Alexander raced to the door when the announcement came.

Opening it, he ground to a halt against the door frame. "Commander Yaepanaya, I'm so glad you're here!"

He had gotten a brief reply from Jaya just a few minutes ago, asking just how important his situation was. He had told her 'vital', and she had agreed to come.

She did not look very pleased, though; her face showed both weariness and slight irritation, but she nodded calmly. "You said it was important."

"Yes," he said. "Yes, come in!" He jogged back towards his computer. "I have a lot of evidence here, but I've made a discovery that I think could be of grave importance to the ship's safety."

"Go on," Jaya said, following him over.

"Father Cathal Sair is a Cerebral Reader," he said in a rush. "And that's not wrong or bad, of course, but if he's hiding it we should know, shouldn't we? I mean-"

"We do know," Jaya told him. "His status as a CR is known to us."

Alexander looked shocked, mouth agape.

"It is his personal business," Jaya said. "He is not employed or even a citizen of the Union, so it was not made public information."

She began to turn. "If that is all-"

"No!" Alexander said. "Tell me - are there any other CRs that you know of on the ship?"

Jaya looked more annoyed. "It is their personal information if there was-"

"I'm not asking for names! Are there two CRs - or more?"

Jaya frowned. "I will only answer this because you already have a low-level clearance. There are only the two."

Alexander nodded slowly, realizing that he was not in the wrong here. "There's another. One who hasn't revealed themselves. Look at my data."

He brought it up. "I noticed that unexpected and unique errors have been cropping up in the DNA I've been building for an agricultural project. These events do not line up with known encounters of strong cosmic winds or rays. But what they do synch up with is every time Father Sair or Apollonia Nor walk by my DNA. Every time the public data shows that they've walked by, I've gotten these mutations. But they don't account for every incident - so that means there is another source."

He paused for a breath, and Jaya held up a hand.

"I know what you're about to say!" he continued quickly. "I checked Ambassador Kell's data, but he doesn't fill in the gaps. He doesn't even come down here, Commander. I think . . . no, I feel confident this means that there is at least one more CR on board the ship. I have been trying to look through the public data to find out who - but that's taking some time, since it has to check the entire population!"

He swallowed. "But there's something even more important here. My data shows that there is similarity between the radiation that they are emitting . . . and that which was recorded, in my plant DNA, during the incident at The Chain."

Jaya's eyes snapped to him, widening.

He nodded. "I know that whatever happened there was dangerous. It threatened not just The Chain, but the Craton, too. I know that . . . something strange happened there, that Apollonia Nor and Kell were both involved in its resolution."

"How do you know all of that?" Jaya demanded. "And what else do you know?"

"I know what I've heard in rumors and . . . well, my wife is a Response officer. Whether or not I want to, I learn things," he admitted. Suddenly it seemed a bad idea to be telling this to Commander Yaepanaya.

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

But Jaya began to nod slowly. "How certain are you? That these CRs are emitting radiation similar to the . . . event at the Chain?"

"Very," he said. "The evidence is clear. Whatever it is, it's so subtle that our radiation detection systems don't pick it up. But it's got unique qualities that only they share. There is a connection here." He paused, swallowing. "Is this . . . dangerous to the ship?"

Jaya knew that it was.

She had not been completely involved in, or aware of all details of what had happened at The Chain.

Until she had become Acting Captain for months at Ko. Then she had been able to access things of a higher secrecy.

She could not tell him, but it all made sense now. The strange powers of CRs, no one could explain them. It had something to do with zerospace. Many had theorized, but not found evidence.

But here, this man may have found it.

A CR was a host to an Embrion, just as Michal Denso had been at The Chain. An unborn Leviathan.

There was a noise, then. Jaya could not register what it was before she was thrown by the impact, hitting the wall with a hard thud.

She saw flashes in her eyes, and a peculiar alert went off in her ears. She knew instantly what it meant:

She had just been hit with a massive dose of radiation.

----------------------------------------

Apollonia's body strained against the invisible bonds that held her, and Cathal watched her with pity in his heart.

This was the moment he had to decide. He could strike with the knife. With the spilling of her blood, her life would end.

And then the Embrion that was a part of her would migrate to the takwin he had prepared. Its power would become something he could control.

But if he just waited . . . she might Awaken.

He could not bring himself to kill her.

He had been told to. But he would not do it.

If she lived now was up to her. It was not guaranteed.

There remained only one thing he could do to help her.

The knife pressed against his robe, cutting through it. He dragged the blade against his skin, pushing harder. The pain was a sharp jolt as his skin parted under its edge, and he felt the warm trickle of his own blood as it ran down his chest.

"In my blooded hands . . ." he hissed out through the pain. "I shall guide Thee to our Truth . . ."

The cut dragged out over inches, the sharp pain turning to a fire across his chest. First one side, then the other, two crossing lines.

"My spirit . . . and my faithful . . ."

He dragged the knife away from his body, the x-shaped furrows the blade had left on him reflected in the apparition that was before him.

He gazed into his reflected eyes, but in them he no longer saw himself, but the Other, the Little One Who Speaks. It slept, it dreamed. In its dreams, it shared with him a mote of its power and its knowledge.

"Show me now," he breathed. "Give me a touch of eternity."

It stirred. Its slightest movement that he felt all through his body and soul.

He was an unworthy husk, a shell of a being. He had only this one gift, the most wonderful of services to perform for the universe.

Tears slipped from his eyes, as the Little One Who Speaks obeyed him, and he saw within the Craton everything. Every secret, every lie, every corner. Even what he did not understand he would remember.

The ship burned, part of it ablaze; the spillover of the death of the Dark Star, channeled through the temple by accident. The event that had led to its abandonment.

Thousands of people on the Craton were dying at this moment, poisoned by the stream of charged particles let in by even the brief weakening in part of its magnetosphere.

One life there, he saw, was Alexander.

Such a good faithful, he thought. He truly liked the man, his presence here had been missed.

He should not have to die like this.

----------------------------------------

Pirra felt the blood running down her face, down her body. She did not remember being hurt, or know where it came from.

Her blood, the blood of everyone here, was flowing across the floor, up towards the altar.

Just like it had for the Source on the pirate ship.

She shook with rage, her helplessness from that moment returned, and she loathed it.

Her very being wanted to charge his man, to kill him with her bare hands.

But she could not move. She could not do anything.

Even when something hit the ship, shaking it, and she knew she must be needed . . . she could do nothing.

Her vision of Cathal doubled; there appeared to be a duplicate of him up there, like a mirror reflection, hovering just in front of him as he slashed himself with his knife, leaving a bloody, x-shaped wound on his chest.

Then he threw his head back, and she no longer saw the reflection. Instead, she grew weaker and weaker. The room was starting to spin, and she felt herself start to fall.