During the journey, the worst of his problems was the damned hatchling dragon. She followed him everywhere, and constantly pestered him with questions. He drove her away with threats and harsh words, which seemed to work for a while yet then she would always return, silent at first, then gradually more talkative. This scenario repeated over and over until he gave up, and tried to get used to her presence, meeting any attempt for communication with determined silence. This seemed to have small effect on the dragonet's presence, yet at least it lessened her constant babble once she realized he no longer spoke to her at all.

The long, tortured days turned into weeks. Still there was nothing in sight except wilderness, and no connection to the Viirt was present. Tension started to rise. Airo wondered if perhaps they hadn't fallen into another spatial trap. Kiana became more and more restless, arguing constantly they had to change direction. Airo was about to agree reluctantly when, a day later, they found something.

They were driving across a narrow valley, with a glacier to one side, and a hill to the other. Atop the glacier was a tall, metal obelisk with a spherical, crystalline structure on top.

"What is that thing?" Veralla asked, pointing a claw at the obelisk.

"No fucking idea," Kiana said, while she and Zuckeroff stared.

"It is an E-beacon," Airo said, looking at the structure. He had seen such devices on Utopia Draconis numerous times, where they had been a familiar sight. It seemed their design hadn't changed much during the last seven centuries.

"What's it for?" Zuckeroff asked.

"The beacon interdicts the surrounding area from changing under the influence of the paraworld's field," Airo explained. "A chain of beacons is used to form a constant, set topography, like on a normal planet. They also make sure physical distances are equal to actual distances."

"Um, yeah, it looks quite cool. Hey, Boss, how do you know all those things? I thought we had no network access."

"It's called learned knowledge, gamebrain," Kiana snorted, though she cast Airo a sidelong glance.

The hill was crowned with an equally tall yet considerably larger structure, adorned with an array of sensors and antennas. Its profile was more readily recognizable.

"A comm tower!" Kiana gasped.

"We're saved!" Zuckeroff said.

Suddenly, Airo's power armor speakers crackled. "Commander, sensors are getting heightened anomalous readings, coming from north by northwest, relative direction."

Airo looked in the indicated direction. In the distance, strange clouds gathered in the skies. The horizon itself appeared to waver, and colors were intensifying unnaturally. Atop the glacier, the E-beacon's crystal sphere started to darken.

"What the fuck is that?" Kiana asked.

"I guess it's trouble," Zuckeroff said.

"Very," Airo agreed gravely, watching the horizon. "That is a warpstorm. It distorts reality itself."

"A wha-wha?" Zuckeroff's jaw hung open.

"You're kidding," Kiana snorted. "There ain't no such thing."

Lightning flashed many miles away, and abruptly hit the communication tower as if it had fallen from the clear sky overhead.

"And it is the worst one I have ever seen," Airo added.

"Fuck, what're we waiting for?" Kiana shouted. "Let's get out of here!" She began to turn the ATV away.

"Stop!" commanded Airo. "We are not going anywhere."

"Are you fucking insane?! You want us to stay here and get ourselves warped to death?"

"Boss, I think we should skedaddle," Zuckeroff agreed. "This stuff looks scary."

"No," Airo said in a hard tone. "We wandered this frozen wasteland long enough. We have to get to that comm tower. If we run now, there is no telling where we will end up, or what the warpstorm will do to the region."

"And how are we going to survive the clusterfuck that is coming straight at us, Commander?" Kiana asked vehemently.

"The E-beacon will shield us," Airo said.

Yeoman Cloud chimed in. "Excuse the intrusion, Commander, but it won't."

Airo was at a loss for a moment. "Why?" he demanded.

"I have been gathering data on the approaching space-time continuum anomaly for the last sixty-three seconds. According to available information in my databanks, the anomaly's intensity is eleven points on the Isomelev scale, which so far has never been registered. Theoretical analysis suggests the E-beacon would not hold up against such stress."

"That's it," Kiana said. "We run."

"You do not," Airo snapped. "You are under my authority."

"Fuck your authority!" Kiana shouted. "There's enough supplies to survive for months! We can search elsewhere for a rescue!"

"I will not," Airo said with absolute conviction, "let anything or anyone stand in the way of my mission." He clenched his gauntleted fist, eyes narrowed in fury.

On the horizon, the warpstorm steadily closed in, and exotic clouds glowed with viridian light. Kiana looked around wildly. "He's insane!" she cried. Zuckeroff shrugged, fear and helplessness visible on his face. Veralla was curled on the floor, anxiously twitching her tail.

Airo ignored their reactions, thinking rapidly. "SAI," he said gravely, "is it possible for the E-beacon's field to be boosted?"

"Yes, Commander. Any sufficiently powerful SUHN-space or gravitic field can alter the capabilities of an E-beacon."

"Will the ATV's gravitation plates be enough to enhance the E-beacon?"

Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

"Calculating... Possibly. Preliminary analysis shows the available power output may be insufficient to counter the anomaly effects completely."

"This must suffice. Engineer a design then," Airo ordered. "Use only available resources for virtual prototyping. Prioritize ease of use and construction speed."

"Aye, Commander!"

Airo turned to the others. Kiana and Zuckeroff looked at him like he was mad. "Even if the booster proves insufficient," he said, "as long as we stay indoors we should be able to weather the worst of the storm."

"How exactly," Kiana asked slowly, "does one weather a storm which alters reality?"

"Through willpower," Airo answered. "A self-aware mind has its own reality-altering field, only on an infinitely smaller scale."

Silence fell in the ATV's cabin. "Is what the Boss's saying right, Ki?" Zuckeroff asked in disbelief.

"Fuck me," Kiana spat. "It is. It's one of the first lessons they hammer into new Conduits during training: All is mind; the universe is mental. I've always thought it meant everything's dreykshit insane. But my theory may still prove right." She sighed, and stared at Airo. "Okay, Commander, what's the plan? Assuming you have one."

"We go to the comm tower, take the ATV down, assemble a beacon booster, then we install it, return to the tower, and wait for the storm to pass over," Airo said. "Then we get access to the Viirt, and call for support."

***

The comm tower had its own hangar. They took the ATV inside, dismantled it, and began to construct the device according to the schematics Yeoman Cloud had engineered. Airo's virtualizer contained the necessary tools. They worked with all haste, racing against the coming warpstorm. Outside, the clear sky rapidly darkened, heavy clouds and high winds taking over the region.

After an hour, they finished the device. In its completed state, the beacon booster looked like a long, bulky cylinder, with the ATV's gravitation plates assembled on one end around a heavy coil. Airo and his small crew began their trek toward the glacier. He was at the front, Zuckeroff helping him carry the booster, while Kiana took care of the dragonet.

"Why we broke the ATV?" Veralla asked. "It was not alive, yet if it was it would have experienced much pain, I am sure. And it helped us travel faster."

"We need the parts," Kiana said. "Otherwise the storm will kill us. Think of it as a noble sacrifice made so we can live on," she added soothingly.

"Was there no other way?" Veralla asked, glancing behind her back at the comm tower, where they had left the ATV's gutted remains.

Kiana lifted her head, and looked at Airo. "Maybe," she muttered. "Maybe there was."

The entire distance from the comm tower to the E-beacon was a little over two kilometers, including elevation. Airo had planned for them to climb the glacier, set the booster, then return to the tower all within an hour at most. The warpstorm was now almost upon them, the horizon playing havoc on the perspective as it constantly swirled and distorted, inducing intense vertigo. The sky was engulfed by green-black darkness, causing Airo's visor to switch to night mode.

Then the situation became complicated.

Halfway up the glacier, the ambient radiation – which was already running high because of the storm – started to enter lethal levels.

"Boss, a few more rads and I'll start to glow!" Zuckeroff's oddly cheerful voice came on the commlink.

"Why are radiation emissions so high?" Kiana asked. "You said we're still ahead of the storm!"

"We are," Airo replied. He looked up at the E-beacon. The metal obelisk glowed with accumulated radiation, and the crystal sphere spewed indigo lightning. "Damn," he muttered under his breath. He knew the beacon worked as some sort of storage normally, yet he thought it would act as a repulsor during a warpstorm.

"It's like a fucking fusion reactor up there!" Kiana said. "Our suits can't hold against such shit! Your plan fucking failed, Commander!"

"No!" Airo said, voice hard. He glanced upward again. "I will continue alone. You three go back to the tower and hide."

"Boss! Are you sure?" Zuckeroff yelled.

"I am, Lieutenant," Airo said sternly. "Now fall in line with Kiana. Take the hatchling. That is an order!" He lifted the beacon booster, and leaned it on one shoulder. Zuckeroff and Kiana just stood there, looking at him.

"Sir," she said, "fancy or not, your armor won't protect you from what's up there."

"Just go," Airo repeated. "Now!"

"Wait!" Veralla exclaimed. She bounded forward and stopped before him. "I want to come with you!"

"You will not," Airo said harshly.

"But I–"

"Listen!" he shouted angrily. "I was sworn to give you life, and by the Great Cosmos, I hate that. Yet what I would hate more is if you die right now, after having tolerated you for so long!" The warpstorm was already upon them in truth, punctuating his words with flashes of viridian lightning and radioactive glow. "So do as I say, and have some bloody self-preservation!"

"What about yours!" the dragonet replied shrilly over the tearing fractal winds.

"Mine expired a long time ago!"

Airo began hauling the beacon booster up the slope. No one called him on the commlink, so he reckoned he had made his point.

Ethereal winds howled across the dark sky, and the power armor's HUD scintillated with warning indicators. He trudged upward, picking his way along the glacier's slippery slope, carrying the heavy booster thanks to his armor's strength enhancers. The minutes passed slowly as he neared the summit. Airo's breath was laboring, his legs weak with fatigue he shouldn't have.

"Commander, the ambient radiation is at dangerously high levels," Yeoman Cloud reported. "I advise you to seek shelter or leave the area."

"Shut up, SAI," Airo growled through clenched teeth. "This armor is supposed to have shielding technology."

"All defense systems operate at maximum capacity, Commander. Without them, harmful-particles saturation is instantly lethal to most carbon-based life. Be advised, due to electromagnetic fallout, equipment failure probability increases progressively."

The horizon was now a kaleidoscope of fast-moving projections. The glacier's profile pulsed simultaneously in a thousand colors, each one as tangible as a soundwave. Airo could barely see the E-beacon ahead. He was sweating profusely inside the armor. One hundred meters left. He nearly tripped, as he vomited violently. The bile splashed inside his helmet and across his face, yet the visor immediately began to clean itself with a scrolling horizontal line of ionizing beam. Airo barely felt a needle stabbing him on the back of the neck.

"Administering emergency life support," Yeoman Cloud said as if from somewhere far away. The SAI's voice sounded hollow and artificial. "Warning! Seek medical attention immediately!" Airo glanced at the HUD, the radiation so intense it caused the overlay to flicker.

He was going to die.

He reached the E-beacon on all fours, painfully dragging the booster bit by bit. He didn't remember when he had fallen. The sky roiled, and the ice beneath him alternated between black and pink. The E-beacon stood before him, its pylon blazing like a miniature bluish sun from accumulated radiation, the crystal sphere at the top replaced by a black void. Airo's head was pounding, and his vision was unfocused. Viridian lightning struck nearby, almost hitting him. He struggled to rise to his feet, his entire body shaking, and put the booster next to the E-beacon. He stumbled back a few steps to get clear.

"SAI!" he rasped. "Activate the beacon booster!"

Only fractal thunder and resonance wavewind answered him.

"Computer!" Airo rasped again. "Computer! Yeoman Cloud! Activate!... The booster!..."

"System failure," the power armor replied tonelessly. Several lights blinked on the heads-up display, and the whole screen filled with static for a moment.

"Yeoman Cloud, report for bloody duty!" Airo shouted hoarsely.

Another, subtly different artificial voice filled his ears.

"Yeoman Cloud, reporting for duty!... How may I assist you, Operator?..."

"Cloud... activate the booster..."

"I'm sorry, Operator, I didn't understand!... Warning: your vital signs are in critical condition, Operator!... Seek medical attention immediately!..."

"Activate all nearby devices! Executive order!" Airo screamed with the last of his strength.

"Acknowledged, Operator!... Activation of passive devices executed!..."

Airo fell on the icy ground, completely exhausted. Beside him, the booster bent the nearby light as if through a distorted lens, and the E-beacon sphere flashed in the surrounding darkness. The storm above the beacon began to coalesce into a giant black funnel. He stared at the rumbling heavens, saturated with the ethereal blue-white of ionizing radiation. His head felt pressed in a vise. He struggled to breathe. He pushed himself on one elbow, and slipped. Strength had left his limbs, and the power armor was almost unresponsive. Darkness descended before his eyes.

You win again, Ferrtau, he thought as his life seeped away. Zee, I hope we meet on the other side...