“You don’t think Orson will agree to leave, do you?” Enoa ran from her chair, before Jaleel could reply.

It was their fault those scientists were in danger, and those soldiers and others had died.

It was all connected to her own choices, life and death affected by her. What would they have done if she weren’t exhausted from Shaping? They would have done something to draw Helmont’s attention, something that wouldn’t involve the deaths of innocent people. Cause and effect, triggered in part by Enoa herself, had resulted in death.

Enoa knew Orson was right about her shame – they were not truly responsible for this bloodshed. But this was a guilt she could face.

She could not face her debt to Kol Maros.

She owed the man who had thought nothing of destroying her home, no matter what regrets he claimed to have, after the fact. Gratitude and revulsion, guilt and hatred, loyalty, loathing, and fear of Helmont – it all mingled in her mind.

Enoa could not bring her thoughts in order, not since the last message from Eloise. Maros needed to be saved for his heroism. Maros deserved judgment of a different kind for his crimes. Her conflicting hopes and moral responsibilities warred in her and made her sick.

But she knew the Crystal Dune lab had to be saved. She could think about them and their danger with a clearer mind.

Enoa opened the Aesir’s hatch. “Orson, we can’t leave.”

Orson and the scientist looked at her, as did Ramses. The other Advisory personnel and Antler Clan beings also turned toward her. Ramses stepped around the Advisory scientist and started toward the Aesir.

“No, Ramses!” The scientist ran sideways, trying to stay in front of the towering being. Enoa bowed, still standing in the ship’s entryway. Ramses came to a stop. He lowered his head, but kept his amber eyes on her.

“We’re not leaving,” Orson said. “We’re not abandoning anybody.”

“Helmont is expecting you!” the Advisory spokesman yelled again. “You don’t seem to appreciate that danger. He sent four skimmers to our lab. I don’t know how much air support he has.”

“Keep all of that in mind,” Orson said. “Helmont expects me to come at him in an obvious way. He thinks I’ll respond in force or attack directly. That’s why we’re on the water. I don’t know this lab, but you do. So you need to help figure out a way I can come at them sideways.”

Orson turned back toward the Aesir. “If you two want to join us, this is probably a good time, assuming the Antler Clan doesn’t mind.”

The Advisory man turned to Ramses and raised both forearms.

Enoa stepped from the ship. She found Jaleel right behind her. They walked to join Orson.

“Let me introduce my crew,” Orson said. “This is Enoa Cloud and Jaleel Yaye.”

Jaleel bowed. Ramses lowered his head.

“Doctor Kyle Schultes.” The Advisory spokesman introduced himself. “Lead Botanist. This is Ramses of the Antler Clan”

“I’m going to find any survivors still in the lab,” Orson continued. “But I’ll need to know anything you can remember about the Liberty Corps attack and the lab’s layout.”

“We are not staying here,” Schultes said. “The Antler Clan is affording us a great honor. We are being guided to their sanctuary. It’s a place they built that even the Hierarchia couldn’t find.”

“That’s great,” Orson said. “Once I rescue any survivors, you can all go together.”

“Once we rescue other survivors,” Enoa corrected. Up close, she could see the fear in Schultes’s bearing, fear that did not enter his speech. He fidgeted, his breathing shallow, eyes flicking from side-to-side.

Up close, she could see the strange color of Ramses’s fur. Its hue seemed to change with the wind or where she stood, always shifting to make him harder to track with the eyes.

“You and Jaleel need to keep these people safe,” Orson said. “I’m pretty stealthy. That’s not where you have a lot of your experience.”

“I snuck around the Solar Saver crawler all the time!” Jaleel added. “I’m great at not being seen.”

“You were great in one controlled, modern environment.” Orson slowly shook his head. “I know myself well enough to navigate this and get out if I have to. I’ll go alone. This way I can have you as backup, if I need it.”

“You are all playing into Helmont’s hands,” Schultes said. “Please leave here. Honor all the innocent dead by staying away.”

“I’m going to the lab,” Orson said. “Let’s just spare ourselves the big back-and-forth. Wasting time doesn’t help us or any possible survivors. I’m going to sneak into the place, find out if anybody’s alive, hopefully free or save them, and get back here. What do you know that can help make that happen?”

“Your success depends on the precautions our Air Force colleagues succeeded in implementing before their perimeter broke,” Schultes said. “If the camera systems are still up, coupled with the Baron’s aircraft and spycraft, there is no way into that building outside excessive military force.”

“That’s not entirely true.” Another Advisory official stepped clear of the foliage. This woman was tall, only a hair shorter than Orson. “The Antler Clan knows a blind spot that has never been discovered. They can come into and leave the yard without being detected. They have never entered the lab by their own power. That you will have to figure out yourself.”

“They won’t lead us to the blind spot,” Schultes responded. “Dr. Ikaro, we are using all our good will with them to be welcomed into their sanctuary. We are endangering them by doing this. It’s too much.”

“They can’t just tell you where it is and then you tell me?” Orson asked. “Then none of you’d have to be directly involve. It doesn’t seem to matter too much where their blind spot is if the Liberty Corps has the lab.”

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“They don’t give directions,” Dr. Ikaro said. “They will only teach a path. But you can follow, Captain.”

“Okay,” Orson said. “Please try to find one of the Antler Clan who will show me the way and someone who can do whatever translating we need. My crew will stay here, once we get our ship out of the way. They can keep you safe until…”

“Do you really plan to go there alone?” Enoa interrupted. She needed to go too. She needed to fight, to resolve whatever blame she had for her part in the Dreamside Road quest and endangering the lab, and to settle whatever debt she owed Kol Maros.

She’d proven herself. She’d won the struggle with the Liberty Corps outside Littlefield, with Rinlee and the other Iron Shapers. She’d fought Nalrik and Maros himself.

And yet, Maros had sacrificed everything to save Littlefield. He had given her the distraction that helped her win against Rinlee and the others. Now, Maros was likely dead, while she was stuck on guard duty.

“I plan to stay in control of this,” Orson said. “Right now, that means I go alone.”

“Be prepared to call for our backup.” Jaleel smiled. “And I’ll be ready to rescue you, Boss.”

“Good, I’ll hold you to it.” Orson walked toward Enoa and Jaleel, away from the scientists. “Seriously, are you both okay? If you aren’t prepared to do this, I’ll stay with you and figure out something else.”

“I don’t like it,” Enoa said. “But you have all your little gadgets. My aunt’s films haven’t taught me any lock-picking, so I guess it’s better for you to go on your own.” She tried to find her usual humor, but she wasn’t sure how well she found the right tone of voice.

“Alright,” Orson said. “I’ll be back.” He walked toward the Advisory gathering. “If you have a way for me to get into that lab, let’s do this now.”

* * *

“Sir.” The white-uniformed tech pointed to the security camera’s primary monitor. The blurred images of several figures in Scientific Advisory jackets followed what appeared to be bipedal elk, through the forest. “I believe the reports of the deer were correct.”

“Yes,” Sir Rowan nodded. “I can see that. Is this all of the footage we’ve captured?”

“It is, Sir.” The tech rewound the footage, frame by frame, as the procession appeared in the view of one of the occupied laboratory’s perimeter cameras and then disappeared. “We’re still exploring the effectiveness of the Crystal Dune Observation Network and may need to depend on our aerial surveillance. These scientists used their key cards to leave through an unguarded exit – that’s how we detected their departure – but we so far do not know how these cryptids arrived on the laboratory grounds.”

“Thank you, Corporal.” In Baron Helmont’s absence, Sir Rowan was the de facto Commandant of all Shaper forces and special infantry personnel. This operation had fallen to him, and all had so far gone according to plan.

The Air Force defenses, both aircraft and anti-aircraft artillery, had been quickly dispatched, all with minimal Liberty Corps casualties. Most resistance had fallen into line without notable combat.

Except this single loose end – the escaped researchers and their strange accomplices needed to be accounted for.

Rowan lifted his helmet from the observation room’s console. Like each of the Western Barony’s Knights, his armor and equipment was entirely unique. Rowan had designed his kit himself with help only from the Barony’s synthesizing technicians. Rowan’s kit was designed to fit his own unique Shaping.

Thirty spheroid tanks lined the back of his armor, sending tubes up into his helmet or out through nozzles built into his gauntlets. Rowan stored hundreds of gases and experimental combinations at his lab in The Pinnacle, but this thirty and their innumerable combinations formed the backbone of his arsenal.

Rowan’s helmet featured a custom breather apparatus and emissions valve. Only the slit-visor and front hermetic seal matched the helmets of the other ten living Western Barony Knights.

Rowan opened his helmet’s communication link. When he spoke, the full detachment would hear him. “Attention. The alleged antlered creatures are very real. They have guided a handful of the researchers away from here, into the forest. All teams maintain your current objectives, except Sentry Groups Seven, Eight, and Twelve. Seven and Eight, focus on securing the complex’s outer perimeter. We cannot rely on this laboratory’s security systems.

“Team Twelve, you’ll be coming with me to recover the escaped researchers.”

* * *

Orson followed Dr. Ikaro and one of the Antler Clan. Nefertiti moved in perfect motion, no steps wasted, as she lead them up a long incline through the manmade forest. She bounded ahead, always landing in near silence, in a gait that was wholly unique. Even though she intended to allow Orson and Dr. Ikaro to follow her, Orson often used his infrared filter to keep up. He could see how this species had remained hidden.

“You don’t know how the Antler Clan comes and goes at the lab?” Orson kept pace with Dr. Ikaro. He didn’t know how she kept watch on Nefertiti without any visual aid – but she did, all while hurrying through the undergrowth without proper footwear, only flat loafers.

“No,” she said. “This is a display of great faith. I believe they know you plan to save the others.” Nefertiti looked over her shoulder toward them. Ikaro raised both arms in an ‘x’.

Orson could not understand the sign language used between the Advisory personnel and the Antler Clan, but the simple gestures seemed to have significantly more nuance than the handful of repeating motions would imply. Orson had seen the ‘x’ motion twice while Ikaro explained her plan to the Antler clan and three times more throughout their trip in the forest.

“I appreciate this.” Orson had followed in Nefertiti’s wake for miles. Once the Antler Clan had agreed to aiding his rescue mission, they had almost immediately launched into motion. Orson rushed to keep up, with time for nothing more than a wave over his shoulder to his two young crewmembers.

“Eloise always spoke very highly of you,” Ikaro said. “If what she said about you is true, you’re the best chance to save any survivors.”

“I’m going to do everything I can. Were you one of the biologists Eloise met with in the Advisory?”

“Yes, I was the project lead on expanding the formal identifications of classified and engineered organisms. Eloise and Carlos were both working in the studies I organized, months after destabilization, so your role in the Thunderworks conflict was fresh on her mind.”

Up ahead, the trees thinned. The shift was sudden and complete. The dense, growth of close willow trees, low shrubbery, and trailing vines, came to a total end. Nefertiti slowed to a stop, in a small gap near the thinning tree-cover.

“How much work did the IHSA need to do to get this plant life to grow out here?” Orson asked.

“The trees are a modified desert willow bred for their operations in this region,” Ikaro said. “For the rest you’d need to ask Dr. Schultes.”

Orson and Dr. Ikaro arrived beside Nefertiti. She’d led them to the very point where the laboratory could be seen, below them, beyond the hill’s sharp edge. The main laboratory was not a tall building, only two stories, but it spread over at least an acre of land. Numerous outbuildings stood around it. There was a walled perimeter, but it had only two doors, each fit with a corresponding guardhouse.

The lab was built to stand almost directly beside the Rio Persistente. Orson wondered if there was some energy generation purpose to this choice. The complex’s electricity had to be independent generation. The nearest town was almost thirty miles away.

The ground around the lab sloped down to the river, with a sharp drop-off at the edge of the tree line, maybe some method of halting the spread of the foliage.

Nefertiti raised her forelimbs. She made slow circles in the air and then an abrupt downward motion. Dr. Ikaro repeated the gesture.

“The last leg of the journey will take you along the hill,” Dr. Ikaro said. “It is very steep. Nefertiti asks that we stay silent from now on. Once you arrive at a gap in the wall, you will go in alone. I don’t know what sort of entrance you will find there or even how useful it is for anyone to enter the building proper. Nefertiti will wait for you to remove any survivors, but she cannot wait long.”

“What does ‘not long’ mean?” Orson asked.

“Their understanding of time is different than ours,” Ikaro said. “By my guess – and bear in mind I have only known Nefertiti in safety – you have no more than a half hour.”

“I’ll work with that,” Orson said. “Tell her to lead the way.”