Ilana and Octus were already waiting in a spacious conference room when Lance finally arrived at the Fortress of Deception. The last time the trio had been aboard G3's flying fortress, they were prisoners—kidnapped in the middle of the night from their home. Lance hadn't forgotten that and wouldn't anytime soon. But aside from the transport's sudden arrival to retrieve him from the forests near Sherman, nothing was setting off alarm bells in his head.
As he scanned the room, he caught the eye of G3's leader, Solomon. Lance nodded to the man, who returned the gesture and urged him to sit.
"I'm going to get right to the point," Solomon began. "Approximately two weeks ago, our deep-system scanners picked up a gravity anomaly near the dwarf planet Pluto, about 4.5 billion miles from Earth. It was logged, but it disappeared after about five hours."
The lights in the conference room dimmed as a large screen descended from the ceiling. Switching on a projector, Solomon displayed a satellite photograph of Pluto. Nothing appeared peculiar about the image at first, but eventually, all three noticed a distortion bending the visible light of space near the planet's edge.
Solomon transitioned to a new satellite image, this one of a yellow-tinted world surrounded by a breathtaking planetary ring. However, Lance suspected that the portion of the ring they were looking at wasn’t supposed to be broken apart.
"This is Saturn, the sixth planet in our system and about 887 million miles from Earth. Here, you can see the anomaly even more clearly as it passed through Saturn's rings and displaced the particles. This happened approximately a week ago."
Once more, Solomon projected a new image, this time of a terrestrial planet colored a rusty red.
"Our science team has calculated that the anomaly should make an appearance near Mars sometime soon—likely within a matter of days. Only 140 million miles separate Earth from Mars. Whatever is causing these disturbances is moving across the solar system at an incredible speed, and I don’t think it’s foolish to assume it’s heading for us."
"You think it’s Mutraddi?" Ilana asked, echoing Lance’s own thoughts. It made sense Lance mused internally. Despite the quiet of the last few months, he had no reason to believe the Mutraddi menace was over. With no word from the King, he had to assume Galaluna was still under enemy occupation.
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Solomon nodded. "That is our working theory. However, we wanted the aid of your comp—oh, I’m sorry, your companion, Octus. We were hoping he might be able to verify."
Everyone turned to the semi-transparent robot, who stood motionless as they gazed at the screen. When Octus failed to chime in, Lance knew something was wrong. He was used to the machine analyzing situations and delivering lightning-quick feedback and solutions. Yet 30 full seconds ticked by without a word. That might not seem long to a human, but even Lance, with his rudimentary knowledge of artificial intelligence, knew it was an eternity for someone capable of thinking a million thoughts per nanosecond.
Finally, Octus spoke. "A review of my Rift Gate transponder logs has failed to register any recent activity. However, background spectral readings from your satellites do indeed suggest that the anomaly is related to the Rift Gate."
Solomon seemed taken aback by Octus’s access to G3’s satellites, but Octus, noticing the look on the commander’s face, dryly remarked, "I’ve been in your systems ever since you kidnapped Lance and Ilana and brought them here."
"I’d expect nothing less."
A fifth person entered the conference room, but upon closer inspection, Lance wasn’t sure if the speaker was even humanoid. The being bore a striking resemblance to Octus—if Octus were built as a more physical construct rather than one of mostly hardlight. Lance also wondered why they sported a massive trench coat that partially concealed their form. However, the most pressing question was their identity. Since Solomon wasn’t ejecting them from the conference room, Lance could only assume the figure had some authority within G3, perhaps even as Solomon’s superior.
"Sir," Solomon said, coming to attention, "I wasn’t aware you’d be attending this briefing."
The figure took evaluative glances at Lance, Ilana, and Octus before responding through periodic wheezing fits, "Given the nature of the situation, I’m surprised you’d think that. We are on the precipice of an invasion, Solomon."
"An invasion?!" Lance and Ilana shouted incredulously.
"Yes, an invasion," the figure confirmed. "What you are witnessing is a bulging of the Rift Gate caused by an overcrowding of objects all trying to traverse the rift at once. The Rift Gate was never designed for such a load. That’s why your vessel and the Mutraddi creatures sent through seemed to travel from Galaluna to Earth in mere seconds."
"How do you know all this?" Octus inquired.
"Because I helped build the Rift Gate."
Lance’s heart skipped a beat as his mind flashed back to the day his father walked into the rift and vanished. He began to sweat, his hands shaking uncontrollably at what he dared not hope. It was impossible, he told himself. And yet…
"Father?"