They presented for me something like a wall. I forced my mind against it and could not get through.
Stronger. But not harder.
I don’t understand! I sent.
You are not a tool to strike. Not a rock to bludgeon.
What am I? I asked.
You are a star.
And a light kindled inside me. A pure white light, the power of the nowhere. I became a flaming sword, and when I shoved, my mind pierced the barrier.
Good… Good… Continue.
A location popped into my head. Another portal? It was in what appeared to be a large building, filled with boxes? I frowned.
“Scrud,” Chet said.
“You recognize the place?” I asked, turning toward him.
“Indeed I do, Spensa,” he said, then took a deep breath. “That, I’m afraid, is the portal in the middle of Surehold, seat of Superiority power in this region of the belt.”
Chapter 25
There would be time later to think over what I’d seen. For now, I burst through the open doorway of the ruins, searching for Peg. I didn’t have to hunt for long; she was leaning against a crumbling wall just outside, arms held before her, claws out. Even when lounging, the tenasi looked predatory.
“You saw something,” she said. “You’re cytonic, aren’t you? Both of you.”
“I… Yes,” I said, glancing to Chet.
“Do you know about the Path of Elders?” he asked Peg.
“Never heard that term before,” she said, “but these old ruins…they have their own memories. Anyone can feel that. And I’ve been told about cytonics.” She pushed off the wall and stood upright. “This has to do with your mission? The one that’s so important that you two had to steal a ship from us?”
“Yes,” I told Peg. “And there’s more. Tell me about your plans to assault Surehold.”
She narrowed her eyes at me.
“Please, Peg,” I said. “I need to know. If the pirates are afraid to fight the Superiority—if they don’t want to risk the good things they have now—how do we persuade them?”
“We?” Peg said. “You’re joining in?”
I glanced at Chet, who nodded.
“Provisionally, yes,” I said.
Peg grinned. “Words. Well, we don’t need to persuade the pirates—not individually. We merely need to get my sons to follow me again.”
“Your sons?” Chet said. “They turned against you!”
“Yeah,” Peg said. “They lead the two largest pirate factions. I’ll admit, I didn’t expect both of my sons to grow enough muluns to rebel. After we all left Surehold the first time, I tried to get everyone to attack it. We had a small initial clash, but our people were frightened by that, and disorganized. When my coalition collapsed, my sons took away some of my strongest forces to start their factions. Makes a mother proud.”
“Proud? That they rebelled?”
“Exactly!” she said. “They were incredibly bold. Overthrowing their own mother? They were barely adults! Ah, it was great. But it’s inconvenient, so we have to win them back. My eldest—Gremm—has been champion for a year now. Leads the faction called the Jolly Rogers. An Earth term, no?”
“I believe so,” Chet said.
“Well, you’ll probably get to meet my son’s forces soon. The moment word of your skill reaches them, I suspect Gremm will send a raiding party to attack us. They’ll be growing delens to know the truth—and I’ll expect you to show them.”
“I’m eager for it,” I said.
“I doubt Gremm will join the raid. But afterward I can demand a contest between you and him—and he’ll accept. I know my son. And though he’s the best pilot among us, he’s nothing compared to you. If you defeat him, he will be forced to grow the tagao.”
“Which means?” I asked.
“A very rare fruit, meaning he feels submissive to his parents. If you defeat him, he will listen to me again.”
“You sure about that?”
“Absolutely,” Peg said. “It is our way.”
I didn’t point out that she’d been surprised by their betrayal, so I had my doubts. But I was willing to give it a try.
“What about his brother?” Chet asked.
“Semm leads a different faction,” she said. “He’ll return to me too, if my faction claims the championship. Trust me.”
Yeah, that sounded too convenient to me. There was more to this—Peg still had her secrets.
She watched me a moment longer, then started through the ruins toward our ships. “We should be returning,” she said. “I expect a raid at any time, and I don’t want to leave the others too short-staffed.”
“Well?” I asked Chet as she wandered off. “Did you know we’d have to get into Surehold itself?”
“I suspected,” he admitted. “The portal there is one of the largest and oldest in the region. I had hoped it wouldn’t be necessary…but at least we have a path forward.”
“Assuming we can trust Peg’s plan.”
“She seems to trust it,” he said. “Come, we should return to our ship. You remember what happened last time after we saw one of these?”
Yeah. Our entire fragment had been destroyed in a collision. Perhaps it had been a coincidence, but I found myself hurrying after Chet just in case. We gathered Maksim, and soon the four of us were lifting off to join the resonants and start back toward our home base.
“You two appear unusually solemn,” M-Bot said as we fell into formation. “It worked, I assume? You again saw the past?”
“Indeed, AI,” Chet said. “We kind of contacted a cytonic person in the past.”
“Uh…” M-Bot said. “Clarification please?”
“She could feel my questions somehow,” I explained, “in her time—and left answers for me. Or maybe she just heard the general curiosity of all who came after her. Either way, I think we know what happened to the kitsen cytonics—and why there was a sudden dearth of contact between Earth and aliens after some initial interactions in ancient times.”
“Really? What?”
“War,” I said. “With a delver.”
“We don’t know it was a delver,” Chet said. “But it did seem to have been some kind of…delverlike entity. The cytonics of the galaxy—those that had contacted one another—gathered to fight it. And…not many survived.”
“They fought a single entity?” M-Bot said.
“And won,” Chet said, “by somehow making it real. But there were great casualties.”
“And we now face…more than one,” M-Bot said. “Way more than one.”
“Yes,” I said, leaning forward in my seat. “There was something else. No loss of memories in the nowhere back then. It’s a more recent development.”
“It’s connected,” Chet said. “And the answers are at Surehold. Some of them at least.”
“In the memories of a man named Jason Write,” I said, frowning.
“Jason Write?” M-Bot said. “Superiority historical archives list him as the human who initiated first contact with the greater galaxy after accidentally discovering he was cytonic. He…kicked off the expansion of humankind into the galaxy, and indirectly caused the First Human War of conquest.”
I nodded absently, thinking about that ancient cytonic who had communicated with us. The feelings of exhaustion and loneliness that had permeated her. I felt that something had sparked inside me. Or…well, the spark had always been there. Now it burned brighter.
“Chet,” I said. “Do your powers feel different?”