Niles was the last person aboard the Dusty Maiden after parting with the last of Bael’s men, who kept their word and departed immediately for their own barge. He looked back in the direction of the control room’s exit in the hillside, the large gasbag of the Trenchant still visible over the thick jungle canopy.

He shuddered. They had barely escaped with their lives. But where, Niles wanted to know most of all, did those monsters come from?

He snapped himself out of his thoughts. “Andrea, we need to get out of here.”

“You don’t have to tell me twice. Sidney, load the furnace!” She turned to Niles. “Destination?”

Where can we go? he wondered. They couldn’t travel to any settlement or city controlled by the order. The Dusty Maiden and her crew were too easily recognizable after all that had happened. Niles glanced towards Jon and Emma.

“We could go to Norstrum for a while,” Jon said. “It wasn’t so bad.”

Maybe Jon was right. Despite not having a Guardian presence, the city didn’t seem as bad as people usually made it out to be. So long as caution wasn’t thrown to the wind, and right now he didn’t care where they went, so long as it was far from the control room.

“Nostrum it is,” Andrea said, and stalked off toward the helm booth.

Niles’ mind involuntarily began to wonder what life would be like on the run after everything that had happened.

How will we survive? he asked himself. “Any work out there?”

Jon nodded. “They have a lucrative leather trade.”

“And even Norstrum needs water,” Emma added.

Water and leather? Niles could do that. He turned to Andrea and said, “They’ll probably forget all about us in a few weeks. We could even have the Dusty Maiden outfitted to look like a different barge so we can go to Norbridge.”

“I’d like that,” she said.

A few minutes later the Dusty Maiden was cruising smoothly towards Norstrum. Niles could see Trenchant in the distance as she cruised in the opposite direction.

“How’s your head?” Jon asked Emma.

She rubbed the area where she’d been bleeding. “I’m fine. Just need to wash this crusty blood off.”

“Go take a rest,” Niles said. “You deserve it.”

“I’m fine,” Emma said again, and by the looks of it, she was. Magical healing worked wonders on the body, but…

“You look like a corpse covered in all that blood.” Niles said.

Emma would take umbrage at what he’d just said, he thought. But instead she laughed. “Alright.”

She started making her way for the companionway when Niles said, “And tell Walter to whip us up something to eat. I’m starving!”

After cruising for some time he moved to the stern of his barge where Andrea sat perched at the helm. “Some ride, huh?”

The pilot let out a gasp that sounded like relief and smiled. “Yeah... Look at that storm.” She turned. “And that storm. Two storms from opposite directions. Have you ever seen that before?”

He shook his head. It was odd. “No.” Curious, he turned to the senior Guardian. “Jon, what do you suppose happened in the control room?”

Jon seemed to be contemplating this for a moment. “I think they were already there,” he finally said.

Andrea cocked hear head incredulously. “Already there?”

“I believe so.”

“How?” Niles asked.

“Remember that message I found on one of the mentors in the control room? It said ‘Salvation encroachment’ and ‘Keepers dissolved’?”

“Yeah,” Niles said. “But it didn’t make any sense.”

“Maybe not at first glance,” Jon said. “It did indeed have a meaning, and it was time stamped to when I first began operating the weapon.”

“What does that have to do with what went on down there?” Andrea said.

Jon stroked his chin. “If you recall, part of the message said ‘Salvation encroachment.’ Let’s think about that for a moment.”

“Okay,” Niles said expectantly, hoping Jon would just tell him rather than to leave them to figure it out on their own.”

“The weapon,” Jon said fervently. “It’s their salvation. And we, we were trespassing as soon as we entered the control room. We were encroaching on their salvation.”

It immediately dawned on Niles what that meant. “And the next part of the message said the Keepers were dissolving or something like that?”

“Yes,” Jon said. “The Keepers were the ones that attacked us. They make sure the weapon is safe guarded. When they were dissolved... well, I can only presume they were being held in some kind of non-lethal cryogenic or magical stasis.”

“Okay,” Andrea said. “So we get down there. The control room detects us trespassing and then wakes up the Keepers. But why didn’t this happen the first time the Order went down there?”

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Jon thought for a few moments. Finally he said, “The first time the Order entered the control room, they already knew what it was for, so they didn’t activate the weapon’s sub systems, or the weapon itself. Maybe the computer systems didn’t see them as a threat at the time.”

Andrea snorted. “Come on.”

Jon shrugged. “Sorry, it’s the only theory I have right now.” Then he added, “I’m going to go check on Emma.”

Jon headed down the companionway leaving Niles and Andrea on the deck alone. Neither of them spoke for a few minutes. Then Niles said, “Don’t worry. As soon as we get to Norstrum we’ll find some work and you can send money back to your brother and sister.”

“I just want to know when I’ll see them again, Niles.”

“I know.” he said. “Maybe we could bring them to Norstrum, though?”

Andrea looked doubtfully at him. It was obvious she didn’t want to do that. It was easy to think of a place not protected by the Order as a place rife with pirates and other scum.

“Maybe you’ll change your mind after seeing the place as a person who lives there,” he said.

“I don’t know. Maybe.”

The whole crew was in the galley now. Andrea had tethered the helm on an auto course and Sidney had just finished stuffing the furnace. “Get it while it’s hot,” Walter said as he ladled soup into Jon’s bowl.

After they had all finished eating Niles said, “We’re not murderers.” It hung in the air for a few moments before he added, “Those war barges we crashed, the Vertigo and Predator... we killed in self-defense so that we could save this world... I would do it again if I had to.”

There was a long silence, and then Walter stepped forward. “And me too, Cap.”

“And me,” Andrea said. “I’d do anything to make sure my family was safe.”

“Yeah,” Sidney said. “After nearly wetting my pants about six times... now that I’m safe, that was amazing.” He added with a triumphant move of his fist. Everyone laughed.

After the moment in the galley, everyone, except Walter and Sidney were back on the main deck. “So how do we go about telling the world what happened here today?” Niles said to nobody in particular. “They need to know.”

If we can pull something like that off, maybe we won’t have to be fugitives, he thought. Everything would work out fine. He knew he was being unrealistic.

“Apart from the few survivors from Bael’s crew,” Jon said. “And ourselves of course, I’m still uncertain as to how we’ll disseminate the information I was able to gather about the weapon.” He pulled out the data pad and smiled. “Don’t worry, Niles. There’s no doubt in my mind there’s a way.”

“Probably dangerous though,” Andrea said.

Niles raised an eyebrow. “Another mission?”

Emma snorted as she uncrossed her arms.

“What’s wrong?” Niles said. “Not up for the challenge?”

The Guardian woman chuckled. “Right,” she said.

Another mission, Niles thought. I don’t think so. He had had enough after what happened. He was glad to be done saving the world and it was a miracle none of his crew had been killed during the past few crazy days. It was a close call when James had been shot.

Niles wondered what his former cook would say if he offered the man work aboard the Dusty Maiden in Norstrum. He’d probably be thrilled.

Then he had a fleeting idea as he went below deck. “I’m wondering about sending you to Daura to collect James,” he said to Walter. “I mean that is, if he wants to join my new pirate crew.”

Walter smiled wryly. “Oh, I’m sure he’d be up to it, Cap... Um, but we’re not really pirates now, are we?”

Niles laughed. “Of course not. As soon as we reach Norstrum I’ll see about getting you transport.”

“Norstrum?”

“It’s where we’re headed since the order doesn’t have a presence there. Jon tells me they have a lucrative leather trade too, so there’s honest work for all of us when you get back.” Then he added, “Even for you, Sid.”

“But I am working, Captain.”

“Right. But I mean other work besides hauling wood into a furnace. Real work. We’re a couple of crew short after all and I think you’ve earned your place as something other than furnace boy.”

Sidney smiled.

“It sounds real good, Cap,” Walter said.

“I’ll be on deck if you need anything,” Niles called as he made his way back up the companionway.

“So what do you think will happen now?” Niles heard Andrea asking Jon. He moved to take part in the conversation.

“They’ve obviously realized we have possession of their weapon now,” the middle aged Guardian said. “And they’re still losing their war. I imagine we haven’t seen the last of them.”

“That’s kind of a scary thought,” Andrea said. “I’ll probably be checking under my bunk every night before I go to sleep now.”

Niles felt shivers run down his spine. Andrea was right. It was a scary thought. The only thing they could use to stop the aliens from returning—and they probably would return—would be to hold their worlds hostage with their weapon. Or at least make them think the weapon would be used against them if they tried anything.

If it were up to him he couldn’t do it. He wouldn’t destroy entire worlds that probably had whole populations. Even if they weren’t human... it would be wrong to kill them. The cost was too high. But those aliens don’t know that, he thought. Maybe they won’t come back.

But then he wondered what would happen if they came back in stealth. Surely they had advanced technology and magic like that. They could have a fleet the computers in the control room couldn’t find, just waiting for word from a forward strike force to come down and re-take their weapon.

As long as they held their weapon there’d be no reason for them not to finish what they had started, especially now that they knew humans were a threat to their salvation.

“The order will be ready for them this time,” Emma said. “They can’t ignore this problem anymore.”

“I hope so,” Jon said. “But we’ll just have to wait and see.”

“On another note,” Jon said to Niles. “You asked me a moment ago how we could spread the truth, and a thought has just occurred to me. Actually I’m quite astounded none of you have brought it up yet.”

“What is it?” Niles said, feeling thoroughly exhausted by recent events as well as the racing worries flooding his mind.

“The weapon,” Jon said. “It’s a world killer and even though I had calibrated for a much less powerful discharge, someone had to have seen what happened.

Andrea’s eyes suddenly widened, and then she bumped her palm against her forehead. “Why didn’t any of us think of that?” She said. “The thing must be massive. You felt those tremors before it fired, Niles.”

Niles nodded. That’s right, he thought.

But there was no way in knowing if the weapon ever became visible to the naked eye. Even if it did, there was still the possibility that nobody saw it. “There’s always the chance the weapon revealed itself in an area that wasn’t inhabited.”

“True,” Jon said “But I don’t know how a discharge capable of traveling across star systems wouldn’t be visible to anyone, even if it were hundreds of miles away.”

“There’s no point in wondering about it,” Emma said after emerging back on deck. “We’ll have to wait and see what rumors begin circulating. It’s the only way we’ll ever know if anyone saw what happened.”

There was a silent moment of agreement. Then finally Jon said, “If the weapon revealed itself near a highly populated area we can be certain the order will be faced with many hard questions opening the way for us to spread the truth.”

After a while they had stopped talking about what had happened and what could happen.

Niles moved to the stern, gazing out at the open world. The storms were dissipating, and the sun was beginning to reveal rays of golden sunshine.

“Beautiful,” Andrea said.

Niles smiled. “Yes it is.” He stood there watching the separation of the dark rain clouds as the light breeze from the sky barge’s movement sailed passed them.

Neither of them spoke.

Then Niles put his arm around Andrea’s shoulder and said, “Everything’s going to work out.” I’ll make sure of it, he thought.

Andrea smiled as she put an affectionate hand over his. “I know.”