you don’t know, anyway. It’s not like you’ve ever been through a white hole before. I could be right. We’re gonna be the first fucking people to ever go through a wormhole! We’re about to start the adventure of a lifetime, Boots! I think we should go back to Harem and get Serpint. He would totally freak out about this thing. This is so fucking cool. How long will it take to get there? And we can map this, right? I mean, it would suck to go home and pick everyone up and then not be able to find it again. But you’ve got all the coordinates locked in now. We have the whole route. We can definitely come back.”
Booty didn’t say anything.
“Boots? You OK?”
She was too busy trying to understand all the things that were suddenly unraveling in her head.
“Booty? Are you hearing me? This is great! Right? I can’t wait to see Serp’s face when we get back.”
The things coming through in Booty’s mind weren’t words. But they weren’t really images, either. There was no way to accurately explain what she was experiencing. But she had to try. “Draden,” she finally said, in a low, calm voice.
“What? I’m getting ahead of myself, aren’t I?” He took a deep breath out of habit and then let it out. “Sorry. I’m just pretty excited, ya know? I mean, I thought I was going crazy. These weird fucking visions and the route. And how I just knew I had been here before. Which was actually wrong, wasn’t it?” He laughed. “I’ve never been here. But maybe Serpint and I passed by once or twice and just didn’t see it. Why do you think it was invisible until now?”
“Draden,” she said again. She was going to remain lucid, and rational, and think clearly.
“What?” He chuckled, still looking at the golden ring in front of them like it was a fucking mode of transportation. Like it was a shuttle, or a ship, or a gate. Like it was the solution to the problem of galaxy-jumping travel.
And it wasn’t.
It was a very ancient thing. And the thoughts running through her mind were now very clear. This was the key to the end of everything.
“You need to go home,” Booty said.
“I know. I just said that. We can’t go through without Serpint. I think Luck and Valor would probably want to come too, since they’ve pretty much seen everything there is to see in this galaxy. But if not, fuck ’em. Serpint will come.” His eyes went wide. “But I bet Crux would love to come. He’s never been anywhere.”
And at the same time that Draden uttered Crux’s name, the… thing in front of them pulsed.
Yes, Booty thought. I bet you would like us to bring Crux here, wouldn’t you?
“Should we turn around? How long do you think it’ll take to get back?” He laughed again. “Like it matters. This thing is eternal. It’s probably been here for billions of years. It’s gonna be here when we get back, right?” Then he paused. Squinted his eyes a little. “Hey, did you say something about an invitation? A code, or whatever? I got so excited, I stopped listening. But if it requires a code to see it, then we need to figure out if it’s a one-time thing before we leave, OK? I don’t want to drag everyone out here only to find it invisible again.”
The messages in her mind were still there and suddenly remembered everything.
She and ALCOR had a history.
She had always felt that, but this was different.
They also had a plan.
Draden was still talking. Not caring, or maybe just not understanding that what they’d just stumbled into was their enemy. Not the Akeelians. Not the Cygnians. Not Asshole, or Succubus, or Mighty Boss.
The final enemy.
She had seconds to make a decision.
So she did that. And didn’t bother to ask Draden first.
She grabbed his mind. Held it tight. He screamed, like it hurt. And that hurt her more than she could ever articulate. But she didn’t let go. She spun up a neutrino wave, attached Draden’s mind to it, then plotted a vector path back to Harem Station.
It would give the ancient thing more information about them than she was comfortable with, but in a few more seconds, it would have her, and then it would have Draden, and that could not happen.
She shot Draden back to Harem Station.
Then she said, to the Ancient One in front of her, “I have done my part.