BETH
“Yuri, come on. I need to show you these,” Birgitta said, pulling Yuri with her.
It was surprising how quickly the two of them had bonded. Birgitta usually didn’t fall for whoever and her relationship with Samuels had grown over several months before they became a real item. But now, the way Birgitta talked around Yuri, the way her body moved in his vicinity. It already felt like a done deal.
“Beth, you too! Come on,” Birgitta said.
Beth snapped out of her thoughts and followed with. “I am coming.”
The door to Birgitta’s old lab slid open and they entered. It was as if they never left. Except for some tools that were lying on the different tables and racks. Milo must have used them to build his signal booster. Other than that, it was undisturbed. It was like coming home.
“Claire had said something.” Birgitta bounded across the lab, searching for something. “She had put them away, locked them down. ‘Cannot have loose equipment,’ she said. They must be here somewhere.”
Birgitta started opening lockers and containers at random, but she never asked for help.
“She is a handful,” Yuri said, turning to Beth instead.
“Well, once she revs up, she can go fast and for quite some time,” Beth said. “I am glad that I pulled her out from Saif’s grasp. He would have pulled her so deep into his machinery of war. With her talented brain and alien knowledge.”
“Pulled her out?” Yuri asked.
Beth nodded. “She has not told you? Me and her were on the Au-delà together. That was where we met and got to know each other. After we escaped Europe13, I went back to the Au-delà and literally pulled her away from Saif’s reach and saved Tern.”
“Wow. I remember the news. But it didn’t have those details. It only talked about a pirate ship which had blown its docking clamps and fired railgun balls inside the dock. Killing Navy men in combat suits,” Yuri said. “With Saif you can never tell what is what anymore.”
“Well, that happened too,” Beth said.
“Alright. But what is a Tern?” Yuri asked.
“He is… Tern was an alien. An omf, an ‘Orb of Modules and Fusion.’ He boarded the Au-delà, he was the first alien we encountered. I hurt him, but then long after I saved him from Saif. With Brigitta’s help, I understood that he needed radiation to re-ignite his inner reactor. That was why I was able to escape Saif’s grasp at that time,” Beth said.
Yuri nodded. “You have been through a lot and I thought that I have had it rough. That I had been through Saif’s hell and back. Being enlisted into his vanguard, gullied by his words and his healing powers. He made me young again and gave me this power. An intoxicating thing. So, I went along with it, I felt indebted to him. But that is nothing compared to what you guys have been through.”
“Bullshit. Saif’s hell comes in many different shapes and flavours. That asshat has ruined many lives with his empire and its expanding conquesting,” Beth said. “And now he expands out into space, going after alien civilizations. One by one, they will fall before his greed. He has also learned how to pull powers from people and give them to himself, somehow.”
“Thank you, for telling me and not belittling my experiences,” Yuri said.
“No worries,” Beth said. “You should watch out for Samules, he is vile and dangerous. And his thirst for killing has grown.”
Yuri scratched the scar on his scalp. “I know. He put a building on fire while I was still in it and threw his combat suit at me, which hugged me and detonated. Then the building collapsed. He murdered a few of my friends that day.”
“How do you cope with such a thing?” Beth asked. “I went onto a path of revenge and violence.”
“There is no honor in murdering people for revenge. I don’t believe it would feel satisfying. I don’t want to lose myself,” Yuri said. “How did your revenge go?”
“That is a wise and healthy world view, Yuri. If only more people could be like you. I cannot say yet, my revenge is with Saif,” Beth said.
Yuri nodded. “We will get there, eventually.”
“The optimist!” Beth said. “Samuels threw his combat suit at me as well in the same manner. But I swatted the thing away before it embraced me. Watch out for him, or else he will shove a knife in between your shoulder blades. He has more tricks down his sleeves than ever before and I have seen how his eyes lingers on you.”
“I saw you fight, I was on that mountain. You fueled with blood and then with adrenaline,” Yuri said. “Could you teach me?”
Beth chuckled. “I am sorry, I just think it’s funny.”
“What?” Yuri asked.
“That was my first time using either one of them. If you want to train with deposits, go to Milo, he is the expert. He is a natural when it comes to them. I only react,” Beth said. “I have tried his ways, but they never work. He thinks that certain powered people have a better connection to their deposits. Obviously, I am not one of them.”
“I will ask him. I am just a little nervous about his lightning. It’s scary and it hurts,” Yuri said.
“Ha, you think he is scary now? Then you should have seen him when he got himself addicted to blood fueling,” Beth said. “He was an ass. An ass that shot lightning from his hands. It makes any situation a little more tense.”
Yuri sighed. “You have really been through much.”
“I guess we have. Our merry band of misfits. Somehow we always gravitate towards each other,” Beth said. “But Saif is still standing, no matter our efforts.”
“Yes, he is,” Yuri said. She noticed how his hands tensed. “Is your doctor good at what he does?”
“You mean Diego? Yeah, he knows his way around the med bay pretty well,” Beth said.
“I would like my scar removed,” Yuri said.
Birgitta poked up from behind a locker. “Found them! Beth, come I need your help.”
Beth came around the locker and saw the three maces with their cords. Birgitta’s replacements, which she had left on this ship before they left it, right after Milo had died. Sweetness trickled into her mouth, giving just enough strength for the task and without draining unnecessarily much. Finding that perfect level had grown easier. She grabbed each one of them in turn and put them on display on the nearest workbench.
“Perfect, thanks,” Birgitta said. “Yuri, Diego is the best. I can talk to him.”
“Thank you,” Yuri said.
“Why do you want your scar removed?” Beth asked. “You have had it for a long time. If there would have been any underlying tissue damage, it would have made itself known by now.”
“It’s not like that. I wanted it removed, way back when. But Saif said that I should keep it. As a token for my strong, honorable spirit, and as a reminder that he saved my life. I went along with him, since he had indeed saved my life and made me young again. I was past ninety when that gauntlet smashed down on my head. I was grateful for him. But now that I have seen the truth of what he really is, I need to have it removed,” Yuri said. “To have that bastard removed from my life entirely, both root and stem.”
Birgitta stepped forward and grabbed one of Yuri’s hands. “We will help you, I promise. If Elbrus doesn’t want his scar, then Elbrus will be assisted to have it removed.”
Beth nodded.
“Thank you. You have all been so kind to me, even though I fought against you so recently. Not many people would have taken me in as you,” Yuri said.
“As you said, you have now seen the real horrors of Saif’s machine of war. He held you behind the curtain, and he indeed saved your life and gave you your power. I can see why people are swayed by him. And then if anyone goes against him, he just seeds their mind and grabs control by force. But in your case, he threw you away instead. Thinking that you were not worth the effort. I think he has grown a hubris. Which we can use against him,” Beth said. “We can always use a new ally in our struggle against him.”
“Beth, I was thinking the same thing! Now he is trying to conquer the universe, before that he spent many years just cultivating the facility. Just wanting humanity to persist,” Birgitta said.
“Well, people change, even if they are vile and filled with nasty intentions,” Beth said.
“But these…, maces, you called them?” Yuri said. “They are like the one Beth used on the dragon planet.”
“Shuvoq, the name of the dragon planet is Shuvoq,” Birgitta said. “Yes. Yuri, try to lift one.”
Yuri placed a hand on the mace nearest him. “I understand the reason why you would like to use something like this in battle. It has great synergy with your power. But what I cannot understand, is why not use a more lethal weapon? Why not use your strength to wield a starship cannon? You could strap a railgun to you.”
“But,” Birgitta and Beth said at the time, they exchanged a glance.
“Go ahead,” Birgitta said.
“Well, Yuri. This mace has a versatility which no other weapon I have ever seen before. I can use it to leap vast distances. I can spin and sweep to challenge multiple attackers at once. I can throw it far for a long distance kill,” Beth said. “Then tug it back easily.”
Yuri held up his hands. “I rest my case. I just think a big cannon could have done all those things and burn holes through the hulls of starships.”
“Enough with this nonsense. Lift the goddamn mace, Yuri,” Birgitta said.
Yuri placed a hand on the mace again, his fingers grabbing onto it firmly.
Beth observed for the moment, the moment where Yuri’s mouth was flooded with the sweetness. His eyes grew into focus and his posture changed. Small pebbles plopped out the very pores of his arms and snaked across his arms. The pebbles gathered around his hands, around the mace’s handle and continued to form up his arm. Was he trying to gain leverage?
Yuri lifted the mace and held it up, his forehead looked a bit strained. “This is heavy, but manageable.”
“You made it!” Birgitta said.
“You had doubts that I, Elbrus, would fail in this task?” Yuri said.
“Never.” Birgitta chuckled.
Beth stepped forward and examined the rock formation he had created along his arms and the mace’s handle. “You could actually extend your leverage along the mace’s handle even further and clad the mace’s head with your rocks. That would make it even easier for you to wield it effectively. Also, whenever you want to throw it, just release the rock’s hold on the mace and hold onto the cord instead. It’s easy to tug it back to your hand and make a sweep with it.”
“I will try out your suggestions,” Yuri said.
“You can always use the training room,” Beth said. “But after the assault on the omf ship. We need to get moving.”
Beth pulled out her newly obtained hand terminal and texted Milo that they were on their way.
-
“It’s damaged,” Beth said as she looked out from one of the Final Sight’s airlock.
The omf household was in full view, it’s bulbous design was distinct and easily recognised. But this one was broken. Sparks jumped from cut wires, many of the black spheres were either shattered or sliced half off. Their propulsion was offline and the household was on the float, the only thing keeping them on the move was an earlier acceleration, but since space was a vacuum the household still floated in that direction, carried by its momentum. An omf floated passed the camera.
“Wow,” Claire said and pulled back, from behind Beth, she was in her combat suit and her sword was tucked inside one of the suit’s arms but the point protruded and was visible. She didn’t look comfortable in it.
Beth put her hand on the rig. “Don’t worry. It’s inert.”
“How do you know that?” Claire asked.
“It didn’t shoot at us,” Samuels said.
Beth nodded.
“A sure test indeed,” Yuri said, with the mace he had been given in one hand and the pebbles had formed a good leverage from arm to handle, even over the mace’s head. How he managed to keep the pebbles rolling over the vacuum suit and keep its integrity was a mystery.
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“People, look alive,” Milo said, before turning to another channel. “Diego, Birgitta, do we have a go?”
“Minimal electric activity aside from the exposed wires and hardware malfunctions. Not much is working on that ship. Except for the gravity core and the few sealed spheres which still hold atmosphere,” Diego said. “I guess the resistance will be minimal. Captain, strike team, go ahead.”
“People, look alive. Stay in formation and don’t wander off. Don’t be afraid to speak your mind through the com channel, but don’t fill it with useless banter either. This is serious,” Milo said.
Beth wondered, was Milo that nervous about his first strike team mission, that he had failed to notice that he had said ‘people, look alive’ twice?
“Ayay, Capt’n,” Samuels said, also giving a small nod.
“On me,” Milo said and pushed the button.
The outer door slid open and they launched off. The household floated a hundred meters away, but the float over would be fine. It was not a clever idea to have their only means of transportation be damaged by a random explosion from a cracked household.
Rahgon flapped her wings and came to Beth’s side, and followed her trajectory exactly. It was unnerving how their relation with the dragons had altered after the mental channel went down. Rahgon looked at her, droplets of liquid fire escaped her nostrils, but they were too small and too few to do any real harm. Any surviving omf would feel the heat of her anger. Beth understood the need for vengeance and the pursuit of it. Elzrig floated up to her other side, none of the dragons had stayed behind with the eggs. This need for vengeance of theirs took priority.
Milo and Samuels made contact with the hull first, and were able to get in through a crack in the sphere’s side. Claire and Yuri followed after. Beth moved her mace and kept it tight against her body before snaking through the crack. Elzrig made a spin and without losing any moment the blue dragon made it through. Beth turned to watch Rahgon’s approach, because the red dragon was way bigger than the rest of them. Rahgon clawed the hull once, and the crack widened several meters and she was in.
“Those beasts are something else.” Yuri marveled.
Beth floated past him. “They are not beasts, they are dragons. Sentient dragons. Yuri, know the difference. You will understand once the mental channel is up again.”
“No usable equipment in this one,” Samuels said.
“People, let’s move to the next sphere,” Milo said.
The next sphere held no atmosphere or gravity as well. But they searched through it anyway. They couldn’t know where any equipment was beforehand. And still no survivors.
An airlock blocked access to the next sphere.
“There is an atmosphere behind this lock. Human-breathable,” Milo said. “Even gravity.”
“The airlock is big. Even Rahgon will fit, but she has to go alone,” Samuels said. “Humans and Elzrig first.”
They crowded inside and let the airlock cycle. Gravity came from nowhere and pulled Beth down to the floor.
The sphere looked as deserted as the other two. Rahgon went through the airlock right after they left it, and joined them.
Something glimmered in the corner of Beth’s vision. She turned to it. It was a deploy system for void torpedoes. The cannon itself was retracted into the hull, but the reload mechanism was in full view. It was automatic and the torpedoes were loaded into it through a clever usage of magnetic rails to avoid any contact with them and thus not creating any friction or resistance. Having these bad boys detonating inside the household would have been a disaster. She pulled apart the feeding tube and the magnetic railing. Yes! One of the rails had warped, hindering the remaining torpedoes to be loaded.
“I have found a dozen void torpedoes. They seem intact. Not any visible damage at all,” Beth said. “Claire, we will have to examine them back at the ship, just to be sure they will detonate.”
“Good work,” Claire said, floating over to her and she brought out a net and started tucking the torpedoes into it.
“A live one!” Samuels yelled.
Beth heard how his laser cannon started spinning up through the com channel.
“Sam, this being is dying. No need to blast him or her,” Milo said.
It was a flesh amalgamation, but it was in a critical state. Several of its limbs were severed and there were pieces of shrapnel sticking out from several places. The black gas, which acted as its blood, was actively leaking out from the wounds and once outside its body it turned into this weird, black mist that clung to anything that was too close. A Branch of Companionship lay beside it.
Milo grabbed it and shoved it into a net. “Might be useful.”
“You need to be bonded with an omf and have it set up the necessary infrastructure inside your mind, to be able to use it. But sure, we can always hang it on the wall as decoration,” Beth said.
“You have that infrastructure,” Milo said.
Beth shook her head. “Each Branch is individual and they all need different setups. So, the answer is no, I cannot use it.”
“What do we do about him or her?” Claire said. “It’s in pain.”
Samuels aligned his laser cannon. “Captain, give the word.”
“We could bring it back to the ship and bring it back to health,” Milo said. “It would be valuable knowledge.”
Rahgon pushed Beth and Claire aside, and reached forward with her snout, with an open jaw. In a single bite, the flesh amalgamtion’s heads were chopped off and it stopped moving completely. Elzrig landed on top of the dead creature and clawed at its chest just for good measure.
“Wow!” Milo reeled back.
Beth looked at the red dragon, as it chewed through its meal.
“I am starting to like these dragons.” Samuels calmed his laser cannon.
“Let’s move on. Next sphere is a different story. I see a lot of movements. Several omfs are floating about,” Milo said. “They might resist.”
“They will resist,” Beth said.
“But they don’t seem to have detected us,” Claire said. “Too much of their internal sensors and wire work has been damaged or destroyed.”
“Capt’n, who will go first?” Samuels asked.
Rahgon shouldered forward, shoving Beth aside, and stepped into the airlock.
“They have locked the doors,” Claire said.
Beth found Rahgon’s gaze. “I have a feeling that will not be a problem.” She ushered towards the doors.
Rahgon raised one of her claws and slashed through the airlock’s bulkhead door. It came off in tatters. All that thick metal and insulating material stood no chance against dragon claws and the strength of dragon muscles. Rahgon raised her claw, preparing to slash through the next. Beth stepped up beside the dragon and kept a hand on her thigh, letting the red dragon know that she had her back when it started. Elzrig landed beside Beth and nodded at them both.
Rahgon slashed the door, and leaped inside, with Elzrig spinning and dodging ahead.
Laser beams, both focused and rays of scatter were directed at them from the very modules of the group omf individuals.
The trickle of sweetness turned into a flood and Beth leaped forward, into the room of hostiles. Liquid dragon fire was sprayed at the enemies in wild torrents and which heated up the room, her vac suit warned her, but the omfs were focusing Rahgon, who was the biggest and most obvious target. Rahgon’s scales wouldn’t last forever against that onslaught. She grabbed lower on the cord and threw her mace forward, it struck true, launching an omf away with a nasty dent in its side. She tugged and the mace landed back in her free hand.
Rahgon chewed on something and an omf came apart in her mouth. Another unfortunate omf flew too close and she reached for it with her mouth, the omf shattered. A third came, but Rahgon grabbed it with her paw and threw in Beth’s direction. They made eye contact as Beth dropped the mace and grabbed the omf with both her hands. It was a smaller one, but an enemy just the same. She roared and squeezed her hands together, the omf crumpled. She discarded it to the side and saw Yuri launch his own mace forward, it struck something hard and he tugged at the cord, barely making the catch on the mace’s return.
“This works better than expected!” Yuri said.
Beth nodded in his direction. “Of course!”
Rahgon roared and another omf came flying towards Beth.
Beth caught it in the same manner and started to squeeze it, but she hesitated. There were some familiar markings on it. Some dents and cracks that she had seen before. Damage which she had caused.
“Argus?” Beth said.
With a click in the back of her head, a mental channel came online.
“I knew it. Of course it would be you,” Argus said through the mental channel the two of them shared. “Our sensors are broken. Our entire household is falling apart. But of course it would be you that stumbled upon us.”
Beth squeezed her hands together a bit, smaller cracks shot out from where she applied pressure. “Don’t be so fucking smug, Argus. Your life literally hangs between my palms. Agitate me again, I dare you.”
“I just.” Argus sighed. “Please stop killing my friends.”
Rahgon and Elzrig’s roars were heard in the background, as they plowed through the remains of the household’s crew.
“You never hesitated when you invaded Shuvoq,” Beth said. “You meant to end them all. You tried murdering me multiple times.”
“Are you talking with him?” Claire said.
Beth nodded. “It’s Argus. The one and only, formerly known as Chieftain Argus. The one who cut ties with us the moment the situation grew tough and in the next joined an invasion force. You always seem to outlive your fellow omfs and companions.”
Samuels stepped up to her side. “Beth, just give it another squeeze and it will be over. A permanent solution.”
“Wait, wait,” Milo said. “Hold on for one sec, here crew.”
“Is it Argus?” Birgitta blasted through the com channel. “Murder his ass!”
“Chieftain Argus?” Milo said.
Beth squeezed a little bit more.
Argus’ scream sounded like metal grinding against metal.
“We have one reason to keep you alive,” Beth said.
Rahgon’s shadow towered over Beth and Argus.
“We need weapons and technology,” Beth said.
“You have boarded my household. Killed my crew. Everything is for the taking. I cannot stop you,” Argus said.
“You don’t understand. We will need a certain expertise to integrate them into our equipment and ship. And a mental channel between us and our dragon friends. You will be stripped of most of your modules, but you will be kept alive,” Beth said. “How long have you lived, Argus? Two million years, more even? Think about all that coming to an end, an end which will be forgotten. You will be forgotten among all the other omfs who have died these last few weeks.”
“It would be nice to stay alive,” Argus said.
Beth smiled. “I knew you be able to adapt to the situation, which you did earlier, cutting me and Tern out from your clan. So, what do you say? Not helping us and dying, or living but aiding your enemy?”
-
“Beth, it’s nice to hear your voice among us again,” Elzrig said, doing a smooth roll through the air.
Rahgon nodded in their direction. “Yes. I agree. But we did manage to fight well side by side even without it. We have ascertained a kind of bond. A bond forged in battle.”
Beth reached into and inside the control panel, and she pulled out the disconnected circuit board. “We have indeed.” She put the board into the net with the others. “Claire, what do you think? A bit of a CPU boost to the Final Sight?”
“Exactly!” Claire said. “I have looked over their reactor cores, I am pretty sure we can salvage parts and reactive materials from them and repair our own and even make it stronger. They use antimatter. I saw some containers of the stuff as I scanned the corridors.”
“Antimatter?” Beth said. “Our household with the Celeste clan didn’t use that. They were more in line with Tern’s own inner core.”
“Yes, we use antimatter for our reactor cores. Igniting them inside the core creates enormous amounts of energy,” Argus said. “Light years beyond your meager usage of plutonium.”
“Argus, we will need the schematics on how to re-make our own reactor chamber to be able to handle antimatter. Claire, you up for this?” Beth said.
Milo stepped up to her side. “This is a classical Captain-issue.”
“So, you don’t want to outfit the Final Sight with an antimatter reactor chamber?” Beth said.
“That was not what I said. I just wanted to be inside the decision making machine and not left outside, as you decided suddenly to transform our reactor chamber,” Milo said.
Beth put down Argus’ body on the household’s floor. “Well, start feeling included. Argus, I am sorry, but if I am to take you back to our ship, we cannot have you blowing it up. You will just have to live without certain privileges.”
“Without certain privileges?” Argus said.
Beth turned the omf around, searching for a particular set of modules. Weapons. As she found them, she prodded the invisible edges with her fingers, tracing the outlines. Sweetness flooded her mouth and she pushed her fingers inside the metal. Argus’ shell stood no chance against her strength. She reached deep into the module and when she found a certain piece of hardware, she grabbed around it and pulled. The circuit board was dropped on the floor and its thin wiring severed from Argus.
“AHHHHHH!” Argus yelled. “This is torture! You are torturing me!”
“Well, would it feel better if I killed you instead? I can do that, instead,” Beth said.
“Beth, please, let me do it. I would like to chew it and feel as the ball shatters across my teeth,” Rahgon said.
Beth turned the omf around in her hands again, she recognised several modules that needed to be dsiabled. Even the hovering module needed the same treatment, she cannot have Argus run wild back on the ship.
“Can I try?” Elzrig asked.
Beth extended her arms forward, towards the blue dragon. “Punch through with a single claw. You will be searching for something in the shape of what I have already pulled out. Grab it and pull, it’s simple. Elzrig, go ahead.”
Elzrig wasted no time and reached forward, his claw punctured the omf’s outer shell and continued inside the modules. His face changed and he pulled out the circuit board.
“Thank you, Beth. This I will remember, the next time I need to fight their kind,” Elzrig said.
“Tern has taught you a bit too much. I was always against having him bond with you,” Argus said. “Pulling a new alien being into our ranks should require better vetting and processes to find out if you are suited for it. Evidently, not. And now a human is rampaging through the Universe. Killing and invading.”
Beth turned the omf around again, and punctured the hovering module. “You know what? That has nothing to do with me and Tern’s relationship. Our bond did nothing to accelerate Saif.”
“You say that now. But you just wait. When that human has murdered billions, and you are finally meeting your end, Beth. You will know the truth,” Argus said.
Milo’s fist started crackling with electricity and which painted the spacious household sphere in vibrating blue colors. “I am starting to reconsider this plan.”
“You are the Captain. You can make those decisions,” Beth said. “I could try to pull out the module which holds the mental channel and find an alternative energy source. I think it’s possible. You were able to build that signal boosters, together we should be able to solve this. And with both Claire and Birgitta on our side? Yes, I believe we can do it.”
“Alright, alright. Stop this warmongering,” Argus said. “I will behave.”
Beth punctured and pulled out the circuit board from the last, threatening module, effectively disabling all of Argus weaponry. “Fine decision, Argus. Claire, hand me that thick cable, it will do just fine.”
“You think this is warmongering? You invaded a planet,” Milo said, his electricity vanished back into his fist and he relaxed his hand.
“I am not the Chieftain of this clan, I have no say. But that Chieftain felt threatened by the dragons’ growing numbers. ‘It was time to cull the herd,’ she said. They are fine warriors, but when their blood boils to anger, they tend to put planets on fire,” Argus said.
Elzrig growled. “Let me shatter this puny ball.”
“Here you go.” Claire tossed the bundle of thick, black cable.
Tying the cable into something that acted and looked as a harness was more difficult than Beth had imagined, but it didn’t stop her from accomplishing her goal. The harness was made and fitted around Argus’ body. The final length of cable functioned as two shoulder straps and which she pulled her arms through, before shuffling Argus up on her back. She only required a little more than a trickle from the sweetness in order to keep him on his back and carry the mace at the same time.
“This is outrageous. I used to be Chieftain Argus of the Devou Clan,” Argus said. “I was practically a royalty and this is how I am treated? Like a backpack?”
“Do omfs have backpacks?” Milo said. “I cannot imagine a plausible scenario.”
Argus fumed.
Rahgon stepped forward, reaching with her snout. “I was a princess. Then you came and invaded my world. Murdering my father, the king. That would make me a queen. An actual queen. Take your fucking bullshit and shove it down your throat, or I will shatter you between my teeth. I promise you that.”
Samuels put a hand on Milo’s shoulders. “I am warming to these dragons.”
“Claire, you have packed the void torpedoes?” Milo asked.
Claire nodded in the distance.
“Then we are set to go,” Milo said. “Crew, let’s head home.”
It took them five trips back and forth between their ship and the household to get all the gear and equipment over. Ten filled nets. It was quite a haul. The nets were shared between Claire’s workshop and Birgitta’s lab.
Beth set down Argus on Birgitta’s workbench. “Argus, now begins the real work.”