Gratuitous Epilogue

22 - September

September 17

Echoes

This has been a month where the Ena reminded us that it might have faded as a threat, but it’s far from gone.

First came a stickie outbreak on Kolar, one which was unfortunately discovered because a few of the infected reached the psychotic break stage of the stickie lifecycle. It was in what the Kolarens call The Grey – the permanently twilight area close to the northern pole. The Grey is a highly desirable place to live on Kolar, with just enough light to navigate by thanks to the sun dancing around the horizon, and with a comfortable temperature range, edging toward chilly as you approach The Black[18].

They have more above-ground buildings in The Grey than anywhere else on Kolar, and rather lovely street lighting powered by a kind of fungus which produces a soft radiance it evolved to lure insects. As you head toward The Black it must be like living in glow-worm land. The stickie-infected people apparently ran around smashing all the lights in their building, then spread out into The Grey snuffing the glow-worm fungus leading into The Black and getting luminous gunk on them and leaping out at unsuspecting passers-by. It sounds like it would be funny, but they hurt quite a few people, and mostly died themselves, so definitely not funny.

The stickie infection was very widespread and Kolar was still mopping up when a batch of new settlers on their way from Tare nearly collided with a massive – a particularly difficult one to avoid, too, like a hungry sea urchin-octopus, all spines and tentacles. The ship – the Isadore, the largest of the passenger transports – took a bad knock, gouged all along its underside and nearly tossed off course when it powered free of the tentacles. Nor could they just race off and escape the massive, needing to keep to the delicate timing through the ebbs and flows of deep-space. It was a slow-moving tentacle monster, but fast enough to follow them through their stop-start journey to Muina.

When the Isadore came lumbering through the rift gate, too damaged to do more than avoid setting down directly on top of Atanra, I was on my balcony enjoying the Autumn view and the fact that Twelfth has finally had another posting to Muina. I hadn’t seen Zan since my wedding, though we’ve kept up an exchange of emails, and we were bonding over stepping exercises (which the medics recommended I keep up through the pregnancy).

I was just working my way up to asking Zan her opinion of Shon, who I thought might make a nice match for her, when KOTIS went to full alert. Roake (Lenton), Dess and Sora Nels had been over at Arcadia’s Setari house, and came whizzing up to stand protectively around me.

When the "Massive at Atanra" message came, Zan exchanged a glance with her squad, then they all looked at me, not impossibly large but well past the point where I have to think before bending down or standing up. I’d been dreading a massive attack, since many of the Setari still can’t reliably enhance themselves, but there’s no way I can risk the strain on my system.

"Atanra has plenty of weapons, right?" I said to Zan.

She nodded, attention elsewhere. Because I’m on leave, I hadn’t been brought into the forming mission channel, but just then Kaoren opened a private link to me, because he knew I’d need to know what was going on.

Muina’s Setari, scattered all over the planet, were already heading to Mesiath, because there’s a reliable and short route from Mesiath to Atanra via the Ena. Eighth Squad was out of the loop, busy on Arenrhon rotation. That left us with all nine Nuran Setari, First-Second, Fourth, Twelfth, Fourteenth and Sixteenth. No Kolarens – they’d been recalled because of the stickie mess.

First and Fourth had taken down the Umbrella massive, but it had needed so many more squads for the Dohl Array massive. And as information flooded in from Atanra, and Kaoren and Tsur Selkie made their initial evaluations, it was clear that Atanra’s defences were not sufficient – particularly when using most of them would destroy the Isadore more quickly than the massive. Mara, Jeh, Ketz and Alay all hurriedly made arrangements with their handily-close relatives, while Zee (frowning rather) came across to take over being my guard.

Zan spared me a glance and told me to go sit down, then she flew her squad off to Pandora’s platform. I went inside obediently enough, sending an email to the kids explaining briefly what was going on so they wouldn’t have to wonder why some of their teachers had dashed off.

"It’s bad, isn’t it?" I said to Zee when she followed me in. A pointless thing to say, really – I could see it was bad, as Kaoren was watching vision from Atanra of the massive slowly shuffling across grassy meadows towards the downed ship[19].

Zee only gave me a brief nod, and then Ys sent me a channel request. She, Lira and Rye were all in-channel when I joined.

"Will people die?" Ys asked, with typical bluntness.

"I don’t know, Ys." The passengers of the Isadore were in a state of complete panic, rushing the exits so that the ship’s captain had had to open them just to prevent people dying in the crush. "I think it will depend how long it takes the squads to get there." And how much firepower it would take to bring the thing down.

"Lira wants to help."

I paused. The question of Lira working as a touchstone has been raised over and over, and particularly after it was known I was pregnant. But Lira has so firmly refused to admit that she can still project, and has so consistently responded with anger and then panic to any discussion of her working as a touchstone, that KOTIS decided to back away from the discussion until she’s older.

Suspecting that this was perhaps more Ys thinking Lira should help, I said: "Are you sure you’re ready for that, Lira?"

"No," Lira said, sounding angry. "I don’t want to do it. But I don’t want people to die. And I want that more."

"I’m glad," I said, and then opened a channel to Tsur Selkie, Zan, and Kaoren (a second link), telling them: "Lira wants to help. I think she’s ready for it."

Zan, just short of the Pandora platform, held her squad, waiting, and it was only a few moments before Tsur Selkie gave her the go-ahead. I asked Zee if it was possible for Ys, Rye and Sen to be brought home from school early, and then sat on the couch to stress while she arranged that. My main goal from that point onward was to not distract Kaoren, which meant I did breathing exercises and tried to keep my heart rate at relatively normal levels. When the kids arrived, I had to really work at it because Sen was extremely distressed – partly because Sight Sight was working overtime on her need to know. I ended up describing parts of what was happening to her, which made it easier for both of us.

The first Setari, three of the Nurans, arrived at Atanra shortly after the Isadore’s captain had opened the ship’s exits. The massive was heaving itself into range of the ship, and there were hundreds of people scrambling over grass and rocks, trying to race a spiny octopus to Atanra’s fortified walls. Korinal, in lead, set Selreven and Otarien to scoop up as many passengers as possible while she tried to draw the massive away and avoid a large flock of escort swoops.

Fourth arrived back in real-space just as they were starting this manoeuvre, and were flying as quickly as they could from the near-space gate to Atanra. As soon as he had a direct look at the towering bulk of the massive, Kaoren said sharply: "No elementals!" and Korinal, about to fire a few Light bolts, veered away, then picked up a man-sized rock and threw it instead.

And the thing caught the rock and threw it back at her, a response she barely dodged. I checked Zee’s expression, and saw her frown deepen, and she only looked grimmer as the Setari squads made it through to Atanra and began collecting scattered passengers while struggling to draw the massive away from the Isadore. The massive would pause briefly to toss back rocks and snatch at any Setari who flew too close, while continuing to head slowly toward the Isadore, where more than two-thirds of the passengers were still trapped – and far less inclined to race out the exits when tentacles started trying to force their way in.

It was Mara, ever practical, who broke into the discussion of how to lure the massive away from the ship with: "Why don’t we move the ship? Do we have enough lift between us?"

"Possibly when enhanced," Maze said. "Let’s clear as many of these swoops as possible before making the attempt."

When Twelfth arrived with Lira, Kaoren had Fourth waiting at the gate from near-space. I blinked when I saw Lira emerge, since she was in a Setari uniform. Zan had had Sora Nels, Twelfth’s Ena manipulation talent, give Lira her uniform harness and stay behind. Lira was white-faced and looked impossibly young, and Kaoren briefly stopped being captain and switched to Dad to hug her and tell her that he’d be with her the entire time. She hadn’t had my slow progression into travelling through the Ena, and was being thrust into the deep end of Setari work, facing the most dangerous massive I’d seen so far.

"It will absorb elementals and gain strength from them," Kaoren said, as he bound his suit to Lira’s and lifted her closer to the battle. "It may be possible to draw it with elemental attacks, at least so that it separates from the ship. After that, stone bombardment, sonics, and Atanra’s weaponry, but we must be quick or its counterattack will be devastating."

The squads split into three groups – all the most powerful Telekinetic and Levitation talents with Lira, a lure group able to attack and fly, and a less mobile group trying to collect passengers between the ship and Atanra, and protect them from escort Ionoth.

For the Setari who couldn’t enhance themselves, timing would be an issue for the ship lift. It was going to have to be a quick, hasty haul, and as soon as the ship was out of the way they would have to rush to bombard, overwhelming the massive’s ability to play catch through sheer numbers.

The Isadore rocked and shifted with horrible groaning noise as the squads moved into position – the massive had a good grip on it and was trying to pry it open. The lure group began attacking immediately: Ice, Fire, Light and Lightning. Light and Lightning only seemed to sting the massive, but Fire and Ice were a little more effective, sending up a cloud of (calamari) smoke, while other tentacles were locked in mini-glaciers.

I’m not sure whether the massive even associated the attacks with the Setari, or if it just saw a cluster of people standing together unprotected by inconvenient metal shells. Whatever the case, it writhed toward them, leaving the Isadore free and suddenly flying, tilted somewhat, and trailing metal plating and the contents of its holds. It was a low, surging rush of a flight, the ship skimming barely above the ground, dropping as the first of the enhancements failed. But it was away, far enough for Atanra’s weaponry – the kind of explosive missiles I’m familiar with from Earth – to be deployed.

Kaoren had shifted Lira to meet with Alay and the Nuran, Serray, to enhance their sonic attack, and the lure group hastily whizzed as far out of the way as possible. Bombs and sonics and fortunately KOTIS could make the bombs explode rather than be thrown back, and then a wave of rock hurled from above, the full force of gravity on our side.

And then Kaoren was shouting. "Counterattack! Cover or distance!" even as he was thrusting Lira, Alay and Serray down into the grass behind the nearest tumble of rocks. The massive was fairly thoroughly damaged by then, most of its spines broken, tentacles severed. Only a handful of the spines were able to fire, and I can’t imagine what it would have been like if it had done that fully armed.

Each spine broke apart at the tip, then sprayed countless arm-length needles in every direction. Everyone on the ground had dived behind rocks, but all the Setari in the air had been able to do in the time was climb, gain as much distance as possible, and try to dodge what followed.

For the Setari with Combat Sight that was almost possible. For too many – for Zan – it was not.

No Setari died during this massive attack. But almost half of them were injured, and Zan was one of the worst, speared through the chest. Even those hiding behind rocks on the ground didn’t all escape, as the low-travelling spines hit with such force that they produced stony shrapnel. Fifty-seven of the passengers of the Isadore died, most in the crush at the exits, or in the tentacles just outside them. The danger of massives in deep-space isn’t going to go away, not so long as we continue to travel through it, and the days since then have been filled with discussion of how to deal with that. The suggestion which is carrying the most weight is using small conveys of more manoeuvrable ships, rather than ones as large and unwieldy as the Isadore.

My days have involved two main things: dealing with Lira’s nightmares, and visiting Zan. Despite the wave of adoring comment which followed, and the knowledge that they would not have been able to lift the ship without her enhancement, Lira never wants to go near combat again. She particularly has trouble seeing so many people she knows in medical – not just Zan, but Glade and Par as well. Par’s become a particular favourite of hers: his quiet consideration often defuses her temper, and since Lira hates it when anyone she cares about is sick, she’s spent the past week wracked with uncertainty and lack of sleep.

We’ve been haunting the medical section of the Setari building, a place I’d been avoiding lately since the greysuits still can’t resist scanning me at every opportunity. Tyrian just makes me more interesting to them. But I was there when she woke up, and had fun competing for bed-side space with half her squad. And Lara, the captain of Fourteenth.

Despite the real struggle Fourteenth had after being caught in the Ena during the post-blast storm, Lara’s as sleepy and relaxed as ever. He doesn’t say much to Zan when she wakes up, just checks on her, and then makes way for any other visitors. Zan’s very strange about him in return – she looks to see if he’s there, and almost seems to flinch at the sight of him. That worried me enough that I had to ask Kaoren what was going on, whether we needed to arrange for Lara to not bother her.

I don’t usually ask Kaoren to tell me the more private things he sees with Sight Sight, and on the rare occasions in the past when I’ve hinted that I’d appreciate some goss he’s quietly discouraged me. This time he laughed.

"Guilt," he said. "Namara is too hard on herself."

I had a perplexed moment, trying to work out what Zan had to be guilty about.

"Because Fourteenth was caught in the Ena-storm," Kaoren said. He half-closed his eyes, considering the situation. "Lara has had an extremely difficult few years, and while Namara knows on a logical level that she is not responsible for that, she still does not forgive herself for failing to do the impossible. She struggles to deal with him."

"Then why doesn’t Lara stay away from her?"

Kaoren just looked amused, giving me one of his fractional smiles, then left me to speculate.