‘That’s just a short-term feeling,’ Yirella said. ‘In reality, the foundation for our whole Strike mission has been wrecked. The Olyix knew everything we planned to do, and they fooled us completely. They knew about our exodus habitats and worked out the limits of our expansion into the galaxy. They knew what to look for and where. They found us. I can’t believe the effort they must have dedicated to pursuing us. It’s almost impossible in a galaxy as vast as this one, but they did it. They are hubris to our arrogance. Saints, we built an entire fake civilization on Vayan as a lure. It was so real it even convinced the Neána. Yet it was all pointless. We wasted years – and took a terrible beating at the end of it. If it hadn’t been for Ainsley turning up, we’d be in the cocoons next to you. There is no failure greater than that.’
Dellian laughed.
‘What?’ Yirella asked.
‘Ever wonder why we don’t get invited to many parties?’
‘Ever wonder why she puts up with you?’ Alexandre taunted. ‘Because I haven’t got a clue.’
A server remote trundled up to them, and Yirella snagged a glass of wine. ‘Here’s to a future relived – and relived properly.’
They drank to that.
‘Double celebration,’ Alexandre said. ‘This is also the day when the last of the Calibar personnel walked out of medical.’
‘Two hundred and seventy-three thousand, eight hundred and fifty-three successfully de-cocooned,’ Yirella said. ‘And only a hundred and three casualties.’
‘They were very old,’ Dellian said sadly.
‘I know the feeling,’ Alexandre said. ‘This is a quite surreal experience I’m undergoing. I have a young body, and when I woke up, there you all were. Everyone who grew up in the Immerle estate, decades after I waved a final goodbye to you. What are the odds?’
Dellian groaned. ‘You had to ask.’
‘Not as long as everyone is presuming,’ Yirella said. ‘The Olyix sensor station was only twenty lightyears from Vayan. It covered a bubble of space five hundred lightyears in diameter. So actually, it’s surprising the Calibar was the only generation ship they’d captured. There were several flying away from Juloss that must still be inside their operational range. But I’m glad it was you.’
‘How do you know where their sensor station is?’ Alexandre asked.
‘Ainsley told us. He extracted the coordinates out of the Olyix ship’s onemind when he found the gateway location.’
‘I still can’t get my head around that. Ainsley Zangari, an alien warship.’
‘A mostly human warship. And a huge bonus for us.’
‘Is he? Really?’
‘We’ve already started retro-engineering some of his weapons technology.’
‘Trying to retro-engineer. Some of that mysterious Creator technology is beyond anything we know – or even understand.’
‘They’re called the Katos,’ Yirella corrected primly. ‘And it’s not just their technology; the Angelis and the Neána were part of the Factory, too.’
‘Allegedly. I mean, do we actually have any proof?’
‘About the alien species, no – apart from the fact Ainsley must have been made somewhere. And he’s definitely on our side. Thank the Saints.’ Her hand went out to rest on Dellian’s shoulder. ‘He saved Del, too.’
‘You saved me,’ Dellian said, and lifted her hand up to kiss it.
‘You two,’ Alexandre said thickly. ‘You’ll get me all weepy. That’s a curse of a young body. It’s too emotional.’
Yirella grinned. ‘Again: psychology, not physiology. You don’t get to blame emotions on your body. They’re all yours.’
Alexandre put hir arms around both of them. ‘Saints bless you. Neither of you have changed. How strange; you’ve become my rock now.’
‘That might become a cyclic thing if we all wind up using biologic initiators to body-rebuild,’ Yirella said.
‘You mean become immortal,’ Alexandre said.
‘Yeah,’ Dellian said. ‘How come nobody did that on Juloss?’
‘There are plenty of people who did that back on Juloss,’ sie replied. ‘Some who came on the founding generation ship were still alive to leave five hundred years later. However, given our life expectancy is around two hundred and fifty years, many citizens felt that was long enough for them. I don’t know if it’s a valid factor, but the majority of those who rejuve come from the early days of the exodus. I suspect it’s a comment on the societies we build on the new worlds that they don’t inspire as many to live even longer.’
‘I didn’t know rejuvenation was common,’ Yirella said.
‘It used to be common. Remember, you lived at the end of our time on Juloss; most of the population had flown away by the time you were born. You never got to experience our civilization in full swing.’
‘Did you get rejuvenated before?’ Dellian asked.
‘No. I thought about it a lot, but being a parent to all of you was satisfying in a way I knew would never happen again. And by then I was nearly two hundred. So I left to see a new planet begin, and I thought that would be a good place for my final days. It would have immersed me in optimism.’
‘That’s so you,’ Yirella said happily.
Dellian looked up. Something had caught his attention, and he wasn’t quite sure what.
‘Ah, it’s starting,’ Alexandre said.
Above them, the spindle light had begun to dim, sliding to a planet’s rose-gold twilight. Shadows expanded out of the valleys of the cylindrical landscape, cloaking the interior. The lights of paths and houses glimmered all around. Dellian sipped his beer, then squinted at the endcap, which was . . . ‘Great Saints,’ he muttered incredulously.
The surface of the endcap was changing, its dark colour draining away. Within a minute, the entire structure had turned transparent. He was staring out at the starfield, where each point of light was a steady burn, not the sparkle he was used to from a planet’s atmospheric distortion.
‘So many stars,’ Yirella said in an awed voice. ‘They’re lovely like this.’
‘This is why I chose a house right up close to the endcap,’ Alexandre said. ‘There’s something about seeing the stars at night that’s fundamentally reassuring – to me, anyway.’
Dellian forced a grin as he studied the
