Asking the AI for everything it had turned out to be the wrong decision. Kaylin had been sifting through largely useless information for hours now. Not even the nostalgic tingle the Wave had left behind, nor the numerous implants in her head could stop the headache from forming.

Alphera had also informed her about the ship currently in the System. It was the one that had brought the intruders here, and the AI had already asked four times for permission to shoot them. Kaylin had denied, of course, but she had also instructed Alphera to not let them leave. Awfully vengeful for an AI…

She would visit Earth before she did anything major — the archives there might hold answers to her questions, after all. She also wanted to keep tabs on the aliens that had woken her, and she considered attaching a small probe to their ship. One that would allow her to find them later. Or maybe I can have Ocellus track them?

Apparently she did not have to worry about them leaving, since the Wave had damaged the carrier enough that they would need a few days to repair it. The aliens tended to land the entire thing on a planet to do so, according to Alphera, but it informed her that as long as it was above the only planet in reach, they wouldn't readily land again.

"We should have given you all stealth," the Human mumbled, closing another of the countless holographic displays surrounding her. "How far away could you go and still keep track of them?" Kaylin asked after a moment of silence.

"As far as needed," was the reply that accompanied the appearance of another holographic display. This one showed a view of the entire Milky Way galaxy — in real time, if Kaylin's assumption was correct.

"Ocellus is fully operational," Alphera continued, the projection zooming in on the System they currently occupied. "All ships partaking in archaeological activities are being tracked."

Kaylin raised an eyebrow at the rather snarky tone of the AI. "Not happy with their conduct?" she asked as she willed the hologram of the system to zoom in further on the ship of the aliens.

It was nearly a kilometre-long rectangle when viewed from the top. At the bottom — the direction Kaylin only knew because the projection helpfully supplied the information — it was a little wider, allowing the sides to be angled slightly. Perhaps they use kinetic weapons? But they have shields for that.

The sharp edges and the giant door that covered the front of the vessel led Kaylin to think of a carrier; a thought that proved correct as the readout next to its projection showed a multitude of shuttles and fighter craft within its belly.

"The defilement of the Creator's legacy is only tolerated because the Custodian program specifically allows the new races to do that."

"Are they allowed into Sol?"

"No."

Good, Kaylin thought to herself. She had not looked at the list of prohibited systems, but she was certain that Sol was on it. Humanity might have wanted the new races to flourish, but they would not let their ancestral home be trampled.

The Human sighed as she looked back at the projections surrounding her. She had stored the knowledge in her mind already, but looking at it and going through it was still the best way to actually remember it.

"Take us home," Kaylin said. As Ocellus was working, she did not have to worry about finding this specific ship again. A small mental command was all she needed for it to register her request and confirm it. She blinked as the readout of the alien ship settled into her vision, her augmented eyes overlaying it on the real world.

She kept it in the corner of her eyes, a small pang of worry settling in her gut as she looked over the damage report Alphera had generated.

"Do you wish to eat?" the ship asked as a low hum spread through it.

"No," Kaylin replied with a shake of her head. "Ship-bound gateways are hard on my stomach."

The android body stared at her for a moment, its head twitching once before it replied. "There is no difference between normal and ship-bound gateways. Your modifications and augmentations also make any form of space-sickness impossible."

"Try explaining that"—Kaylin tapped her finger against her temple—"to my brain."

There was a moment of silence in which the android body just stared at her with a lightly-cocked head. "But I just did?"

Kaylin blinked at the AI's reply. "Was that an attempt at humour?"

After a moment of what Kaylin would call hesitation, the android body of Alphera tilted its head slightly at the question. "Data indicates that humour has a positive impact on the overall health of Humans."

"Probably true," Kaylin conceded, rubbing her neck. "Before we leave, could you make sure the other ship is fine?"

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

"Certainly."

A moment later, Kaylin saw the projection displaying the alien's vessel update. Detailed readouts about damage to its superstructure, projected repair times, and even a list of injuries that the crew sustained flowed over it.

Satisfied that the Wave had not done to them what it had done to Humanity's first endeavours, she gave a strong nod. "Take us home, then. For real this time."

"Course charted," Alphera-4 announced, its voice a little more robotic than usual. "Prepare for translocation."

What followed was the feeling of being turned inside out and thrown in opposite directions at the same time. All the while, her mind glimpsed at the universe freed of its physical realm.

The Beyond, as they had called it, was a peculiar space. It was the catalyst that had allowed Humanity to achieve most of what they had done — including ascension.

Kaylin let out a breath as the world returned to normal barely a second later. Her eyes looked at the blue and green pearl displayed on the monitors that Alphera had in lieu of windows; meanwhile, her mind took in the raw input of the ship's sensors.

Earth had changed in their absence. The sprawling cities on its continents had been reclaimed by nature; the only one that still stood in all its glory was Eternal Vigil. Floating in the Atlantic Ocean, the city had been built to endure and house all that she might need to fulfill her mission. That explained why most of it was taken up by generators and skyscrapers filled with the best computers that Humanity could make.

Of course, one would not know that by just looking at it. The buildings looked as if they were the homes of normal people; the streets were clean and dotted with trees and other plants. It even also had a perfectly maintained park with a lake at its center, complete with ducks, bunnies, and other animals.

The only thing it lacked was the Humans. People sitting on the grass talking to one another, maybe even a few of them running laps around the lake.

Kaylin sighed, taking her eyes and mind off the display. "Bring me down, please."

----------------------------------------

Kelto tilted his head as he watched the recording of the Watcher leaving for the third time. Something about it was different. It wasn't just that it had scanned them before it vanished, but also how it decided to leave the System.

Usually, they would use the Gates like anyone else. Enter, check the planet, leave. Always like that. Sometimes, a Watcher would find something during their checks and another would appear in short order. Those who came after were always smaller and had a red stripe running along the length of their hull.

But the ones that traversed the universe without a Gate were always small ships. The bigger Watchers never just… vanished. It had always been assumed that there was simply a limit to the mass that could be pushed past the limits of the universe without the help of a Gate. Now they suddenly had video proof that this was not the case.

"But why now?" Kelto mumbled to himself.

The obvious answer was that there really was something in there that the Watchers had not wanted them to find. If he was honest with himself, however, Kelto would rather ignore that specific possibility.

He might respect his colleagues — and even some of the people that commissioned these missions — but when it came down to their actual mission statement, he disagreed with a lot of it. Finding something that warranted a Watcher to do something entirely novel — and as far as he knew this had never happened before — was a good indication that there was a weapon, or something else that had been deemed too dangerous. Or too precious...

"Maybe it really was one of them," he mumbled to himself, dismissing the projection and turning to Dinka, who was busy tapping at her own tablet. "How bad is it?"

"Nothing much." She waved him off. "New shielding did its job pretty well. Some burns, and we only lost a few sensors. Engines need an hour or two to cycle, though; Captain didn't want to shut them down with a Watcher in the system."

Dinka mumbled a few more words that Kelto did not quite catch and returned her attention to the tablet, leaving him to his thoughts. The feeling that they had stumbled upon something big did not want to leave him; the slight itch at the base of his ears was present as always in such situations.

Kelto turned to his display, bidding the AI to show him all the footage and scans of their expedition. It was still a long shot, but he hoped to find something, and his hunches rarely let him down.

A wave of his hand dismissed a large chunk of data that had already been scrutinised by his colleagues, leaving exactly what he had thought. Cryobay…

The thought that there was someone in there — as silly as it was — had never truly left his mind. Nobody thought much of a Watcher that looked a little different or a ruin that was just a little bit tidier than usual. Kelto usually didn't either, but now that this Watcher had simply vanished, he felt compelled to look a little deeper.

Much to his dismay, the scans did not show anything out of the ordinary. He had hoped for a life sign — however weak it might have been — but he got nothing.

"Dinka?" he asked, gesturing towards the energy readings of the cryobay once she looked at him. "Do these seem weird?"

"Weird for what?" she asked. "I need to know what it's supposed to be before I can even begin to guess."

"It's the cryobay," he replied. "I… have a hunch about what's going on."

The engineer just looked at him for a moment before she shook her head. "We barely understand the tech that makes the pods work," she said, scrolling through her own tablet. "We don't really know what is normal for these.

"I can give you my best guess," she continued, squinting at her tablet before looking at the display. "But I doubt it'll mean much. Or be accurate."

"It's better than nothing," Kelto said. I hope.

Dinka moved past him and called up a second display to show the data she had retrieved. The charts themselves made little sense to Kelto, but even he could see that this new one looked different from what they had gathered before.

"Well," Dinka began, "it looks like it consumes more power than the other three we found. But those were also very much broken, while this one was not."

Kelto rubbed the base of his ears. "I'll try to get us down again. If my guess is right, I'll find something."