Chapter 15, Soul Cleansing

Nagate and Shizuka stood hand in hand at the center of a dimly lit but grand circular hall. They were watched by holograms of high priests in renaissance robes and golden masks, while surrounded in physical space by guards in white suits who looked sharper, more quietly threatening than their counterparts outside. Kyne, Eckhardt and Daina looked dangerously out of place compared to them; this meeting was using them to set an example for the visitors from another universe.

"A question for you, Tanikaze. What did you see and hear from the sacred, infinite continuity of life?" One of the holograms asked. The Unitologist leadership could be speaking to this room from anywhere in the known universe, or just one floor above. Their own voices were hidden behind filters that sounded like Brant Harris' communicator implant, "The dead must have spoken to you."

"...I heard the dead telling me I've failed them. I need to make them whole, or to be made whole."

"Who are they?"

"There was my grandfather, and... Her. I watched them die."

"How did you respond, then?"

"I protect the living."

"Do you have any doubts?"

"For one moment, there's a feeling that there's nothing I should do, and becoming whole means I should just leave others alone, but she shook me out of it."

"You feel a great sense of duty for protecting mankind, don't you?" Another hologram asked.

"I do. I am a knight of my ship's people, and I will continue fight for them when they arrive."

"What do you have to say about aiding Kyne's suspected heresy against the Marker, and its more loyal servants?"

Holographic screens activated in the dark room, playing various scenes captured by cameras on the Ishimura and voices recorded on personal logs. They knew everything - including the instruction given to him to destroy the Marker. The sudden influx of media gave him a slowly growing disorienting nausea, tickling at his blood vessels and eardrum.

"I'll never let anyone harm those who cared for me, not even the dead, or your Marker."

"Yet, you have genuinely stood with one such abomination against humanity." A screen hovered in front of his face, a transcript of Shizuka's words to Nicole in Japanese and English.

"...For the 11 days we were outside of all human contact, my belief grew strong that there couldn't be any reward from cosmic justice for him trying to do good... I hated it. Inside the Gauna system, I didn't see the face of any god, I saw even more proof of the universe's random, inhuman nature. Not only we die without meaning, we live without meaning either!"

Nagate felt her left hand twitch in his right hand, so he turned to her; she gave him a look asking for more trust from him. He kept listening to the voice recording and realized she did not mean trust in the sense that she intended no harm, but in the sense that they could pull through what awaited them next together. He gripped her hand tighter as confirmation.

"On the first day of revival I had conflicting emotions, both fury and relief, because my perception of the universe is proven in the worst way possible." The audio log continued, "If there was a choice of joining the heartless primal chaos, I pressed yes and gave my control to my worse human nature."

A third hologram man interrogated him: "Can you still say you see her as a human?"

"Of course." he turned to the Unitologist leader, "Even as Benisuzume, she did her best for me."

"Your time is up. Now, Hoshijiro, questions for you: What did Kyne tell you about the sacred Marker?"

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

"It's the power behind all sapient evolution, and the source of infinite energy."

"Why did he tell you to destroy the one on Ishimura?"

"Highly esteemed masters, please turn off the infrasound first. Nagate and my protectors can't hear them picking up intensity, but I can."

The room fell into an awkward silence as Nagate looked at her then around him. One of the holograms nodded, and the guards began adjusting their soundwave-based weapons. Meanwhile, Shizuka's eyes lit up with a scanning array of bright spots to emphasize her point, sending a hardly noticeable subconscious shiver across his bones.

"The Marker spoke to me. It revealed its mind to me!" Her statement made Kyne shift where he was forced to stand, while Eckhardt and Daina shot desperate looks at him to not have an outburst, "Dr. Kyne is both right and wrong about it causing the reanimations - it lost its control over organic life. However, it could still talk to one person on the ship, and that is me."

A presumably higher ranked hologram man exchanged some looks with his colleagues, then moved closer to her: "Your Gauna side has been drawing energy from the Marker, alongside information. Correct?"

"Yes, like I'm drawing energy from the stasis module batteries around me right now. At first I didn't understand what it means, then the message became clearer as our... Bond, grew stronger. It needs energy for its signal to pacify the reanimations."

Nagate gained a deeper understanding behind why Shizuka was the second best student of her year in the whole pilot school, only behind Kunato the renowned schemer. With or without help from the adults in conjuring her story, even he could see she was good at wrestling for control against the masked figures.

"Why did it deconstruct and bleed energy after being subject to Hyggs exposure? Is that device on the Guardian not a thermal energy weapon?"

"The Marker needs to ascend into Convergence between universes, to reach a higher state of existence like Gauna chase after Kabi! Dr. Mercer is misguided, trying to trap it in this physical space even longer.It gave me instructions on what code to inject into the Hyggs stream." Lights on Shizuka's right eye formed into a particle cannon, "My action matters more than the number of mortal lives! The Marker gave me the opportunity to let it ascend, and it needed the survivors to carry its word. For those infected by uncontrollable life force, it will bring their souls to Convergence and leave their physical biomass."

Thump.

Daina knelt down where she stood and made the crossed hands sign of the Marker at Shizuka, surprising the guards next to her. Less than a second later, Kyne followed, completely prostrating himself: "Altman be praised! Forgive me, Messenger!"

Eckhardt did the same right behind him, burying his face in his hands. Nagate was confused by the display, yet also awed.

"Compose yourself, brothers." A hologram said dismissively, "Easy there."

"Shizuka Hoshijiro. Benisuzume. The Messenger." The leader spoke again, "What is your understanding of Convergence?"

"I should have died, or have already died many times." She replied without a second thought, "On the first time, I was drifting away into deep space, no power over whether I can go home, whether anyone will save me. I knew all life came from the sea - once the aimless drifting began, I thought I am going to return to the endless, amorphous ocean..."

The words made Nagate remember a conversation that haunted his mind, even forced by the times to relive at least once with Izana. He held up his hand, not letting hers go: "Hoshijiro! Nevermind the sea, this new universe, or hell itself! I'll follow you!"

A long moment of muted discussion among the high priests passed, then brightness in the circular hall returned to a humanly familiar level.

"You are all dismissed." A hologram said, "Dr. Kyne, you have been cleared to receive the Paragon rank; Altman be praised."

////

The seawater level of Sidonia received many superstitious comments after two sets of its high-profile visitors all died horribly and spectacularly in very short succession. First there was the Top Four of the professional pilots, all murdered by a Gauna that assimilated Yamano Eiko; and then Nagate and Shizuka, whatever happened to them was even more unspeakably dreadful. They all took the prestigious underwater pod tour before their cursed missions, everyone could see, so the artificial sea naturally became a place for all pilots and couples to avoid.

This time, Kunato Developments got to rent all tour pods, for as long as they wanted, at a total bargain. The visitors this time were the crew of the upcoming Shockpoint experiment, a mix of pilots, researchers and Foreigner Magpies.

"Mr. Schneider, I see you're the same kind of person as those who built Kunato into a full fledged competitor to the longest standing tech giant on Sidonia, a century ago." Kunato Norio shared a pod with Stefan Schneider.

"You speak pretty good English, kid. Though pardon my freelancer nose, I think your company smells like government subsidies."

"I speak German and Hungarian too, if you feel more comfortable talking in these." Norio fumbled with his pockets, "Subsidies are only a temporary boost. I'm looking for a spirit of entrepreneurship for long term edge, and I know you appreciate a good opportunity. Or else you would have objected to this arrangement and went to Captain Li's pod."

"She likes younger men, so i told her I'll take her place for your safety. Anyway, you might creep her out. What's the deal with freckles, that Kaoru kid anyway? Looks like her attention all went to him now."

"Them. Neutral gender, a new direction for population balancing after the disaster. Not settled on a gender yet." Kunato idly spun around a pen taken from his pocket.

"Oh, I've heard of people like them on the developed planets. Now let's talk business, what are you looking for?"

Stefan felt his knees suddenly swiped from behind by a subtle but powerful kick, he fell towards the pod's glass wall, then his fall was caught by Norio.

"Everything." Dr. Ochiai, the actual main spirit behind Kunato labs' prepaid developments, grinned as he implanted the blood nematode into his eye.

////

"Hey, kids! We're here!" In Temple Prime's public social area, Issac waved around his phone, which was just returned from a locker by a Unitologist guard minutes ago, "News about the Ishimura is suddenly out everywhere. They didn't mention you, or us, but you need to see this."

Nagate's attention was fixated on the table where Issac and Nicole sat. There was a colorful display of drinks, fresh fruit, donuts and real farmed beef jerky - no other table within sight had nearly a comparable variety or availability. He made his way to a chair at the table, doing his best to make his hunger more presentable. Behind him, Shizuka openly chuckled without a care.

She sat down, took a can of Dejarta saffron yoghurt and checked out the projection from Issac's phone. It showed a front page of a content aggregator news website, dazzling by Sidonian standards just like the food:

> Alien microbe identified as cause of Ishimura disaster

> RANCID MOON IN REAL LIFE!

> Acting captain says "not great, not terrible"

> Blood of Medusa release postponed for concerns over poor timing

> Titan Cathedral memorial service intergalactic broadcast scheduled

> Metal band Culled Prey donates earning of new concert to victim fund

> Urban legends: Survivors report seeing "mysterious Samurai" on Ishimura

> SIGN OF CONVERGENCE: THE WOMAN IN RED AS FORETOLD BY ALEISTER CROWLEY

"I need to buy a new dress... Red with golden sakura pattern. And the kind of mask Captain Kobayashi wears."