I nodded. We couldn’t be anywhere near the Fountain when the Mayir arrived. But where would we go?
“We have to get back to work,” the Sean bot said. “Tell Z to change course.”
“To where?”
“Anywhere away from the Fountain.”
I returned to the bridge and got back on the scanner. Reluctantly, Ana-Zhi turned the Vostok around and headed towards Yueld.
“At least there are places to hide there,” she said.
That was true, but for how long?
“What if we just run?” I asked.
“What do you mean?”
“Leave the system. Before the Mayir even get here.”
Ana-Zhi shook her head. “Dumb idea, kid. This isn’t a long-range cruiser. How far do you think we’d get? Besides, we don’t know what’s out there. No one’s ever explored the Hodierna galaxy. At least no one I know of.”
I slumped back into my seat. She was right.
“Much as I hate to admit it, I think that asshole Qualt was right. Our best move might be to convince the Mayir to let us join them.”
“Screw that!”
“Listen, Jannigan. This is going to quickly turn into a shitshow. You’re going to have to be smart in order to survive.”
“Yeah, there’s nothing smart about selling my soul.”
“I’m serious. You need to get in line so you can wait this out. And you need to get your girlfriend in line too—”
“She’s not my girlfriend!”
“Whatever. She listens to you. Keep an eye on her. And both of you have to keep your heads down.”
“What about you?” I asked.
“Don’t worry about me. I’ve been through shit like this before and I know how to ride it out. Worry about yourself.”
Just then, the scanner beeped for my attention. I looked down at the display. Crap.
“I’ve got something,” I said.
The AI had isolated a fast-moving mass cluster at least a million kilometers out.
“Could be an asteroid field,” I said. “A small one.”
Ana-Zhi glanced over at the display. “That’s no asteroid field.”
“How do you know?”
“The density is all wrong. That’s a bunch of ships. I’d bet my left tit it’s the Mayir.”
“That’s impossible. How could they get here so quickly?”
“A jump tug. That’s the only way they could get here period. It doesn’t matter. Go tell your father.”
I thought to myself that the Sean bot probably knew already since he was jacked into the scanner, but I set off towards the hold. Before I took two steps, another alarm went off. This one was a lot louder and more urgent-sounding.
“What the hell?”
Ana-Zhi flicked through the unfamiliar displays trying to figure out what was going on.
“Are we under attack?” I asked.
“No, the landing bay doors are opening.”
“What?”
“The launch just ejected.”
I didn’t know what was happening and neither did Ana-Zhi.
“Was it a malfunction?” I asked.
“I have no idea, Jannigan,” she huffed. “Why don’t you get your ass down to the hold and find out?”
I raced through the top level of the ship, then into the galley, and practically slid down the access ladder into the hold.
Chiraine stood there watching me.
“What the hell is going on?” I said frantically.
“Calm down, Jannigan.”
“The launch—”
“Yeah, your dad is taking it back to Bandala.”
“What?”
“We did it.” She had a weird look on her face. Half triumph, half dread. “We figured out how to activate the Kryrk. At least we think we did. There’s no way to test it.”
“Hold on, you actually know how to use the Kryrk?” This was incredible. I knew it was a long shot, but—
Then it hit me.
“Wait a minute, my dad is going back to Bandala to activate the Kryrk?”
“Yes. It’s just like what you said. We have to prevent the Mayir from accessing what’s in Bandala. At all costs.”
Those three words sank into my brain and I felt my insides grow numb.
My father was going to sacrifice himself to destroy Bandala.
I knew he was just a bot, but that bot was still him. His consciousness. His essence. And maybe something else.
“Why would he leave without talking to us? To me?”
“He was monitoring the feed from the scanners. He saw the Mayir armada. He knew he had to leave immediately and he didn’t want to argue with you. Or Ana-Zhi.”
I hammered my fist against the bulkhead. “Fuck him!”
“Jannigan!”
“That’s typical Sean grandstanding—”
“He said that you’d understand, but if not, he’ll explain it to you himself.”
“How?”
“Umm, the comm…?”
“Yeah, if we can get it working!”
I seethed the whole way back to the bridge, and nothing that Chiraine said could calm me down. I couldn’t even explain to Ana-Zhi what had happened, so Chiraine did.
Ana-Zhi seemed to take the whole thing in stride. “Take it easy, junior. It was just a bot.”
Monkeying around with the comm got me more and more pissed off, until finally it came to life with a burst of static.
“Vostok? Come in.” It was my father’s voice.
“I can’t believe this,” I yelled into the comm. “What are you trying to prove?”
“I’m not trying to prove anything, Jannigan. I’m sticking to the mission objective. There’s too much dangerous technology on Bandala. We cannot let it fall into the Mayir’s hands.”
“Yeah, but—”
“Yeah, but nothing, son. We now know how to activate the Kryrk. Chiraine and I both believe it can be made to destroy Bandala.”
I looked over at Chiraine. “I think you guys messed up. In all those Shima legends about the Kryrk, it was never described as a suicide weapon.”
“Very astute, JJ,” the Sean bot said. “And if we had more time, we’d be able to decipher the finer points of the weapon’s targeting system. But right now we know how to turn it on and get it to work.”
This was insane. “And by work, you mean it will emit a high-powered tractor beam and catch a giant asteroid which it will smash into Bandala?”
The Sean bot didn’t say anything. Neither did Chiraine.
“I’ve been glued to the scanner,” I said. “There are no asteroids anywhere near here.”
“I don’t know what to say, JJ. If it doesn’t work, it doesn’t work. Then you pick me up and we think of something else.”
“Something else? The Mayir are here
