Chapter 25, Lost Stars

"Turn it off, bring everyone home." Izumo appeared the Roanoke's fleet commander office and summarized the insane wall writings for Yuhata. Both of them learned English in officer school, but here were too many notes written in two alien languages.

"We can't go back home yet, brother. It's not safe at Lem. The devil is back..." She stopped herself, "Gauna 487 killed you! Why are you here too?"

"Life can be endless."

"Forget it, I won't act surprised if someone finds out souls exist in Hyggs wave form." At least having a hallucination to talk to can help with bouncing around ideas, she thought, "We can't simply go back to Sidonia, while they can't stay there too long. Brother, what should the Mizuki expedition aim for?"

"You need Earth."

"We do... Wait, so by home you mean Earth?" Indeed, the birthplace of humanity as described by Schneider was the center of all its technology and action. Whatever they have to trade would be expensive, but Sidonia's problems needed breathing room and scaling capacity to solve. They'll figure out ways to work together, and... Nagate should be there too, of course.

"You can figure out how to salvage the ghost ships, Yuhata, I trust you. They probably still have navigation data available, at least their Shockpoint drives and powerbanks will help you get ahead further."

"Salvage the ghost ships, yeah, seems I already made up my mind early enough." She looked out of the fleet commander office's windows and saw the Mizuki waiting at a safe distance, idling outside the debris orbit.

The expedition engineering team has calculated they could restore one of the smaller ships, CMS Greeley or CMS Brusilov, to a Shockpoint-suitable integrity within a month, and send it to planets of interest ahead of Mizuki. Sidonia would need help from Earthgov to make the jump across universes itself, at least more resources and manpower to fend off Gauna. At the very least, information on Nagate... Though, Yuhata considered it necessary to keep any contact between Mizuki and Sidonia minimal, in case the strange biomass-melting contagion would hitch along.

"Now, what about the 'turn it off' message?"

"Sister, you must have heard of the mental health complaints from the expedition crew."

"It's all stress from our discoveries." Yuhata sighed, "Everyone is seeing ghosts, all I have is boring old you."

Everyone except Teruru saw or heard at least one vision of dead people. The Honokas saw teammates eaten or disintegrated by Gauna, not to mention Hou; Tsumugi experienced disjointed flashbacks that fortunately didn't try to interact with her; even the cyborgs weren't as heartless as advertised, only that they freely abused emotion-related implants.

"Have you run any tests on the power signals detected by Hyggs radiation monitoring systems?"

"Mind-altering radiation? Brain concentration waves? All you do is echo on ideas I already have, and you're still dumber than Ena! Why can't the voice of reason inside my brain be Nagate!"

"You know I am simply a voice to help you reason, the one who should take the role of a hero is yourself."

"I want the crew's nightmares fixed. Do they come from some kind of psychic beacon, pumping out insanity waves? How, how in Ochiai's cauldron should I find this thing that should be turned off?"

"Follow the radio energy waves, you will see where they converge."

"Turn off the source of disturbance, fine. Shit." Yuhata accidentally knocked over a half-full bottle left by Graves, leader of the SCAF expedition. She pondered whether she should throw it at Izumo's phantom, or drink it to drive him off.

"Time is running out, don't let your crew end up dying alone like the previous owners." The previous owners were here to look for Markers - hopefully they weren't using and expending the alien creation in the same volume as Kabi - and they found a few alright, currently pulled off the planet and put on the CMS Brusilov, kept alongside their artificial ones.

They were radiating a kind of electromagnetic wave worryingly similar to Kabi radiation back home, too. Everyone who knew this fact shared the same unspoken fear that this pulse could lure Benisuzume out of hell again, since it was also banished to this universe. What if it multiplied? What if it has already converted Nagate and spawned a litter of space skeletons?

Oh, shit.

"You will figure things out. Take us home, sister."

"Ichigaya, come in." She thought it would be a good time to check on the Marker investigation process, at least to drive off the stray imagination.

"Situation is quiet." The artificial human replied, "The cyborgs are still recovering data from the ship computers."

"Have your team done anything about the SCAF Kabi... The Markers?"

"We cut off some samples and did spectrometer tests, all match SCAF reports. The substance and energy pulse could be helpful for Hyggs systems, but we need to ask Toha headquarters for further research directions. Mr. Schneider is running calculations on the alien text." Teruru paused, then added a hasty comment, "It felt like glass when I touched it, while Megastructure is more like porcelain."

"You touched it?"

"No problem! I activated dermal armor mode."

"We'll, replacing a robot finger is easier than replacing a meat one..."

"That's the spirit!" One of the Ochiai cultists overheard the conversation, "Shed your mortal skin, shed your weakness!"

"Sorry, Commander. The Marker... A voice talked to me when I touched it."

If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

"What? No, Teruru!"

"It called me an abomination, said I'll never receive the gift of life. Sounded very angry that I touched the artifact. Message app logged the sender as 'enemy breach in progress', haven't seen that before."

"Have faith, young machine!" The cyborg shouted from the background again, "You are born lucky, built perfect, while we were only upgraded from meatbags. Your father Ichigaya Taro is a genius like our master!"

"...Thanks, Mr. Sugita."

"The ghost ships prove meat is untrustworthy, uncontrollable. Meanwhile, iron and tungsten still loyally do their part after meatbags abandoned them centuries ago. When my wetware brain is lied to, glass and metal showed me pure truth!"

////

"I need your help." Shizuka opened her special copy of Altman's Tongue and hushed into her Hyggs communicator, "Thank you for coming, Mr. Eckhardt and Miss Le Guin."

"We're ready to serve." Kyne replied, "Cash, information, media, everything I have. My colleagues will speak for themselves, though. People called us the Kyne Faction, and I'll act like it."

"I need power." She gave the cold statement with a flash of weakness on her face, "I'm asking you to help me gain an edge over the things that hurt Nagate."

"He's hurt?" Behind the nominal leader of this splinter heresy, the other two audibly gasped.

"Yes, we're attacked by an unidentified Guardian. We're back in the Solar System, the ship's doctor sent him to Titan General yesterday. He told me it was hard to even keep him in stable condition. I'm not allowed to visit him..." She shook her head, trying to compose her anger against her despair, "I think he isn't guaranteed to recover."

"An unidentified Guardian..." Eckhardt sighed. The worst fear of the adults present has already materialized.

"But his natural regeneration..." Kyne tried to grasp for a professional opinion, "Altman forbade it, how bad was it?"

The Doctor has retained his habit of attributing his spiritual guide everywhere; once he has seen the truth behind the officially accepted history, he saw Michael Altman as an even greater humanist, a defender of nature.

"A plasma weapon broke through every armor layer, he looks like, he's..."

"...Oh. What in the name of... Oh no, no, kid, I shouldn't have asked. I've seen too many like that during the Mars Riots."

"Please, Mr. Kyne, I want vengeance. Whoever is behind the attack, I need to be stronger."

The scientist hesitated to respond for more than half a minute. Shizuka couldn't blame him; the goal of setting up the Kyne Faction was to dissuade the average Unitology believer from its apocalyptic aspects, his conscience wouldn't allow pushing them towards confrontation with a major player.

"Have you talked to Dr. Brennan?"

"I don't want her and Mr. Clarke to worry! they'll put themselves between us and the next attack."

"You have the soul of true greatness." Daina said with the loyalty of a full zealot, "In mortal danger, only a hero like Altman himself could spare these concerns."

"Please don't make me remember the true nature of my soul. I killed 48 pilots in less than 15 seconds, because they stood between me and Nagate."

The adults fell silent staring at her.

"Eye memory exams after each mission turned weekly, I've... Relived many moments."

"Nicole and Isaac survived Ishimura, just like you two." Kyne tried to cheer her up. "We'll arrange their security, some metalheads to watch over them."

"Let's talk about the Guardian." Eckhardt nervously interrupted the conversation, "Not the Type 17 you knew, right? Plasma weapons, Shockpoint capable? Fuck."

"It's a Type 14 Raikou with the features you said."

"Altman save me, the Church built it after all. They're ahead of schedule, it shouldn't even been possible with the specs we fed them! Just how much money did they sink into building it?"

"What?" Daina and Kyne stared at him.

"Okay, okay, we don't actually know who built it, but it's the model Earthgov spared for the Church to work with. Terrence and I drafted a project document with performance ceiling estimations that aren't supposed to be done..." He felt Shizuka's eyes burn through the screen, "As far as I know, other Paragons in CEC rejected it."

"Did CEC finish their Guardian stasis integration?" Daina whispered.

"Not yet."

"So Mr. Eckhardt, you mean the Church of Unitology has sent it as a show of force." Her voice became calmer and colder.

"The Pontifex probably can direct enough resources to make it happen, give it to his Oracles. He's an unanswerable strategist. Who else? The Circle? I know Jacob Danik helped us for his own gains, but he should see not to cross you of course, dear Messenger. And then... Maybe someone sent it back to Earthgov and let them have a go..."

"I've put Nagate in danger again."

"Kid, the hit wasn't directly aimed at our little rebellion." Kyne took a deep breath, "This is the Kyne Faction, Altman saw it, I'm still alive. The schemers behind that Guardian wanted to test their new weapon against him!"

Shizuka felt slightly insulted, looking back; that Type 14 did not stay to engage her once it caved in the Type 17's cockpit. What happened to humanity's greatest threat?

"Please help me." She went back to her original thought, "I need power, it would be a lot to ask of you and the worshippers."

"Anything you need." The other two also nodded.

"First, I would like to study more about Mercer's Stasis weapon. Please send me anything he wrote, it was able to damage my Ena unlike regular Stasis."

"Sure."

"Next, I'm asking you to build a new Guardian, based on the Type 17. I have personal thoughts on upgrades and read through Nagate's writings, but I don't know engineering. If it's not too much to ask..."

"I'll divert parts for a frame from CEC." Eckhardt answered, he knew a kid's wishlist for new toys was extremely serious business, the same for a juvenile war god's vision of her new vessel.

"Please be careful, don't rush it. I will only need it when the new pilots finish their training." Her voice, calmed down minutes ago, was now accompanied by Hyggs static, "However, I want it to be the strongest Guardian in the galaxy. Enough speed and armor to punch that Raikou to death, then weaponry tailored to my experience."

"Your highness, we'll see the fires of burning credits consume our enemies." The design requirements has arrived at the screen in front of the adults. Eckhardt flipped through it, "Actually, it won't cost more than the Type 14 we drafted."

"Then please let it cost more. You owe Nagate."

////

Hazama Kaoru tackled Tahiro Numi out of the mutant's way, a second after he realized what did cracks in the epoxy casing meant.

"Run! Let's go!"

They have just arrived with the expedition's supply ship on the previous day. Kunato Norio said Kaoru would be more useful if he could be her personal guard instead of a pilot, and he agreed after seeing confidential footage from the Honokas and cyborgs.

The Outer Space Life-form Institute set up a temporary lab in a removable pod attached to the Roanoke to study the various abominations found in the ghost ships. Now, it was time to cut open the humanoid monster that tried to break out of its glass box on the Terra Nova. There was another like it inside the cargo hold, but it was disintegrated by Tsumugi's secondary head as it tried to jump the Honoka exploration team.

The scientist froze in place, eyes glued to the tying flailing with its armless upper torso: Orange sparks were flickering at the broken joints, Hyggs sensors in the lab began to beep at interference. Kaoru pressed the alarm hotkey on his watch.

"Doctor, please!"

The monster was within biting distance to either of them, and the remaining solid epoxy won't hold any longer. Though, Numi shoved him off with surprising determination, and reached from the nearest powered sampling tools.

Squwwge.

When he looked at the humanoid again, it has grown a new arm seemingly just from thin air. Gritting his teeth, he pulled out his katana and stabbed it through the freshly regained arm, pinning it down by the shoulder. Numi was apparently greatly encouraged by this success; she hurried closer to retrieve tissue sample, just in the horribly right moment for the creature to regenerate its other arm.

"No!" He pushed her away again, then grabbed her by her left hand - one with the communicator watch - and dashed towards the lab's full roof-sized shutters. Slapping the watch onto the lock for her clearance level, he unlocked the gigantic doors leading into space.

"I got you!"

Honoka En shouted; her Guardian was posted outside the lab attachment just for this kind of emergency. Then, its head mounted Hyggs turret fired on the Regenerator.