#arrowmail

((Finally back on the normal schedule!))

The pretty ginger apex was waiting for them at the Outpost teleporter. She offered them a very charming little smile and also a hug for Marcy.

“Nyota asked me to pass one along from her,” she explained. “I don’t know if she meant that literally, but people do seem to like a good apex hug. Are you well?”

“I am, thanks.” Marcy’s voice was understandably muffled. “Apex hugs are amazing.”

“Would you like one too?” The apex offered to Mihre.

They looked pleased, but also a little hesitant. “Floran are not very nice to hug, really.”

That only earned them an encouraging smile and open arms. “It is quite alright. I am used to hugging Floran.”

“Oh?” Their dark eyes glittered with curiosity and mischief. “Well, well. So he does have some luck after all.”

The apex laughed and blushed as Mihre accepted her offered hug. Clearly she knew exactly what they were on about.

“It’s Eldie, right?” Marcy asked as they let go. “I haven’t been to the ship yet. Which way is it?”

“It isn’t far,” Eldie reassured her. “Out this door and past the shady gentleman there. Oh, but do stick close.” She adjusted her shawl almost self-consciously. “The hylotl at Legal Goods can be a very insistent salesman if he catches you alone.”

“Shady gentleman,” Marcy echoed. She obeyed the advice, falling in step beside Eldie almost as easily as she once had with Nyota, what felt like a lifetime ago. No, don’t think of that. “I think this is the first time I’ve heard those together.”

Eldie giggled. Coming from anyone else without such a strong aura of innocence, it would have sounded downright conspiratorial. “Mr. Pete does his best to earn it, really. He might be sad if I called him anything less.”

Marcy laughed too. “Would he really? He sounds like you, Mihre.”

Mihre made a noise halfway between chuckle, rasp, and purr. “Really, now. To quote that lovely human classic you like so much, I am no man. But shady gentleplant does have a nice ring to it. Oops!”

They sidestepped, caught a fast-moving wrench that was aimed at their kneecaps, and lifted it (along with its furiously-wriggling penguin owner) up to eye level with a deliberately casual ease. “Ah, so it’s that Mr. Pete,” they said cheerfully. “Hello, Toppy. I see your feathers grew back evenly.”

“Yeah, only took two molts,” Toppy said, a bit grudgingly. “You been practicin’, huh? Can’t hear the hiss now.”

“It’s good for businessss,” Mihre replied smoothly, drawing the sound out for comedic effect as they set their feathered burden down. “Well I am here on business… Catch up later?”

“You better,” Toppy grumbled. “Give my regards to the toothy sprout and old Boss. Hey, give my wrench back?”

“Later.” Mihre patted his head. “Don’t sulk, my dear bird, we both know you have spares.” They flipped the wrench in one hand as they caught up to the two women, who were watching them with bemused stares.

“Well, that was something,” Marcy said. “I can’t actually think of a word for it. Good job.”

Mihre chuckled and handed her the wrench. “Not often I break Marcy. Ms. Eldie, I didn’t scare you?”

“Not badly,” Eldie reassured them. Her fur was only a little fluffed up. “I did get used to seeing that sort of thing over the past few months. Would he really have hit you if you were not so quick, or was it just in play?”

“Oh, it’s always in play,” the floran told her, “even smacking my knees. But that is neither here nor there, yes?”

“That is a fair answer.” Eldie laughed and led them out of the little outskirts market. It was only a few steps from there, to Marcy’s shock. The ship was docked just behind the asteroid, out of sight except from a nearly hidden path down the back. It looked like it had been in a few scuffles recently, from the small dents and space dust splattering the hull. A glitch was diligently painting the words Cherry Jubilee beside the airlock hatch as a lime-green novakid cleaned some of the dust away beside him.

“Excited. Hello, Eldie,” the glitch called as they got close. “Welcome back. And you would be Marcy, correct? It’s a pleasure to meet you in person at last.”

“Same here,” Marcy told him. “You’re Sonny’s boyfriend Arrowmail, right?”

“Flustered. Boyfriend? Er, I— ” His eyes flashed brighter and he broke off with a strangely novakid-like whistle as Sonny fizzed a bit, leaned over, and lightly touched her brand to his cheek. “Error. My goodness. Error. Please stand by.”

“Oops. Sorry ‘bout that,” Sonny giggled, clearly not the slightest bit sorry. “Why don’t y’all go on in? Captain’s waitin’.”

Oldarva smiled and patted Arrowmail’s shoulder as she passed. “We’ll do that. Do go easy on him, won’t you?”

It felt like singing, but without sound, like it was pulling a strange harmony out from deep in her bones. Nyota half-closed her eyes as the beautiful warmth surged up and through her and eased the bruises and cold away. They did not heal, but the pain faded until she could pretend it was gone. The ancient energy coalesced around her hands and dripped down to coat the staff, purple light mingling with red.

“Goll-ee,” Sonny murmured. “That’s the nicest thing I’ve ever seen.”

“You think so?” Hadley asked. “Looks spooky to me.”

“Well sure, it’s spooky.” There was a strangely wistful tone in the Novakid’s voice. “But it sure feels right.”

Lumen hummed and leaned against her. “Well ain’t that odd. We feel the same way… So what’s it doin’, Arjun?”

Arjun shook his head. “Just wait and see.”

Nyota laughed softly. “That means he doesn’t know.” The staff was almost hot in her grip. Soothing and unnerving at the same time.

Lana stepped closer. Nyota could feel her strength even through the simple touch. “Lean on me. You’re shaking,” she said quietly.  

Nyota leaned back against her, and the note changed. Like it was in answer. The staff shifted—she gasped as the metal flowed under her hand. It should have burned. It didn’t. The disconnect froze her hand in place even as instinct screamed at her to pull back. Steam hissed up from the red crystals at the staff’s crown, droplets chipping away and leaking back down the shaft.

“What the hey—Pull your hand back,” Tarvei hissed, eyes wide. His hand locked on her wrist, Lana’s on her shoulders, but Nyota couldn’t have let go if she wanted to. And she did not want to.

“Not yet.” She tilted her head up to catch their wide, urgent eyes, trying to push her own calm in through just the force of her stare. “It’s alright. It isn’t hurting me. I know—it looks bad.”

“That is an understatement.” Lana’s grip tightened.

Nyota pressed her head against Lana’s shoulder. “Lana. Trust me.”

The grip did not relax, but Lana did not pull. “After all you have endured today, is this worth the risk?”

Something clicked in the surge of power, and the resonance surged through her throat to bare her fangs in a breathless grin. “It is.”

The red began to glow brighter, stronger than the purple ancient energy. Something was missing. Nyota tried to focus harder, somehow push the ancient energy into it. She had no energy left to give.

Lana reached forward with her free hand to support Nyota’s hand. “Then this once, Captain, I allow it. And you will take my aid.”

Other hands joined Lana, against Nyota’s shoulders and back. Arrowmail, Oldarva, Namina. Tarvei and Sonny helped Hadley step forward to join them. Hadley just grinned at Nyota’s surprise. “What? If we’re having an all for one moment again, we gotta do it right.” She stretched up to tap Nyota’s nose before joining the others. “And we’re not letting you do something probably stupid on your own again.”

“Dang right, that.” Lumen patted Nyota’s shoulder as he tucked in beside her; Nyota could feel Lana’s quiet, rumbling, purr-like laugh. “If ya gotta do somethin’ crazy then I say ya get a chaperone for it. At least two. Doctor’s orders.”

And as his hand touched Nyota’s arm, the violet light vanished. The sudden void left Nyota reeling. Only the strong arms around her kept her upright.

Arrowmail whistled. “Anxious. Did we break it?”

“No.” Nyota lifted the staff off the anvil and watched the red sparks cascade down. They burst as they hit the floor, four droplets each, like blooming flowers. She lifted the staff higher to let it catch the light. A new crystal had formed at the base and black ribbon formed a firm, soft grip along the shaft. The wing-shaped crystals at the tip glowed brighter than before, and there was more in their depths now than just red. She let go of it. It stayed there in the air as if waiting for her hand again.

With your desire to protect, the echo inside her whispered. And theirs to protect you.

Arjun’s grin returned as he realized they succeeded. “Not bad,” he said, the kind of understatement that came when the full excitement hadn’t quite hit yet. “Looks sharp now. How’s the weight?”

“Well-balanced.” Nyota spun it slowly in one hand, watching the light swirl and dance within the crystals. There was something different, warmer, about the energy inside it now. “We will have to test it later. …much later,” she said as she felt the weariness sink into her bones again. “Tarvei, may I ask…?”

She broke off with a little hoot of surprise as Lana scooped her up again.

“Sorry, sis,” Tarvei said, grinning as Nyota’s ears turned crimson. “She outranks me.”

“I only needed support,” Nyota protested. “Is this entirely necessary, Commander? It is hardly dignified.”

((Kae can do sappy silly titles from time to time)) 

Lana stared at the door for a few moments before marshalling her voice. “Captain Saimiri,” she said, “I know better than to ask what just happened there. But you should know that you get yourself into the strangest situations.”

Nyota made a sound halfway between a grunt and a snort. “My dear commander,” she said, mimicking Lana’s formal tone, “you don’t even know the half of it.” She leaned against Lana with a heavy sigh. “If you do not mind, I would like to just stay here for a few minutes. That took a lot out of me.”

Lana sat back and tucked her arms under Nyota’s elbows. “Your medic is going to lecture you.”

“Let him try. He didn’t stop me.” Nyota’s vague scoff sounded more like a sigh this time. “Either way, he’s tried to lecture me before.”

She felt the short, deep hum of Lana’s laugh. “I have no doubt about that. Defiant Saimiri.” Lana’s fingers threaded through her bangs and brushed them back away from her eyes. “You should come with me when you are done here. Arkadis will want to hear about what you found.”

“Arkadis… Yes.” Nyota closed her eyes and tried to muster her energy. “Aly said he had tried investigating here before. It’s a wonder the Occasus didn’t hurt him.”

The throaty snarl startled her and Nyota opened her eyes again.

“Wonder is a word for it,” Lana growled. She caught her temper, let out a long breath, and resumed stroking Nyota’s hair again. “Apologies.”

“Don’t.” Nyota touched her wrist gently. “You can be open with me.”

Lana’s hand stopped, then curled around Nyota’s and squeezed it briefly. “They have harassed him and his camp at every other turn,” she explained. Her voice was calmer and more measured now as she held her anger in check. “We have so much to deal with from the Miniknog. And then these scum join in.”

Nyota hummed and returned the squeeze, trying to push her sympathy into her grip. “How long have they been harassing you?”

“Not quite a year, by the Earth count,” Lana told her after a moment of running calculations. “You will have to talk to Arkadis for more than that. His camp has borne the brunt of it.”

“I see.” Nyota fell silent again and turned her mind to her body, the cold brushing bare skin and the dull aches in her joints, the rising warmth of her own life, the rise and fall of Lana’s breath. She had expected to feel stiffer. She probably would feel stiff after a proper sleep. The thought pulled up a short laugh, more of a snort really. Since when do I get a proper sleep?

Nyota focused on her legs, her back, remembered what muscles and joints were (and gravity, cursed gravity). She tried to remember how to move again.

Lana caught her as she fell back with a stifled huff. “Help me up, please,” Nyota asked, gripping Lana’s hand again, half to steady herself and half in thanks.

Lana just held her more securely to keep Nyota from trying again and accidentally hurting herself. “You should rest longer.”

“I know. I will.” Nyota locked eyes with her. “I want to be with my crew.”

Lana held her gaze, then slid her arms under Nyota’s back and knees. “Very well,” she said, and didn’t bother hiding the small smirk at Nyota’s sharp inhale as she stood up. “You will let me handle the heavy lifting.”

Nyota was entirely too tongue-tied to reply.

“Ha, don’t you look comfortable,” Hadley said with a broad smirk as Lana returned to the rest of the group.

A few dozen snarky replies flicked through Nyota’s mind, as if she was a decade younger and gossiping with an old friend, but she settled for a nearly smug smile and leaned a little more into Lana’s shoulder. “I am very comfortable.” The humor faded as she examined all of them, from Arrowmail’s fresh dents to the bandage around Sonny’s shoulder. “I should have checked on all of you as soon as I woke up. I am sorry.”

Lumen waved off the apology. “Ain’t no harm in lettin’ yer second handle that, ma’am,” he told her frankly, “since I’m yer medic anyhow.”

Nyota smiled, but shook her head. “And I am Captain. There are some things I need to do personally.” She held out a hand to her crew. “May I ask your forgiveness for the lapse?”

Arjun was first to put his hand on hers. “Just don’t make a habit of it.”

Sonny fizzed and elbowed him. “Oh, knock that off, ol’ man. We all know you settled that ‘cause you’ve been gushin’ over the cool stuff she found with you this whole time.”

Arjun just grunted and took Sonny’s hand to put on Nyota’s.

“Fascinated. Is this like that all for one, one for all gesture I have read about?” Arrowmail asked. Sonny fizzed again and pulled his hand in.

Nyota just laughed. “I had been thinking of a handshake, but you can decide this one.”

Arjun gritted his teeth. Their little barricade was not going to last much longer. He shored it up where he could, pulling in more snow and rock from the room—the Matter Manipulator could not touch the ancient bricks that lined the walls and floor.  They were damn lucky that the wisper ice kept the drone from bashing right through them. And he was getting readings of even more cultists by the entrance now.

“Dammit,” he muttered. “Really turtle in the shell here. Can’t stick our heads out or we’ll get bit, but they’ll crack the shell at this rate.” He glanced at the others; Arrowmail had suffered a bit of a dent from slashing two of the cultists as they reached the barricade, but he’d done more damage than he took at least. Sonny was still gamely pelting their attackers with ice. But their enemies were learning too fast.

If we could just get behind them—

Metal crashed hard on stone by the gate. Arjun ducked back on instinct, but he didn’t need to. The cultists broke off with shouts of alarm, moving away from the barricade to face the intruder. Gunshots rang out, six in rapid succession. Metal shrieked in protest—under the din, against all logic, Arjun heard a tiny click. Then the drone exploded.

Something crashed down on top of the cultist farthest from them. Arjun thought it was debris until it laughed and tore into purple robes with sharp green claws.

“Sssorry for wait,” Namina called. “Lights-friend said ‘blame the paperwork’.”

Arjun snorted and brought his wrench down on a distracted cultist’s head. “We don’t use paper.”

Namina chuckled appreciatively. “That’s what Floran sssaid. Lights-friend iss a few bulbs sshort of a sssparkler some days.” He ducked, grin never fading, as one of the Occasus took a swing at his head. His taloned foot returned the favor, dragging up sparks off hidden armor and knocking the cultist deep into a snowdrift. “Ssstubbon ones,” Namina grumbled, flexing his singed toes. “Cheap metal.”

“It’s sturdy enough,” Sonny said. She knocked a third cultist flat with a well-aimed ice ball. “Heehee, their noggins ain’t protected, though. Good distraction, Namina. We owe you one.”

Namina reached over to ruffle her corona briefly, hissing but not jerking back too hard as the heat proved uncomfortable to his hand. “Floran sspecialty.”

“Stop slackin’!” Lumen called from the entrance of the room. He hissed like quenched iron and flared too bright to look at for an instant. Caught an Occasus by the collar—“Give me—” gripped tight— “a—” shoved— “hand!”

“Oops.” Namina saluted the trio. “Duty callss.”

“Just duty?” Sonny chimed softly and flickered brighter. “Lights-friend, huh? That it?”

Namina glanced back and winked. Then he launched himself into the fray again, powerful legs taking him over the spike traps in one leap.

The Occasus had enough. Reinforcements incapacitated, drone shattered, targets fighting back, even the ice alive and attacking—the highest ranked raised a hand and shouted to the rest, then locked eyes with Arjun. “I’ll remember your face, traitor.”

Arjun tugged his scarf down and spat in the man’s eye. “You do that.”

Namina grabbed Lumen and hauled him back out of the way as the cultists vanished in searing bursts of light. He let go as the displaced snow tumbled down in thin flurries. “Nassty trick,” he muttered, watching the sooty spots on the stone where their enemies had stood.

“The hey was that?” Lumen asked. He smoothed out a wrinkled sleeve. “Some weird kind of teleport? Never seen it damage the ground before… Well.” He straightened up properly, just in time to get tackled by Sonny. “Oof! Howdy, lil’ Glowbug. I missed ya too. Still in one piece? What happened to yer shoulder?”

Sonny hugged him tight like she could squeeze everything scary away. “It don’t matter. Ain’t a big deal. Listen, you gotta go in after her. She stayed back there.”

Lumen patted her head until she loosed her grip a little. “Steady on, Glowbug. It’s a darn sight I ain’t got ribs or ya might’a cracked them there.”  

“Nyota’s still in there,” Arjun said. He pulled his scarf back up to protect from the chill air; ice had already started forming on his scruffy sideburns. “Go help her before she gets in over her head again.” His hip caught hard and he stumbled.

Lumen caught him, glowing gently. “Steady, there. Ya had a long rough day.”

Arjun tried to wave him off with absolutely no success; the medic firmly eased him down, which eased his aching hip more than Arjun cared to admit. “Stop bothering with me already. Our captain’s fighting some big stone thing in the heart of this place. You, Namina, pick me up so I can guide you back there.”

“Don’t ya worry, we don’t need that.” Lumen started checking Arjun’s injuries and handed him some painkiller pills to help with his joints. “We’re already ahead of ya there. We tracked her earpiece signal, sent our best in after her. And don’t ya worry, she was still breathin’ when we beamed off-ship. But some of the doors in this place locked up a bit. Best we can do from here is hope our firebrand gets to her in time.”

Arjun clicked quickly through the Matter Manipulator’s options. Nyota tended to avoid damaging the planets they crossed more than she had to; it was a sparse assortment of stone, dirt, and snow. Not enough stone to wall off the passage entirely. He was about to suggest just hiding in deeper when he spotted the traps.

“Alarmed. Those look terribly sharp,” Arrowmail said as Arjun clicked the long wooden poles into place.

“They are,” Arjun agreed. “I’d bet Nyota raided a Floran hunting ground for these. Nasty things. Won’t kill anything without the long drop those Floran like making, but they’ll make people think twice about charging in.” He was fervently glad that he had read the Protectorate magazine so faithfully for all those years. The Matter Manipulator’s controls were exactly as the articles had claimed, and that was a good thing. He didn’t have time for errors and fumbling.

Arjun could feel the eyes of the room’s inhabitants on them, but the creatures either remembered their loss earlier, or decided that no one in the little group looked worth eating. The weight of their stares was almost as heavy as the penetrating cold, though nothing had surfaced from its hiding place just yet. Arjun hoped they stayed that way.

He placed the second layer under a layer of slush to make them an even nastier surprise. Some brash idiot would always try to force past in a situation like this. Better to make them a warning, right? He’d heard the rebels talking about this kind of defensive tactics before. Never thought he’d have to put it to the test, not like this. But he’d find his friends when this was all done and thank them, every one of them.

Then the portal crackled open and he didn’t have time to think.

A metal hand seized his shoulder and hauled Arjun back behind the barricade as Sonny shoved the last chunks of ice and dirt into place to buy them time. She was crackling with bright fear and had to pull back fast so the raw heat rolling off her didn’t melt the wall.

“Oh, now that ain’t fair,” she all but wailed as she saw what came through. “They got another of them drone things?”

“Steady,” Arjun growled. He couldn’t hide his fear, not from her, but knowing that just made him more determined to fight back and show her that they didn’t need to be afraid. He grimly refused to think of what the first one had done to Hadley.  

“I’m tryin’, I’m tryin’,” Sonny said, her nervous laugh warbling through the words. Arjun tightened a hand around her shoulder before she could yield to hysterics and she closed her fingers over his, humming and glowing. “I know, ol’ man, I’m fine, I just… I wish I was more of a—a half-baked nova, at least. If I could just shoot worth a darn, we might not be in this stick.”

“You think you could take that thing down by shooting at it?” Arjun asked quietly.

Sonny laughed again, quiet and bitter and the strangest kind of hopeful. “No, but I sure would rather go down beside ya than stay back and watch.”

She didn’t have time to say anything else. One of the Occasus shouted something—they spotted their quarry. Sonny grimly drew her knives and got ready to fight for the first and last time for the folks she loved.

Arjun wasn’t sure why the creatures answered then, but he suspected afterward that it was because of Sonny. Maybe she could talk to them somehow with that reading of hers, or maybe they just liked her bright glow. Arjun himself held, later, that they recognized something in her that was worth loving. Because when the first Occasus shot breached a weak point their snow barricade and caught Sonny right in the shoulder, the whole room came alive, and even he could feel them seethe.

“Alarmed. Get back—Sonny, are you alright?” Arrowmail caught Sonny as Arjun shoved some ice in to fill the gap.

“Yeah, I’m fine, I’m fine,” Sonny insisted. “Watch out, don’t touch it!” She slapped a strip of nanowrap over the venting hole to cut off the flow of scorching plasma and whistled in relief. “Whoo-ee, that one smarts. They’ve got good blasters, huh? Hey old man, don’t stand so close there.”

Arjun didn’t answer. He was too busy staring at the wave of living ice.

It was like the floor had come to life. Dozens, hundreds of wispers rose from the snow. If we’d known how many there were, we would never have come in here, Arjun thought with frozen horror, but they ignored him and his friends, focused on the heavy machine that had invaded their domain. Some of them began to spit ice, shoring up the wall. Others flew toward the machine, heedless of the danger as it struck out at them. Some wispers vanished into steam as the energy bolts caught them, but it couldn’t fire fast enough to stop them from spitting ice at its joints and blasters, coating them in thick ice.

“What in the world?” Arjun breathed. Were they helping? But that made no sense. “Do they plan to eat it or something?”  

Sonny reached out to touch one as it shot past and her color flared bright with wonder and surprise.

“Gramps, they're fightin'.” She turned her face to him, shining with hope and something he couldn’t quite name. “They've been stuck here so long, just stuck and fearin’, and now here's somethin' they can do. I dunno what they fear, but they’re tired of fearin’.” She shivered with bright wonder. “They’re fightin’.”

((Rule One of any adventure: don’t split the party-))

The warden glowed brighter, as if it heard their challenge—almost as if it liked what it heard. Nyota forced down the whisper of insight. It wasn’t relevant. She could not afford distraction.

Aroneus, the whisper told her before it fell silent. This was once Aroneus.

What does that mean? Nyota focused and tried to force more answers out of it. Nothing. She told herself it wasn’t important. The looming statue in front of her was.

“Heads up, Nyota!” Arjun grabbed her arm as a bird statuette lunged for her.

Nyota snarled and smacked it hard with the haft of her spear and sent it crashing into the far wall.

Arjun blinked in surprise, then shrugged his approval. “Or you could do that. Not a bad arm at all.” He shifted his grip on his wrench as the statue started moving again. “Didn’t seem to hurt it much, though. I don’t see any cracks on it.”

“It’s just testing the waters,” Nyota told him, eyes on the warden—on Aroneus. “Seeing just how much effort we’ll take.”

“Well that’s comforting,” Arjun muttered. “Maybe we can make them break each other—like this!” He hit the other bird away as it made pass at them. The first bird jittered aside as its twin smashed into the wall beside it.

Nyota frowned as something tugged her attention. The stony defenses seemed impervious, but the birds dodged each other. Basic programming, or was Arjun onto something?

Her earpiece crackled, as did the air around her. Nyota dove to the side as Aroneus fixed its blank stare on her, moisture flash-freezing and clattering to the ground where she’d stood just a moment before.

“Captain, hope this ain’t a bad time—”

Nyota tapped the earpiece to activate the mic. “It is, but speak quickly.”

Lumen hissed and swore softly, something Nyota had heard from him only twice before. “The ships are movin’ in. They ain’t fighters, lil’ scout-craft. Probably got armed folks on board.”

“Understood.” Nyota turned the mic off. She’d heard all she’d needed. She pulled her Matter Manipulator from her belt. No guarantee they’d find their way back here again—and the door is unsealed, she remembered, half-memory and half bright, dread certainty. Just one answer, then.

“Understood,” she murmured again, and shoved the device into Arjun’s hands.

He saw the relay light on and looked up at her, stunned and confused as he realized what she was doing and the logical side of his mind tried to fight the reality back down.

“I will keep my crew safe.” Nyota smiled and saluted him. “Go protect them until Namina gets there. I’ll be fine.”

She caught his understanding and fierce, firm nod right before the teleportation light swallowed him.

*

Sonny felt the hum of the portal change, felt something wrong. “Arrow, get down!”

Arrowmail didn’t ask why, and it saved his life. The portal surged as something outside tried to force it open, sending lances of blue energy searing across the stones. The bricks behind him blackened and melted as a bolt struck where his head had been. He grabbed Sonny’s arm and pulled her away. She whistled softly and held tight, seething pale with fear.

“Hey Lumen, what’s goin’ on out there?”

Lumen’s voice was low and grim, distorted by the portal as it began to ripple with gathering power again. “Find cover. Now. It’s damn Occasus outside, and they’re tryin’ to get in. Looks like they can’t get there easy without the key our Captain had, but that ain’t stoppin’ them from tryin’ it anyhow.”

Sonny hissed and paled. “Oh shoot, oh shoot. Arrow c’mon, we gotta hide.”

“Despairing. Hide where?” Arrowmail asked, taking her hand. “In the snowy chamber with the monsters, or the dead-end runes room?”

Sonny’s light flickered and dimmed as she realized he was quite right. They didn’t have anywhere to go, not on their own. She was dead weight in a real scuffle, and Arrowmail tried, but he was still new… And if they went in too far, Arjun and Nyota wouldn’t be able to get out. She reached up with her free hand to touch the relay in her shirt pocket.

Arrowmail felt her fear and squeezed her hand gently, then drew his sword. “Supportive. Stay close to me, and we might manage the snow room at least.” He didn’t feel confident, not to Sonny’s sensitive touch, but he did his best to look brave anyways, to put on a show just for her, and it made her glow warm and brighten again.

“Ya ain’t on yer own,” Lumen told them. His voice was tense and anxious, but somehow firm and almost commanding at the same time. He sounded a little like Nyota. “I’m sendin’ Namina, and we’re gonna try to deal with the gang out here so they can’t get ya. But get to safety anyhow, in case some get through. We’ll slow them down.”

“Yessir,” Sonny said, and followed Arrowmail into the snows.

Sonny could feel the fear as soon as she set foot in the room. The creatures were hiding, desperate to avoid notice, but not from her and Arrowmail. Something real big and nasty, she realized, and shivered. Not here yet, but they’re waitin’.

The relay got hot and Sonny yanked it free before it could make her shirt smolder. “What in tarnation—”

It flashed bright and she dropped it. A moment later, Arjun scooped it up, knocked some snow off his shoulder, and rocked back on his heels to hug Sonny as she all but tackled him.

Marcy brushed at their foliage as it tickled her arm. “You’re really determined today.”

Mihre grinned, wide and fanged. “Floran is always determined. This is why you asssked about the Ceremonial Bone the other day, yes? Clearly it’s important.”

“On point, as always. Nyota told me that the Bone was linked to this… Gate she found. Not the one where she took this photograph.” Marcy tapped the screen again. “But the carvings are similar, and she said they were probably made by the same culture.”

Mihre nodded appreciatively. “Same is a good start.” They scratched their carapaced chin thoughtfully as they studied the screen. “Do we know which culture?”

It made Marcy smile, how smoothly Mihre slid into using we for this. Instant partnership.  “Well, I don’t really know it, or at least don’t know much… But Nyota calls them Builders. I guess it’s a nickname. You see, here…” She tapped the screen to enlarge the image taken inside the Vault. “Apparently they’re talking about how they’ll leave their buildings behind, or something?”

The floran leaned closer to get a better look at the symbols. “Builderss or Floran?” they asked, touching a symbol delicately with a thorny claw. “Floran use this sssame mark for house.”

Something clicked in Marcy’s head at that, there and gone too fast for her to catch it. But the idea of it remained, enough that she asked “Can you help me translate some of this?”

“Perhaps?” Mihre looked a little concerned, even worried at the sudden responsibility thrust upon them. “Floran can promisse nothing in quality. Never sseen mossst of these symbols before.” Their hissing accent got notably worse until they got ahold of themself.

“That’s fine.” Marcy reached up to rustle their foliage affectionately, careful not to damage the petals on the large pale grey flower that grew from the back of their head. “I just need a little insight, that’s all. Maybe you can help me pick up some nuance I would have missed.”

Mihre relaxed. “I can do that.”

*

Sonny hummed to herself as she rubbed her smooth hands over the walls. The blue lights weren’t much good for her to see by, any more than her own faint green glow was, but that didn’t bother her in the slightest. She could feel the echoes in the stone, the flickers where energy jittered and bounced around it. “Spark it again, Arrow,” she said. “Real gentle, now.”

“Nervous. I’ll try.” Arrowmail crouched near her and very gingerly touched loose wires from his flashlight to the stone, one on either side of Sonny’s hand, a little ways apart.

It was a very weak current, but it was just enough for Sonny’s sensitive fingers. She felt where the energy bounced around imperfections, where it flowed smoothly under her hand, and hummed again in satisfaction. “That’s it, alright. There’s somethin’ carved in this here stone. Gotten darn near smoothed out, though. Guess it’s so old…”

“Disappointed. We can’t read it, then?” Arrowmail asked. He sat back and absently knocked a little fallen frost off his sleeve.

“I didn’t say that. Almost…” Sonny ran her fingers over the faint marks again. “I think it’s… yeah. Get your pencil, Arrow. Might be able to do this.”

Arrowmail pulled his pencil and notebook out of his pack and scrambled over to sit closer beside her. “Curious. What are you planning?”

“Can you write stuff down as I say it?” she asked. Her glow focused in her hands, making the wall shine as it diffused through the thin sheets of ice. “I helped Lumen do stuff like this at the bar, takin’ down orders an’ whatnot. Ah, no, no…”

“Reassuring.” Arrowmail patted her shoulder. “I can transcribe it for you. I used to do this a lot in my old village.”

“Nah, that ain’t it.” Sonny sat back with a defeated sigh. “It ain’t gonna work. I can’t ‘read’ pictures to you. ‘cause these marks are all pictures. I can feel it where the stone got pressed in, all sharplike when they chiseled at it them long years ago, but it’s all pictures.”

Arrowmail gave her a comforting one-armed hug, patting her hand with his free hand. “Helpful. Can you show them to me, maybe? Try to draw what you see?”

Sonny huffed, frustrated. “I ain’t much good as an artist, my handwritin’s all wobbly, y’see? Like a chicken doin’ a tango. Wish I could jus’ straight-up show you—oh hey! That’s it!”

“Concerned. What’s it?” Arrowmail whirred as she touched his cheek, eyes flaring very bright.

Sonny giggled. “It’s so easy, why didn’t I see it? You’re energy, I’m energy. We speak the same lingo. Just you focus on me, alright?”

“Flustered. Goodness. I mean, yes ma’am.” Arrowmail put his hand over hers and took up his pencil again. Sonny reached over and touched the wall. He was entirely unready for what happened next. Light flickered in front of his eyes—no, in his mind? He could see the etchings on the wall as plain as if Sonny’s own glow was filling in behind them.

Oh—he was supposed to be doing something with these images, wasn’t he?

The images vanished. Sonny had let go of his hand and was watching him, bubbling merrily. “You got right lost in that, didn’t you?” she asked. “Sorry ‘bout that. Forgot it catches folks off, I shoulda warned you more. Made Lumen fall right over, first time I tried it.”

Arrowmail shook his head slowly, like he was trying to see through fog. “Dazzled. All those lights…”