That Greek fella used a ball of string to find his way out of the Minotaur’s maze. This was a straight line, like a string. Where’s it going? My telepathy, it’s not working, because the necklace dust is blocking it? So how’m I seeing this string?

“Pirad, we can’t give up! They’re out there, somewhere.”

Pirad sighed, and his lips gave a buzz. “I cannot determine where they went. Or how. It was not one of my portals, or I would know.” He drummed his fingers on the table. This Pirad is in a red-violet room. Like a museum. Armor, pieces of sashes with pins. Weapons.

Ry’nao reached out his arms and Molly sat on his lap. Rested her head on his chest. “Could we send someone to Esta Faho?”

“I have an ScSv Team there, but they are preparing to leave.”

“How close are they to where that weapons facility was?”

“They are there. My diplomat is on his ship waiting—he tells me there was a disturbance! The scientists were taking measurements outside, when they saw a ship trying to take material from the sands, but an unseen force damaged it and they feared to approach.”

“Can they search the area?”

Oh, my heart beat fast! “They know we’re here! Molly knows! I don’t know how—mech, look for a ship. Take us to it! The nearest ship!”

It stopped. Turned about 5 degrees. Another 5. Another.

“Farley! Honey, wake up! I see a ship! There’s a diplomat on it! Please, Farley, wake up!” I barely made out the glint of a sky blue ship. Someone in Tom’s family? He has lots of relatives, but it’s probably not anyone from Esta Faho, anyway.

Farley’s cold. No sweat-powder. I thought if he was sweating, he has to be alive. Stasis ran out, and his body’s warm from the sun. He’s not breathing. Zheien can breathe through their skin for a short time, but it’s been hours and hours. The sun’s getting low in the sky again. Do I want to be found? But his people can have a funeral. Then I’ll just get in his stasis chamber in Burial Chambers with him. No cloned husband. My work’s finished.

Why am I alive? I keep asking, but I don’t have an answer. I should be dead, if he’s dead. When a couple shares a mind link--

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That diplomat came out of his ship to meet the ScSv Team. Purple uniforms. One of them’s pointing at us.

“Look! Isn’t that a mech? What’s it doing ‘way out here? The facility’s destroyed! If it came from there, it walked for hours! Somebody’s in it!”

A portal whooshed and two Thordes took us out. The mech collapsed in a heap.

The one holding Farley sighed.

“Lady, what happened? Who are you?”

I couldn’t look at ‘em. “He’s Farleikon, Master Diplomat Of Esta Faho, my husband. He died. Mican was here and he took the necklace and broke it. Farley absorbed most of the dust and I absorbed some of it—but I found a way to break the server in the facility. You need to make sure it’s all dead! I wrote a prog to manufacture things, so it would overload the server. It had Mican in stasis but I broke its server so stasis went down. Is he really dead?”

I babbled on and the ScSv Team promised to run checks. They put me and Farley’s body on the diplomat’s ship and he ran stasis.

I refused to eat but he just ran nutrition progs.

“I beg, Lady, please eat—”

“I don’t wanna live without my husband!” I just curled up with my back against Farley and cried.

Finally, I calmed down. He was talking to the ScSv Team. “I never saw anything like this! The facility has 256 floors. Apparently, the floor cracked in the first one and it pancaked down all the way. We sent a sim down to check. There is not one living cell in any of the biomes. There is no way to restore data from any of it. I’m a hub engineer and I ought to know! If the media is more than 75% contaminated, there is no means to do dead cell work and get data. The facility itself is so damaged, it’s not usable for a new install. Who would build the whole thing of melted obsidian? It’s as if that was their failsafe, if they were attacked, so this site could never be used for anything again. That is, short of bringing a sandformer to build an entirely new facility. But the mine’s depleted. There aren’t any mines still in operation on this side.”

I smiled. I did destroy it. But, whatever Mican was after is still here. We didn’t finish the mission. I sighed.

They warmed the engines. “Let’s get back to Alb fast so we can give this data to Pirad. He said we could use a white portal and it’s just 8 hours. Rikonaser, you’ll need a day’s rest after this, I’m sorry.”

He laughed, and it was a baritone laugh, like Farley’s. “What trial is that? I will lie down and sleep while we travel. Pirad said when I take a white portal, if I rest well, I shall only need a half days’ rest. I wish to find more pirsees in the festival.”

Pirsees, among sweet pastries in the festival, was something both of us liked. They started engines, and soon, I fell asleep.