“Beam-weapons aren't the only way to harm Concordance,” Ondo was saying to her. “This is a war for the truth as much as anything. I know you think I'm too passive, that I get lost in my research, but I like to poke the killbugs' nest whenever I can.”
She watched as Ondo packaged up all that they'd learned about Coronade, overlaying it with his own analysis that this was the mythical world of the golden age – and that, clearly, this had been a time of cooperation and enlightenment, not brutal war. He made no mention of the dead star system or Surtr – partly to protect the Aetheral, and partly so that Concordance couldn't use the imagery to add fuel to their narrative of a galaxy in flames before their ascension to power. They wouldn't worry about the dating questions that she and Ondo were grappling with; they would simply point to the nova as an example of the dangers all planets faced without the reassuring, protecting care of the Cathedral ships.
When he was done, Ondo gave the information the highest priority he could and relayed it to the nearest nanosensor. It would share it with all the other drones it encountered, and they would broadcast it to every world they jumped to.
He finished by pulling all the data off the device that it had gathered. It hadn't been in contact with a drone that had been to the Refuge in over a week, so it could give them no indication on their base's current status. But it had networked with over two hundred other devices – directly or indirectly – since their incursion into the Coronade system.
Most of the data was the usual harvested telemetry of news feeds and Concordance ship activity from the various solar systems that Ondo was monitoring. She gave it a cursory scan via her brain flecks, looking for any obvious patterns or red flags. Much of the data was mundane, but there was one scrap of information that sent a thrill of wonder through her.
Ondo spotted it at the same time. He looked at her with a mix of delight and triumph in his eyes.
“The Radiant Dragon,” he said. “It survived.”
The ship had been identified while it waited at one of the nanosensor collection points – which was precisely what it was programmed to do if it became separated from them. There were, in fact, four points around the galaxy where it might wait if all else failed. It had managed to reach one of them.
The last time they'd seen the Dragon, it had been accelerating hard away from Coronade, manoeuvring as part of their attempt to distract Concordance from their insertion into the planet's atmosphere. At the time, she'd calculated the chances of it surviving its encounter with the tightening ring of attacking ships was low. Very low. Well below 5% low. Clearly, it had overcome those odds.
She studied the drone's records of the Dragon. The ship hadn't escaped unscathed. “I see at least one unprotected strike on its voidhull. Possibly a second one, a glancing blow on one of its vertices. There's no knowing what state it will be in.”
“It made seven translations before arriving at the muster point, exactly as it was supposed to.”
Selene relayed the images to Surtr as well. “This is our ship, waiting for us. Can you take us to these coordinates? If the ship is viable, we'll transfer to it and we can say goodbye. You can return to your watch.”
“Returning … that is what you wish me to do?” Surtr asked.
“I'm not telling you what to do; I thought that was what you wanted.”
“What do you think I should do?”
Selene and Ondo exchanged a puzzled glance.
“I'm sorry?” said Selene. “I thought you said your purpose was clear.”
“I am having trouble deciding the best course of action. It appears there are other evils than the one I was set to watch for, and I wonder if it might not be better if I was to fight them, instead?”
The Aetheral had clearly been quietly ruminating all this time. Selene could see the look of delight in Ondo's eyes: not only would an Aetheral make a powerful ally, there might be much that could be learned from it and its ship. To her surprise, she found herself feeling relieved, too.
“You should do whatever you want to do,” she said to it. “Don't take any orders from anyone. Don't take their advice, either. It might not be in your best interests.”
“You are instructing me not to take instructions from anyone?” Surtr said. If it was being humorous, its flat tones and unmoving facial features gave nothing away.
“Absolutely,” Selene laughed. “The only instruction you should follow is my order not to follow any other instructions. You've earned it. Even if you hadn't earned it, it would still be your right. Your life is yours to lead.”
“But what if I am just a mechanism, built to follow my programming?”
She peered up at Surtr as it gazed down at her. “Maybe you were, once, but you're not now. Whatever your origins, what matters is what you've become. The choice is yours. Go back to your post, come with us, do something else entirely. Only you can decide.”
“How do I decide?”
“Honestly? I have no idea. Just do what feels right, I guess. And if that doesn't work out, do something else. You really want my advice? It's this: if you're faced with a dilemma and someone or something is telling you to take one option, then you should take the other one. People telling you what to do are generally acting in their interest, not yours.”
Surtr ran through its triple-blink cycle a couple of times. She was beginning to think it was doing it for effect; an emotional tic rather than something
