The timer hit zero and began ticking upward.

  In the darkness beyond the outer planets, far beyond the world of Mioque, a massive communications array waited patiently for a signal. The central dumbbell was supported by several hundred thousand smaller satellites, producing a receiving array that was effectively light-hours in diameter. When it came to interstellar signals, there really was no such thing as overkill.

  Like most of Cato’s technology, this was a design that had seen actual use, although the original was fairly recent in the annals of outsystem construction. More than a few individuals or groups had put together the required resources to leave Sol behind and venture out into the galaxy at large, on a multi-decade or century trip to another star. Those staying behind had put forth the effort to maintain such listening posts, to keep in contact with their far-flung brethren.

  Cato had been given a chance at a berth on one of those colony ships once, a small server headed to the galactic north, but he’d preferred to stay near his family. That seemed more than faintly ironic now, as he was further from Sol than any other human — and more, he was further from himself than any other human had been. Far enough that he had been impatiently waiting for years to hear from other versions, even when the signals traveled at the speed of light.

  Cato-Mioque sat in a virtualization of that enormous array, telltales taking up two walls of the monitoring center and a hologram floating at the center, with a third wall holding the time estimations for when he could expect to hear from the closest severed world — one which was further away than he’d intended, considering the purges. His calculations included the required time to build a transmission array capable of the task, and some extra padding for sorting logistical issues and the inevitable travel time between planets.

  While the timer only represented a guess, he still felt nervous as the hours stretched into days without any signal. There were all kinds of explanations, including simply not thinking of building an interstellar transceiver the very moment the portal closed, but Cato feared the worst, like perhaps the purge had somehow destroyed everything around the local star. Or maybe simply self-termination; it was bad enough on this side of the portals, knowing that millions of lives had been snuffed out on his account, without being trapped in a dead system with such a graveyard.

  “Maybe there was more work to do than the models suggest,” Raine said, pacing the virtual floor and flicking her tail back and forth in impatience. They were partially underclocked so it wasn’t like they were watching each second tick by, but it still felt like they were.

  “Or maybe—” Leese began, but the simulation chimed and data started pouring in. The three of them immediately glued themselves to the console, scanning through the sudden stream of information.

  Sending anything across light-years required more than just a simple pulsed laser. There were certain frequencies that worked best at those distances, avoiding incidental absorption and refraction by interstellar dust, but even then signal degradation was a significant issue. Even if the transmitter was aimed directly at the receiver, those terms had a lot more play than they should.

  Basic physics meant that the initial beam, no matter how tightly collimated, had spread out to cover something the size of the entire heliosphere — and consequently, was extremely faint. The array size helped with that, but the data itself was highly compressed and even more highly redundant, because it wasn’t like the transmitter was near enough to verify reception. Instead, it had a multiplicity of repeating sub-messages, all of which carried some information about each other.

  To call it a real-time stream made no sense when it came to such distances, but it was something like. Very quickly, it became obvious that some of the packages were the gestalts for Cato, Raine, and Leese. That wasn’t much of a surprise, since Cato wouldn’t have wanted to stick around either. Those three got sequestered for later instantiation, once the data integrity had been verified and they’d decrypted the rest of the stream.

  Some of it was project details. The purged world on the other end had been a Clan world, so the only unique species were the remnants of flora and fauna. Their Sunac counterparts had spent the years it had taken to build the transmission array applying billions of tons of biomass remediation onto the newly-scoured world. Despite the sterilization, it still had an atmosphere, a magnetosphere, ocean currents, an intact moon, and all the other niceties required to sustain life long term. Nobody lived there, but it was now – inasmuch as principles of simultaneity applied across light-year of distance – a green and living world.

  According to the data, Cato-Sunac and associated Lineage had put themselves into suspended stasis the moment transmission started, though. Low-level monitoring programs could correct for any ecological issues in the near future, and they certainly didn’t need people around to watch the grass grow. Nor was it necessary for someone to man the phones, as the transceivers would handle any connections to further-away worlds. Which meant the gestalts themselves were some forty years out of time, as well as essentially homeless.

  Some that could be solved, but it would be up to them what they ultimately wanted to do. Maybe they’d want to get back at the System, and take command of forces where they were planning campaigns to isolate and free the independent gods. Or perhaps they’d just be tired of the whole thing.

  “I think we’d want out,” Raine-Mioque said, following along with his thoughts as they pored over the imagery from the data dump. More was coming in, a secondary stream with data collected from satellites and observation stations, showing the status of the planet in question. Of course it would be forty years lag time if they were to try and react to anything, but that was how things worked outside the System.

  “Not to get back at whoever wiped out Sunac?” Cato asked. For him, twenty-odd years of time had somewhat dulled the impact of the catastrophe, but hadn’t erased it. Though of course he already intended to destroy the System, so one more atrocity on its ledger didn’t change things for him.

  “Maybe if there was something immediate,” Leese said tail twitching as she frowned at the readouts. “Or we were the only ones. But as it is now?” She gestured aimlessly, flashing up a map of the System, where every single star save for a few dozen of the Inner Worlds was claimed. “There’s no point.”

  Cato nodded uncomfortably, but they knew themselves best. Aside from the Sydean Lineage, the sisters did not have the mindset for a permanent digital existence, and some of them had quietly started to drop out of the war effort. The senior Urivan pair had been first, having spent the time to establish a civilization of Sydeans they could join – partly through Summer Civilization time acceleration – but others had started to copy their example.

  It wasn’t a path that he would have taken, but now that Raine and Leese had pioneered it, he had to wonder about what he’d do himself. Not just in general, but him as Cato-Mioque specifically. Once his world was freed of the System, he’d be out of the campaign. There would just be the world of Mioque and its reclamation, repair, and uplift. Which, itself, would finish at some point and he would still likely not have other full postbiologicals around. Even if the post-Bismuth types had the immortality, they were artificially driven, falling into distinct camps, and he wasn’t sure that would ever be the same.

  He could very well create enclaves of humans, especially if and when he managed to pry some of his fellows loose from the grasp of the System. But creating nascent human civilizations right next to alien ones could go so very wrong in so many ways, especially when writ across millions of light years and hundreds of thousands of planets. It was no simple decision to make, but at least it was one that he had plenty of time to consider.

  “All right, lets get these three debarked,” Cato said, loading the gestalts into the aestivations that had been set up in anticipation of just such a transmission. He was still worried, but if the versions had the fortitude to set up the planet and send themselves off, they were tough enough to deal with the twenty-year gap and current state of the campaign.

  Which was a relief, withal. It meant he was, as well. One of the odd advantages of such postbiological splintering was that it was possible to find out what happened when you were faced with something terrible without actually experiencing it. Whether you could hold up under the weight or not. Apart from significant deviation, any mature postbiological was basically the same across all versions.

  Nevertheless, Cato-Mioque hoped to avoid the sterilization of his planet. The Big Bad Bug Bombs and Chill Out were all ready, and Raine had saturated the orbitals with new generations of fighters made to deal with Azoths in case they tried to stymie his forces. Additional particle beams had been installed and others overhauled so that simply leaving the atmosphere wouldn’t completely void their usefulness. But most important of all, all the various Cato were trying to act rather than react, and prepare to liberate planets on their terms rather than in reaction to the System stumbling across their presence.

  Over the past few years several hundred worlds had been freed from the System, thanks to the list that Initik and Mii-Es had concocted, all of them by alpha strikes from his forces rather than scrambling to mitigate an exterminatus. A significant percentage of the independent gods had stayed with their worlds, but not all of them, so there were some gestalts temporarily housed in Ikent or Uriva while Cato looked for a proper site for digital System expatriates. Somewhere less vulnerable to being cut off and full of the appropriate resources.

  Their accompanying freed Interface intelligences were more interested in staying, with none of them choosing to leave their original planet. Though the term interested may not have applied to nonhuman intelligences; none of them even used System-language, despite their obvious intelligence. Sadly, they all seemed to have exactly the same knowledge base, with only variations for the history of the planet in question. Cato suspected they were all seeds of the exact same process, planet and Deity Interface alike, with the only difference being permissions and interactions. If he knew more about AIs he might have been able to get more from them, but as it was he had be extremely careful about even what degree he trusted their information.

  Some gods had decided to simply turn coat and run to the Great Clans with news of the offer, but that was why Mii-Es had invested so much in the whisper campaigns. Cato only heard snippets of it, but when everyone was suspected of working with Cato, someone claiming that a few gods had brought an offer was just one more drop in the noise. Of course, some gods hadn’t actually survived to truly tell on Cato. Mii-Es and Initik were absolutely ruthless in that regard, and Cato-Mioque was glad that his world was very definitely under Clan control and could be taken without any guilt.

  One thing he hadn’t yet cracked was a reasonable way to open true diplomacy with the other side. The more gods he got on his side, or at least became amenable to his viewpoint, the more worlds and people he could save from the System without a full invasion, mindripping, orbital bombardment, and all the other evils that resulted from military action. The potential harm he could wreak was not an abstract thing to him; he’d spent years watching the planet below and the peoples that inhabited it. He hated what the System had done to them, but still felt himself drawn to the struggles of the young Coppers trying to make their way through a hostile world, triumphantly emerging from dungeons — or sometimes emerging not at all, which was much harder to see.

  Now that he was actually encountering the gods, Cato found it harder to dismiss or ignore the concerns of the nominal owners of the planets. He wouldn’t actually stop, of course, because he knew the System was too dangerous to let continue, but he would love to see gains through diplomacy and not just war. He always had to be careful about what the System forces might do to hurt the innocents he was trying to save, but he was fast approaching the point where holding back would no longer help. When that day came, it would be the best of all possible worlds if he could convince the System-Gods to turn coat rather than stand and be destroyed.

  After all, nobody had yet seen the most dangerous weapons in his arsenal.

  ***

  An iron club five hundred feet long swung through the air with the roar of a hurricane.

  Muar lifted his shield, a slab of gleaming crystal with divine sigils writ all throughout, and invoked [Misse’s Protection], the defensive Skill directly upgraded by his patron. The club smashed down, the impact shattering the ground and sending enormous cracks miles in every direction. Trees were shredded by the wind of the blow, even on the war world, as the World Elite’s weapon sent shockwaves racing outward from the point of impact. Yet Muar’s party remained unscathed, the ground intact in a circle about them as Muar held back the entire force of the attack with his Skill and his shield.

  Ron and Resh, two of his long-time companions that had risen to Azoth with him, darted out, taking advantage of the momentary vulnerability to assault the colossal Elite. Ron’s pure white fire sought out gaps in the blue armor that covered the rust-red fur of the monster, curving and twisting like a snake as it wriggled its way through slits in the helm and between joints. Resh blurred forward with his axe, a single swing biting deep into the thews of the Elite’s arms. The impact dug a long canyon into the ground behind the impact, adding to the cracks made by the creature’s club.

  The towering figure roared in pain, a noise almost louder than the sound of the club, the bellow alone pulverizing a few nearby hills — but at Azoth, it was a mere inconvenience. Muar lifted his mace, waiting a beat for the last member of the party to unleash an immense blizzard, coating the Elite in ice, and then leapt into the air, bringing his mace down on one of the rune-plates that tied the Elite’s armor together as he had a dozen times previously. It connected with the sound of some great bell, then the runes cracked and dissolved.

  The blue chestplate fell away, the tremendous slab of frost-covered metal tumbling end over end before embedding itself in the ground with an echoing boom. Muar hardly needed to instruct his teammates to target the twisted scar that covered the Elite’s chest, and the other three went to it with a will. The creature roared again, and its Domain twisted, cracks of raw energy splintering the air and diving toward each of them.

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  Muar flexed his movement and defensive Skills again, intercepting each of the aether attacks in turn and redirecting them back to the Elite, the energy bouncing off the imperishable crystal of his shield. He watched with satisfaction as massive rents opened in the Elite’s flesh from its own attacks, hefting his mace and moving once again to the attack.

  Perhaps some Chosen would be happy to spend their time communing with the gods and acting as messenger, but Muar still had to climb the ranks. It wasn’t enough to be simply Azoth; he could reach Alum, and both he and Misse knew it. She’d even told him that after the ascension to Alum, reaching godhood was not out of the question — and in fact, his status as Chosen would help him bridge that gap.

  Not to mention her personal favor.

  It took another hour before the Elite finally fell, the landscape scarred, twisted, and pulverized for miles around and the four of them suffering from their own wounds. But one couldn’t engage anything above one’s rank without receiving a few scratches in return. His Skills healed them as they fought, but they still needed some time to fully recover. Armor and weapons needed to be repaired or upgraded, and natural regeneration would cover anything Muar’s healing could not.

  [World Elite Magonog Slain! Essence awarded. Additional Essence awarded for defeating an enemy of a superior rank.

  Outpost Magon is now available to be claimed.

  Magon Depths Dungeon is now open.

  For slaying a Unique Guardian Elite with a single party, you have been awarded a Feat of Glory]

  Muar chuckled to himself as he read the notifications, pleased with the rewards the System had given him for his efforts. He hadn’t actually been anticipating the outpost and dungeon, but he would certainly take them. The Five Gods Alliance had aligned itself with Misse, or rather, she had taken hold of it.

  As Cato’s activities had increased over the past few years, it had become obvious they needed a more direct link to the Crusade and the ability to send specific people to compromised worlds. Enough Azoths could defend a world, especially with the support of the local god, but things had to move quickly to prevent too much damage. Many of the worlds Cato had taken were actually those of the independents, who didn’t have the support network or essence reserves of Clan worlds, and that demonstrated how important it was that people coordinated at every level.

  “Let’s grab that outpost and then return to the guildhouse,” Muar said. If nothing else, taking a new outpost would garner rewards for them personally and the Five Gods Alliance as a whole, and he had well learned to never pass up a chance to gain more power. Even with a conservative approach, the War Worlds were dangerous, so every small advancement and advantage was important.

  The outpost itself rose from the center of the valley the Elite had been guarding, heavy walls protecting the interior from the Azoth-ranked wildlife that wandered War World Osk. Yet as it was entirely unclaimed, it opened at his touch, the other three following him through the gate. At a glance he could see that the unique feature of Outpost Magon – aside from the dungeon, which had an entrance directly adjacent to the Nexus – was a plant-specialty crafting building. Not something he could personally use, but there would surely be someone in the Five Gods Alliance who could employ it to good effect.

  As it was entirely uncontested, the outpost registered their ownership immediately, and the teleportation pylon lit up. The four of them returned to Osk City, splitting up to go attend to their separate needs, equipment, and advancements. Muar needed only minor repairs to his equipment, easily paid for at the guild armorer pylon, and then went to the Temple.

  Among the various benefits of being a [Chosen] was, at least for Muar, the ability to cross over to the realm of the gods whenever he so wished. It was not free for him to do so, but the cost was well worth it. He passed through the nave, past the other supplicants meditating in silence, and touched the pylon there, invoking his [Chosen] status. The world changed around him, and he stepped forward into the heady essence of Misse’s estate — something that helped him prepare for Alum, soaking into his body and sharpening his senses.

  One of many divine servants immediately offered a drink, which he took. Though he didn’t require lesser sustenance anymore, the victuals on offer in the divine realms were transcendent and he would hardly pass up the opportunity. His steps took him past the vestibule into the expansive, opulent interior, filled with the evidence of past glories. It was impossible for him to learn everything about Misse, as she was hundreds of thousands of years old, but it was clear that she had once been a mortal as well, rising up from more humble origins and following her father into godhood.

  She knew he was there, of course; it was her demesne. But he had found that she liked him hunting her down, preferred being chased. Just as she enjoyed arranging their meetings into little scenes when he finally did find her, whether it was for work or for play. She never made it too difficult for him, even if it might be impossible for others.

  Following his instincts, he walked through the halls to the back garden, tall hedges guarding a large, glittering lake of pure water under a warm sun. Misse herself lay stretched on a luxurious blanket draped over a slab of blindingly white stone, a few drops of water clinging to naked fur to show that she had only just left the water. When they had first met, he might have been mortified, but their relationship had long passed any need for that.

  “You’ve advanced,” she said, without opening her eyes.

  “Another Feat of Glory,” he confirmed, finding a seat exactly where he wished it and settling himself onto the divine-rank divan. “I’ve also reached nearly the top of the Five Gods Alliance, barring the Alums.”

  “The Alums don’t matter,” Misse agreed. Muar had already found that Alums mostly existed in theory. With no desire to interact with lesser ranks or to make a bid for godhood, they largely entertained themselves elsewhere. Places deep in the War Worlds, where only the most elite would dare to tread.

  “I don’t think it will be too difficult to get the faction oriented with the [Crusade],” Muar remarked, for that was of course the final objective. Gods competed through mortal proxies as well as among themselves, and having a group of fresh Alums willing to head out to the frontier was a powerful force. A small period of service after breaking through to the final rank was a small price to pay for many Azoths who were having difficulty with the final hurdle. “Though finding additional rewards would go a long way toward moving some of the less devout.”

  “That’s always how it is,” Misse sighed, not moving from her spot in the sun. “Fortunately we do have some surplus from other worlds, which I can direct to personal or guild quests. The [Crusade] is already doing most of the heavy lifting, at least.”

  “For all the good it’s doing,” Muar said. They’d lost more worlds to Cato in the past few years, although they’d beaten him back on others. The other Ahruskians seemed certain that it wasn’t possible to counter Cato that way, and Muar knew there was more to Cato than they were being shown, but it was clear that the enemy was not all-powerful.

  “We clearly have some traitors in the ranks,” Misse said. “All these rumors flying about, the fact that Cato’s targeted areas are so widely separated — there is some strategy at play that I have to root out. Some of the frontier gods have been tempted to the other side, mark my words. Or perhaps simply cowed, as it is clear the independent gods are weak points.”

  “There will always be such weaknesses,” Muar mused aloud. “It is only in such conflicts that they are revealed, and can be purged.”

  “It’s been a long time since the Inner Worlds, let alone the Core, faced any true threat. I know myself many of these deities are untested and insubstantial,” Misse agreed. “But not all of them. This will be a long process of weeding out the weak and raising up the strong.”

  “If Cato gives us the time,” Muar pointed out. He hated to make everything about Cato, but the fact that the enemy was taking additional worlds did not exactly make him rest easy.

  “He is an ant nibbling on a giant,” Misse said, unworried. “A few worlds here or there are nothing compared to the scope of reality, and with each encounter we learn more about what he can do, and what works against him. If anything, he is making a poor decision with these small campaigns — they only reinforce our position and weaken our enemies. Given time, it will be enough to convince everyone that we need a united front.”

  “I suppose that would help,” Muar agreed. “Though only if it also gets the other factions aligned. We need more Bismuths and Azoths willing to venture out with the portable Nexus crystals. And Alums, if we can get them.”

  “That will be your task,” Misse said, stretching languidly and cracking an eye to look up at him. “Interfering directly is frowned upon, but for a Chosen? That is the reason we have them, and you’ve been more than exemplary.”

  “I do try,” Muar said, trying not to be too obvious at how pleased the praise made him. Misse laughed softly.

  “I have noticed that,” she said, crooking a finger at him. “Now take off that armor and come join me.”

  Muar gladly obeyed.

  ***

  “Heads up!”

  Lorraine’s shout echoed across the guardian arena, prompting Raine Talis to shift a few dozen miles in a blaze of flame to avoid a lance of strobing, crackling crystal the size of a building that exploded when even slightly near to someone. The projectile roared through the air to impact the far edge of the arena a hundred miles away, joining others from the same Skill. They sizzled and spat multicolored lightnings, slowly shrinking the size of the arena and putting some strict limits on the fight.

  Not that Raine was worried. While she felt odd about fighting alongside anyone other than Leese, the people from Punchy Bastards were generally easy to deal with. In fact, Lorraine was so lackadaisical that it was a wonder she had managed to rank up to begin with — though when it came to an actual fight, it was obvious how she’d gotten there. Even if the human didn’t have the advantage of combat algorithms, there was some wild savant talent that drove her actions.

  Like the two of them, Lorraine was more of a spellsword, cycling through the different aspects of her strange build to compound effects all by herself. She called herself a cadence fighter, and slotted in easily enough with Raine and Leese when they went to take on some of the more advanced dungeons that Punchy Bastards provided. Not just in terms of tactics and approach, but her Domain was flexible enough to match with theirs. Not interlaced the way Raine and Leese’s were, but in a way friendly, in a direct reflection of their relationship in general.

  At Azoth, compatible Domains were absolutely required for parties, as conflicting personalities and inability to match or complement approaches would wind up fighting each other as much as the opponent. The members of Punchy Bastards were more compatible than the Azoth population in general, but Lorraine in particular was easy to work with and was definitely their preferred ally. Even just one more person meant they could take on far more difficult dungeons — like the one they found themselves in, where a towering crystal elemental guardian inhabited a rocky arena atop a massive mountain peak.

  She shared a wordless intent with Leese, and the two of them dove in during the brief period of vulnerability after throwing the crystal lance. The pair of them hammered the elemental at the same time, driving their offensive Skills into the cracks left by Lorraine’s acidic attacks. Fire and ice poured into the translucent body of the elemental, exploding where they met and peeling enormous chunks of material off with the long splintering groan of collapsing stone.

  The floating limbs of the guardian elite drooped as its core lost cohesion, and the three of them mercilessly tore into the helpless monster. A sudden pulse of light from within sent them scattering, movement Skills taking them away as a high-pitched drone came from the elemental, rising to ear-shattering levels before it suddenly detonated. A sphere of lightning-laced light engulfed the center of the arena, the floating limbs turning into one final set of building-sized spears that sought them out with unerring precision.

  Raine batted the closest away with her spear, transformed into the largest glaive available, sending the half-million tons of crumbling crystal bouncing across the ragged floor of the arena. Leese simply froze hers in the air, while Lorraine did something that shattered the final one into tiny pieces, flying off in all directions.

  [Mordant Crystal Guardian Defeated. Essence Awarded. Additional essence awarded for defeating an enemy of a superior rank.

  Heshk Mountains Dungeon Completed.]

  Raine scrolled through the list of rewards, before dropping down to the neat circular crater left by the guardian’s final Skill to see what the dungeon’s last enemy had dropped. At the bottom of the crater there were several stacks of crystalline discs, which [Appraise] told her was a crafting and upgrade material. That was something that had happened more often at the higher levels, when replacing equipment was less common than fine-tuning existing equipment.

  “I guess that’s good,” Lorraine said, landing next to them and looking at the materials. “But I dunno, I feel like a boss like that should drop an epic weapon.” She flexed her fists, the patina-laced metal of her gauntlets fizzing and popping. “Anyway, good dungeon! There’s just so much of a difference working with people who know how to fight. And don’t just, you know, throw a bigger fireball.”

  “Normally it’s just us two, for that very reason,” Leese agreed, as they split the upgrade materials three ways. They didn’t need to even discuss that, which was another interesting thing about their guildmate. She seemed to innately believe in a certain amount of fairness, which made Raine wonder how she had managed to advance so far, given how many higher ranks acted. But likely she had done most of her advancement by herself, given the effectiveness of the bizarre build.

  “Yeah it’s not surprising, I guess it’s just that it’s easier to punch harder.” Lorraine shrugged and started for the exit portal, which had appeared after the guardian had been defeated. “Man, you know, even though we don’t really need it I’d say we should go hit some lunch now that we’re done.”

  Raine and Leese shared a quick, wordless communion. The human was one of the many possible recruits they’d been considering, and this seemed like the best moment to try and entice her over — or at least, open her mind to the possibility. They were isolated, and while they really did not want to fight her, better here and now than in the open.

  “Actually we brought some, if you want to try it,” Raine said, summoning a table out of her Estate.

  “No offense, but I’m not sure how much I’m going to like your kind of — oh my god. Is that mostaccioli?” The incredible senses of an Azoth meant that the human recognized one of the dishes Cato had provided before she’d even turned around. With a blink she was at the table, inhaling the steam rising from the pot Raine had removed from stasis.

  “Thought you might like it,” Leese said with some amusement. The flavor profile was not one they enjoyed, but some version of themselves had created a Sydean appropriate analogue that was oddly comforting.

  “How the heck did you get it?” Lorraine asked, ladling a generous portion of sauce and sausage over the pasta. “Even if you know other humans, I don’t know how you’d get the ingredients. You’ve been holding out on me!”

  “A little bit,” Raine agreed, keeping a close eye on her while she took a serving of the Sydean version. “It’s a matter of secrecy. We can’t have it getting out.”

  “If you’ve got food from home my lips are sealed,” Lorraine said, blissfully chewing on her meal.

  “Well, do you want to go home?” Leese asked, and Lorraine froze, looking from one to the other before she swallowed.

  “Isn’t the Earth portal closed?” She asked. “I mean, I’m doing okay here, don’t get me wrong, but it’s just mean to suggest I can go back.”

  “No, I’m afraid we can’t get you back to Earth,” Raine said. “But we can get you out of the System, if you’re willing. Though if this gets out, we could all be in trouble.”

  “Why would we — oh, huh.” Lorraine took another bite. “This has to do with that crusade quest thing, doesn’t it?”

  “We work for Cato, yes,” Leese said, admitting it outright. “For many reasons, but one of the tasks he has for us is offering a way out for every human we can find. Maybe he can’t get you back to Earth, but he has much of Earth with him, and doesn’t want to leave anyone behind.”

  “Yeah, okay, I get that,” Lorainne said, her mouth full. “But at the same time, I kinda like doing this. Not going to say I don’t miss the comforts of civilization, but I don’t want to go back to being an accountant.”

  “Under the circumstances, I don’t think that’s a worry,” Raine shook her head. “Cato has digital aestivations set up, since once you cross Bismuth you’re composed entirely of essence and can’t exist outside the System.”

  “Oh, ew.” Lorraine wrinkled her nose. “Not sure I want to float around in some mass consciousness thing either.” Raine and Leese exchanged the mental equivalent of a shrug at that, since they’d never heard anything from Cato that matched what Lorraine was saying. But they weren’t supposed to be the experts on what Cato’s homeworld used to be like.

  “I don’t think that’s what he’s doing,” Leese told her. “But why don’t we take you talk to him yourself and see what you think?”

  “I tell you what, if you can get me some mint chocolate ice cream, you can take me anywhere,” Lorraine said with a bright grin. Raine and Leese shared a brief moment of surprise over the link, as Cato was very far from Lorraine — in fact, most high rankers were more formal. But her casual humor was reassuring, and erased any worries about her betraying them to some World Deity. But convincing Lorraine was only the first step. Getting a coalition in on the secret so they could start convincing other high-rankers was the real goal.

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