"What's that mean for us?" I asked. "It's a status report of their deaths, but it's traveling at light speed. The closest solar system is over four light-years away. It'll be years before they see it."
"During the war I read that the AIs seeded listening posts in deep space around the systems they were attacking. They just had to poke through one of their little rifts in space way out in the deep black. If Vassago is sane now then what makes you think it hasn't started doing that again? No, my guess is we've got weeks or months."
"Nothing like a deadline to get the heart racing," Marty said. "Nothing we can do about it now."
"You're right," I said. "It's just put some pressure on us. As if we didn't have enough. Let's get back to work. We've got to clear out all these Ferals before we go back to Earth."
That turned out to be easier said than done. It was days of monotonous labor. Brick designed a sweeping pattern for us to follow to make sure we got every single Feral that we could possibly, reasonably find in Pluto's orbit. He made it clear that getting them all was essentially impossible for us.
One day into our clearing of Pluto's orbital space, Regar woke up from the coma I'd put him in and asked to see me.
I stepped through the gate back to Pax. Regar was lying on his bunk in his monastic looking quarters, a light sheet covering the lower half of his body.
He noticed me looking and chuckled. "Believe me, this is not my modesty. Rather, I'd spare you the sight of the bottom half of my body regrowing. It's rather unsettling the first few times you see it."
"I don't know, I'm not easily unsettled," I replied.
"Suit yourself then," he said, and threw off the sheet.
The lower part of his body had been severed just below his solar plexus. Now, the regrowth had been going for a little while and was about halfway through rebuilding his pelvis. I watched as Nanites reconstructed the bone atom by atom, molecule by molecule. It was fascinating to watch, and yes, a little unsettling. I tore my eyes away.
"I told you so," he said.
I shrugged.
"Jake, I continue to be in your debt. As I told you, this debt cannot be discharged, but I wanted to express my gratitude to you for saving my life, yet again. This isn't something I'm used to. Normally, I'm the one doing the saving, when young Seekers like you get in too far over their heads."
"I told you, not a Seeker. I'm just a guy from Earth, trying to protect his planet."
"Yes, so you said. Let's test that, shall we?" he asked.
I raised an eyebrow, waiting for him to continue.
"The device, can you pass it to me?" he asked, and indicated the cylinder that we pulled from the military base. The Artifact. It was sitting on the other side of the small room, resting on his workbench.
I picked it up and handed it to him.
"I've been examining this, as I told you. It is difficult, as it is one of the most complex Artifacts that the Seekers have found intact."
"It doesn't look intact. It looks like it's a part of something bigger," I said.
"That is a fully intact component. I believe it to be a navigation system. In my simulations, when I feed it with our location data, it returns vectors to systems that are in its database. The text isn't a language I recognize, but I believe this to be an Artifact of an Elder species, rather than just one of the fallen Union members. I am very familiar with most of the fallen Union species, and this is not one of their Artifacts. I would wager much on that. It may be from a Grey vessel. I do not have the data I need to determine that."
"Well, that's good news for you then, isn't it? You can use that to find your way to those systems; go do your seeking," I said.
"Yes," he said, and paused. "This is where I try to put myself more into your debt, even though no such thing is possible."
"Hold on, Regar. I've got a lot on my plate here. For all I know, I'm going to have a full-blown Vassago invasion here. Plus, we still don't know what's happened to the Union. We might be the last man standing, here."
"You are right. You've taken on a lot of responsibility. More than most men your age. More than is wise, perhaps. I ask you to take on more. Not for the sake of your planet, but for the sake of the surviving people of this galaxy. Whatever's happened out there, know that billions and trillions are most likely still alive. If we let the Elder AIs continue their conquest, continue to awaken from their dreams of insanity, eventually all life in this galaxy will be extinguished."
My gut twisted. I knew the truth of what he was saying. It wasn't like a normal war, where both sides would assemble their forces and duke it out for territory until either one side was victorious, or they came to an uneasy detente. This was a war of extermination, and our side was losing. Hell, we didn't even know where the AI industrial base was. It seemed like it was in some kind of strange space between. Those tears in space didn't seem to lead to other places in the galaxy, but rather to some other dimension.
Regar was trying to make me responsible for this, too. Just the thought of that extra weight on my shoulders nearly crushed me. I wasn't having it.
"So what, now it's my responsibility to save the galaxy? I don't think so. I'll barely be able to save Earth. If I'm lucky."
Regar's face fell. "You're right, I have no right to ask this
