I just want one easy day, Figaro thought to himself. Just one. He couldn’t even have an easy roll through the Scarlet Wood without having to rescue his idiot coworkers, apparently.

Nick and Maisie swung helplessly above from a tree branch, squeezed in a net woven from vines. Nick hugged his pack to his chest like it was a life raft. Maise was furiously trying to power up her raygun as it sputtered lifelessly. Behind Figaro, a series of shuffling steps sounded, followed by an all-too-familiar series of squeaks.

“[We meet again, Silver Thing!]”

Figaro turned to find himself face to face with a squad of Aexons, all carrying small spears with their own packs slung around their soldiers.

Figaro zoomed in on the leader’s face. “[Sqwikii?]”

“[Yes! What luck to find you here.]” Sqwikii pointed up at Nick and Maisie. “[We found these two star people wandering about here Above! A very dangerous time to do this. But don’t worry, we have them safe now—]”

“What’s it doing? Why’s it squeaking so much? What’s it saying?” Maisie snapped. “Why’d they do this? Are they declaring war on us? Oh, god, it’s war, isn’t it—”

“Shaddup up there!” Figaro called to her, then turned back to Sqwikki. “[Sorry, continue.]”

Sqwikii gestured ominously at the sky. “[The Elders say a terrible storm will soon rock The Red Land. Many will die. We tried to tell the star people, but they speak not our language. So we netted them. We could not let them stay where they may die. We will take them Below, to The Blue Land, safe from the storm. Come with us!]”

“[Ah. I see.]” Figaro scratched the top of his head. “[Thanks for the concern, but we know about the storm.]”

“[You do?]”

“[Yeah. It’s coming in seven days, by our count. You can let these dumdums down, they’ve got a way home,]” said Figaro. Sqwikki motioned to the other Aexons to free Nick and Maisie. The Aexons quickly scurried up the tree and began undoing the webwork of knots holding the net up.

“[This home you speak of,]” Sqwikii said with a twitch of his whiskers. “[It is strong enough to stand against the great storm?]”

“[Er, uh, no. Not exactly.]” Figaro glanced behind as Nick and Maisie tumbled to the forest floor with a thud. “[It will probably be blown to splinters as it is now. We’re trying to figure out how to fix that. Would your Elders have any advice?]”

“[Elder wisdom is to hide from the storm Below. You and the star people should leave your weak home and join us Below before the storm arrives, or most of you will die.]”

“[We can’t just leave our home, we put a shit load of work into it! Your Elders must have some other ideas they can pass on. Some sorta secret cheat code or something.]”

“[I do not know what a ‘cheat code’ is, but a shit load of work is a lot to leave behind.]” Sqwikii scratched his chin. “[We will consult the Elders with your problem. Meet us by the Great Tree to the south of here in three days' time, and we will pass their wisdom onto you.]”

Sqwikii pointed to the Gargantua in the near distance, where Alix and Lyle were waiting.

“[Will do. We appreciate the help.]” Figaro nodded at his two human coworkers, both of whom were observing the exchange with a mix of intrigue and bafflement. “Say [thank you], meatbags!”

“Say what now?” Nick asked, still clutching his pack.

“[Thank you]! It means thank you!”

“We’re supposed to thank them for kidnapping us?” Maisie put her hands on her hips.

“I’ll explain everything in a minute, just say it! Repeat after me, meatbag: [THANK YOU.]”

“That just sounds like squeaking, but I’ll give it a try,” Nick said, then cleared his throat. “ . . . [SPIT STICK.]”

Nick gave a little bow as the Aexons stared at him. Sqwikii turned to Figaro with a tilt of his head.

“[These people really travel the skies by themselves?]”

“[Well, they do get a bit of help from my kind,]” Figaro said.

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

“[I see. Best of luck to them and to you, Silver Thing.]” Sqwikii patted Figaro on the head. “[We will meet again. For now, we have to finish our scavenging. There’s much to prepare before the storm comes.]”

Sqwikii called to the rest of his squad and bid Figaro farewell, walking off into the scarlet thicket and disappearing.

“You’re a lifesaver, Fig,” Nick said with a sigh of relief. “That could have gone wrong real quick.”

“I’ll say, they were gonna drag your dumbasses down underground,” Figaro told him, then launched into a quick-and-dirty explanation of the situation.

“I appreciate the thought, but I don’t think the Aexon’s ‘elder wisdom’ is going to be of any use,” Maisie sighed.

Nick turned to her. “At least they’re offering us shelter, that’s a good sign for diplomatic relations. And let’s not forget these little fellows have survived this thing for thousands of years. They must know something useful, for all that.”

“I guess we’ll find out in three days.” Figaro looked up and pointed sharply at Nick. “So, maybe now you two jello brains would care to tell me how you got here in the first place? Why didn’t you land by the Gargantua tree?”

“We were going to, but then we intercepted a ver-r-r-r-y interesting signal. A distress signal, to be precise. We landed at its location and found a gem.” Nick grinned and unzipped his pack. He tilted it for Figaro to see. Inside, cracked open to reveal flashing lights and a mess of wires, was a silver sphere. Something within it fizzed and crackled until words formed.

“𝕂𝜉𝛱 𝜮𝜓T𝝧—b-b-b-b-bu-u-usted.”

***

In the dark of the Gargantua hollow, the image on the console screen before Alix and Lyle shone like a beacon. They stared down at it in awestruck silence, their kiss from moments ago nearly forgotten in the face of the extraordinary.

The screen was ancient, its surface cracked and its display sparking with glitches, yet a thousand years as decoration for a talozi nest had preserved it enough to broadcast one more vision. A beautiful vision, at that. At the center, a diamond spire rose above the glittering skyscrapers of a golden city. The architecture was like nothing Alix had ever seen before. Each building, arch, and bridge was crafted to aesthetic perfection. Like a combination of the chiseled forms of a primeval Greek temple, the intricate facades of Thai temples, the organically swooping windows of 23rd-century expressionism, and yet somehow something that transcended all that.

Silver spheres like the one the Aexons had peppered the sky, which was a blue far more deep and brilliant than the blue of the Earthen sky. It was the blue of lapis lazuli. There was no moon or sun visible in the image, but a great planet with rings loomed in the distance, faint like a shadow.

“Do you think . . .” Alix started, breathless at the image on the console. “Could this be the place the Metamorphs came from?”

“Could be,” Lyle replied, equally breathless. He quickly fumbled for the tablet on his belt and snapped several pictures of the console screen. “I wonder if seeing it will jog their memory.”

“Not if the memory’s been ‘deleted’ by the fungus.” Alix used her handscreen to take a few photos of her own. Even third-hand through her screen, the image was stunning. She wanted to leap into it. She wanted to live a day in this strange, beautiful world, to walk into its gilded towers and fly to the top of that spire. “If it has, though, we’ll still have other options. We can run a comparison analysis in some historical archives, maybe. Reach out to some xenoarchaeologist friends back at Farside. I mean, look how advanced that city looks. They were clearly a dominant species among space farers when this was taken, whatever their situation may be now. A civilization like that leaves traces, and someone somewhere must have found one.”

“I hope you’re right.” Lyle’s eyes widened as the image began to flash again.

The image of the city remained static, but now a series of symbols was overlaid over the spire. Their design matched those engraved on other parts of the dismantled starship.

Alix’s heart raced as she snapped yet another photo. This could be the city name, or coordinate, or some form of instructions. God, what she wouldn’t have given in that moment to be able to read it!

“I can’t believe how lucky we are,” Alix said, feeling lighter than air. “It’s a miracle this thing still has any sort of functionality, much less is showing us photos of an ancient alien civilization! This is gonna make a killer addition to my Compendium. Hell, the top academic journals would kill for this, they’ll give us the front page and stick our names on a plaque or something. We just have to be careful with it, Who knows what delicate conditions allowed it to power on again? If it keeps flashing us new images, new information, just imagine what we’ll be able to learn—”

A talozi leaped up to the console from behind Alix with a playful shriek, landing squarely on the console screen. It tapped the glass with its fingers. The screen flickered, then went dead black again.

Alix stared down in silence.

“Oh well?” Lyle offered.

Alix took a breath. “Yeah, oh well.”

Lyle squeezed her shoulder. “We’ll come back to lug all this stuff to the station for study after the storm, anyway. Maybe we’ll be able to get it working again somehow.”

Another talozi with a nut the size of Alix’s fist hopped up and began banging it against the screen.

“Yeah, maybe,” Alix sighed.

Just then, she heard voices ringing out from the hollow entrance.

“C’mon, meatbags, if plant boy can do it then anyone can!”

“Fuck you, robot, my legs are on fire!”

“This is like the Yarlo Swamps all over again.”

“r-r-r-r-r-r-mvua-𝜓T-r-r-stuuurr-r-r-m-m-m-r-r-r-r-RAIN!”

A second later, Nick popped his head into the hollow, shooting Alix a bright smile.

“Guess what we found?”