“Sorry,”she said with a grimace. She deactivated the armored gauntlets andtook his hand again. “Is this ok?”
“Yeah,”he said in what was nearly a croak. “No problem.”
Theystepped on the platform and moved to the center.
“So,”she began, “whoa!”
Heactually heard her reaction before noticing the change. They wereinside a large room. “I was kind of expecting an elevator,” hesaid.
Thespace they found themselves in was a round room, about twelve metershigh and twenty in diameter. Beams sprung up from the floor atthree-meter intervals, curving up the domed ceiling. They were madeof an almost metallicmaterial, like a tarnished bronze with acloudy transparency. The surface was etched in geometric patterns.
“Kindof looks like Babilim,” Gabriella whispered.
Vikramwasn’t sure why but that was both interesting and frightening atthe same time. He gave her hand a squeeze and she returned thegesture, darting a quick little smile his way.
Thecentral pad they’d appeared on was circled by a stairway that sankinto the floor. There was nowhere else to go, so they started down.
Thepair circled down into a much larger facility. In the center werefive large capsules, whichlookeda bit like the training pods used in the empire and republic.
Fourof them held nothing but dust, their lights and screens blinkingfitfully or not illuminated at all. The fifth held a large humanoid,suspended in an orange haze of energy.
Tendrilsof orange danced across her body which, Vikram noticed with somealarm and no small amount of interest, was entirely nude.
Shewas roughly twice his height but otherwise normally – he lookedaway – proportioned.
“Ithink she’s waking,” Gabriella said quietly. “She’s settlingonto the platform.”
Vikramlooked back. The orange haze was fading and the person was definitelycoming to rest on the hard metallic platform of the pod.
Theroom they were in seemed to change. It had felt as though it had apersonality of its own, he noticed as that personality seemed tofade.
Theperson in front of them was breathing.
Hemoved closer to Gabriella, still holding her hand, until his shouldertouched her armored shoulder. Another squeeze.
Thetall woman opened her eyes, looking with mild confusion at the archedbeams and conduits above her. Suddenly her eyes widened. She turnedher head, looking at the two young visitors.
Shepushed herself up, swinging her legs over the edge of the pod as ifshe’d only awakened from a short nap. Shetilted her head, a trembling smile on her face.
Shesaid something but it was indecipherable. It was the voice of someonewho’d waited a long time, hardly daring to hope, but that was allVikram could get from it.
Heglanced at Gabriella. “Do you know what she’s saying?”
“No,”she answered, still facing the woman, “but I think we…”
Theyboth stumbled against each other, suddenly dizzy. Fortunately, herarmor – his armor, really – had kept her standing and he’d beenbraced against her.
“That’sbetter,” the tall woman said, sliding off the edge of the pod tostand in front of them.
“Youcame.” She smiled, tears welling up over her lower eyelids. “Itwasn’t all for nothing.”
“Whoare you?” Gabriella asked. “What is this place?”
“Thisis an outpost. Our people…” She waslooking in their direction but no longer lookingatthem.“We spanned galaxies, strodeamong the stars like gods. We lived for as long as we wished…
Shepaused, shaking her head slowly. “The one unavoidable rule of lifeis balance,” she said sadly. “Our life of power and ease wasslowly eroding who we were.”
Shegestured to herself.
Vikram’seyes followed but he quickly looked back up to her eyes.I wish my complexion was a little darker,he thought.She’s bound to see me blushing.
“Thisbody looks nothing like the one I was born in. It was designed tomeet several specifications but the chief among them wascompatibility with fold-sleep.”
Shelooked behind her at the empty pods. “Did you meet others of mykind?”
“No,”Vikram said. “You were the only one in here.”
Hershoulders slumped. “Then I’m the only one to survive this long.I’m saved by the very thing that nearly destroyed us…”
“I’mafraid I still don’t understand,” Gabriella said. “Why are youhere?”
“Thisbody has a better chance of surviving fold-sleep,” the woman said,“because it was designed for that. To create so much specializedcoding requires a lot of space in the genome.”
“Youreplaced genes that weren’t in use,” Vikram said.
“Wedid,” she confirmed. “Few children were born anyway, so why notmake genomes that were exactly what we required? We stored ourgenetic history at Bhavnagim, one of our main star-holds.
“Aslong as the data was safeguarded there, it couldn’t be used byenemies to engineer offensive bio-weapons. Our ability to use theoriginal genomeswould also be ensured.”
“Somethingwent wrong?” Gabriella asked.
Thewoman nodded. “A doomsday cult claimed that the data would bedestroyed and we’d be left with insufficient genetic viability tocarry on as a species.”
“But,if you were warned…” Vikram said, incredulous, “you could havedone something.”
“Likeany species, we had our pride,” she said with a sad smile. “Andpride doesn’t get along well with weaknesses. Our people didn’twant to see how vulnerable we’d become.
“Also,”she added darkly, “doomsday cults don’t like to be proven wrong.It’s bad for recruitment. They destroyed the data themselves,bringing their own prophecy to fruition.”
Gabriellaglanced at Vikram. “Bhavnagim,”shesaid, “you said it was a ‘star-hold’…”
Thewoman presented her palm in a rotating upwards motion, seeming toconvey agreement. “You’ve been there,” she said. “I could seethat when I was giving you my language.”
Vikramlet out a half-chuckle. Howam I just now realizing that I don’t know which language we’reusing right now?
“Youknow it as Babilim,” the woman said.
Gabriellanodded. “The structure of this place doesresemble it. You said earlier…” She swallowed and started again.“You said, ‘nearly destroyed us’.
“We’vebeen using that station for a while, though I admit we’ve barelyseen a tiny fraction. We haven’t seen any of your people. No onehas in hundreds of thousands of years. They may be… gone…”
Kusha– they knew it was Kusha – walked past them to reach the middleof the room. A three-dimensional interface appeared.
Herarms remained at her sides. Without speaking, she began accessing thesystem. Vikram moved around to see from the side.
Itlooked like she was using her eyes to focus on elements and activatethem.
Shebrought up a cartography interface. Vikram recognized the Ragnaroksystem before she zoomed out to show the whole galaxy. There wereseveral highlighted locations and a few lines leading away from theedges of the Milky Way.
“Avery
