Sensus felt tired. He tried to maintain an impression of strength for his team, but the loss of Revol and Haruspex had both shocked and drained him.
“I can tell you no more of Othominian,” Solomon said. “Clearly, the sound file was edited to sound alarming.”
Sol’s ship was nearing the end of its jump. Only one, Sensus thought, pondering the coincidental closeness of where Albion had stopped and where Solomon was found. He voiced that suspicion, but Solomon waved it off.
“I wouldn’t over think it. The Quorum tows a line for the sake of the public, but in their secret meetings they acknowledge the truth of many matters.”
“It would be nice if they looped more of us in,” said Cat.
“Don’t wish for prominence,” Sol warned. “When we return, you’ll see the cost it’s bought at.” Then he looked at Sensus and Catalyst, and seemed to become more present in his thoughts. “But you two at least should know more. You’re more than mere instruments. Whatever the Quorum says in my presence will be relayed to at least one of you.”
“Thank you, Sol,” said Sensus. “And will you be telling them everything that you told us?”
Solomon laughed.
Albion beamed in the dark of space, its running lights and windows glowing like eyes along its countless edges. Speck exited the wormhole at a high angle, approaching dead center the top of the vast, enneagramic vessel. Looking for a shortcut to their docking bay, he flew over and around Urim and Thummim, the ‘cellular cookers’; wheel-within-a-wheel structures where gravity and other such simulations of terrestrial living were conjured. Twice he’d flown through them, and was severely reprimanded. “Follow protocol, or find a new profession,” the Fleet Master told him. Sensus remembered the Fleet Master taking him aside and begging him to keep Speck in line. “He’s one of the coolest heads we have,” he said. “The closer we wander to the verge, the more we need combat jockeys like him. But the further from the home systems we go, the more complacent people get.”
“Thank you, Speck,” Sensus said, recalling his promise to the Fleet Master. He understood how much of a chore it was for an artist like Speck to dumb it down for protocol.
“I was hoping you’d fly through the wheels,” said Solomon. “But you might give other pilots ideas, and not everyone can fly like you.”
Speck emphatically leaned back in his chair and faked a yawn.
The docking doors opened and Speck brought them into the bay. They gathered their gear and disembarked, smiling weakly at the group gathered in the hangar to meet them. Neb and Jet, the members of the Quorum most aligned with the Harbingers, hugged Forge and the girls, and bowed reverently to Solomon.
“Ladies,” said Sol. He gave them each a wink and they managed to smile. “I’ve missed you both.”
“We’ve missed you, Sol,” said Jet.
Hermes Trismogen, a rogue among politicians, took off his turban and bowed. “On behalf of the Quorum, I am to express deep-rooted animosity and distrust, and insist that you be brought in under guard. But I don’t care what those children think. I got you an apartment with a window and a jacuzzi in the ambassadorial wing. I’ve also managed to arrange for you to have temporary ambassadorial status, though I may fail to uphold that for long. I have to concede to my colleagues that the great beyond is not technically a cultural or political entity.”
“That’s likely to change,” Sol said gravely. “Thank you, Hermes,” he said kindly. He then poked the man in the stomach. “You’ve been enjoying life. I imagine you’ve got yourself a harem to go with that belly.”
Hermes spread his arms and put his hands on Jet and Neb’s shoulders, pulling them in close. They rested their heads on his chest.
“You are looking at it,” Hermes said.
Solomon laughed, then tilted his head back.
“No,” he said.
Sensus couldn’t hold it in any longer. He laughed, and so did Cat. Hermes and the twin sisters chuckled as well.
“I’m sorry,” Hermes said when the laughter died down, “I don’t mean to disrespect your grief.”
“I needed a laugh,” said Cat.
“And Albion’s other class clown is now MIA,” said Hermes, “leaving me with twice the work.”
“I really have missed this place,” said Solomon.
Neb raised her brow. “I’m sure you’ll get over that feeling soon enough. Our roster hasn’t changed very much, and most of the old guard is still harboring grudges.”
Solomon shook his head. “Adversity is everywhere, Neb’Nehkbet. I took my stand to protect Albion, because I love Albion.”
“And Albion loves you, old friend,” said Hermes. “Now, let’s move this meeting to Solomon’s jacuzzi. I chose for you the exact apartment I fought over with Senator Guillardi. As we squabbled, it was zoned as a guest residence and made unavailable to either of us, so, I expect you to extend to me an open invitation. And I promise to you my friend that you will be satisfied…”
The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.
Sensus kept his ears open as they walked, hearing Hermes chatter on about the amenities he had added to Solomon’s apartment. The big man’s voice carried well over the hushed whispers of the passersby, many of whom recognized Solomon and were alarmed to see him not in manacles. “I personally oversaw the construction,” Hermes carried on, “and hired only the finest laborers to do the work.”
A few people offered their respects to Solomon, and when they passed into the political quarter, they were offered condolences for Revol and Haruspex, but Solomon found little love there. It pained Sensus to see the cold looks he was given.
The team returned to the armory after taking a brief look at Solomon’s quarters. Sensus remained, looking out the window in the direction they had just returned from. He could see the wheels of Urim spinning to the left, and the lights of the transit rail through the large windows in the observation deck.
“You have quite the view,” Sensus said. He didn’t like it. It was too exposed, too visible, too disruptive. He almost would have preferred it if the Quorum had detained him in the security wing.
Sensus sighed, then turned from the window and sat on a couch. The apartment was very nice, with soothing soft light and a pleasant temperature. Sensus counted a half dozen sofas, two kitchens and a garishly decedent loft. The contrast with where they found Solomon was obscene. He and Cat waited for the Quorum members to leave, then cast his aura.
“I don’t like any of this,” Catalyst said as he lowered himself onto the sofa most sensibly placed. Sensus sat on a sofa on the opposite site of the main entrance.
Solomon went to the window. “What bothers you, Cat?”
“The apartment, the Quorum, Revol and Haruspex, the Archeus and the Anunnaki,” he turned his head to look at Solomon, “You... Nothing is sitting right with me now.”
Solomon nodded and continued to look out the window into space. “Keep your edge, Cat. Keep your edge.”
“Can we talk about Haruspex and Revol?” Sensus asked.
Solomon turned his head, looking towards the floor.
“You told me you’d explain their situation when it was just us three,” Sensus continued. Solomon had explained very little on the trip back, giving vague reassurances and a quiet promise to elaborate later.
“They were spared the fate of Anunnak by the death of the Archeus,” Sol explained plainly, then turned to look back out the window.
Sensus held off on his next question, taking a brief moment to study his old mentor. His small, sturdy frame seemed lifted somehow, like he was not truly present. But the lines in his face were deep, especially around his eyes and between his brow.
“Then what has happened to them?” Sensus asked.
Solomon, now out of his harness, wore his old duster, a garment that had been his second skin. He straightened the collar, a thing he’d never done before. “Without a body, we are nothing but ether, and the power to sever us from our vessels exists beyond the Verge.”
“In Ulro,” said Cat.
“Yes,” Sol replied. “Or Patala, or Stovakor. Depends on the culture, but everyone has a name for it. Haruspex and Revol will try to find their way through the Verge. Knowing the affection they share, they’ll likely find each other first.”
“And how did you learn all this?” Cat asked.
“The obvious way, Catalyst.”
“Experience,” said Sensus, nodding slowly. “How did you find yourself,” Sensus traced a line in the air around Solomon, “in another you.”
Solomon walked to one of the numerous wet bars in the kitchen and poured three glasses of vodka, then splashed a bit of mandarin soda in each. He spoke as he handed out the drinks and sat on the couch opposite Sensus. They had all points pf ingress covered in their view.
“The experience was mystifying, to say the least. Like a death dream, but far more disconnected. And the physical brain is far too limited to process it accurately, so all I know of it came back to me in stages, after the fact. I’d found Bindu Prime to be an ideal location, as it is not completely isolated and is made of materials similar to those found along the Verge. The Klippotic matter Lord Phrastus described. I was studying the world, and others like it, searching for the reason such places exist, and for anything else that might link them besides the composition of their soil.
“That’s when the Archeus came. I’d flown to the Verge to run some scans. I can’t remember why, specifically, when I heard the singing. A saw a tear in the space between my vessel and the Verge, and three craft emerged. Their make matched our records of the Archeus, so first I fled, then I followed, then I pursued. I was destroyed by one of the Knights, but I killed him as well, and our specters wrestled as we drifted back to Ulro. I saw strange things, visions of being a small boy with a close companion whom I do not recognize, but was very familiar with on those dreams, and then I woke in my body, on a moon with a harsh atmosphere, and I dreamed of Imogen as my lungs adapted to the moon’s strange air. My ship was nearby, mostly wrecked. I was able to repair my communications array and send out a message, which you heard a piece of. Eventually I found materials I could convert into fuel, and I made it into low orbit. I put myself in stasis and sent a looping SOS. I was found six months later. Scavengers, of course. They were not prepared to face an angry Harbinger, and were very accommodating when I requested the parts I needed to repair my ship. The rest of my tale can wait. Much of it is tedious, and I need more pieces of the puzzle to know what words will be of value.”
“We can be patient,” Sensus said, “but the Quorum will not.”
Solomon sighed and sipped his drink. “No. No, they won’t. Nor will they ask any questions of relevance. They will gloss over my purpose for leaving and try to lure me into making statements they can twist to suit their ends. But I will not be their political martyr. I’ve learned too much to fester in the internment wing.”
Sensus finished his drink, set it on the end table near his sofa, then leaned forward with his elbows on his knees. “So, what’s your plan? And how can we help?”. He knew that Solomon would only have returned with them if he wanted to. Especially after seeing how strong his radiance had grown.
“You used to speak of reform, Sensus. You would go on and on, ranting that we needed a more central system of leadership, and that our leaders could not be the type to bow to pressure from the Quorum, or to get mired in politics and lose sight of the ‘bigger issues’. And I would ask you what those ‘bigger issues’ were, and you flounder in your response, always on the verge of saying something profound. Well, those bigger issues are clear now, and I plan to make you one of those leaders.”
Cat downed his drink and whistled.
Sensus chuckled and shook his head. “I’ve missed you, Sol.”