A ship alight with natural glow,

  To guide home wayward souls.

  They say upon the forward bow,

  A maiden sings her goals.

  Words of hope, dreams of afar,

  A pure desire to chase a star.

  -Prism ‘Ghost-Light’, Starchaser, 2057

  —

  We took our time and cleared the rest of the farm slowly and carefully, but we didn’t find any additional antithesis. After trudging back to the command center, we reported the situation to Edward.

  “Andre’s dead? And there were antithesis in the farms?” He repeated, face pale.

  “You should probably purge floor seven, replant it, and start again, and destroy anything harvested from floors six and seven the last day or so,” I told him. After spending hours completely taking the hive apart, we’d just spent a couple more combing the farm, making sure it was clear. Now, the sun was starting to set, and both Skyler and I were starting to feel exhausted. “Can you do that?”

  The big man nodded rapidly. “As soon as the sprouts are harvested, they’re given radio tags. We can pull up their location from here. Do you think that’s really necessary?” he asked.

  “Do you want to risk sending out a highly mutated version of the bush to the samurai? Or even worse, an antithesis-tainted plant?” Skyler snapped as she leaned on me for support. “They’re probably fine, but are you willing to risk it?”

  Edward immediately snapped his mouth shut and shook his head.

  “Good. Then we’ll leave the cleanup to you. Make sure Andre’s body is sent home as soon as possible; his family deserves to know,” Skyler said, her voice growing softer.

  I waited a moment, letting the silence sink in, before speaking up. “Now that the situation is stable here, we’ll be leaving. The situation around the city was pretty dire, so we need to get back ASAP.”

  “I can walk you out,” the man said excitedly.

  I just held out a hand to stop him. “We’ve taken up too much of your time already, we can show ourselves out. Thank you for your help.”

  Skyler and I turned to leave and almost made it to the door before Edward yelled, “Have a good day.”

  “He was polite and helpful,” Skyler giggled as she snuggled closer to my side.

  “He was probably terrified of us,” I corrected her as we made our way towards the exit.

  “Either way, I was glad to have his help. Could you imagine how bad things would have been if he’d fought us? If we’d arrived outside the wall even a few minutes later?”

  “It would have been a disaster, I know,” I said lightly. “Even though we did a lot of hard work today, it was worth it.”

  “Mm-hmm!” Skyler muttered, a small sleepy smile on her face.

  Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

  Since the entire complex was automated, there weren’t many exterior lights, so I had to slide my mask down to find Skyler’s car. As soon as I did, Skyler let out a sleepy laugh. “We need to get more stylish gear!”

  “Hey, this is from your catalog!” I replied defensively.

  “I know, but it was a utility buy. Now that we have some points, we should look at style,” she declared, raising one hand to the sky. Unfortunately, in her tired, half-loopy state, she nearly tripped, so I had to grab her and pull her back to my shoulder. Skyler just giggled.

  “I’m driving on the way home,” I told her sternly. “You need a nap.”

  “Do not!” Skyler pouted. I raised an eyebrow and carefully maneuvered her around to the passenger seat before popping the trunk and carefully loading all her drones for her.

  By the time I climbed into the driver's seat, she was already out, propped against the window, snoring. I gently pulled her back into the seat and fastened her seatbelt, trying my best not to wake her.

  Once Skyler was secure, I started the car, angled it south, and started the drive home.

  [Arty,] I entered into my augs, trying to stay as quiet as possible. [What’s the situation back in town?]

  [The situation on the ground is fairly stable. The other samurai managed to strike at a number of hives and kept the horde from reaching the city’s wall. It’s the situation oceanside that’s concerning.]

  I raised an eye, [How so?]

  [Since underwater combat is three-dimensional, and you need specialized weapons to be effective, there are fewer samurai specialized in it. Warspite has been launching depth charges at the aquatic hives as fast as he can, but since there are so few aquatic samurai, and they can’t just shoot artillery at the aquatic hordes to clear them up, the numbers off the coast are growing.]

  I frowned. [That sounds like a serious issue. Is there anything we can do to help?]

  [Not really, like I said, aquatic combat is fairly specialized. Don’t worry,though, the crew of the Starchaser is patrolling the harbor, dealing with any antithesis that get close. We’ll be approaching the city soon, why don’t you take a detour over the harbour to take a look?]

  I hmmm’d quietly and nudged the car just a little to the coast. It took a couple more minutes before I finally saw the glow of Vancouver’s lights spilling over the top of the perimeter wall. Rather than going over it, I turned the car out to sea, and came in over the water.

  As soon as I slipped past the wall, my eyes were immediately drawn to a strange ship sitting in the middle of the harbor. It was around the size of a modern destroyer but made entirely of a glowing wood and some sort of alien metal. It had the general shape of age of sail ship but lacked the masts and was armed with more modern naval guns and anti-air emplacements.

  While I watched, something extended from the bottom of the ship. There was a momentary flash, then it retracted again. While all this was happening, I spotted a single red-clad silhouette dancing around on deck.

  “That certainly is something,” I muttered as another flash occurred underneath the unusual ship.

  “Pretty…” Skyler mumbled.

  I glanced over, only to find my girlfriend’s half-lidded eyes watching the boat. “Did I wake you?” I asked.

  She shook her head slowly “‘Jus needed a quick nap to recharge my batteries. Why are we flying over the harbor?”

  “Arty was telling me that the fight in the Pacific wasn’t going well. When I asked if there was any way to help, she suggested flying over the harbor to see what an aquatic specialized samurai looked like.”

  “So we need a boat?” Skyler asked.

  “I think it’s a little more than that,” I told her quietly. As we passed over the boat, a head appeared in the water next to the boat, waved a harpoon at the deck until the red- clad figure came over to toss something to them, then disappeared again.

  “I think that was the mermaid,” Skyler remarked.

  “That would make sense,” I replied with a small smile before turning towards Elysian Heights. Skyler’s head nodded slightly, she was obviously trying to stay up, but after a few seconds it settled once against the door, and a small snore arose from her side of the car.

  [We’re too tired to head out tonight, but can you put together a list of targets for us to look at tomorrow? Maybe talk to Athyna and start putting together a list of what gear Skyler and I would need to fight underwater. I realize it’s not our area of expertise, but I want to be prepared to pitch in if the situation in the Pacific continues to deteriorate.]

  [You would need to invest most of the points you earned today in aquatic equipment to even get started. Would you like me to reserve the necessary points?]

  I bit my lip. [Do it, and ask Athyna to discuss it with Skyler tomorrow. We can always earn more points tomorrow and dip into the reserve if we get into trouble.]

  [Got it.]

  As I aligned Skyler’s car with the garage, the thick blast doors slowly cracked open, inviting us in. I carefully maneuvered through the gap, hovered over the assigned parking spot, and touched down as gently as possible. Despite my attempt to avoid disturbing her, Skyler’s head came up as soon as we touched down.

  “Home?” she muttered.

  “Yes, we made it,” I replied with a smile. “How about we leave all our equipment in the car for now? We’ll probably be using your car tomorrow anyways, and then I can take you straight to bed?”

  Skyler flashed me her best sleepy smile. “Kay.”

  After turning off the car, I quickly undid my belt and rushed around to the passenger side to catch Skyler as she stumbled out.

  “I got you, up you go,” I whispered as I pulled her to her feet.

  Skyler gave me a goofy smile, then leaned forward and planted a quick kiss on my lips. “Luv you!”

  I grinned as I slowly directed her through our apartment and towards the bedroom. “I love you too,” I whispered.

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