Darvik helped Cevla down the ramp of their transport, finally back in the comfort of Koomia. Rentra walked casually beside them, making their way over to where Hoon-Kra stood to greet them.
"Job's done, boss," said the Talpidarian technician happily. "The Republic knows we mean business but they can't pin anything on us."
Hoon-Kra nodded and pushed past Rentra, seemingly drawn to Cevla.
"She hasn't talked much since it happened," said Darvik. "She's getting better, though."
"I see," said Hoon-Kra, eyeing her intently. "I'll take her to my house, get her out of sight and see what she has to tell us.
"Darvik, go rest up. I have much to discuss with you, but must tend to Cevla first."
Darvik nodded and turned towards the hut he'd been building before he'd left. To his surprise, it was fully built, complete with a simple door and shades in the window.
He looked around and saw that the whole town–and it was truly a town now–was bustling with activity. The statue of Koo L'Koom was complete, standing fifteen feet tall in the center of the town square. In front of the statue stood a kind of amphitheater, so that one could stand on the statue's pedestal and address a crowd. Builders and farmers went about their business and armed guards watched the fields of tall, golden grass for threats.
"Darvik!" said a passerby. "Rooting for you!"
Darvik nodded, for a moment his mind returning to that past life in which he'd been a competitive duelist. He shook his head, wondering if he'd simply misheard the man.
He wandered into his shack. He needed a drink.
***
Crush idly twirled her pistol around in the air, practicing her newfound abilities.
“Perhaps a firearm is not the best object to use for that particular exercise,” said Yrinla.
Snatching the gun out of the air and holstering it, Crush turned to the tree priestess. They had been traveling for a little over two weeks on her star tree’s maiden ripmed voyage.
“Readouts indicate we’ll want to stop our jump soon,” Crush said. Yrinla had been teaching her to read the navigational information the star tree displayed, but it was just different enough from the mechanical drives she was used to to be confusing. “Maybe real soon?”
Yrinla looked over her shoulder, and her hand shot out to manipulate the controls. “If we don’t stop now we’re going to overshoot the world or just slam into it!”
Crush nodded nonchalantly and stepped away, giving Yrinla full control of the tree.
When the tree came out of the jump, Crush found herself looking at the brightest, most verdant planet she'd ever seen. The oceans were a bright blue and the landmasses were covered in purple and green, with blue-gray peaks jutting skyward where they rose above the flora.
"This- this is it," stammered Yrinla. "The Cradle of Astralbia. We've found it."
***
"We are in your debt, Admiral," said Chreep. He was speaking to Jasken via comm from General Grubula's command post on the surface.
"The Griffon Republic is happy to help," said Jasken. "The Wubuluban Kingdom and Aethercrate Hauling were indispensable in the effort."
Chreep paused for a moment, appearing indecisive. "The issue with the orchard was a real problem, but we largely requested help as a way of testing your mettle. It is clear to us now that you are true allies.
"In recognition of our new friendship, we have marked on this map the last known location of the psychic exiles of our tribe."
A map of the region flashed up on the screen, and Jasken quickly located the red dot indicating the location.
"Looks like that's only about thirty or forty miles away, sir," said Mairen.
Jasken nodded to Mairen and then turned back to Chreep. "Thank you for your candor, Chreep. We appreciate the sentiment."
When he ended the call he brought up another comm channel. "Admiral Jasken to Talon Squad, please report to my office as soon as possible."
***
Hearing his comm buzzing, Darvik stirred from where he had collapsed onto his bed.
"Hello?" he answered groggily.
"Darvik," said Hoon-Kra. "Come to my quarters aboard the Swamp's Pride. Exciting things are afoot."
Darvik shook his head. The old Krauqian was so excitable.
Looking around from his clothes, he saw that he was still wearing them. He shrugged and made his way to the Swamp's Pride, leaving his shack and again walking past the statue of the serpentine shark god in the square. Many eyes fell on him as he went, some wide with awe, some warm with admiration, and some altogether inscrutable.
He had once dreamed of fortune and fame, but he'd since dropped the desire for fame and given up on fortune. Not enjoying the attention in the least, he walked briskly up the ramp of the Swamp's Pride and quickly moved through the halls to Hoon-Kra's quarters.
"Darvik!" cooed the high priest. "Come on, sit down, share a glass with me."
He walked into the dimly lit room and settled into a well-cushioned, high-backed chair and picked up a glass. Raising it to his nose confirmed his suspicions: Dromean honey worm mead. It was Hoon-Kra's favorite drink. He really didn't care for it, himself, but free drinks were free drinks. Hoon-Kra sat next to him, the drinks sitting in between the two.
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"The Koomites are fully established now," he said. "It's time we began practicing our religion to the fullest."
"What would that entail?" asked Darvik casually.
He had studied Koomite philosophy under Hoon-Kra; he knew about the supremacy of power, and that Koo L'Koom was the ultimate incarnation of power. He didn't know what kind of rituals went along with the teachings. It occurred to him that it may have been an intentional oversight.
"Blood, Darvik," said Hoon-Kra, his eyes blazing in the dim light. "Blood."
"Whose?" asked Darvik with a raised eyebrow.
Hoon-Kra waved his hand dismissively. "Not a child's or a slave's or a virgin's or some such nonsense. What does power over a child prove? No, the blood will be from one of two willing combatants."
Darvik sighed. "And I'm supposed to be one of them?"
Hoon-Kra smiled. "Would you like that?"
Darvik shrugged. He felt lightheaded at the prospect. He had fought for sport, and he had killed. But he had never killed for sport. He saw the connection to the teachings. Power undemonstrated is no power at all. How better to demonstrate power than a fight to the death? He was a skilled swordsman and should not fear to demonstrate his power.
"I'll do it."
***
The star tree had landed in the middle of an open field. Tall, purple grasses swayed in a gentle wind all around Crush and Yrinla as they walked down out of the tree and took their first steps on the world they’d discovered. They moved towards a distant treeline almost instinctively, spooking a small herd of smooth-skinned, aqua-blue rabbit-like creatures that hopped away as they approached. These creatures scared a number of insects in turn, which flitted away in a flurry of iridescent colors. Following the flight of the insects with their eyes, the pair looked up to the bright blue sky and watched puffs of white cloud roll by.
“So strange…” said Crush. “It feels like…”
“Home,” said Yrinla, finishing the sentence for her.
The two travelers looked at one another and laughed. Neither was particularly giddy by nature. However, something about the absurdity of a Robot and an Astralbian wandering the stars and experiencing the feeling of homecoming so far from either Astralbia Prime and Aerat was such a strange, pleasant experience that the laughs came anyway.
Eventually the purple grasses began to thin out, and small bluish mushrooms began to sprout from the rich brown earth. They looked up at the trees, most of which had broad, sprawling roots, a tall trunk, and leafy boughs that branched out from the top of the trunk, stretching upwards towards the stars.
Yrinla gasped. “These are star trees,” she said in awe.
Crush looked at her side-eyed. “Star trees? They have no eyes or doors.”
“These are natural star trees,” explained Yrinla. “They grow this way if they aren’t nurtured by tree priests. The eyes, the communication equipment, all of those things are grafted in and grown by the methods of my order.
“When these trees reach maturity, they will burst from the ground and travel through the aether using a primitive, biological version of what you would call a ripmed drive.”
“How?” asked Crush. “Biologically driven quantum entanglement shouldn’t be possible.”
“And yet it is,” said Yrinla nonchalantly. “Given time I’m sure the biologicals’ ‘scientists’ will understand what it is they copied from nature, or give it names and develop theories, at least, but harnessing a power and understanding its nature are two very different things.
“What about you? Can you explain why you thought to cross reference the journey of the Astralbians and that of your people’s cores?”
Crush pondered this for a while, mulling over the words as she continued to look around the strange forest. She couldn’t shake the feeling that she was somehow where she belonged.
“I don’t know,” she answered finally. “Robots don’t dream - not like biologicals do. But it was like I had a thought that wasn’t my own.”
“There is much that can be explained, understood, and recorded, and the pursuit of knowledge is noble,” said Yrinla. “And yet there are things that defy our understanding, and the wise make peace with that.”
The pair continued walking through the forest, unsure what they were looking for. The terrain pitched up as they went, getting rockier and steeper the further they ventured. Eventually the trees gave way to bare rock with small, scrubby bushes dotting the landscape.
Something glinted in the distance, catching Crush's eye.
"It's not possible," she said softly.
She strode over to the rock face that had caught her eye. She reached out a hand and gently touched the glassy blue orb that stuck out of the stone.
"It's a core," she said in awe. She turned to Yrinla. "We're home. We're really, actually home."
***
The trip to the exile encampment only took about an hour, most of that due to the lack of a proper road to drive on and a few wrong turns for similar reasons. The ATUC handled the uneven terrain well enough, and Talon Squad found themselves parked by a small, algae-covered lake with tall, gnarled trees growing along the shore and shading large portions with their stretching branches.
"I suppose we put on aether gear and check it out," said Vanbrook. "If anyone's home they're not rolling out the welcome mat."
Even as Vanbrook spoke, a strange feeling crept up the back of his neck. It started as a physical sensation, then it burrowed into his skull and seemed to grab his brain with icy fingers. He began to tremble, and had to fight the urge to turn and run away from the lake as fast as he could.
"Uh, guys?" he asked, voice shaking.
"Y-yeah," said Reclan, holding her side arm in a trembling hand. "I f-f-feel it t-too."
Vanbrook turned to the others. Doc was stock still, D'Jarric was calm but abnormally straight-faced, and Raivyn, though shaking, had a hand to her head, concentrating on fighting the psychic assault.
Raivyn had to strain just to resist the attack, but she fought to push back against it entirely so she could communicate with the attacker. The fear induced by the attack and the headache from the psychic effort threatened to overwhelm her, but she persevered, finally rewarded when her T-waves overwhelmed those of the attacker.
When she burst through the attack and traced the waves back, she found that the attack was actually a group effort, with a number of sapient minds cooperating to bring the attack to bear. She reached out to them, trying to communicate to them in their own tongue like Rehkna had taught her.
Friend.
She could sense that she had only sent an impression, but she left it at that, retreating and giving the attackers space to consider the sentiment.
Strangers, came the reply. There was only one voice this time.
Strange friends, impressed Raivyn.
Silence reigned for a full minute.
Raivyn turned to see the other members of Talon Squad still clutching their weapons. She waved for them to back off.
Vanbrook nodded and holstered his weapon, backing up and trying to calm his nerves. The others followed his lead.
A ripple appeared on the surface, moving closer until a Shairet head broke the surface. When the lake dweller's eyes met Raivyn's, they dipped back under the surface suddenly. After a slight pause, the head reappeared and the Shairet walked fully up onto the shore.
Strange, said the psychic Shairet. Strange friends.
***
A death crystal fell to the floor with a clank as Jylik holstered his thorn gun. The coward who had retreated from the Griffon Republic was no more. The ragged remnant of ships that had returned from the battle over Gateway would be set out in the front lines when the war started in earnest. The Wabuluban Kingdom, Aethercrate Hauling, and the Griffon Republic- especially the Griffon Republic- would pay dearly for humiliating the Astralbian Empire.