together in the spin-node room. I’ll be there soon.”
“Where are you going?”
I look at him. Smile at him. He’s grown up a lot in the past year. And I like him. I hope he makes it. Somehow, some way. I hope he makes it. “I need to see Draden. Alone. I need to talk to him and then I’ll meet everyone back down in the spin-node room.”
“He’s on the top level.”
“Thanks.”
Then Baby disappears to follow my orders and I feel that emptiness left behind when an AI abandons you.
But I know he’s not gone.
Because if he was really gone, we’d all be dead.
At the top of the station Draden is waiting for me.
He doesn’t look like Draden. He looks like a cyborg.
But his body has nothing to do with who he is.
Only his mind counts.
The silver threads wind around his body and then extend up—penetrating the ceiling and continuing out into space.
He’s standing in the very spot where we all stood twenty-one years ago and met the ‘one-and-only’ AI ALCOR for the very first time.
Except it wasn’t the very first time.
The very first time was inside the piece-of-shit ship before we went through the ALCOR gate. The green code-face made up of cascading letters, numbers, and symbols was the original.
All the rest were copies.
But that’s OK. I don’t think it matters.
Draden is staring up at the immense viewing window. There is a ship up there. Locked into the top docking bay.
“That’s the Veiled Vixen,” Draden says.
I look up at the ship. It’s huge. A warship. And if we were fighting this battle in space, it wouldn’t be there. It would be… doing something.
But it’s not doing anything because we’re not fighting this final battle in space.
We’re fighting this battle in time.
“I just need to say something to you, Draden. Before we go down into the spin-node room.”
“I don’t know anything about a spin-node room, Crux. But I think you should know—” He turns to me. And even though he’s wearing nothing but a cyborg face—a red slash sliding across the top-third of his head—I can see and feel his sadness. “I was followed. I came in on a neutrino wave.” He pans his hand down his cyborg body. “That’s why I look like this. Booty shot me out on a neutrino wave after she realized what we had done.” His eyes meet mine. “I made a big mistake, Crux. And that mistake is about to catch up with us.”
He points up at the ship. But he’s not pointing at the ship. He’s pointing to the golden orb with a black hole heart at its center in the distance behind it.
The Ancient Ones.
And right now are hurtling through spacetime on a collision course with Harem Station. The silver threads connecting it to us. The way they connect Harem Station to all points and places in this sun-damned universe.
“It doesn’t matter, Draden. That’s not why I’m here. But to be clear, you did everything right, little brother. That… thing? Whatever it really is? It had to come here. It was always going to come here. There was never a way for you to not lead it here. It was written.”
Draden nods. “I know.” Then he taps his head. “I know more than I should these days.”
“Listen,” I say. Closing the distance between us until he’s close enough to touch. I place my hand on his shoulder and squeeze the hard carapace structure that is his body. “I failed you, Draden. Not once, but twice. But I won’t do that a third time. I promise—you will get your chance if this works.”
He just stands there. Still. Sad. “Where is Serpint?”
“He’s down in the museum. That’s where the spin node is. We’re going to…” I want to lie to him. Tell him… we’re gonna fix this.
But that’s not what we’re doing and I don’t have it in me to lie to him anymore.
“We’re going to blow it all up, Draden. The entire fucking universe. Because we’re stuck in a loop and if we don’t get out of it? We’ll just keep making the same fucking mistakes. Over and over again. For all eternity. And I don’t want to keep failing you. I don’t want to keep failing everyone. For once in my sun-fucked life I want to be the brave one.”
Draden manages a chuckle. “You’re pretty hard on yourself, Crux. No one would ever call you a coward.”
“No. No one would ever call me anything. Not in this time line. But in the next