Ishtar chugged the water, spat, finished the jug and asked for more.

“You made it, girl!” said Silhouette, hugging her.

Ishtar smiled and sputtered, grabbing hold of the other Harbinger’s arm with her free hand.

“Damn,” said Flea. He came through the doors into the medbay with the two big ones behind him. “Y’all hafta forgive me, I’m a little nervous, bein’ in the presence of legends.”

“Suck up,” said Gilgamesh.

Ishtar wanted to talk, but her throat burned too bad. She turned around to look at Ru and Reev, who were standing, dressed and helping the others. “How did you guys,” she coughed, drank some more, “do this so easy?”

“Easy?” Ru was incredulous.

Reev laughed. “Ish, you remember how long I sat in that thermos. Speaking of which, how’s Forge’s sample?”

“She calm now,” said Flea. “I thought she was gonna shake that thing apart, though.”

“I think it might have helped us to not have any help,” said Ru.

“Boo,” said Reev, “that sentence made no sense.”

“I understood her,” Ishtar said, her throat finally not on fire.

Cat vomitted again. Ishtar turned to look at him. Harbinger 5 was cleaning it up before he could cough up an apology.

“You guys are amazing,” Ishtar said. “Thank you for everything.”

“Just following orders, ma’am,” said the other big one.

She pointed at the puke he was mopping. “Who ordered you to do that, huh? Amazing.”

Flea spread out his arms and made a smug face. “Fellas, the lady’s right.”

She laughed. She liked Flea. He looked completely different, of course, but his helpfulness, his quickness to perform any task, his overall quality of character, those things and others reminded her of Speck.

“Hey, Flea,” she said. “You must miss Speck.”

His fake smugness disipated immedeately. “Yeah. But not as much as you.”

She nodded. “We do love our pilots.”

“Meh,” said Silhouette.

Everyone chuckled, even Euk.

“How you doin’, babe?” Ishtar asked her.

“I’m fine.” Huddled in her blanket, her underclothes clinging to her clammy skin, she didn’t look fine. She must have felt Ishtar’s eyes on her, because she looked up from the floor. “My… this person,” she gestured towards herself, “went through some difficult stuff. I’m a little shaken by it is all.”

Ishtar smiled, and it seemed that expression was exactly what Euk needed. She lifted a little; in her neck, her shoulders, her eyes, everywhere.

“Oh, bollocks,” moaned Cat. He growled, then vomitted again. Flea had the mop this time, evaporating Cat’s bile as soon as it hit the floor.

“So,” said Silhuoette, “I’m sorry if this is awkward, but what happened to you over there?”

They were all quiet. Reev and Ru looked at Ishtar and the others, then Euk spoke up.

“Our bodies stayed here, I guess? And we had no shape over there. It was… really weird. We were dreaming but we felt it like we were awake, and those dreams turned out to be memories.”

“Scattered memories,” said Forge, finally talking.

“Yeah,” Ishtar chimed in. “From lots of different people. Until the end. Then it seemed like we settled on the people we are now. Or used to be.”

Gilgamesh scoffed. “Man, you think Imogen coulda told the older folks more before she ran off.”

Ishtar’s jaw tightened a little. “Is that what you believe she did?”

“Is she here to guide us?”

“That doesn’t mean she ran off. We’ve veen gone a while. Did any of us run off?”

“You think she had sumtn’ to do?” asked Flea.

Cat stood suddenly, growling all the way. Lean and hard, even in his sickened state he looked strong.

Aster, who also had been sitting quietly, got up with a start.

Cat looked at her and touched her shoulder. “I’m fine. I need to speak with Red.”

“He’s in the cockpit with LT,” said the other big one.

If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

I gotta get his name, Ishtar thought. “Hey big man, I owe you an apology.”

He looked confused for a second, then nodded. “Raphael.”

“So whaddaya suppose Cat got all stirred up over?” asked Reev.

“I think his head finally cleared up,” said Euk. “Aster, you got any ideas?”

“Me? No. Why would I?”

“Easy girl. I’m just checkin’.”

Ishtar was happy to see Euk becoming herself again. Herself. What even is that? Ishtar meant to give her aura a tiny nudge, a gesture to acompany her existential reflection. The towel over her shoulders caught on fire.

“Heyo!” said Reev.

Everyone stirred a little, seemingly unable to deal with this simple of an incident. Ishtar lit her intrinsic field enough to incinerate the towel.

“That was my favorite towel,” said Gilgamesh.

Ishtar laughed. “Yeah? Well Imogen’s my favorite Harbinger.”

“Liar,” said Ru. “We all know you want me to get stuffed into an Anunnaki so you can have Reev.” She slapped his ass.

“I’d love him and leave him,” Ishtar retorted. “You better stick around.”

“Okay,” Ru said back. “But I do need to get stuffed, though.”

“Yowza!” shouted Flea.

“Goddamn!” said Silhouette.

“Take that nonsense outside, you freaks,” said Euk.

Reev lit up at that. “Ooh. A space hump. I like it.” He slapped her ass.

“Lieutenant,” Cat said from the doorway.

Euk hopped to. “Sir.”

Cat gestured with his head and she followed him.

“There they go,” said Reev, “deciding our fates.”

Ishtar smiled while the others offered light chuckles. Her body felt warm inside, but she didn’t feel her flesh and fluids as acutely as she used to. And yet, somehow, she did not feel numb. “Do any of you guys feel different?” She looked reflexively to Ru and Reev.

“We’re more aware of our radiance,” said Forge.

“Why do you think that is?” asked Flea.

When he answered, Forge spoke a little slow. “Because for a while, that’s all we were.”

“You know,” said Ru, “you were pretty quiet back there. I figured you were hangin’ back, putting evrything together.”

He nodded, then ran his fingers through his bright hair. His locks glowed where his fingers touched and he took his shimmering hand away, looking at it through his solar eyes. “Yeah. Pretty much.”

Silhouette sat on his bed next to him and scooted a little bit close. “You gonna teach me how to do that?”

“I could,” Forge answered. His face was sincere, showing that he was in awe of their new potential, and that his mind was in a very different place than Silhoutte’s.

“Forge,” Euk said from the doorway. She gestured with her head and he followed her out.

“That’s gotta be one crowded cockpit,” said Silhoutte.

Flea scoffed playfully. “Y’all always crowdin’ up in there.”

Reev chuckled. “That’s ‘cos you’re small. We never tried to pile in with Speck.”

Ishtar almost laughed, but her stomach sank and her laugh got caught in her quickly tigjtening throat.

“Wow,” said Reev. “The ole’ foot’s tastin’ pretty bad right about now.”

Flea filled every glass and handed them out, then lifted his in the air. “To Speck.”

“To Speck,” the room chorused.

Ishtar sputtered out her drink. “What is this?!”

Everyone was grimacing. Everyone except for Flea. Flea was doubled over. “You don’t wanna know.”

“It’s formaldehyde,” said Reev “Yeah.” He took another swig.

Ru grabbed his wrist and tried to stop him. “What are you doing?”

“I just put my foot in my mouth. I need to get rid of the taste.”

Ishtar smiled as she watched Silhouette walk over to Flea and smack the back of his head.

“Y’all can take it,” he said, still laughing.

She took his cup, sniffed inside, then splashed it in his face. “Water.”

“I can’t drink that nasty hooomph…”

The big ones had snuck behind him and lifted him off the ground with his arms pinned. Silhouette moved close and what began as playful punching turned into tickling. Flea howled.

“Hey fo real, fo real,” he said when the assault was over. He put his hand over his heart. “To Speck.”

The big ones grabbed everyone and pulled them in for the coziest group hug Ishtar ever participated in.

They ate next, and Ru asked why they had such a large medbay.

“You guys pull a lot of refugee ops, right?” Ishtar asked. She was cozied up between Gil and Raph.

“We pull the best of what’s left after Three and Four,” said Raph.

“But Flea,” said Gil, “he keeps getting messed up, so we gotta have a little hospital on board.”

There were smiles. Reev let out a bit of a laugh.

“We do a lot of refugee ops,” said Sil.

A klaxon sounded. Not loud, but urgent.

“They’re back,” said Sil. She ran to the armory and came back with her vam. “Talk to us, guys.”

A strong voice answered. It was Ehrgeiz, the member of Five she knew the last about.

“You should see.”

“He’s not much of a talker,” said Gil.

Flea led them to the cockpit, and Ishtar was relieved to see that the captains and lieutenants had moved to Red Ten’s cabin.

Flea sat down and turned the ship to face the shuttle. Their tractor beam was active, holding in tow a horned severed head with fiery skin. Its riven throat bled smoke.

“We recorded a voice,” said Ehrgeiz.

All gathered in the mess to hear it. It was cramped, and this time Ishtar sat between her sisters. Aster seemed more shaken now than Euk, so Ishtar held her hand in both of hers. When Ehrgeiz played the file, she was reminded of the file Sensus played for them on the way to bring back Sol. Only this voice was terrible. Loud and stricken, it was a choir and a scream mated into one harsh proclamation.

I am Alon, last son of Othomo. I live and I am awake, and I will fight what I’ve become and not one enemy of life will be spared.