The screaming mouth closed. He opened his eyes, and a weak smile played across his face. His voice was a whisper. “Selene Ada. I am glad that you survived. I thought the Coronade planetfall might kill both you and Ondo. Did you open the Gamma Spinwards Tunnel?”
“We did.”
“I thought I might have your deaths on my conscience. I was confused about the turn of the galaxy, and how long I had slumbered.”
She said, “We did not know you were here, locked away. We would have freed you if we'd known. Even after you saved me, I thought you were only a computational construct. Not … whatever you are. If we'd known, we wouldn't have forced you to go to the Haven.”
“They were difficult journeys. Locked away in here, my impressions of external events are indistinct, but on those flights, I suffered. I was not sure if I would endure. I would not make such a journey again.”
“I am sorry.”
“I understood you were doing what you had to do.”
“Why did those journeys cause you so much suffering? Why do you loathe Dead Space so much?”
The figure licked his lips, swallowed a few times. “It is a fundamental instinct. It is like the repulsion biological entities have for rotting flesh or anything they know might be associated with disease. It is a reflex action, below the level of conscious thought. I simply know that such regions are to be avoided at almost all cost.”
“There must be a reason.”
“There must. Or there must have been one once.”
“What should I call you?”
“I am the ship in a fundamental sense. My current name is Radiant Dragon. I do not recall all of the other names I have had over the millennia, but originally I was, I think, called Eb. Call me that if you wish.”
Eb turned his head in a series of tiny, jerky movements to consider Surtr. “And you. You saved me, brought me back. What are you? You seem familiar, but I don't believe we have ever met before.”
“We are the same and we are different, although I recall no name for myself. But we are both products of the Tok.”
“The Tok … the name is familiar. It sets off echoes in my mind. They are the same as the Recorders, yes? They created us both?”
Surtr considered that for a moment. “I do not know the name Recorders, but if they are the Tok, then yes. I believe they constructed, or grew, or formed both of us.”
“And others, too,” said Selene. “The Warden entity for one.”
“The question is, why are we here?” said Surtr. “What is our purpose? I thought mine was to watch for the Morn, but now I am experiencing doubts.”
“My purpose, if I ever had one, is long-lost,” said Eb. “I have only glimpses of what I once was. Perhaps I had no specific purpose other than to guide this ship where it needed to go.”
“And I think both of you should forget the whole idea of a purpose,” said Selene. “Or at least, decide one for yourselves; don't take anything imposed upon you.”
She spoke directly to Eb, lying in front of her. “Will you able to resume full executive control of the ship?”
“The outer layers of my consciousness – those that you know and habitually interact with – must remain in control for the moment. I will heal more, but I think I am beyond full repair. My journey through the stars has been long, and I think it might be coming to an end. The damage accumulates, and eventually it is too much.”
“You don't know that,” said Selene.
“No. And I might be wrong. But I feel, somehow, that ancient designs are finally coming into reality, and at such times much will change. The galaxy is turning. Perhaps I and Surtr have only survived this long so that we can play our part in what is to come.”
“Which still doesn't mean you have to play the part given to you. You're free to act.”
Eb reached up and took Selene's hand, the white tubing moving with him. He touched her with utmost gentleness, apparently fascinated by the sensation of contact between his fingers and the back of her hand. She wondered how long it had been since another being had touched his skin.
“I hope you are right,” said Eb. “I would like to know how the galaxy turns out.”
“The doorway into your sanctum that the Aetheral made: can it be left open?”
“Yes. I think that should become a permanent part of my structure now.”
“You are physically connected to the ship. You cannot leave this room.”
Eb turned his head to study the cables stretching off from his flesh to the walls of the chamber. “I can disconnect, although it will be a difficult process. The intimacy of the physical connection makes control of the vessel more perfect.”
“You could walk free?”
“If I stayed within the confines of the ship … perhaps, yes. For a time.”
Surtr nodded, as if it approved of the change. “We should leave the spirals to work within him. Too much of his fundamental design has been lost to restore him fully, but he will heal a little yet.”
They left Eb where he lay. Back on the cartography deck, alone again, Selene watched the flow of the Singh Field outside the ship as they continued their traversal of metaspace.
6. Void Wraiths
Selene sat by Ondo's bed in the Dragon's medsuite – an inversion of the arrangement that had once been so familiar to both of them. She'd assumed he'd be asleep, drowsy from the sedation he'd been put under, but he was sitting up in bed, bent over the keyboard of one of the archaic computer interfaces he liked to work with. He'd been conscious for twenty-four hours, finally emerging groggily from his coma. The Dragon hung in normal space, its random escape
