“This final image; the triple star system. Is that where the road leads?”
“I have often wondered. I can tell you that the Gethrem individual who engineered Ansider is waiting at the end of the road. Alone among his kind, he didn't die. Perhaps the three stars were consumed by the black hole where he now waits. Or perhaps the Gethrem knows how to reach those three stars. I don't know.”
It took Selene a moment to absorb the Gatekeeper's words. “You're saying that one of the Tok is still alive? Not a transbiological hybrid like Eb, but a person like you and me?”
“I am. He is. He was old when he came here, but I believe he survives.”
She thought about that. It wasn't the self-destructive act she'd first assumed. It was a poor sort of immortality, but perhaps the only one available to him. Subjectively, his life would be no longer, but from outside he would always be there, falling more and more slowly towards the black hole's event horizon. He was trapped, but could watch the outside universe as it, from his perspective, accelerated through future time.
“Will you show us the route to take?”
The man shook his left hand and a bracelet slipped down his wrist. He unclipped it and held it up. It, too, held a bead. It looked night-black, but when he held it up to the light streaming in through the windows, she saw that it was a deep shade of purple.
“A seer stone,” she said to her inner Ondo, “and now this Gatekeeper, watching over this world. And this repeated eye symbolism. Is this the origin of the name seer stones?”
“Perhaps.”
Jalian said, “We had a string of these stones, once, but this is the last. It will take you through the labyrinth if you have a ship that is capable of making the journey.”
He turned his head to consider Eb, who was standing silently and listening to the conversation. “You are one such, are you not? You are the genius loci of a vessel that can make the gruelling voyage. You opened the door to the tower because you carry one of the stones within you, just as the crew of the Scintennia did, but you are not a person like we are people; you are much more than that. You are the core intelligence of a Gethrem swoop ship, a vessel capable of making impossible flights that would destroy any normal craft.”
Eb nodded his head in acknowledgement. There was an odd light on his face, a wonderment, as if he was only then discovering some unexpected truth about himself. “I am as you say. Swoop ships were rare and precious. Few of us were constructed and fewer still had biological intelligences embedded within them.”
“What,” Selene asked, “is a swoop ship?”
Eb replied, “Swoop ships are vessels capable of making the metaspace manoeuvre you witnessed at Coronade to escape the pull of deep gravity wells. The Tok constructed them so they could jump directly into the hearts of stars and escape safely afterwards. That is what I am.”
“Why did they create you? To cause more death and destruction by deploying their sunburst weapons?”
“You have seen that is a part of it,” said Eb, “but you have seen the other side, too: the structures and havens built within the circumferences of suns, places where treasures could be hidden safely away. Treasures and other things. I cannot believe that they – we – were simply evil.”
“No one believes themself to be evil, whatever they've done.”
“Perhaps.”
Jalian said, “And it is not just regular stars you can jump into, is it, my friend? You are capable of greater feats.”
Eb nodded, and there was a clear reluctance to his movement.
“What feats?” said Selene. “What does he mean?”
“Black holes,” said Hessia. “It has to be that. A ship like the Radiant Dragon – a Tok swoop ship – is capable of diving into a black hole, approaching, kissing the event horizon and then returning. That's it, isn't it? Only a very rare ship like you could make such an impossible journey.”
“The swoop dive is filled with risk, and I could sustain one only for a very short period of time. Even I could not venture near a supermassive black hole. But, yes, that is what I am.”
Things were beginning to click into place in Selene's mind. She conversed with Ondo, a brief, millisecond conversation as they compared theories and speculations. They arrived at the same conclusion simultaneously.
“That is where his bead will take us,” said Selene out loud. “Along a path through metaspace into the close vicinity of a black hole.”
“The trajectories and velocities have to be supremely finely calculated,” said Jalian. “This bead contains all the data you need to perform the manoeuvre. The slightest imperfection, and you will miss completely or be pulled in so close that even a swoop ship could not escape.”
Selene looked to Eb. “Can you do this?”
Eb's voice was little more than a whisper. “Yes.”
“And could you return as well, hmm?” Jalian asked.
“That is less clear,” said Eb. “It depends on how close we go, and how long I have to resist the pull.”
“There is an old myth about the journey that some of us set store by,” said Jalian. “Would you like to hear it?”
Selene was about to tell him that there was no need, their time was short, when Hessia, perhaps picking up Selene's impatience, spoke into her brain. “We should let him. Storytelling is central to how these people understand the world. That's true of most cultures, obviously, but more so here.”
Selene forced herself to smile. “Please, yes, tell us the story.”
“It concerns a young man of this world. Long ago, he grew bored with the limitations of his life and constructed a miraculous ship, a boat like those we sail upon the
