WSP 047

Return to the Moon

“TEN!”

Jeh locked her swivel seat into place, directing her gaze upward, through the drive and out the upper

window of the Moonshot II.

“NINE!”

Blue used her telekinesis to make sure no one was hiding in the waste collection area. The door revealed itself to be Twinless.

“EIGHT!”

Keller gave Blue a knowing look. Blue rolled her eyes. Of course he already checked…

“SEVEN!”

Vaughan clutched the arms of the chair he was strapped in.

“SIX!”

The four astronauts were now entirely ready for departure, they were just waiting for the countdown to wrap up, creating a strange moment of unneeded apprehension simply for the sake of timing.

“FIVE!”

Outside, there was a large crowd, raising and lowering their various kinds of limbs in time with the counting.

“FOUR!”

There was no royal contingent for this launch. The podium had only Lila sitting comfortably on it, having completed her speech quite some time ago.

“THREE!”

She was shouting with everyone else, but her gaze was not on the craft, but the crowd itself. Everyone was so excited, but there was some apprehension. After all, considering what happened the last time they’d left…

“TWO!”

But they were pushing through it. They may have been prepared for things to go wrong, but they were attempting to enjoy themselves nonetheless.

“ONE!”

Lila tore her eyes off the crowd and looked at the Moonshot II at the last minute.

“ZERO!”

The ship lifted into the air, smoothly and without any sign of difficulty. There wasn’t even any shaking or jostling, Jeh had a really good hold on it. The metallic orb with eight protruding knobs went higher and higher and higher until they could no longer see it in the brilliance of the sun’s glare.

Lila let out a breath she hadn’t realized she was holding.

“They will return in a few days,” Lila told everyone. “Until then… let us go about our days as we otherwise would. Just let us not forget where they are, and pray for their safe return from the lands far beyond.”

Chatter emerged from the crowd as everyone started to disperse. Lila jumped off the podium and nuzzled Suro briefly.

“Even this is starting to feel routine,” Suro observed.

“It’s only the second time…” Lila shook her head, but smiled. “Even so, you’re right, it does feel… normalized. They’re going to the moon and my biggest concern is that something is going to happen to us while they’re gone.”

“The Agents have an extra close eye on this place.”

“Yes… but if something does go wrong, it won’t be the same thing as last time,” Lila said. “All our enemies would know better than to try again, and Pepper doesn’t know of any recently released evils that might torment us.”

“That she knows of.”

“...Yes. That she knows of.” Lila turned her gaze to the sky. She could not see the Moonshot II, but she knew it was up there. “...Let’s be vigilant.”

“I think the entire town is going to be.”

“And let us not forget, they too have a mission, and need to be kept safe. Even if there is no one up there to threaten them… space is no friend.”

~~~

Princess Tenrayce had noted that Wizard Rigelia did everything in her power to never actually stand in the presence of any member of the royal family. Tenrayce knew exactly why she did this. Tenrayce demanded a personal audience anyway.

Rigelia floated into the throne room, doing everything she could with her Orange magic rather than anything else. Since she was floating, when she “bowed” all she really did was just tilt her head forward and look down. “Your Highness…”

Tenrayce was the only one in the throne room, sitting on her chair next to the empty throne of King Wyett.

She did not have to call the meeting in the throne room. She could have done it anywhere, and in fact she usually preferred to. However, Rigelia needed to be… reined in with a constant reminder of who was in charge here.

“Wizard Rigelia.” Tenrayce did not look up from the book she was reading. “Report on the space station.”

“Your Highness, if that is all you wanted I could have sent…”

“You are one of the primary forces behind the development of the project here in Axiom. I need to see your face and hear your voice on the matter. Anything less would be insufficient. So. Do your job and inform your Princess how the space station project is developing.”

“It is… developing. No construction has begun, as we are waiting on finalizations from Mikarol and Descent. They’re slow, but we cannot do more than order the containers that will later be shaped into what we need.”

Tenrayce flipped a page. “And what prevents us from manufacturing ahead of time?”

Rigelia’s left eye twitched. “Your Highness, I am no fool, I know you know exactly what is preventing us from progressing.”

“Then you are surely intelligent enough to know that I want an answer anyway. Give it.”

Rigelia folded her hands together and ground her teeth. “Very well. The primary obstacle is the connections between segments. We need a connection design everyone can agree upon, that we can manufacture to great precision, and isn’t obscenely expensive. Furthermore, it needs to function perfectly, everything must be airtight and able to resist damage from the outside. The size, shape, and nature of these connectors will inform most of the rest of the design decisions.”

“Is there truly no other prework to do?”

“It is the only section that needs cooperation.”

“Surely you can design with multiple connector designs in mind?”

“...The original plans already accounted for that. They are scalable.”

“Hmm. Blue’s designs, yes?”

“...Yes…”

“Excellent.” For the first time, Tenrayce locked her eyes with Rigelia’s. “Her contributions are without compare. Make sure you recognize that.”

“...Of course.”

“Regardless, I wish for more details. The connectors are what are holding us up, but we have other considerations. I, personally, wish to know how we plan to defend the structure.”

“Defense from something akin to Benefactor is impossible.”

“But what of other ships?”

“Was the plan not to have the station be a neutral space so it would never be attacked?”

Tenrayce turned a page in her book. “Spirited can be irrational, all it takes is one person in a ship angry enough to unleash an attack.”

“In that case… we would probably need a Crystalline One on board…”

“What if it’s one of our ships attacked?”

“Have better pilots.”

“Shouldn’t there be something you can do on your end?”

“That is not my concern.”

Tenrayce suddenly slammed her book shut. “I find it hard to believe you are so clueless, but I also find it hard to believe that you would attempt such a pathetic manner of manipulation.” Tenrayce looked Rigelia right in the eyes. “Let me make this perfectly clear. Our ships have no weapons aside what the astronauts bring with them. Create some weapons. Get your team on it, use your supposed mastery over Orange to figure out the best way to fight in space. I don’t care if you don’t want to or if it’ll strain the ease you have in your currently cushy job. You are one of the Kingdom’s best and we are going to use you, not let you rot away in a tower as you use your influence to pawn things off to other people.” Tenrayce stood up, fire in her eyes. “Do I make myself clear?”

Rigelia folded her hands together. “You have made yourself exceptionally clear, Your Majesty. However—”

“Choose your next words very carefully, lest I label you an insurrectionist.”

Rigelia gasped. “You wouldn’t dare.”

“There are more qualified people I can put in your place, wizard. Become annoying enough and I will remove you. As you are now, you provide me with minimal benefits and are a cruel mockery of how the system should function. My order is here to make you prove to me that you are useful and deserve your position on such an important project. Your task is space defense.” Tenrayce sat down. “Say anything to try to get out of it or pawn it off onto someone else and I remove you from your position. Whether this means simply disgrace or worse depends on how egregious the offense is.”

Rigelia opened her mouth.

“If you say anything other than ‘yes, Your Majesty’ and immediately go out to get to work, you’re done for.” Tenrayce did not look up from her book. “Learn submission or perish.”

Rigelia balled her hands into fists. She said nothing, but she did leave immediately.

A few minutes later one of the Crown Agents came into the room. “She went to her home. She is bawling her eyes out and destroying furniture, currently.”

“What a child,” Tenrayce said, shaking her head.

“Your orders?”

“Give her a day or two to calm down, then report to me again. We’ll see if she’ll fall in line.” Tenrayce paused. “We can no longer afford her ‘eccentricities’ in times such as this.”

~~~

The desolate gray wastes of the moon went on in every direction. For millions of years, the peaks in the region had stood almost untouched by time, with only an occasional crater bringing change. To the north were mountains, hints of the edge of an ancient impact. To the south there was flat, even terrain occasionally pocked by a circular depression.

And directly above, a visitor from the stars. The mostly round shape of the Moonshot II descended, approaching the ground slowly but surely. The moon did not register its presence until four of the knobs touched the ground, creating depressions in the lunar dust.

There was a loud thunk from inside the ship, followed by the hissing of air being moved around on the inside. After a few moments, the main door popped open, turning along its hinge at the lower edge, forming a makeshift ramp to the lunar ground.

The airlock interior was rather cramped: Jeh had to curl herself into a fetal position to fit in the disc-shaped hole. She was in the spacesuit and, for now at least, she could still breathe. With the outer door open she was exposed to the airlessness of the Moon. The suit still tried to push her into a starfish position, but now she had Orange crystals inside the suit, embedded in her arm, so she could apply all the extra force she might want. Future suit designs would incorporate spaces for the crystals so people without regeneration could do this, but right now this was what they could work with.

Jeh jumped out of the Moonshot. She was not, at all, prepared for how high she went. She drifted above the top of the Moonshot II itself before accelerating back down to the ground. She flipped end over end before landing in an undignified pose on the dusty ground. The landing was rather soft—the moon’s lower gravity may have made it a larger fall, but the impact was nothing to her.

Jeh stood up and attempted to dust herself off, but found that the moon dust was all over her suit no matter what she did. She shrugged and started walking around the Moonshot II. She had done this before, inside Wanderlust, but that ground had been smooth and regular. Now, as she walked, she had to deal with terrain inconsistencies and rocks in addition to her weight being extremely low.

She stumbled forward, but found that she had more than enough coordination to pull her other foot forward, preventing her from falling to the ground. In fact, everything was like that: she had so much time to react to things. The moon was simply slower. Even in the somewhat awkward and uncomfortable sweaty suit, she could act on timescales that far exceeded that of the moon itself.

She eventually made her way to one of the Moonshot II’s windows and had to skid to a stop, kicking up considerable amounts of dust. Due to the lack of air, the dust did not form clouds, it just drifted back down as slowly as rocks of any size would.

Jeh gave the window a thumbs up. She saw Vaughan give her an identical gesture from within, though given the way the window bent light it was certainly distorted.

A message written out with Purple magic appeared in the “air” around the Moonshot II. Samples, Jeh.

“Oh, right, I have a mission…” Jeh chuckled to herself and set to work. Her primary goal on this moonwalk was to test out the suit and how to move. But while she was doing that, she was supposed to grab large, interesting samples. Dust and Colored Crystals weren’t particularly interesting, no, she was looking for unusual rocks or things that stood out.

Rocks certainly stood out among the dusty surface, but she did not find any of them that stood out from each other. They were all boring and gray, though a few had crystals growing in them. She simply chose the largest of these that would fit in the airlock with her. She could have carried a much larger one given how little things weighed, but the airlock was only so wide and rocks didn’t compress like human flesh.

As she loaded one of the rocks into the airlock and shut the door, she turned to the sky.

The blue orb of Ikyu dominated the view, as the sun was currently behind her. It was a beautiful sight. At this distance, she could barely make out the shapes of the continents. The blueness of it struck her; how little of it was actually land, and many of the parts that were had clouds over them. Ikyu was a blue-white marble, everything else was dressing.

Or maybe she was just looking at the part of the planet dominated by the western ocean.

Eventually, she tore her gaze away from the blue globe and continued her mission, finding that a sort of skipping motion was the best at getting her from place to place on the moon—normal walking was horribly slow compared to this. She skipped back and forth, bringing rock after rock back to the airlock. She eventually shoved them all in and sealed the door.

And then she waited while everyone else brought her samples in and started storing them. That would take some time, especially because they wanted to avoid excessive amounts of moon dust everywhere. Which would involve a lot of bags, precision movements, and dusting.

So Jeh decided waiting in place was silly, she was going exploring. She stood alone on a gray expanse that extended in every direction. She couldn’t go far from the ship since she would need to go back in at some point, but surely she could climb that hill over there?

The hill, as it turned out, was just a boulder embedded in the regolith. Had gravity been normal, Jeh would have had some difficulty climbing the jagged and irregular thing. As it was, though, she could climb it with one arm, launching herself upward with each motion.

She scraped her knee against one of the rocks. A few flecks of plast came off her suit, but no breach occurred. It was, however, a reminder that she really needed to be careful, enough damage would make the suit useless.

It took less than a minute to reach the top of the boulder. She stood proudly, hands on her hips as she surveyed the land around her.

The bleakness of it all struck her. There was no life. There was no structure. There wasn’t even color in most places. The sky was black, with most stars outshone by the sun and the reflection of its light on the lunar regolith.

It was quiet. She was far enough from the Moonshot II that no vibrations from within could be felt. The only sounds she had were her own. Her breathing. A gurgle in her stomach. Some sort of whining in the back of her head… had she ever even heard that noise before? It was so quiet…

A light flashed on the Moonshot II. They were probably signaling for her to come back.

She almost jumped off her vantage point. After all, the fall wouldn’t hurt her, and it would be even less dangerous than on Ikyu. However, she needed to protect her suit, and if she landed wrong on a rock, that would be that for it. With a sigh, she slowly climbed down the boulder, taking care to keep the suit in good condition.

It did not take long for her to get back to the Moonshot II and seal herself in the airlock so she could be brought in once again.

She would naturally stink the whole place up once she opened the suit. Fortunately, they had foreseen this problem and had lots of scented herbs and soaps to keep it from being unbearable.

~~~

Xanava descended to the Mikarol launchpad in the Skyripper. Her ship was no longer the only one, but it was hers. She jumped out and put her hands on her hips, also holding two other sets of arms there, adding even more hands to the posture. She displayed a smug grin on her face. “Mission successful! The Sparkellite has been deployed!”

“Very good,” her superior, a man in full Mikarol armor who she had forgotten the name of, said. “Any problems?”

“Shook my ship like a rock down a mountain.” Xanava displayed a bunch of spirals on her face. “Was very hard to launch it.”

“The spinlaunch system is how Kroan does it, we simply iterated on their design.”

“Just because something is proven doesn’t make it the best.”

“True.” The armored man put his hands behind his back. “Xanava, you are still the most experienced pilot by far, and as such you are going to be given more responsibility.”

“Joy,” Xanava deadpanned.

“Firstly, a message needs to be taken to Descent containing our designs for the improved docking latch.” He handed her a tied roll of dozens of papers. “We have already sent one of the others to Kroan.”

“Why can’t one of the lackeys do it?”

“There are mild concerns Vraskal might try something. You will take a very high flight path, slowing the message, but avoiding them.”

“Fine, fine…” Xanava grabbed the message. “And what else?”

“You will need to start preparing for the station missions. The modules will need to be carried up one by one, and they will not be light. After you deliver this message, you are to practice with large cargo tied to the outside of your craft.”

“Flying with weights, eh? A suitable challenge!” She displayed a raised fist on her screen.

“You may set out on your mission.”

“I hear you, I hear you.” Xanava climbed back into the Skyripper, message in hand, and launched into the sky with a burst of speed. That was the part she loved the most, that initial jerk made her feel like she was flat as a pancake for a moment, despite being a rigid being.

She burst through the clouds and flew away from Ikyu at a very steep angle.

They wanted her to get to high altitude. Might as well decidedly overdo it.

Below, she could see the shape of continents. Mikarol was primarily situated to the northeastern edge of the continent, with some holdings on major islands and inland. The southern island nations were Mikarol’s current primary source of conquest, though that was apt to change soon as the maps from space had revealed a very large landmass past the islands which might have made it far more worthwhile to just ignore the small nations.

Most nation borders could not be seen from space, and to be fair the exact border between Varskal and Mikarol wasn’t clear, but Mikarol’s land was clearly green. Vraskal’s lands were a mixture of deserts, metal expanses, and the Dark Forests which were technically green, but far too dark. The only traditionally good land Vraskal had was on the shoreline.

Vraskal ended at some point in the badlands, but that wasn’t visible from space. The deserts, metal expanses, and Dark Forests just continued on and slowly faded out into complete wilderness until it “crashed” into the tremendous mountain range that held Descent. On a global scale, Mikarol and Descent were actually close by.

Descent had no real neighbors, just lots of tribes living around it. The northeast became wastelands before it became Vraskal, the south was filled with innumerable tribes, and the west was a rather harsh, arid land that eventually merged into blackness.

As far as Xanava knew, no one had investigated the blackness. She wondered why. It didn’t look like anything else on the surface of Ikyu.

But that was not for her today, she had a message to deliver. She turned the Skyripper and aimed it right at Descent.

Let’s see if I can hit their stupid palace and pretend it was an accident… probably not. But let’s see…

The Skyripper launched down as quickly as it could. Which meant Xanava had to slow down significantly, later, to avoid burning up.

~~~

The Moonshot II flew over the shape of Wanderlust. She currently appeared as a mountain-sized and shaped Orange crystal near the south pole of the moon. Most of her appeared to be contained within a large crater, giving the erroneous impression that she had made the crater. Shimmering arrows appeared on her surface, gesturing at a square hole significantly larger than the ship.

“Looks like she’s prepared this time,” Vaughan observed.

“Benefactor did tell her we were coming,” Blue added.

“Still, who knows how much she’s improved her interior?”

“We’re about to find out!” Jeh said, rubbing her hands together. She was no longer in the spacesuit—it was best not to have it on unless it was absolutely necessary.

The Moonshot II descended into the hole. It quickly sealed up behind them, and the floor below them opened up. They drifted down into a semicircular chamber the size of a large mansion that could easily hold dozens of Moonshots. The room was very well decorated; actual columns carved out of moon rock dominated the chamber, rising all the way up to the domed Orange ceiling. Furniture of all sorts, made of both rock and Orange, was strewn about the area. There were quite a few sculptures as well; ones of the six brave astronauts who had first met Wanderlust, but also statues of figures no one recognized; possibly figures from her past.

The Moonshot II landed in the empty area in the center, clearly intended for the exact purpose. They popped the door open.

“Welcome!” Wanderlust called to them in Standard, which Jeh had to translate, naturally. “You’re back sooner than I expected!“

“You’ve still clearly prepared well for us!” Jeh said as Blue and Keller started unloading some boxes from within the ship. “Aaaaand we’ve got some presents for you!”

“Presents? I love presents! Do you have more air samples!?”

“Yes, but we also have something even better… water samples!”

“GASP!” Wanderlust literally sent the word into their heads rather than any kind of mental noise. “Water is such an important part of so many things, and yet it’s so hard to get out here! This will be beyond useful!”

“And it’ll probably help with some of our other gifts…” Jeh opened one of the other boxes, showing a bunch of plants in pots. “Some plants!”

“Plants!? I haven’t seen plants in… well, since I left! Amazing! Thank you!”

Blue cleared her throat. “While this is a gift, we’d appreciate if you watched them and told us how they grow. We haven’t been able to do long-term studies of plant growth in different gravity.”

“I will record everything!”

“We also have some fish eggs,” Jeh said, pulling a small bag that was pressed between the potted plants. “Maybe you can make a fish tank.”

“I shall decorate this space with all of this. This will be wonderful!”

The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

“Also got some books on history here…” Jeh rummaged through another box. “And a better code you can use to talk to Benefactor and get more information. You should be able to send us messages of any sort without waiting for us to arrive this way, instead of the restricted thing we came up with last time.”

“I was not expecting so much upon your return!“

“We had a lot of time to think about what to bring with us,” Vaughan said.

“There’s also some stuff from the Crown,” Keller said, gesturing at the last box, which was better described as a chest. Keller unlatched it to reveal gold, jewels, official legal documents, as well as letters written by the King, Queen, and Princesses. “Some complicated stuff in here, but the biggest one here is ‘bout your sovereignty.”

“I’m not a nation though.”

“Well, we ain’t callin’ ya part of us, so anything your body currently touches is recognized as belongin’ to ya. Ya’re independent.”

“Woah… I guess I had forgotten how much the people of the surface craved proper procedure and paperwork. Oh well, doesn’t change much of anything here. Thank you all so much! If only I had something new to give you in return, but I only have the same samples as before…”

“Another set would be nice,” Blue said. “It would let multiple teams study them.”

“Well then I’ll curate one. In the meantime… let’s just have a chat! How have you all been?”

“Great!” Jeh beamed. “Because we’re on the moon with a spacesuit!”

“A spacesuit? How marvelous!”

And so the small talk began. Wanderlust had nothing to offer the “catching up” portion of the conversation as nothing happened to her on the moon, but the astronauts had plenty to talk about from the Tempest Incident to the demon attack they missed to all the mysterious events going on… there were a few specific details they didn’t tell Wanderlust, things known to be secret. The black cubes, the secret society…

Keller, however, had the authority to reveal these things if he deemed them necessary.

“I’m gonna tell ya a secret,” Keller said, sitting down in one of the moon rock chairs and stretching one of his arms. “This don’t go to no one that’s not an astronaut, an Agent, or a member o’ the Crown.”

“Of course, of course, I can keep a secret!”

“I have my doubts, but we need t’ know some things…” He leaned forward, directing his gaze at an Orange column in an attempt to find Wanderlust’s nonexistent “face.” “One o’ the things we encountered were these black cubes.”

“Black cubes…” Wanderlust paused. “I know exactly what you’re talking about, they were the source of the Alliance’s might and adaptability.”

“You made them?” Vaughan asked.

“No, we have no idea where they came from. It was actually a big deal, since they were so fundamental. We know they did not exist prior to what you call the First Cataclysm.”

“Do you know what they are? How they work?”

“We never fully uncovered that mystery as far as I know, but there were people working on it when I left. I know we’d figured out how to program them to give us essentially any ability we might want.”

Blue froze. “...They’re programmable!?”

“Yes. Within limits, though I’m not sure what those limits are. Though… I suppose the programming method has been completely lost.”

Keller furrowed his brow. “Lost? Can’t we get it back?”

“I don’t know. It was… ah… Jeh, how do I talk about the past around you again?”

“You can talk about Jenny,” Jeh said with a slight shudder. “I don’t… panic as much anymore, even if I really don’t like it.”

“Of course. Jenny was the one who knew how, the only one that I’m aware of, actually.“

Jeh frowned. She sat down, holding a hand to her chest.

“I can stop…”

“This is important information,” Jeh said, shaking her head. “And I have to hear it to translate it.”

Blue shook her head. “If it’s too hard, we don’t need to know.”

“I’m related to the black cubes, Blue. And that means… I might be related to…” She glanced nervously at Keller. “Other things.”

Blue sighed, turning to the Orange column that Keller had looked at earlier. “...Be brief.”

“Jenny could change the power inherent in the cubes. I never saw it done, but I saw the effects sometimes, for when the cube is changed all who currently have the power stored within lose it. Jenny’s landscaping projects were heavily reliant on this.”

“Landscaping?”

“There were no metal biomes prior to the Alliance purposefully putting them in to give the rigids a biome suitable for them. Their numbers were dwindling significantly, it was a major political issue. Even I heard about it, and I didn’t care! Still kind of don’t, but I am curious, how are the rigids doing?”

“The Shinelands seem fine…” Jeh said, mind clearly not entirely focused despite her need to translate everything.

“Wait, your Alliance made those!?” Blue spurted. “That’s… how in… that crosses the continent!”

“It still took a long time. But at least it appears to have worked? I’m sure the rigids are happy for that.”

“...Do you know where… Jenny… came from?” Jeh asked.

“…I do not know.” Wanderlust paused. “From what I heard, she didn’t know either. Sorry.”

“It’s okay.” Jeh folded her arms. “...Everyone, I know it would probably be helpful if I could remember how to reprogram the cubes, but I don’t want to remember her.”

“You don’t have to,” Blue said.

“Being able to create any power you’d want sounds terrifying anyway…” Vaughan shook his head. “Can you imagine the responsibility?”

“They were closely guarded objects,” Wanderlust pointed out.

“Still…”

“Would ya know where any are?” Keller asked.

“Not unless you know the location of the Alliance’s Grand Library. Or its ruins, I suppose.”

“Afraid not.”

“Then no. Was probably looted anyway, if not completely destroyed by now.”

“ ‘Nother question for ya,” Keller said, adjusting his hat. “Ya know ‘bout demons?”

“Ah yes, terrible creatures, absolute horrors. Don’t trust even the friendly ones, they are all soulbound to the monstrous mother they serve.”

“Eyda?” Jeh asked.

“Yes, the name of evil. We think she resides in the magic field itself, finding the material world of Ikyu boring.”

“We’re calling it the Gronge field now.”

“Oh, why?”

Vaughan coughed. “Wizard Gronge may have figured out how it works, the information is in one of the documents. We shouldn’t let ourselves get distracted here, though. She lives in the Gronge field?”

“It’s what I heard. She was our most persistent foe at the end, for no nation could stand up to us, but the demons could crawl in from anywhere and wreak havoc despite our best efforts. I guess I should say that she herself was not our most persistent foe, as she doesn’t care. It’s her demons that kept tearing towns and cities apart through both brute force and cunning. The exact nature of demons was one of the major research projects prior to my departure.”

“Maybe they caused the Second Cataclysm because you got too close to the answer,” Vaughan suggested.

“I don’t know… something doesn’t seem right about that suggestion. Despite having the power to do so, they did not conquer the world before the Alliance, and they have not in this age either. As for what they actually want, we never really understood. They appear to have individual wants and desires, but when required they can lose that individuality and become an extension of whatever the highest-ranking demon around is. They did not do this very often, but we did push them into corners at times.”

“Hmm…” Keller stroked his chin. “We’re fortunate they don’t engage in warfare much, if they were your enemy as much as ours.” He paused. “Waitaminute… have the demons always been around?”

“No, actually, prior to the First Cataclysm, they weren’t around.”

“Related to the cubes?”

“I don’t think so? But they are both black, hmm, that is weird…” Wanderlust paused. “You know what I should do? I should write down what I do remember of history so I can give it to you next time you guys are here.”

“Oh, that would be excellent!” Blue grinned. “Would save a lot of trouble, and then us kicking ourselves for not asking you a question when we get back to Ikyu.”

“Indeed. Actually, come to think of it, do you have anything you want to do here besides ask questions?”

“Actually, yes,” Vaughan said. “Princess Tenrayce Kroan would like to start a Library.”

~~~

At the very pinnacle of Descent, blimps met to discuss the way of the future.

“We have received designs from Mikarol. They are superior to our own.”

“Then we shall make use of them.”

“We cannot continue allowing the grounded to dictate to us.”

“We cannot allow ourselves to eschew progress.”

“The state of things are still unacceptable.”

“Find a way to return them to acceptable without impeding progress and then we can implement it.”

“Our designers are struggling to catch up. They cannot gain experience.”

“Have the suit designs progressed?”

“Negligibly. Our species requires vast quantities of air to operate. A simple environmental enclosure would be insufficient. Current estimates posit that a single of us needs a volume of air ten times the size of the body.”

“Consider compression?”

“It is considered, and can reduce the size considerably, but only to a point. The compression mechanism takes up space, the storage takes up space, and we are not capable of wearing anything form-fitting. At this point making a ‘suit’ for us would be akin to making a ship.”

“Our size is proving to be quite the obstacle.”

“A most aggravating one.”

“Until we can craft ships for us in bulk, which is difficult without extensive industry, we will have to rely on grounded or lower proxies.”

“Unacceptable.”

“Find a solution, we will take it. No solution, we lower ourselves as our ancestors did to establish Descent. Surely you are not suggesting that was a mistake?”

“I believe his distaste is primarily with personally having to deal with the grounded. They are quite infuriating at times.”

“They have always been that way.”

“They should know their place. Our activities in this space program are not showing them that. It’s showing them partners.”

“In time, we will become established, and our place will be known once more.”

“You speak with the vice of faith!”

“And you speak with the vice of hopelessness. Moreover, I do not speak with faith. Allow me to clarify: our place will be known, for it is true, and truth has nothing to fear.”

“You know as well as I that the truth can be destroyed by politics.”

“In the short term, yes. But generations down the line, truth will be uncovered again. This is known.”

“I have to live now.”

“You are acting like a child. We are not like the grounded. We see things beyond our lifespans. By being so connected to your personal experiences, you become more like them. Cease, and remember we work for the future.”

“...Surely for the enjoyment of those in the future?”

“Yes. But not our own. Our enjoyment comes from our ancestors.”

“As it will always be. Until the end of progress.”

~~~

Jeh didn’t necessarily need to be in the spacesuit at the moment, but it was certainly helpful. She was out on the surface of the moon just outside the majority of Wanderlust’s bulk. Glancing up and behind her, she could see Blue, Vaughan, and Keller behind a semi-transparent section of crystal. She waved at them.

Blue and Vaughan waved back.

“Right, so, will this do?” Wanderlust asked.

Jeh looked at a pit Wanderlust had dug into the regolith, removing all the powdery dust and getting to the rock beneath. “Is it stable?”

“I believe so.”

“Then let’s get started.” Jeh walked to the edge of the pit, watching as Wanderlust grabbed moon rocks and shaped them into long, rectangular planks, placing them around the edge of the pit to make it square and to keep dust from falling in. Wanderlust’s mastery of Orange was clearly on display: each plank was perfectly crafted and placed with no noticeable defect. The floor was carved out of the bedrock itself, and polished to a sheen with a tornado of carefully applied dust.

“I think it’s ready for its contents.”

Jeh removed a large backpack from herself. Opening it up, she removed several sealed plast containers. On the interior were a lot of books written in tiny print. Such things as The History of Kroan and the World and The Theory of Magic and Astronomical Observations Catalog and Collected Kroan Folk Tales and many others. Literature of great historical, scientific, and cultural value.

Placed here, in a bunker on the moon, in case something went wrong.

She jumped into the pit and placed the records in a corner. She had only one load this time, as the library was just being started. They would add more and more to it each time they returned.

“We’re good!” Jeh said, trying to jump out of the pit. However, even with the low gravity, she couldn’t scale the flat walls. “Uh…”

Wanderlust lifted her out. “This is quite a remarkable project we are undertaking. I never thought of leaving records buried in the ground in case of disaster…”

“I hope there isn’t a disaster.” Jeh watched as Wanderlust carved more planks and placed them over top of the room, covering it up entirely except for a circular hole in the center, where a pipe-shaped rock was placed. Wanderlust affixed a natural-looking rock to the top of the pipe, but it secretly could be opened to access the space below.

Then everything but this very highest entrance was re-covered by the regolith, intended to look completely natural.

“Nice, nice…” Jeh walked up to the only part of the structure still visible: the large rock. It was larger than most people, but only just—the perfect size for their purposes. Jeh placed a hand on the top of the rock. She couldn’t see the seam, but she knew it was there. She easily pulled the top off—such a heavy rock was nothing under moon gravity. This revealed the lower part of the rock had a smooth circular hole cut into it that led down into the darkness.

The library. The hidden library of Kroan.

“So… don’t make this place public, sort of thing,” Jeh said, placing the top of the rock back on, hiding everything they had just done. “But show it to people it might help. I dunno, I guess the Crown is just trusting you to keep an eye on this and make your best judgment?”

“I suppose I am unlikely to leave this place. But even if I do somehow, I will make sure to remember the location. It is an… honor to be entrusted with such important works.”

“Thanks.”

“If you have anything else that needs protecting, just let me know. This moon never sees anything happen, what is here will be here for eternity.”

“Still, if nothing bad happens, no one will ever read anything in there.” Jeh chuckled. “I dunno why Tenrayce is preparing for the worst. We’ll be fine.”

“I admire your optimism! But I have also seen things fall centuries down the line. I cannot say I am certain everything will turn out fine. But remember, if things do go south, you can always come to me.”

“Aww, thanks!”

“By the way, these fish eggs are fascinating, how long until they hatch?”

“I have no idea, and it’s probably different in space anyway so I couldn’t tell you even if I did know! Hah!”

“Then it is time to do science!”

“Science!”

~~~

Winter had already hit Shimvale, as was normal, but the Shimmers weren’t the sort to let a “little snow” get in the way of their lives. The big cities were plowed almost as soon as the snow landed, though only on major roads. The people were used to having to trudge through large quantities of it to get anywhere, and so they did. Despite the snow being half the height of some doors, the bars were full and most everything was open and ready to receive customers.

The Council of Shimvale, too, was active. All five members were present and accounted for; Fr’ll the j’loon, Crimkle the red rigid of an unknown race, Noran Toran the sphinx, Vi the ice elemental, and of course Kaykayzee Zaugg the human who was never far from her violin.

“...Moving on from the dull and uninteresting matters…” Noran said with a yawn, stretching out his wings. “I hear we have some valuable intel?”

Kaykayzee nodded. “My spies have brought back some plans.” She rolled out a scroll on the table that contained several blueprints and designs for some kind of device. “These are Kroan’s drafted plans to build what they call a ‘space station.’ “

Vi sparkled. “Why is this relevant to us? We cannot build such a thing, we voted not to devote vast sums of our wealth to space. Let them play with their toys.”

“Perhaps,” Kaykayzee admitted. “We do lack the capacity to build this. But it is important to know they are making it—they will have permanent access to the sky and will be able to look down on us from a distance.”

“They can do that already with their Skyseeds,” Fr’ll pointed out. “We have seen them flying. They do appear to not be all that concerned with us, though, and keep sending them over the Shinelands to deal with the Rigid Plague.”

“And when they deal with that?” Kaykayzee asked. “We would be the next target.”

“That’s assuming they’ll deal with it,” Crimkle grumbled, tapping the ground with a sharp foot. “They may not be able to, and then we’ll have to deal with it.”

“We have an even smaller rigid population than Kroan does,” Noran pointed out. “No offense to Crimkle, but there simply aren’t enough of them to provide a viable threat.”

“Unless the plague comes charging in here to wipe us all out.”

“The roads are only being built in Kroan.”

“It makes sense to focus on one enemy at a time, not two, if you can help it.”

Kaykayzee crossed her arms. “It’s irrelevant, we already voted on our response to the rigid plague. I am preparing the resources as we speak, there is no point in further deliberation or argument.”

“Well said,” Vi added. “The Rigid Plague is not our concern at this juncture.”

“Then what is the topic?” Crimkle asked. “There’s nothing to vote on or talk about involving the space station, really.”

“I’m not done.” Kaykayzee put her hands on her hips and narrowed her eyes. “They’re building it with help. The Mikarol Empire and some place called Descent are partners in this endeavor.”

“Why did it have to be Mikarol…” Fr’ll said with a sigh. “They make everything so difficult.”

“More than Vraskal?”

“Vraskal is just… strange, is all. They’re free spirits like us.”

Noran nodded. “Vraskal shares a kinship of hardship with us, though their burden is much greater. We both defy the normal order of kings and rulers. Though their almost… mystical ways do baffle me.”

“Regardless, Mikarol is a more potent obstacle to our ideals,” Fr’ll said. “For all Kroan’s failings, they do at least give lip service to the citizenry as a whole. The Empire is… a soul-crushing place. The ideal of freedom is almost nonexistent. The people don’t even think about it… so pitiable.” He paused. “I wish we were stronger, so we could do something for the people of the world.”

“Unfortunately, we are not,” Vi said. “Therefore, we must take care of our own.”

“Precisely.”

“Still, the fact that Kroan has secured an alliance for such a project is concerning and surprising.” Vi paused. “How was it done, and why?”

“The how is simple enough,” Kaykayzee said. “As far as we are aware, they are the only three powers on the face of Ikyu with space travel capacity. Though we know almost nothing of Descent, we do know one of their ships landed in Willow Hollow and that an astronaut was given a tour of the town. Everything else we have is all hearsay and rumor. They appear to be a city founded on the ideals of progress and reason built by floating blimp creatures akin to balloon whales. Other rumors indicate they may be even worse than the Empire, with active racism from the blimps to everyone else.”

“But they are just a city?”

“Yes. Just a city, one with few neighbors, apparently. They’re on Kroan’s world maps they’ve been producing, and there really doesn’t appear to be anything else near them.”

“Hm… not a threat, nor a boon in terms of power. But a benefit for science…” Vi shifted, bringing the air around her to a significantly lower temperature. “History is being made, and not by us.”

“Should we reconsider our stance?” Fr’ll asked. “To be without this capacity…”

“That is a discussion for another time, the vote holdout period is still in effect.”

“Fair enough.”

“I just wanted to make sure everyone knew what they were making,” Kaykayzee said. “What we do about it… could be nothing.”

“It’s not designed for combat, right?” Noran asked.

Kaykayzee shook her head. “I believe they’re going out of their way to make that not the case. Three different powers will use it, they can’t be tempted to point it at each other.”

“So it’s just a house in space…”

“Excellent for aerial spying.”

“But they already do that pretty well.”

“They also want to make a bigger ship that can go longer distances and it apparently has to be assembled in space.” Kaykayzee shrugged. “But I don’t see how that’s relevant to us, yet.”

“It is not,” Vi said. “Thank you for sharing, Kaykayzee. We shall keep this information in mind and act upon it as relevant. However, we do have another item on the itinerary… there’s been another tax riot.”

The other four council members all groaned.

~~~

The Moonshot II’s return trip was uneventful.

They left the moon.

They flew in space for a couple of days.

They returned to Ikyu and orbited around until they found Willow Hollow.

Then they descended to the ground and landed.

Naturally, the return time hadn’t been scheduled, so there were only a few people at the landing pad when they arrived. Those who were there cheered excitedly and clapped when the ship’s door opened and revealed the astronauts inside.

“You show that moon who’s boss!” Ripashi called from a nearby tree. “Conquer it like a bear!”

“Working on it!” Jeh called up with a grin and a thumbs up. Then she had to take a moment to catch her breath.

Ripashi tilted his head. “Good trip?”

“Excellent! We did a lot of stuff! A lot of it I’m not allowed to tell you!” Jeh winked at him, still breathing heavily.

“Bah! So lame!”

“I know right? Uuuuugh, secrets!” She placed her hand on the Moonshot II and used it to support herself.

“Ya best keep ‘em,” Keller said, lighting up a smoke now that he was finally back on the ground. He visibly relaxed upon doing this. “Gotta lotta reports to write…”

“And I’m going to rest,” Blue said, closing her eyes and furrowing her brow. “My brain hurts from all that calculating.”

“You? Getting tired of math?” Vaughan asked.

“It’s so tedious, it’s not a new calculation anymore, it’s the same one every time…” Blue groaned. “I’m pudding… I am going to take a nap.”

“I see it only took until the second flight for this to become routine…”

Blue let out a yawn. “It is a long trip.”

“Imagine how long the trips will be later.”

“Ah yes, the ship…” Blue furrowed her brow. “Winter will be here before we go back up there, I’ll need to work on the base designs and idea for that. A ship that can go anywhere…” She clicked her tongue. “We still need to test long-term air restoration on the station before we can really get started. Long-term space experiments are required.” She closed her eyes and shook her head. “Even though I was expecting the gravity this time, my legs still feel weak. I’m beginning to think there are actual consequences of living without gravity for a while.”

“Yeah, these bones of mine aren’t exactly feeling great at the moment…” Vaughan let out a long, deep breath. “Keller, you’d probably know, is it all just in our heads?”

“No, there’s a real weakening going on,” Keller said. “I wouldn’t be able t’ fight as well like this.”

“We need more data.” Blue shook her head. “We need the space station. Long-term experiments.”

“In order to go even further…” Vaughan scratched his beard. “I wonder, where to first? Talu, Penthar, and Zhevanthe are all on the ‘interior’ part of the Solar System.”

“Penthar gets the closest,” Blue said. “And it’s also the closest in gravity to Ikyu, we could probably stand on it as normal. …Though our legs would be weak upon arrival, that might not be good.”

“Talu or Zhevanthe then,” Vaughan folded his arms. “Both lower gravity than Ikyu, but more than the moon. Depending on the arrangement, either Talu or Zhevanthe is closer.”

“Talu is also really close to the sun and is probably very hot,” Blue commented. “Zhevanthe may be colder, but I think we can deal with cold.”

“I guess for the foreseeable future we dream of Zhevanthe then?”

“To the red planet!”

“It’s not that red…”

“Redder than most things in the sky,” Jeh said. “I’ve used the telescope.”

“It’ll be a long time before we’re ready to go…” Vaughan scratched his beard. “Hmm… perhaps there are ways we can gather information on Zhevanthe remotely? Wanderlust can give us gravity and upper atmosphere information but beyond that…”

“Things we send have to be manned if we want to use magic, I think Wanderlust’s already pushed the boundary of what can be done that way.” Blue tapped a hoof on the ground. “If we could make, like, a really good telescope… in space…” Blue’s eyes lit up. “There needs to be a telescope module on the space station.”

“That’s going to be a really long section…”

“We can make it collapsable…” Blue grinned. “Oh, I know what I’m going to work on in the winter. A really, really big space telescope. No atmosphere in the way, no gravity to limit the structure… oh the things I can do!”

“I thought you were going to rest your brain.”

“I. Am going to take a nap. And dream of giant telescopes.”

“Have fun with that. I’m going to take a nap and just nap. Actually get some rest instead of working in my dreams.”

“Hey! Dreams are a great source of inspiration!”

~~~

The land of Vraskal was a dark, desolate place. Aside from the vast quantities of wasteland and ground that appeared to be coated in rocks made from ash, there were also places where the sun never shone. Inexplicably, these places were always dark. No sunlight ever penetrated to the surface, there was only inky blackness more than a kilometer away in every direction.

“I wonder what causes this…” Envila said from her position on top of a black, rocky crag.

“Causes what?” Riikaz asked from behind her.

“The darkness. It is not the darkness of the demons, it is… something else.”

“This is a cursed place.”

“I find your assertion correct in a poetic sense, but the curious aspect of myself wonders how, exactly, it was cursed.” Envila held out a hand. “We can still see ourselves just fine, so light is still reaching us.”

“The lighting is the same day or night.”

“Which is fascinating, implying that it’s not coming from the sun. Crystal light doesn’t illuminate things. And thus… we find ourselves in a situation most curious. A curse of darkness that provides light. Oh, what could do this?”

“Attribute or ancestry.”

“Ah, either a species of darkness lives in these places, or a great mystery power.” Envila stood up and jumped off the crag, landing in a dusty plain below. There were several tree corpses that appeared frozen in time around her—trunks and branches of pure black, not a leaf to be seen. Blue wisps of light entered and left the tree remnants, seemingly randomly. “Could these lights be creatures, creatures with an attribute? I see no sign of spirited nature in them, so unlikely. But, then, as there are no magical creatures that are not spirited, these must come from somewhere. But where?”

Riikaz sighed. “Look, I love your curiosity and creativity, but the exact nature of the darkness is not going to help us on our mission.”

“What if the enemy is hiding behind it?” Envila asked, crossing her arms behind her back. “It would certainly be an effective way to dissuade discovery, as we are being somewhat ‘insane’ to venture in here anyway. They are experts at stealth, and as such since we are attempting to be ‘sneaky’ by moving through here, it stands to reason they’ve thought of doing the same. They could be in here with us right now, unaware of us as we are unaware of them.”

Riikaz tapped her finger on her other arm’s gauntlet. “...Good point. Plus, we’re going to have plenty of time to study this darkness…”

As if on cue, a snowflake drifted down from the darkness above, landing on the place Riikaz’ nose would have been if she’d had one. “Hmm. Winter.”

“Winter comes violently upon Vraskal, from what I hear.” Envila adjusted her coat. “We will need to prepare while we can.”

“Thank you for doing this, by the way.”

“Your quest is not one to be ignored,” Envila said. “You sought me out as an ally for such an important task, how could I refuse?”

“Still, you didn’t have to stay the winter with me, you could have continued on your journey.”

“Ah, trying to survive the winter in the dark wastes sounds fun, though!” Envila winked at her. “A challenge suitable for us, don’t you think?”

“It’ll be a lot of waiting.”

“And as previously discussed, the waiting can be used to understand our environment. Far from Vraskalian civilization, we may find them. Or we could just go stir-crazy in our dwelling. Speaking of…” Envila took a shovel out of her backpack. “We need to start digging that dwelling. Don’t want to get surprised by the snow, do we?”

“No, no we do not.” Riikaz took out a shovel of her own. “You sure you know how to do this?”

“Yes. That is, assuming the person I got it from wasn’t only pretending to teach me, but he did not strike me as the needlessly cruel sort.”

With that, they got to work digging a hole in the ground. They would spend the next few months in it, surviving off stored supplies, wandering critters, and their wits. Creating a true bunker to hold out in a foreign land.

“You know, it’s winter here the same time it is almost everywhere else,” Envila said. “However, there are places that have the reverse seasons.”

“Really?” Riikaz asked.

“Yep. Not Kroan, your people are preparing for winter just as we are. But if you go far enough south, you can get the opposite seasons.” Envila shook her head. “I never went far enough to witness them myself, but as I was crossing your ‘Eastern’ Ocean I met people from the lower lands.”

“I wonder why that is…”

“Probably something to do with the shape of Ikyu and the path everything takes across the sky.” Envila gave a slight shrugging motion as she dug her shovel into the ground. “I foresee that Blue has probably already figured out why this occurs, or could find out quickly if you so much as asked.”

“Well, that won’t happen for a while.”

“Have to find the enemy first…” Envila clicked her tongue. “To imagine, a society so secret and so paranoid… I do look forward to learning more about them.”

Riikaz frowned. “...I’m not.”

“How so?”

“I get the impression the realizations will be unpleasant.”

“...Possibly. There has to be a reason they’re like this, and it is no doubt something of immense consequence. But this is Dia’s world, not theirs, Riikaz. She has the final word on what goes, they can merely act within Her plan.”

“...What if they are appointed by Her?”

Envila paused. “I find that unlikely from what I know. It is, however, possible that She is using them to bring about something else. The word speaks of evil empires conquering and slaying, but nonetheless carrying out Dia’s will. They themselves were punished at a later time for their cruelty, but said cruelty appears to have needed to happen. That could certainly be possible.”

“How would we know?”

“We would not, not for certain. We will simply have to make our best judgment and see where Dia leads. And if it is not a pleasant place…” Envila paused her digging for a moment to lock eyes with Riikaz. “Then so be it.”

“...So be it,” Riikaz echoed.

~~~

SCIENCE SEGMENT:

What do you do when you want to leave a record for the deep future? Like, if you expect all civilization to collapse?

Ancient people would carve things into stone. And, to be sure, large pieces of stone do last a long time—just look at the Pyramids—but they are subject to the elements and get worn down over time. Writing in particular will likely be the first to go. This is particularly evident on Ikyu—there are no obvious signs of anyone who could have sent anything to the moon, and yet the rovers are certainly there. It all eroded away.

So, how would we, current modern humanity, go about preserving information for future civilizations to find, assuming everything gets wiped out? Well, there are a few options. My personal favorite is to encode information into the DNA of hardy, self-replicating microbes. As they reproduce the information gets copied time and time again, and will be retained over long timescales if you use the right microbes. However, this would require some hypothetical future investigator to either get lucky, or to know exactly what they were looking for to begin with.

Digital information will eventually wear away as the location it is stored in does. Cellars will eventually collapse. Cities will be eroded into metal dust.

However, this is only in places with active environments. As we may note, the moon is not that environment. As such all our probes on the moon will last for thousands of years. In fact, the moon changes so slowly that the original astronaut footprints will probably still be there in tens of thousands of years. So placing things up there would do well. However, the moon still attracts meteorites and isn’t completely static, so things stored there will eventually degrade.

The things that won’t degrade are those sent on probes into deep space, like the golden records on the Voyager probes. Those things have nothing interfering with them and will last forever, containing vast quantities of information about Earth. However, someone would have to find them, and the Voyager probes won’t keep transmitting signals forever; after we lose track of them, it’d be an astronomical miracle for anyone to find it by chance.

So, really, a lunar library is actually a pretty good idea. Civilization collapses, the library remains, and the library is likely to actually be found. After all, the moon has lots of other relics on it, no doubt it would eventually be searched.

For the record, no, our satellites would mostly not still be around after a long enough time, most of their orbits will decay and they will burn up. There are a few longer-distance satellites that have orbital lifetimes of essentially an eternity, though. Those are also another good place to store information for a long time, but in that case you do take the risk of random freak asteroid strike. Structures on the moon could more easily be made to resist this, while a satellite is most likely a fragile thing. Even if it doesn’t break fully the orbital trajectory would change, and that would certainly be a mess.