‘I’m bloody glad to hear that. You’re frighteningly advanced, so it’s comforting to know you put so much emphasis on ethics. They are so easy to abandon in times of war.’
‘I am pleased I can reassure you. We owe you so much.’
‘Not really. The Signal we sent won’t reach Earth for another forty thousand years. So many people sacrificed so much to get us here. The gamble we took . . . And in the end, you found your way here without us.’ Callum found his throat was all hot and tight; tears were building in his eyes. Stupid, but . . . This life he was now living was not something he had ever expected. In so many ways it was an afterlife now, forever separated from those people he’d loved and lived with. He began to laugh, which turned into sobs.
The white android’s hand touched his shoulder. ‘Are you all right?’
‘Yeah. I think reality is catching up with me. I’ve just realized the only contemporaries I’ve got left in this brave new world are Yuri, Kandara and Jessika. Bloody hell: the relic squad.’
‘The living are not relics. And you will soon be joined by billions from your own time. You are going home, Saint Callum. And when you do, you and the other Saints will be revered on the Earth rebuilt, along with every human world we settle.’
‘For what?’ It came out with more bitterness than he expected – or wanted.
‘You guided us here, Callum, you and your fellow Saints. You are the star we followed into the night. You are the heroes from our deepest legends. We – me, the squad you met, all the other squads who have travelled across half the galaxy to be here – we were all born for this one moment. How do you think we felt when we heard Saint Kandara’s voice and followed her broadcast here to the Salvation of Life itself, the greatest evil humans have known? The legend of you gave my generation the most precious gift ever, as it gave all the exodus generations before us. You gave us hope, Saint Callum. And we were right to believe in you, for none of you gave up, did you? You did your duty right to the end. Can you imagine how profound that is to those of us living through what has become the end of days?’
‘I didn’t ask for any of this, you know,’ he said meekly.
‘I know. None of us did. And possibly for the first time in my life, I am glad I exist. Because of you, Saint Callum. You are the reason I live. You are my life’s validation. Thank you.’
‘You’re very welcome. But I’ve got to warn you, we do not deserve your admiration.’
‘We’ll see. Even with a wormhole that’ll take us to within ten thousand lightyears of Sol and the old settled worlds, it’s going to be a long voyage.’
‘Back to Earth,’ he said in wonder. ‘Do you think we’ll make it?’
‘Yes. Effectively, this part of the war is over. We’ve won. Humans now possess the only wormhole leading away from this star system. It’s the one that brought us here, and it’s currently accelerating away faster than any of the Olyix ships pursuing it. They can’t catch it now.’
‘But we can?’
‘Oh, yes. A lot of very smart people put this campaign together.’
‘I look forward to meeting them.’ He hesitated as his arm began to itch under the blue medical sleeve. ‘We’re really going to go home?’
‘Yes.’
Yirella
Morgan
Yirella didn’t quite trust herself to meet the Saints in the actual flesh. She was pretty sure her original body wouldn’t be able to stop gushing with admiration and she’d make a total fool of herself. Even her android-housed aspects were thrilled to be in their presence.
She helped them out of their spacesuits in the clinic and ran basic scans to make sure they were all right, marvelling at how accurate all the stories were about them. Callum so world-weary, yet still with a core of optimism – a good man at heart, numb from their incredible mission. Yuri, all gruff and professional, working hard to keep his relief from showing – but no reticence about being suspicious. Jessika, so cool and enigmatic; human with a classy hint of Neána. Perfectly composed at where she found herself. But no, she said sadly, she didn’t know if the end of the enclave would mean the Neána abodes finally emerging from hiding. And Kandara, one tough dark-ops mercenary, a genuine professional killer, her lethal qualities only held at bay with neurological chemicals. Having aspects standing next to her, talking normally about the Morgan and what was happening with the armada, was a situation Yirella found darkly exciting. She’s killed people. Bad guys, terrorists, but still other humans.
All of them were fascinating, and she wanted nothing more than to talk to them for a decade solid. People who had lived and walked on old Earth. But now she had aspects inside the Salvation of Life. Thousands of corpus marines were helping the squads and their cohorts chase down and eliminate quint bodies and most of the service creatures. And three other machines advanced with them – mentalic aspects, little more than relay units for her corpus personality. They each made their way through the corridors and chambers of the arkship, hunting out a nexus. When they found one, they inserted a batch of needles that swiftly meshed with the neuralstratum nerve fibres.
‘Hello,’ she said.
‘Human, but not. I feel your mind, your thoughts are ordered like a machine.’
‘Some of me is, but that’s really not relevant right now, is it?’
‘Why do you do this? Why have you brought so much death and destruction to our haven? We love you.’
‘You know what, let’s just cut the crap. You’ve lost.
