The dusty craters of the windless desert were the predominant feature of this moon. If one ignored the few regions of life around the foreign masses of soulstone, it should be obvious to all that this celestial body was not naturally welcoming.
Vail’s boot clipped the lip of a crater; the dust having gone untouched for entire lifetimes now scattered. The regolith had held its shape since some meteorite crashed and placed it there many, many thousands of years ago.
Only a single millennium had it been since Vail’s ancestors arrived with the rest of mankind.
The moon was never their destination, but they needed to land and repair the colony ships before continuing on their journey. Only, they never reached their new home.
This covetous moon wouldn’t allow them to leave. Not when it had finally received some soulstone for itself.
The moon’s core was cold; it didn’t have even the basic requirements to sustain soulstone, and yet it would cling to their souls with all it could until they were all swallowed. The rock would become a rock again.
It was their enemy. Humanity would die if they gave in to this world’s efforts to keep them contained. It was something they should all be working towards; pushing to free themselves from an inevitable end at the behest of a moon that wishes to be more than a moon.
And yet, it seemed the people Vail was dedicated to protect wanted nothing more than his and his cohort’s demise.
Before him, a massive ship lay broken and burning.
Not floating through the skies under Shab’s powerful anti-gravity engine — a true work of art, even by Vail’s standards — but buried in the dirt. All across its hull, damage littered the nearly impenetrable alloy. With the soulwork shields it should have had in place, only one thing could have done this.
Bombs.
Specifically, the missiles loaded aboard the other colonyships.
The Selenwrights had gotten into the body-mod sections of those ships. It wouldn’t be a leap to assume they’d gone for the more dangerous ship-mounted weapons, too. Though, considering they used blades rather than those soulstone-shell rifles — that had at one point been developed to counter the Academics — meant they hadn’t gained access to all the ships’ armouries. That, or the nations of the old-world had actually followed regulation… which was unlikely.
They probably shot down Shab’s ship and killed him as they had Karaa. Vail wanted to think otherwise, but as death wrapped around his throat, he found it hard to be optimistic. Especially with such obvious evidence before him. Shab would not leave his masterpiece in such disrepair if he was still alive.
But… he had to check. If Shab’s body was left to rot as Karaa, Vail would have another friend to burn.
As Vail walked through the wreckage, he extinguished the few fires that remained. Soul energy conduits were exposed to the elements, and the sheer amount of energy flowing from the tip left the alloys around it white and molten. The thermal conversion wasn’t even that extreme with soul energy, but it spoke volumes of just how much flowed through the ship.
While the cool sand in the ship’s trail spoke of the crash occurring over a week ago, the fact that it was still functioning meant it hadn’t gone into hibernation. That meant less than three weeks ago.
The halls of the city-sized ship lacked their usual artificial gravity, forcing Vail to walk along a slight incline on his way to the central lab. That was the most likely place to find Shab. As Vail got nearer, the scars along the walls and missing sections of ship became all the more obvious. Not only had there been a fight, but Shab had not held back.
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When Vail walked into the large open workshop, his eyes widened at the destruction that filled the place. Far beyond the mess of the corridors or the charred exterior, the lab appeared to be nothing but debris. Thousands of showpiece projects that had once decorated the lab like it were a museum rather than a place of research, now rested in shards. Twisted metal and dust were all that remained of Shab’s century of efforts.
Vail was certain Shab was dead now, so when he spotted the subtle sign of soul energy in the corner of the room — barely noticeable beneath the immense soulstones that powered the colonyship — his delight was immeasurable.
Tossing off the slab of a semi-collapsed wall, Vail found Shab kneeling in meditation as if nothing were wrong. He was alive! But why was he in his memories while there were so many repairs to be done?
Taking a breath of soul, Vail stung the back of Shab’s neck, snapping him out of his dreams immediately.
Whatever it was Vail was expecting from the man, it wasn’t for him to scream and plead. “No! Don’t bring me back. I can’t do it anymore.”
Vail frowned as the man threw his arms over his head and tried to force himself back into his trance. Shab didn’t even look at him.
“What are you doing?” Vail said. “Get up. You can tell me what happened here as we clean.”
Despite his urging, Shab remained on the ground in a pile of broken tools.
Time was not on his side, so Vail was not willing to rein in his impatience. He grabbed Shab by the collar and dragged him to his feet. Vail hadn’t even pulled the man the full way when the shirt fell through his fingers. Death left it tattered, but he accomplished what he wanted.
“You are dead.” There was no doubt. They both knew. “I thought at least you…”
Once again, Shab fell into his pile of rubble, but at least this time, he wasn’t trying to hide from the world. “There truly is no hope left for us.”
“Hardly,” Vail droned. “You’re still here, and I doubt your old bones are about to give out for another few decades, at least. Now let me share my memories so I can enjoy my last day of existence.”
He stepped forward, bringing their minds close in order to transfer the ancient collection of memories.
“No.” The mumbled word was too quiet to stop Vail as he brought his forehead to touch Shab’s. “No!” he shouted and scrambled away from the contact. “I can’t. I can’t do this anymore. Don’t make my burden worse than it already is.”
Vail froze. “What do you mean, you can’t?”
“I… My anti-gravity engine broke. I thought I was so close to a breakthrough, a way to avoid the moon’s influence. But it didn’t work. It exploded; sent off a chain reaction through the ship. Six decades of hard work, gone. It’ll take us centuries to recreate one of them… and we won’t last that long.”
“Then what would you do? Die?” Vail slammed his fist into the ground. A shard of glass pierced his death mark; it didn’t even draw blood. “This is the only way we survive.”
“Our people; they want us dead, Vail. I’ve worked my entire life for them, and they only ever grow more hateful.” Shab couldn’t keep eye contact any longer. “There are too few of us left. Our ancestors had hundreds of Academics, and they couldn’t figure a path off this rock. We only have…” he trailed off, but it was clear they both knew just how few they were. “Our purpose is unachievable.”
“It is not!” Vail denied. “I was so close. The world marked me for death because it knew I was scraping at the answer. Even if you’ve lost your engine, you can take my place and finish the Gate.”
Shab didn’t look up. He just let the silence stretch for a minute, before his voice filled the lab again. “Karaa is dead, isn’t she?” His eyes snapped up, and Vail couldn’t turn away from the absolute despair he saw. “You wouldn’t have come to me first, and Trill would have been the last you saw. So… is she dead?”
Vail did not want to share her death like this. In a fight over whether they should give up on humanity. But it was not something he wanted to hide, either. “Yes.” He dropped his head. “They’d stabbed her through the heart while she was meditating.”
Shab tilted his head back, as if questioning why things had to be this way, and to hold back tears. “I won’t,” he whispered, voice wavering. “If humanity has decided they want to worship a rock that eats them, then let them die. I am done.”
“You are a coward.” It was so hard for Vail not to throw a punch, but he decided better of it and walked away, determined to rely on the last person he could. The one he wanted to spend his final moments with.
The accusation was met with no denial. Instead, Shab spoke only once more before he fled into his dreams.
“Trill is dead. They killed her.”