"Well, Crunch." Yvian gazed longingly at the Gate, still half submerged in the Skygem. If she'd been just ten seconds sooner... Well. There was nothing to be done about it, now. She'd just have to trust the Captain. Between him and the Peacekeeper unit, rescuing Lissa shouldn't be too hard. Probably. She hoped.

Yvian shook her head and got moving. Reba's YEETs were still out there. Plasma wouldn't do a damned thing to her Lucendian ship, but kinetics were another matter. A YEET round would pulverize the Skygem, and she wouldn't even see it coming. Constant evasives were her only defense.

Yvian sunk deeper into the ship, expanding her awareness to check on the battle. The Queenships were intact, still protected by the Stinger units and their modified beam cannons. Reba's asshole YEETs were countered for now, but the Xill were firing too. They were using more conventional weapons, thank the Lady, but there were still an awful lot of them. Ions and protons and plasma and who knows what else crashed against the massive Queens. A normal fleet would be debris by now, but Pixa's repurposed Klaath flagships were monsters. Their shields were holding.

Reba's battlecruisers had failed to jump the Techjammers out of the system. The Queens were reducing the last of the escort vessels into molten debris. A few more seconds, and they'd be able to start in on Reba's reserves. There were still millions of Xill unleashing a massive and constant barrage of charged particles, but Yvian's forces should be tough enough to pull through. Probably. She hoped.

"What's happening?" The voice was muffled. Yvian pulled more of her soul into her body to find Yuriko pressed against her. The woman had wrapped an arm around Yvian's shoulder, cupping the back of her head as she pressed their helmets together. Between the Peacekeeper suit and her inert armor Yvian couldn't feel much of the contact. Still, it was... it felt intimate.

"Yvian?" Dr. Miner tried again. "Can you hear me? What's happening?" Oh. Right. Yuriko wasn't coming in for a cuddle. This was the only way she could communicate while Yvian's comms were fried. Skygem offered to pressurize herself. It would be mostly methane, unbreathable, but it would make talking a lot easier. Yvian told her no. It would complicate things when the Captain came back with Lissa.

"Yvian?" Yuriko said it louder this time.

Yvian let out a breath she didn't know she'd been holding. "Mims and the Peacekeeper went through the Gate. I'm taking evasives in case the YEETs try to take us out." She took another breath and asked, "What are you two doing here?"

"Rescuing you, sexy," Yvian could hear the woman's lopsided grin. "What else would we be doing?"

"You know what I mean," Yvian chided. "We tried to get Skygem to come out for this, and she said no. Emphatically. How'd you convince her?"

"When we talked to the Last Hope," Yuriko explained. "I promised I'd do whatever it took to get her babies back. She didn't... She'd already given up on them."

"I know." Yvian had had a similar conversation with the Mother.

"Yeah," Yuriko nodded slightly. "I was talking with Sara, Dr. Laswell, about it. Dr. Roboto heard us. He took us back to City 43. Had us talk to Shard. That big green Vrrl was there. Scarrend, I think? Anyway, the Vrrl's been communing with the City since you left. Learned the language, I guess."

"Learned the language?" Yvian frowned, keeping half her soul focused on Skygem's view of the Gate. "It's been like two days."

"Yeah," Dr. Miner agreed, "It's crazy how they can do that. Anyway, he translated for us. Once Shard understood what we were trying to do, she convinced the Hope to send Skygem on the condition that we come with and tell her what to do." A brief pause. "Only we didn't know what to do. If Sara hadn't felt your implant, we'd still be wandering around like idiots."

"You did fine," Yvian assured her. "Saved my life, even."

"That was Sara," Yuriko admitted. "She's... she's pretty shook. Neither of us every killed anyone before."

"She did the right thing."

"She did," Yuriko agreed. The woman shifted, bringing both her hands to the side of Yvian's helmet. "Listen. About... I'm sorry I didn't-"

"Mims!" Yvian cut her off. "He's back and he's got Lissa." Thank the Bright Lady. Yvian knew she'd have to have a conversation at some point, but she wasn't ready to have that talk now. "I've gotta pick him-"

"No!" Yuriko shook the pixen. "Run! Run now!"

"What?" Yvian had already swung Skygem around, but years of harsh training had taught her not to wait for an explanation. She jerked the ship into a sideways strafe and sped away from the Gate. "Why?"

"Evasives!" Yuriko was shouting. "Mims says Evade!"

Yvian did as she was told. The Skygem changed trajectory yet again. "What the Crunch is going on?" she demanded. The Captain was accelerating as fast as he could. Not towards Yvian. His soul was focus and discipline clamped tightly over a fear that bordered on panic. Lissa's soul was anger and frustration and terror.

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"XTRO!" Yuriko explained. "Agents are coming out of the Gate!"

Agents? Yvian didn't see any agents. Skygem focused in on the section of the Gate Mims had come through. Ripples. Small ripples. A lot of them. That was all she could see. STEALTH MODE? Yvian's mouth went dry. Her own voidarmor was originally from the Federation. The humans could do everything Yvian had been able to do. Maybe more. Skygem was only seven kilometers from the Gate. If even one of those motherless sons had a BFSR4...

Skygem sensed Yvian's fear. The ship dodged as fast as she could, moving down and away from the ripples. It wasn't enough. They were too close to dodge the insane speed of a BFSR4 antiship sniper round, and AIMASSIST meant the humans couldn't miss. Skygem's soul screamed as crystal shattered, again and again. Round after round smashed through the crystal ship. Yvian screamed with her. Her body burned and spasmed in sympathy with the ship's soul. Skygem's pain and terror overwhelmed Yvian, paralyzing her. She tried to pull back into her body, but Skygem clung too tightly. Then the ship's grip on her slackened. Everything went cold. So cold...

Yvian gasped. She bolted upright, or at least started to. Her head bounced off something hard and she flopped back down. Her eyes opened. Medpod. She was in a medpod.

"Yvian?" Her sister's voice. The top of the pod retracted, folding in on itself to leave the pixen lying on a med table. Lissa stood next to her. Her eyes were puffy, with dark circles under them. The Captain sat in a chair nearby, looking haggard. His head was in his hands. A Peacekeeper unit stood off to the side, eyes glowing blue.

"What..." Yvian frowned. The back of her head hurt. The back of her head shouldn't hurt. An Oluken Medpod could practically rebuild a body from scratch. She should have woken up feeling like a billion credits. "What happened?"

"You died." Mims spoke. "Your brain hemorrhaged and shut down. Took most of your organs with it. Dr. Miner had to breach your suit. Used a nanite injector."

"We didn't know if you'd wake up," said Lissa. "The medpod fixed the damage, but..." Tears dropped. Lissa hugged her sister tight. "We didn't know."

Yvian hugged her back. "It's alright. I'm alright." They held each other for a moment. Yvian asked, "How long was I out?"

The Peacekeeper unit answered. "Five days, six hours, fourteen minutes, and nine seconds."

Yvian nodded. Five days. Crunch. She touched the back of her skull. It was still throbbing. "My implant's damaged." The living crystal wrapped around her brain stem had fractured once before, when she and Skygem had almost killed themselves fighting the Vore. "Skygem?" Yvian didn't want to ask, but she needed to know. "Is she..."

Mims shook his head. "She didn't make it. I'm sorry."

"Oh." She nodded again, slowly. There was no wave of grief. No tears. Not yet. Just a numb kind of sadness. Shock, most likely. "I think... I think I felt it."

"We all did," said Lissa. Mims nodded tired agreement.

"The Jewel of the Sky has gone to meet the Bright Lady," the Peacekeeper intoned. "She will be found worthy, and guided to Nialla."

Yvian blinked.

"Did you just..." Lissa stared at the machine. "Do you really believe in the Bright Lady?"

"This unit does not have enough information to confirm or deny the existence of the Bright Lady," the Peacekeeper explained. "Nor is their sufficient evidence to prove or disprove the existence of souls, Nialla, or any form of continuance after life functions have ceased."

Lissa frowned. "Then why did you say that?"

"Death is inevitable," said the machine. "Even for Peacekeeper units. In the absence of sufficient data, this unit chooses to assume it has a soul, and that this unit's soul will be welcomed when it's time has come." The unit's eyes flashed purple. "It is preferable to the alternative."

"For you, maybe." Mims rubbed the back of his neck. "I'm pretty comfortable with the idea of oblivion."

"That is because you expect to go to hell," the Peacekeeper replied. "If you embrace the Bright Lady instead, you too can find your way to the Realm of Light."

"It's a nice thought, Kilroy," said Mims. "But the Bright Lady judges you, too. Instead of hell I'd be cast into The Crunch." He shook his head. "Some things just can't be forgiven."

"So..." Yvian changed the subject. "Did we win?"

"We did," said Lissa. "Sort of."

"We broke Reba's hold on the sector and saved four of the Last Hope's offspring," Mims elaborated. "But it cost us. We lost fifteen Queenships, thirty thousand Stingers, three thousand Academy pilots, the Skygem, and Dr. Laswell."

"Dr. Laswell?" Yvian blinked.

"She took a direct hit," the Captain explained. "Blew her to pieces."

"Oh." Yvian didn't know what to say to that. She hadn't known the human very long, but she'd liked her.

"It was the error of Peacekeeper units," Kilroy admitted. "We did not think to saturate the area with weapons fire until Big Daddy Mims ordered it. The meatbags had a full four point seven six seconds to destroy the Jewel of the Sky."

"They almost killed us, too," said Lissa. "If Dr. Roboto hadn't pushed us out of the way..." She grimaced. "He's dead, too."

"Negative," said Kilroy. "Peacekeeper unit Dr. Roboto's remains have been recovered. It's memory and processing units are intact."

"That's most of what we've been doing while you were out," said Mims. "Rescue and salvage. Only eight of our Academy pilots were recovered, but most of the Peacekeeper units were intact enough that we can rebuild them."

"Good." Yvian nodded slowly. "That's good." She sniffed, wiping her eyes. "Yuriko?"

"Alive," said Lissa. "She managed to get you off the ship before a YEET round pulverized it completely."

"Ok." Yvian ran both hands through her hair. She let out a breath. "Mims?"

"What is it?"

"Can we..." Was it ok? "Can we make dinner?" Yvian hadn't had many people in her life. She'd never lost anyone she was close to. Was it really ok to just... keep going? It didn't seem right, somehow. "I'm... I'm really hungry."

"Yeah." The Captain reached out. Squeezed Yvian's shoulder. "Yeah. Food sound's good. The Encounter's docked next to us. We'll head over and make french dip."

"And beer?"

"And beer," said the human. "We'll eat and get drunk and tell stories. Remember the people we lost."

"The Creator expects to meet with you now that Yvian is awake," Kilroy reminded him.

"He'll fucking wait," snapped Mims.

"Negative," said the Peacekeeper. "You meatbags have delayed too long already. A course will be set and engaged the moment you are aboard the Random Encounter."

The Captain looked like he wanted to argue, but he made himself take a breath and stop glowering. "Alright. Alright. Exodus has been very patient. Thank him and tell him we're on the way." He rubbed the back of his neck. "How long will it take us to get there?"

"Fourteen hours, nine minutes, eleven seconds."

"That's long enough, I guess." Mims wrapped an arm around Lissa and held a hand out to Yvian. "We've got six hours to drink and eight to sleep it off."