magic, for example."

  Laetilia pointed her index finger at Petra and shook her head in agreement with a smile. Silas interrupted, "So, Laetilia, I've prepared a set of instructions to improve the airbike after you activate your suma-oioi components. After sending the drone with the probe to go after the Golems, you'll need to distance yourself from them with the airbike and stop for a good while to put everything in place. Then let's go to the docks here and pay close attention to what I'm going to explain; I've already sent you all the data and am going to start preparing the connectors for your travel."

  Laetilia turns on a green light from her eyes while following Silas, absorbing all the information via comlink. As both of them left for the docks, Liora accompanied them, sending a telepathic message to the others: "We'll go over all the mission breakpoints while preparing the long-distance communicators for her transfer. It will take hours because Laetilia's models are already substantially larger than the last time we did it. It would be good for Petra to stay on the sensors, tracking potential signal interference, and Frank to pilot in case something happens because Silas and I will both be performing a critical procedure, okay?"

  Frank and Petra nodded to each other and took their positions on the bridge, inviting Amanda to join them; everyone shared their anxiety. Despite the tension caused by the delay—after four hours had passed—everything seemed to have gone well as Silas shared the log procedure channel; Frank commented after a few hours of a tense silence: “This reminds me of a birth on Earth.”

  Liora and Silas finally joined the others on the bridge, visibly tired. Liora said, "It all went well, but Laetilia's models were even larger than we predicted. She probably had already developed a good deal of autonomy with the base models a long time ago."

  Silas added, "She might stay in a dormant state now, initiating the other models on the airbike for a little while. However, we can already send the aethernet connector to the airbike. Shall we do that, Amanda?"

  Amanda nodded, and after minutes that seemed hours, she said, "Laetilia already ACK, a single message back saying everything is fine; both the aethernet connector and the oioi-suma components have arrived. And she predicted it would take another eight hours to finish initializing all her personal systems. I also created her account in the City of Spirits yesterday, transferred some of Liora's credits, and signed a post-life insurance identical to yours for her. Now we wait!"

  With some relief, everyone relaxed a bit in the bridge's ample armchairs. Silas sat with his eyes closed for 15 minutes, then stood up, massaging his neck, and said, "Okay, team; now I need to prepare the ship for our ascent. Liora should be piloting during acceleration. After stabilizing the route, we'll all go to Petra's universe and leave everything on automatic; we'll return in four days. If all goes well, we'll decelerate to enter the atmosphere and finally release our drone, which will travel and arrive at the tower in two hours. Then, we'll ascend and accelerate again with the ship; when the drone reaches the tower, we'll be safe and far away."

  Petra and Liora left a terminal open with the video data received by the airbike's old sensors, which were still transmitting but hours delayed behind when the transfer procedure was in the middle. They observed that the airbike had slowed down, and then Laetilia's new body arrived from the World of the Dead through a raise-dead magical vortex, and all modules started the initialization process. It was a customized humanoid form with features very similar to Laetilia's prior version but with dark blue and green colors; translucent parts were visible on her arms and legs, and numerous neon light lines illuminated her body as if part of an integrated armor. She remained motionless, sitting on the airbike, with wires and connectors spread across her body while a tiny service android checked if everything was fine.

  Silas finished preparing the ship to ascend long before Laetilia was ready. They ascended above the atmospheric upper layers and activated all the ship's engines at full power for the first time. Amanda and Frank prepared the speed magic, which allowed Liora to both reach higher speeds and control the acceleration process perfectly. Amanda commented, "Frank, Silas, the plan to stay in the other universe will work, but Frank and I will have to return to the ship twice a day and stay here for a few minutes to reinforce the enchantment."

  Frank nodded. "That's right, Amanda. Thanks! I forgot that not everything can be done remotely."

  After the speed stabilized, Amanda and Frank were scheduled to repeat the enchantment twice a day until they reached their destination. Despite the complexity, everything proceeded smoothly. At high altitudes, they even managed to see a much more significant portion of the sky, with deep red light cutting through the darkness more evidently than on the surface; the Big Bang′s show was arriving. Petra and Frank remembered the night they shared with Laetilia when she made her montage of the sky using Vaud and Mosh's material; it would still be years before the light show they saw on that occasion.

  It was night when Laetilia began transmitting a high-quality audiovisual of herself. It was as if an iterative hologram of her were present inside Petra's universe, similar to Amanda's classes when she was in the World of the Dead.

  Laetilia said, "Wonderful, people! I've never felt so good with these suma devices, and I have good news: I activated my drone as quickly as possible and still managed to keep the Golems under surveillance. Now that this sassy drone is locked onto them, good luck shaking it off."

  Liora celebrated, relieved and happy: "What great news! One day, I'll test some suma devices too! Now, you need to stop for a while to install the airbike improvements. Everything is calm there?"

  Laetilia responded with some annoyance, remembering her days piloting the ship: "There's absolutely nothing here that I'm not already tired of seeing; it's just much colder than inside the ship, and the options on the suma cubes are weird. It won't be necessary to get close to the ground; I'll keep the airbike floating while I install everything, but that's from tomorrow afternoon when the other parts start arriving from the world of the dead; they come little by little because of their size. The only drawback is that it won't be possible to go very far from here for a few days, and the airbike will just be floating during the hours I spend installing; I'll need to concentrate fully while I assemble everything. If you want to talk to me, use the comlink; I'll also leave the emergency telepathic channel open, as Frank taught us."

  Despite the tension in both locations and the extensive to-do list, Liora and Laetilia constantly exchanged numerous messages and calls. Before going to sleep, Silas delivered a package with everyone's renewed weapons: two Flexoclavas for Frank and Petra, made from Petra's flaming metal universe and with various auxiliary batteries. For Liora, he presented an entirely different weapon—a type of bazooka. Silas opened a compartment on the side of the weapon and distributed a brooch with a blue light to each of them. He said, "Ah yes, Liora's weapon is extremely precise, and the trajectory of the shots is controlled. These little devices I'm giving to each of you serve to prevent this weapon from hitting targets using this brooch. That way, even if you're in the middle of a confused combat with many opponents nearby, Liora can use her weapon at close range or far away without the danger of hitting any of you."

  Frank and Petra were impressed and tested the power of their new Flexoclavas that same night, while Liora took the opportunity to test the new creation. Upon activating what appeared to be the bazooka, the device changed shape and opened, forming a cone that resembled a luminous bouquet. From the inner tips, the weapon fired minuscule, guided missiles filled with antimatter—at least five projectiles simultaneously, without external energy consumption, propelled and powered by the antimatter reaction. The weapon was capable of firing more projectiles at the same time, as many as Liora could aim and load with her own energy; the final effect was substantially superior to the previous ray rifle.

  After a night to rest and collect her thoughts, Petra stretched in the new spacious café in her universe, lost in thought and alone. Then Amanda silently floated into the room, grumbling about her aching knees. She noticed Petra quietly contemplating while performing her moves in a corner.

  Amanda approached. "Good morning, Petra! What's troubling my student this morning?"

  Petra emerged from her reverie with a smile. "Good morning! Nothing important, I think. So many things happened at once that I don't know; sometimes I think my memory is playing tricks on me."

  Amanda landed beside Petra and watched her stretch. "Ask anything, but why this strange ritual of your every morning? Is it customary where you're from?"

  Petra, somewhat impressed, replied, "No, it's a series of stretches, and then I'll also do a warm-up. Everyone should do this before physical exercise to avoid injuring their bodies. You should try too; maybe your legs will improve."

  Amanda clumsily attempted to imitate Petra's stretches with her short arms and legs. She smiled and waited for Petra to speak.

  Petra, relaxed by the scene, nodded. "That's right, Amanda. Very good, keep going! Now, what's bothering me—something about those Alphas in Northern Valley."

  Amanda responded, still stretching, "Well, I don't know much about them either; what 's the matter?"

  Petra looked upward, trying to relive her memories. "When I spoke to Liora about magics, right before you arrived, she mentioned something about the Alphas being Jufei or Shaufi, but those we saw were Bo, like Biggus, right?"

  Amanda replied, "Interesting. The first Alphas who were part of the Shadow Militia were Jufei, not the new ones. There's a rare species in Gate called Shaufi, which has a controversial origin and is identical to the Jufei. I know something about the Shaufi, but I don't know if that would help. It's best to ask your contacts in Rocatrista for Jufei information; it would be specific on how the Alphas organize themselves."

  Petra nodded. "Good idea; I'll send a message to Ramirez. Anyway, while we stretch, tell me about those Shaufi."

  Amanda began to speak slowly and somewhat breathlessly; her body tired quickly, even with light activity. "Well… The Shaufi are very rare both here and in the world of the dead; they appear like shady humanoids. It seems they came from an old galaxy where most of the stars have died; they call it the Dead Galaxy. The Shaufi emerged as a civilization at just over a dozen points practically at the same time; all these points were rogue planets scattered throughout this same Dead Galaxy—a mystery how a living civilization could have emerged without a star's energy. The most accepted theory is that they are a naturally transactional species. Therefore, the Shaufi would have appeared at the same time on planets that were inhabited by other species before being ejected from their original star systems. So, the phenomenon of transacting the original planet′s species into Shaufi was replicated at several isolated points. However, the Jufei claim another origin, and I don't know anything about them."

  Petra made a funny face. "Naturally transactional species?"

  Amanda commented, "Yes, I don't love that name because it's quite vague. In Gate, it makes little sense because, through technology, it's possible to transform the body of any individual into any other body. However, this process can occur in ways that are alternative to technology. We Suma, for example, can transact from any other species that decides to stay in the City of Spirits—like Mosh, who was Dzaobudine when alive—or be born in the World of the Dead, like me."

  Petra, pleased and surprised, thanked Amanda for the explanation and continued teaching her about stretching. Meanwhile, she mentally prepared a comlink message to send to Ramirez without much hope of getting a reply before reaching the tower.

  The following couple of days passed with great tranquility, allowing everyone to get used to the new routine. The last time Frank and Amanda went to the ship to renew the enchantment, it was possible to detect Cernutos Tower in the far distance—an imposing structure, even from afar—on what seemed to be a bulge with narrow monolithic veins, giving the surrounding terrain an organic and vegetal appearance. Beside each of these tiny veins, a few people wide, small lateral hills of dust and snow rose. Inside the sinuous veins that seemed like roads inside valleys, the wind formed an almost linear streak of dust alongside the way.

  Both Frank and Amanda returned one last time to the safe universe and prepared with the others for the action that would begin shortly. Everyone waited a few moments to return to the ship when the position was exact; Amanda and Frank would enchant the drone with speed magic. The drone was already prepared in the docks to receive an active portal stone; this way, it would have maximum autonomy to pass through the tower and explore the place for a few hours before the speed magic was exhausted and it slowed down. Petra could then open the portal to retrieve it or leave it somewhere near the tower, and then they could have a teleportation portal in the tower region, depending on what they would find there.

  At the exact time and with excellent coordination, everyone passed through the portal and followed the plan. Silas and Liora went to the bridge while the other three went to the docks. As soon as Petra opened the dock door, she warned via telepathy: "Team! Something strange is happening here; it seems we have very thin mana threads spread inside the ship's walls, but they don't seem to do anything. Are you detecting anything out there?"

  Liora and Silas ran to check the ship's sensors and direction. The automated records showed nothing, only a weak background energy reading on the sensors without a defined source. They started to hear a noise as if it were high-pitched static or something stretching.

  Suddenly, everyone's mind was invaded by a scream that sounded like a shattering "wi" that made everyone dizzy. Silas only had time to think of activating the red alert; he used telepathy before being interrupted, saying, "A spider appea…" While Liora used the comlink, her message also interrupted: "Electromagnetic pulse…"

  After the disconcerting mental noise came total darkness. The mana threads that Petra could perceive suddenly stretched at the same time and pierced everything and everyone like blades, but they didn't feel any pain except for Amanda, who let out a very brief, interrupted cry of pain before disappearing. Not only did all the ship's lights go out, but all the devices were exhausted, and all of Petra and Frank's mana was utterly drained. But the nightmare was still to come because the mana continued to be drained faster than any regeneration; this made the mana-consuming enchantments dissipate, which meant Frank's telepathic communication and Amanda's speed were gone. Petra's portals remained, but they stayed closed as they were before, and the unused stones that Petra carried with her were also gone. All the ship's active electricity was drained, including the energy cells of all the weapons and inside Liora's and Silas's bodies; the ship was floating adrift since part of its gravity engine was unaffected.

  Liora unexpectedly shouted from inside the bridge, "Frank, I'm alive and functioning, but my weapons and defenses are gone. Break down the bridge door!"

  Silas shouted at the same time, "We need to do something quickly; a giant spider is approaching!"

  Frank broke down the door like nothing and at high speed, and Petra followed right behind. Frank said, "I'm going to jump against this spider. You guys try to stay on the ship because we have no way to fly; all the magic is gone."

  Frank saw the spider approaching through the bridge window; he calculated it to be more than 10 feet tall. It was a mixture of insect and blue luminous energy, projecting itself through a colossal single thread still attached to the ship. Frank wielded his Flexoclava, not caring that it was deactivated, and launched himself toward the giant, breaking part of the bridge floor and the front glass windshield in his movement.

  Petra, desperate: "Amanda's gone, Silas!"

  Silas, thinking quickly, said, while he and Liora held onto the bridge seats, "The ship is caught in a web thread at the very tip of the upper right wing." Silas pointed. "Petra! See if you can get there! If necessary, break the structure from the inside. There's a red metal shaft under the fuselage near the tip that can be loosened. The entrance is right after the engine tube."

  Liora released herself from the chairs and said, accelerating in the maximum timeframe, "I'm without weapons, defenses, or even the energy ray to fly, but my speed is okay; I'll go outside with Petra!"

  Petra wasted no time and went through Frank's new hole-made window. She'd also trained some super strength, but nothing beyond lifting a few tons; she only hoped it would be enough as she balanced herself outside with Liora's help.

  Frank's impact on the spider was devastating. When he left the ship with a jump, he accelerated the spider toward his direction. He then interrupted the beast's trajectory down and considerably injured his opponent, as his deactivated Flexoclava now resided inside the spider's abdomen through a new hole. While both of them start falling, Frank begins a frantic fight with the severely injured creature; he finds out that the spider is super dense and heavy. Otherwise, his mountain-opening blows could have immediately annihilated his opponent. The brutal dance is pulling the ship toward the ground like an air balloon caught by a thread, spinning it wildly.

  Silas had time to fasten his seatbelt before everything started spinning; he saw various devices and parts break and be ejected through the hole made by Frank, but fortunately, he managed to stay strapped in.

  If it weren't for Liora's superspeed, Petra would have been thrown from the ship by the spins. Clinging to Petra's back, Liora managed to throw them both into a gap between the wing and the ship's body as soon as she realized that the composition would start spinning after Frank's impact.

  Liora also realized that if Petra jumped from her position, they would be thrown tangentially to the ship's rotation with a slight deviation. She approached Petra's ear and said, "On three, jump, and let's try to grab that blue thread!" They would only have one chance.

  Liora calculated the timing and counted when she shouted in cadence, "One, two, three!" Petra released the fuselage in a jump, and both of them shot toward the spider’s thread, which seemed to be made of smooth fabric. They reached the point where the thread united with the ship perfectly, and Petra managed to grab herself there.

  Petra tried to tear the thread to release the ship with her bare hands, but it was impossible, and she perceived that Frank was trying to do the same near the spider, also without any success. Liora pointed to a small hatch on the ship's wing, and Petra struggled to reach it. As soon as they got close enough, Liora shouted, amidst the chaos and cold, sharp wind of Gate's eternal night, illuminated only by a faded blue glow from the unbreakable spider's thread, "Try to hold onto the ship! Afar from this blue thing!" She jumped from Petra's back and entered the completely dark passage inside the ship wing through the path Silas had mentioned.

  The ship starts to accelerate down as the engine on standby is incapable of sustaining the hyperheavy spider. Liora spent a lot of time struggling to release the parts without the help of magic, external energy, or even super strength. After minutes, she managed to remove the internal latch from the fuselage, and all the force of the trapped spider applied at the point of contact of the thread caused the wingtip to come loose. Petra held onto the outside while the ship remained floating in the air, still spinning and descending with inertia but now being decelerated by the air and the gravity engine. However, neither energy nor magic gave any sign of returning, and the floor seemed too near for the ship to stop falling.

  Frank and the spider, meanwhile, didn't float; they began to move away from the ship, reaching terminal speed. The ship had already descended substantially into the atmosphere when it was drained, being only a couple miles high when the thread came loose from the wing. Inside the ship, Silas unfastened his seatbelt when the rotation slowed down enough. He tried to think about what to do while mentally calculating if the neutral-state gravity engine buoyance thrust would be enough to overcome the moment of inertia and attenuate the fall before they all hit the ground.

  Outside the ship, the brutal combat between Frak and the spider beast continued, oblivious to the ground inexorably approaching.