Chapter 19: A Tower to the Stars

“The cube is moving away from Daadgre,” the draconian pilot Adenpo reported to her partner. They were exiting the ocean in the wake of the Anunnaki ship salvaged by the Order of the Emerald Grifon and Adenpo was cautiously tracking the cube to ensure it was captured as their vessels intended.

“Want me to grab it?” Fendon asked. He knew Daadgre was a powerful warrior but with the cube being taken, he would surely be able to retrieve it once it separated itself from the frenzied battle.

“Wait,” Adenpo knew this was going to be a difficult snatch, “I want to see where it goes first.” She watched Quid with her scanners as he settled into the escape pod. “It’s about to be ejected,” she reported to her partner.

Fendon waited until the signal was given, then ejected his own craft to follow Quid through the storm.

Aboard the trailing Agarthan battleships, a mantid pilot was watching the readout of their own scanners. Having tuned their sensors to accommodate the cloaking technology used by the Draconians, they could see both Quid’s escape pod and the Draconian shuttle fly away from the main pursuit into a secondary one.

The pilot radioed his commander, who ordered a shuttle of their own to pursue. There simply weren’t enough resources available at the moment to spare a whole battleship for one shuttle. They continued pursuing the two larger ships out of the atmosphere.

Meanwhile, Sheran was regaining consciousness to find herself being held tight to Nil’s chest.

Nils was crying inconsolably. “I’m so sorry,” she pleaded, “I knew I should’ve been wearing my celestite!” She would normally use a protective amulet to repel the emotional toxins Daadgre subjected her to but she’d been so excited about everything else going on, she simply hadn’t thought of it. Now she’d lost control and for the moment, Sheran’s condition seemed to result from her negligence. “None of this should’ve happened!”

Sheran promised everything would be fine. She was injured and recovery would be difficult but there was no permanent damage.

Gnosa told Nils, “don’t blame yourself for this, it won’t help anything.” They both just needed time to process the experience and they’d recover. In the meantime Nils wasn’t helping anyone by acting like she was responsible for this because of a simple oversight.

Tezqa crawled out of Daadgre’s exoskeleton and sat a few feet away to lick himself clean. He was filling the space with a purifying light to remove Daadgre’s energy from the space. His light wrapped around Nils especially, to ensure any lingering trace of harmful toxins was washed away from her aura.

Gnosa offered Sheran a hand in standing up. “You alright, sister?”

Sheran tried to stand on her own but was in too much pain. She took Gnosa’s hand, then leaned on Nils and ended up getting stuck in a tight embrace. They couldn’t feel each other the way they normally would, hugging like this felt a lot better than being completely separated.

On the bridge, Qanti’s crew was desperately trying to ready the ship for battle, which until now hadn’t seemed like a high priority but now seemed like a matter of life or death.

The ship was shaking uncontrollably and Qanti was estimating low odds of escaping. Her pilot was doing well enough to keep it stable and they were still on course for the moon, where they’d stop in a loose orbit and wait for Federation assistance. Qanti hoped the Agarthans would be able to protect them from the Draconians until then.

“We’re about to exit the atmosphere,” the pilot reported. The shaking finally stopped and they began a smooth glide on course.

As the Draconian ship followed them out of the atmosphere, Adenpo fired a sequence EMP bursts to disable Qanti’s shields, hoping the feedback would finish off the already damaged spacecraft and eject the Atlanteans into the vacuum of space. Adenpo had no interest in the Anunnaki ship at all, she only fired at it because she wanted to see if it would survive, from sheer curiosity.

Draconian behaviour is often viewed as malevolent from the perspective of other cultures and their agents typically have an excessive warrior attitude. However, from their perspective the purpose of their existence is to bring disruption to established systems that require reconfiguration. When they appear in someone’s field there is always divine purpose, which typically involves a certain degree of destruction in order to allow the surrounding energy fields to realign properly. In this case, testing the spacecraft’s ability to hold together was a way to ensure that those aboard were capable of enduring the next phase of their trials.

Qanti’s ship shook heavily from the EMP bursts. Inertial dampers could barely restrain the vibrations caused by the feedback surge as their shields went offline. For a moment they all wondered if it would survive this time. They stopped in their tracks and waited for the echoes of disruption to fade.

While Adenpo's body still wanted to retrieve the cube, her higher consciousness knew there was no need to stay in the area any longer. She veered off and set course out of the solar system. She’d return when her partner requested evacuation from the surface but she couldn’t wait around for the Agarthans - or Vegan warriors who would surely arrive once news of Draconian presence spread.

She opened a stream of energetic flux in which the ship was capable of traveling at immeasurable speeds due to the quantum nature of thought, using a magical propulsion system to project her vessel through it by casting a suggestion into the universe that her body and ship would be best suited a long distance away immediately.

Qanti requested the Order’s presence on the bridge. Nils held Sheran's hand comfortingly as they went to join Qanti. They were al glad to leave behind the charred remains of Daadgre’s shell.

It had been less than an hour since they arrived on the ship and Gnosa couldn’t believe how much had transpired since then.

Quid’s escape pod landed on the surface of Terra.

Qanti was asking her crew, “how long to reinitialize the shields?”

“Hard to say,” the security officer answered. “We’re working on it but several components are fried.”

“Get some backup here, now!” She was beyond agitated at the way this mission had turned out. She’d lost almost her entire team, the ship was falling apart and they wouldn’t be able to defend themselves if they were attacked again. “Surely the Federation has someone coming to protect us?”

The comms officer was working as hard as he could to get in contact with a Federation envoy. “I can’t find anyone nearby. There’s a Sirian vessel near Venus but -” the man’s intercom beeped. “Agarthans are reaching out.”

Qanti sighed. “Alright, let’s hear it.”

The Agarthans had split up after leaving the atmosphere. One was plotting a course to pursue the Draconian craft out of the solar system. Another was rushing ahead to scan all vessels around the moon and ensure there was no sign of further danger. The third was closing in on the Order rapidly.

A voice blared out to Qanti on her bridge. It spoke in clicks and whistle-like hissing, saying, “Agarthan Arbiter Kleitasz demands you surrender this vessel immediately. We are commandeering it in the name of the Agarthan Hive Cluster.”

Qanti wasn’t about to relinquish the vessel that easily. “This is Captain Qanti of Atlantean Naval Intelligence. We have claimed this salvage under the Terran Oceans Treaty, we’re delivering it to a Galactic Federation envoy who should arrive soon.”

The Agarthan wasn’t interested in hearing their stories. “We don’t recognize Federation jurisdiction. You are in possession of illegal technology and we will oversee its disposal.”

Qanti wasn’t having it. “You have no authority over Atlantean intelligence operations. We’ve removed the ship from our ocean and we’re removing it from Terran space as quickly as possible.”

There was silence for a moment while the Agarthans communed with their superiors.

Qanti said, “we’re badly damaged and could use some protection when the Anunnaki arrive.” She was assured they would receive Federation protection but if they didn’t show up she’d be alone, unless the Agarthans decided to help her.

Another moment of silence. “We will protect your crew but we insist that we be given command of the vessel. Prepare to be boarded. We will not harm you if you surrender command.”

Nils rushed onto the bridge and shouted to the speaker. “We are Federation emissaries operating under support from Avalon and Atlantis. We assure you this will be handled according to all international and interstellar laws but we do not consent to your interference.” In Federation law, consent is taken seriously beyond the measure of most Terrans’ comprehension. The refusal of interference from another is a serious matter.

Gnosa set Sheran on a seat that wasn’t torn apart too much, then began reciting interstellar agreements that gave temporary authority to Nils and himself until a third party showed up for mediation, or until the Federation arrived to take custody of the ship.

When Tremplir returned to the submarine, the merfolk were assisting the Atlanteans in retrieving scraps of the ship which had broken apart when it separated from the stone floor of the ocean. After they were gathered up completely they would be brought out of the atmosphere and returned to the Anunnaki along with the rest of the ship.

Removing the remains of the ship was an issue relevant to cleaning up undesired timeline shifts. They were currently inhabiting a timeline in which the cube’s protection had gone awry and in other timelines this ship was not present in the ocean. Removing these fragments would assist in removing damage from the timeline, so it could be integrated in the future.

“Hello my friends,” Tremplir sent a message rippling through the waters to the merfolk. “There’s another chunk of the ship that fell off as we were moving. Would anyone like to help me look for it?” She was referring to damage caused by the explosions during the battle against Daadgre. Several groups of merfolk headed toward her, glad to assist.

She ran to the Order’s equipment chest, rummaging through it to find a charm containing all 49 elven runes, seven for each of the seven elements of Avaloni magic: sun and moon, land sea and sky, wood and stone. This charm was a gift from a dear friend, imbued with all 7 elements, and was perfect for maximizing the potency of her magic.

She tapped the seven-pointed faery star on the charm and delighting in its glow as she wrapped it around her neck, feeling her ancestors breathe sacred light into her heart.

“I am a chalice,” she whispered as she sat back down at the pilot seat. As she said it, her aura was wrapped with a vibrant orange light that permeated the waters around her.

She navigated away from the initial site of the salvage and set off in search of the rest of the wreckage. The fragments had been carried by the ocean currents as they fell, and would be difficult to locate.

She breathed a deep purple into the sea runes and when they resonated with dark blue she cast the same orange light around her throat and spoke. “We call out to the creatures of the deep, respectfully requesting assistance in waste disposal.”

The ocean creatures would gladly respond to Avaloni magic; the octopus and squid spirits were able to search the rocky floors more easily than anyone else. Cephalopods are a highly intelligent and friendly group. They were glad to assist in the clean-up effort.

The door of Quid’s escape pod burst open and he staggered out of it.

The Draconian warrior Fendon found a safe, open spot to land his shuttle. He set on every cloaking device the ship was equipped with, including a mask that would project a layer of forest around it. He knew there would be Terrans trying to remove him from their world and didn’t want to be seen until he had the cube and was ready to leave. He set an auto-destruct sequence for a one-hour period and grabbed a sword and a plasma weapon.

This was going to be fun. Hunting in an alien world always was.

Adenpo dropped out of warp after 2 seconds and 22 thousand kilometres of travel. She immediately began scanning to ensure she was alone. There were no other ships registered within scanner range.

She disengaged pilot controls and checked in on Daadgre. His soul was suspended in an aetherial fluid harvested from the central plasma core of Alpha-Draconis.

In the final years before their home sun stopped undergoing hydrogen fusion and converted to a white dwarf star, the Draconians harvested samples of the remaining hydrogen. The samples were now used to help dormant, disembodied souls remain safely in a state of hibernation during deep space voyages. If the spirit was allowed to disperse into the emptiness of space, it would take great effort to reintegrate in the future.

“You alright in there?” Adenpo asked the fluid, tapping on the transparent shell like a child tapping an aquarium.

Slow swirls in the electromagnetic flux signalled a healthy presence she presumed to mean yes, although she lacked the physi-medical knowledge to know for sure. She wasn’t a doctor, she was a warrior just like Daadgre and she knew there was no destroying a soul. If her brother was experiencing discomfort in his chamber there was nothing she could do about it but he’d be fine either way.

After a few moments she saluted the fluid lovingly. “Stay strong, brave one, we’ll be home soon.”

In their culture, ‘soon’ was a relative term. Souls accustomed to extended periods of in-essence could endure significant periods of distress, knowing that all things pass eventually. The next phase is always just a step away, no matter how far that step may seem.

A high-frequency buzzing triggered adrenaline release in her brain, calling her back to piloting. Scanners revealed a battleship had just dropped out of warp nearby. Scanning attently, she recognized the shape as one of the Agarthan ships that had followed them out of the Terran atmosphere.

She smirked. “So, you like to play?” She reset the ship’s control functions and floated into the centre of the room. “I love games.”

The Draconian ship, which totally lacked artificial gravity, was piloted from an empty room equipped with sensor arrays built into the walls. The pilot would be magnetically held in the centre and any movements or thoughts she produced would be interpreted as orders for navigation, weapons and other ship systems. While this required immense concentration and focus on the pilot’s part, it was a highly effective fast-response system.

The ship systems beeped and Adenpo flicked her wrist to shove it into motion. Locking eyes on her prey, she laughed with eager anticipation.

She started with another series of EMPs to weaken the Agarthan’s shields but her ship began to shake as they countered with a modulated stream of subatomic particles designed to destabilize her propulsion systems, which would prevent her from escaping if she needed to.

She spiked into an arc around them, dodging and swerving to avoid their weapons while she lined up her next attack.

The Agarthan mantid pilot re-modulated the shields so the same EMP wouldn’t be as effective without his opponent having to search for the proper frequencies. He couldn’t find any consistent pattern to her movements and was unable to track her well enough to keep his weapons targeted effectively. He disengaged the particle beam and jumped back into warp for a matter of nano-seconds, reappearing a few miles away and reorienting to attack again.

“Clever,” Adenpo laughed sarcastically as she placed a homing mine in subspace. The ship shook again as the Agarthans fired and she spun in a circle. The resulting spiral between herself and the particle beam produced a field that dragged her opponent closer to her and she laid another mine, this one trained to seek shield signatures, then adjusted course to dart past the Agarthan.

The mantid wasn’t able to respond to the mine quickly enough and when it detonated, it caused an inversion field in which the ship’s shields overloaded and fried nearby components; in this case it damaged the Agarthan manoeuvring thrusters. They were unable to control their movements, set adrift in the oceans of nothingness around them.

Adenpo was practically drooling in anticipation as she approached the crippled Agarthan warship. “I win,” she laughed. She was deciding what tricks to employ, how best to play with her prey before consuming them, when the scanners picked up a Regulan cruiser.

The Regulans, a tribe of lions descended from Vega, had been watching the Draconians since they left Terra’s atmosphere. They’d followed in stealth and studied the behaviour of their prey before appearing. The Agarthan ship being wounded was their sign to intervene before there were casualties.

The Regulan ship Iotzakh decloaked and immediately spiked the Draconian’s shields with a highly focused particle beam which caused a reflexive response from Adenpo to focus shield energy into a specific point, then followed up with a shockwave in subspace that acted as a hammer, forcing the electromagnetic nail through the shields and into the hull.

The Agarthans immediately knew the appearance of Regulans was their cue to flee for safety. The mantid pilot ordered a jump in warp in whichever direction they were facing. They could repair their thrusters in a safe area and then return home.

The mine Adenpo had deployed in subspace picked up the field produced by the sudden spike of the Agarthan warp field and homed into the source of it, acting like a magnet attracted to a sudden polarity in its region of subspace.

Adenpo was maneuvering away from the Iotzakh to escape the weapons fire, and using the split second available to decide whether to engage the enemy or disappear to the safety. An explosion in subspace shook her engines with the news that the Agarthan was hit by the mine as soon as they entered warp. She laughed maniacally and decided to take that as a victory. There was no shame in retreat as long as she’d made her kill.

Adenpo turned toward the Regulans and opened a slipstream to mockingly disrupt her enemy as she made her retreat. She’d return to the nearest friendly starbase to await the signal to retrieve her colleague from Terra, if it ever came.

Aboard Iotzakh, the commander growled in frustration as his ship shook and the shields fluctuated in the wake produced by Adenpo’s slipstream. There was no damage, only a minor inconvenience. When ship systems returned to normal, the Regulans returned to the Terran moon where they’d continue their mission.

Qanti was furious. The Agarthan ship ordering their surrender had been joined by the second ship, which had gone ahead to scout for potential threats but was now returning to reinforce the first.

Qanti now had to defend her right to retain control of her own mission, which was now being threatened by aggressively angry frenemies. “We’re all Terran here,” she was screaming, “there’s no threat to anyone as long as we all remember we’re on the same side!”

The Agarthans were adamant that they be given control of the ship. “We have orders to obtain this contraband and dismantle it before it causes further disruption to the timeline.” Their internal communications were ablaze with furious activity, as  the primary Hive Cluster became incensed at the idea that the Atlanteans deliberately performed this mission without consulting them.

Gnosa was still trying to retain control of the situation, appealing to any outdated treaty he could think of to ensure he and Nils were seen as the proper agents to conduct business with the Federation when they arrived.

Tezqa was growing impatient. ‘This is why we stay out of Federation affairs,’ he thought to himself as he growled angrily, ‘there’s too much political quarrelling to get anything done.’

As a member of the Urmah tribe, Tezqa preferred self-autonomy. Like a true warrior, he was accustomed to doing what he wanted in whatever way seemed best to him. No one told him what to do except other members of the tribe, who would find reasonable ways to ensure everyone’s needs and desires were met without interference or dispute. That way, anything that was needed was simply done, with no hassle and no nonsense, just simple and effective resolution to whatever issues came their way.

Having licked himself clean enough to avoid congealed blood affecting the feeling of his smooth, soft fur, he dismissed himself and made his way to an escape pod. He’d clean himself further when he was alone again, as it should be.

Nils was checking in on Sheran to ensure she was still holding strong, when the Regulan ship Iotzakh dropped out of warp. Nils could instantly feel the subtle, powerful presence of the blue lions of Regulus and she breathed deep in relief. Standing up she told Qanti and Gnosa, “let me talk to them, ok?”

Qanti was only too glad to step aside, she wasn’t interested in this political bickering. Gnosa patted Nil’s shoulder encouragingly.

The transmission came in. “This is Commander Re’ach-ne of the Federation starship Iotzakh. We are here to resolve this issue with respect to Terran forces, and to oversee the return of Anunnaki technology to its owners.”

The Agarthan communications went silent as their internal networks discussed whether or not to continue engaging in this issue. Finally, they sent back, “Agarthan Arbiter Kleitasz speaking, we will defer to Federation authority here.” They weren’t willing to push against the lions, they knew when they were out of their league.

Immediately the Regulans transported two crew members aboard the bridge. Tall, blue-furred lions who stood on two legs, far above the others, made an imposing presence among nearly anyone.

Tezqa sent a signal to the Urmah ship orbiting Venus, requesting a pickup, then programmed the escape pod toward that area and launched himself away from the whole scene. He was grateful to be offered an opportunity to return to his own people and even more-so to be away from Federation squabbles.

Nosies on Qanti’s bridge informed the crew of an escape pod being jettisoned. The two lions laughed knowing their distant Urmah cousin had retired from the stand-off.

Nils was standing before them, respectfully identifying herself as a member of the Order. “We arranged to return this to the Anunnaki but when we arrived there was a group of mercenaries attempting to intervene. They were led by -”

The lions interrupted. “Draconians, we know, we scared them off before we arrived.” They were already transporting Daadgre’s body aboard their own ship to analyze it for tactical data on the artificial species.

Nils sighed in relief; the danger was gone. “We have a wounded Arcturian here who needs medical attention.” She led one of the lions to Sheran, who was observing passively to avoid using energy she needed to retain consciousness.

The lion smelled Sheran a few times. “Her 6D body has plasma urns and her connection to the 7D craft around Jupiter is damaged.” He looked at Nils. “You’re her mate? You should stay with her until she heals properly.”

Nils nodded, “I know but what can you do to help her?”

The lion looked empathetically down at Sheran. “Nothing, we don’t have the medical knowledge an Arcturian contingent would be able to provide but she will heal on her own when she’s ready. You should return to Terra and find a way to restore her connection to her higher self.”

The other lion, Yoszunda, was navigating the ship toward the coordinates arranged for the meeting point. The Agarthans followed, not to interfere but merely to act as additional support.

Yoszunda was looking around at the crew on the bridge. Many of the Atlanteans were down in the engine room now, ensuring the machines were running properly until they handed it off. He recognized Qanti as the Atlantean leader. He looked at Gnosa. “Dwarf, are you the Terran representative with contact authorization?”

Gnosa shook his head no, that was supposed to be Tremplir, who held official diplomatic status in Avalon. “She’s still on the surface but I will speak for the Order in any Terran matters, in her place.”

Yozszunda innerstood. “We need to know what happened to the cube.”

Gnosa was surprised. “You know about that?” He had to think about the answer for a moment; everything was happening so quickly when Quid disappeared. “We’re not sure. We didn’t know about it until we arrived.” He looked over to Sheran, wondering how much she’d known when they left Jura with Quid. “There was an Orion with us, he disappeared with it.”

“Very well.” Yoszunda doubted that was good news but it didn’t bother him. This was a Terran affair and as long as the cube wasn’t aboard it wasn’t his concern.

Nils called over, “why was an Urmah sent to help us? Wouldn’t it be better to have Federation emissaries?” She was frustrated by their refusal to treat Sheran and now felt they would’ve been safer if the Federation had sent more support to fend off the Draconians.

Yoszunda laughed. “We didn’t have time to arrange it. Urmah were already on the surface and we didn’t have enough warning to arrange a presence on Terra. Urmah are autonomous but they get the job done, we sent someone we knew we could depend on.”

The jaguar Tezqa was lounging in his shuttle, licking himself clean with a contented purr, loving the life he lived and knowing he would always be exactly where the Universe wanted him - if only because he refused to subordinate himself to others.

As the group of spacecraft approached the meeting point, scanners detected a contingent of Anunnaki craft decloaking ahead of them and Nils tried not to focus on the emotional complexes of hostility and distorted warrior energy she sensed in their visitors.

The Agarthans began moving ahead to stay between them and the Anunnaki but the Regulans insisted they remain in front, preferring to remain fully in control of the situation. The Agarthans dropped back into a defensive formation.

Qanti wasn’t sure why the Agarthans were being so aggressive. “There’s no need for those insects to be that hostile. It’s a simple exchange, we’re not here to fight...” She trailed off, looking at Yoszunda and Gnosa. “... are we?”

Gnosa didn’t trust their visitors. “We’re not exactly friends, either.” He almost lost a dear sister on this mission, along with most of Qanti’s crew, and there wouldn’t be any more casualties if he had anything to say about it.

Yoszunda doubted there would be any problems but it never hurt to be prepared. He turned to Qanti. “Tell your people they’ll be transported onto our ship. We’ll return you to Terra safely.” He nodded to his partner. The other lion tagged Nils and Sheran, then all three dematerialized.

Qanti sent orders to the engine room to prepare for transport, then gathered her bridge crew in a circle and all at once, every Atlantean was transported.

For a brief moment it was just Gnosa and Yoszunda. They looked at each other, silently asking if each was ready, then nodded in unison. Yoszunda radioed, “Anunnaki delegates, you are cleared for boarding.”

Within seconds the bridge was filled with Anunnaki. An imposing captain stood in front of them, eyeing the dwarf skeptically. “I was told we’d be meeting an Elf.”

Gnosa growled. “You were told wrong, boy.” He disliked the look on the man’s face and he could tell the race hadn’t changed since they were banished from Terra. He could almost smell the hostility.

Yoszunda stood between them. “There will be no violence here.” He stepped back and turned to the Anunnaki captain. “There were complications and the ship barely made it out. We’re handling the situation. Is there a difference between an Elf and a Dwarf?” A difference that mattered to the captain, at least?

The Anunnaki captain couldn’t care less, he just didn’t like unexpected conditions. He gave a customary gesture to mean, ‘no.’

Gnosa growled again. “We’re still performing salvage operations, we should have the rest of your junk heap returned shortly.”

The captain nodded, looking around at the state of the bridge. He hadn’t expected to arrive in a battle site but he liked the rustic look of the torn walls and ruined consoles. A true monument to their history on Terra. “Looks like it barely arrived. You didn’t have any trouble getting here, did you?”

Gnosa glared in contempt. That question had already been answered and it was visibly evident. There were still dead mercenaries on the floor - most of which were Anunnaki.

Yoszunda changed topic before things got out of hand. “There were some issues in the engine room, you may have difficulty firing up the FTL drive. It was shut down with the emergency power-down function. There are ruptured plasma conduits in and around the shuttle bay, and you’re missing five escape pods.” The rest wasn’t important, they could figure it out on their own.

The captain nodded apathetically. “Very well.” He seemed in a rush to get them off his ship.

Gnosa couldn’t agree more. “So we’re done here?”

They all exchanged glances and then Yoszunda transmitted request for transport. As they dematerialized, Gnosa was grateful to know the entire ordeal was behind him.

Quid awoke from death, his envenomed body still unsure how to process the experiences he’d gone through; or the venom still circulating in his bloodstream.

Fendon could smell transformation in the air. As a master of transmutation he could feel the venom in Quid’s blood being chemically altered and wondered what kind of magic he’d absorb when he consumed his prey.

Tremplir was watching a giant squid carry a large piece of bulkhead to her shuttle, supported by merfolk magic to lighten the load so its tentacles could carry it without strain.

She was feeling a lot of tension in her back, she’d have to take a quick vacation back home before returning to the Order, but for now everything seemed to be going well.

She leaned back and meditated a bit, trying to shake off the feeling of being rushed to complete the salvage and get back on dry land.

She was in communication with undines, elemental water spirits who inhabit the oceans and lakes alike. They were assisting the search and ensuring that the oceans were being cleansed and healed, so the remaining traces of the conflict would not be stored in the water’s vibrational memory.

The undines had also summoned a group of selkies who were now playfully swimming along with the merfolk to locate shards of torn steel and other metals so the microtrash left behind wouldn’t contaminate the waters.

The selkies were also allowing the undines to move energies through their bodies, which would purify any water irradiated by certain remnants of the spacecraft.

As the shuttle’s cargo hold was too small to contain most of the larger fragments, Tremplir requested additional support from the Atlantean submarine.

She contentedly leaned back into her seat, watching in her mind’s eye as the salvage operation continued. She felt safe and secure, and knew she would have this all cleaned up quickly.

The Regulans reached orbit elevation around Terra and requested permission to send a landing party to Jura, where the Order would be able to return home quickly.

The Atlanteans were returned to their home, where they would be debriefed by Melqart. Qanti was distraught at the loss of so many dear colleagues and dreaded the thought of informing families of their departed loved ones.

Gnosa, Nils and Sheran were in the medical bay where their wounds were being treated by the advanced medical knowledge of the Regulans. While Sheran’s plasma burns couldn’t be healed properly, her damaged legs were regenerated easily along with the superficial damage sustained by the other two.

When they were given permission to land, the Order was shepherded to a shuttlecraft and securely fastened into their seats.

Aboard the Regulan shuttle, entry into the atmosphere was smooth and the transition was only minimally bumpy; small rattling in the seats was the only disturbance noticed by the crew.

Nils enjoyed the spectacular aerial view as they descended. She and Sheran were happy to speak with the sylphs, elemental wind spirits who thrived in the upper layers of the atmosphere.

They’d just travelled to the depths of an ocean, only to be brought down from the sky. Down there everything was so heavy but up here the wind was almost weightless. Ions danced around them as they breeched the ionosphere and left a trail of microscopic arcs in their wake.

As the shuttle passed into the upper layers of air, Nils felt the sylphs dancing around the shuttle. Some of them retreated away from the disturbance, to where things would remain calm, and simply watched the visitors pass by. Some playfully bounced off the shields, while others tried to surf in the wake or hold onto the barrier between the shield and the moving air layers.

A thin barrier of air formed around the shuttle, in which the layers closest to it were stuck between a moving object and less dynamic wind conditions, forcing the air around them to heat up as they formed a stream of compression. The air around the shields burned and for a few moments there were salamanders, fire elemental spirits, pouring through the open flame and wrapping around the vessel with the sylphs.

The passion of the flame and joy of the air bent the emotions of the travellers and Nils started smiling again for the first time all day. She forgot all about the destruction that had occurred and she was lost in the wild elemental energies. Then the shuttle slowed as it passed through the upper layers of atmosphere and the feeling was gone.

A lion inhaled gratefully. He’d been in space a long time and he relished the idea of smelling a natural world for a brief period. He enjoyed the sight of the ground coming closer.

Sheran was feeling blind or deaf. Without her psychic senses active as they should be, she was unable to commune with the elementals as normal, or even with the people round her. She felt like she was crippled and in a sense she was, except that this wound would have to be healed without wrappings and ointments but with meditation and light-work. Nils held her hand and they smiled together, grateful to be alive.

Gnosa just wanted to be on the ground again. This was not the place for a Dwarf but it was nice to see his sisters enjoying the experience.

Everyone felt subdued and no one said any more than was needed throughout the entire voyage home.

They were dropped off at a military spaceport and given a ride home in a hovercraft that flew smoothly over the city of Jura.

When they reached the Grifon’s Quiver they sat silently at the table in the front room, before the statue of Ozaiah, and reflected on their experiences. Processing emotions after such an ordeal is always an important form of self-care that promotes good mental health.

They’d all been through battles before, none of them were outside their usual roles by very far; yet each of them felt a sense of loss and injury that they wouldn’t normally feel. Gnosa’s armor was broken. Sheran and Nils were wounded. Each of them felt an edge of despair approaching them for reasons that had nothing to do with their ailments but they couldn’t place where it was coming from.

Eventually Gnosa wished them a swift healing and went into the lower levels to craft a new set of armor.

Nils and Sheran sat for a while longer, unsure what to do with theirself. It felt strange now, suddenly severed from each other like this and for the first time in years they felt lonely and sad. When they were ready they went into the armoury and disrobed.

Wearing light, comfortable clothes helped them feel more airy and soft. They adorned themselves with crystals to protect and stabilize their energies. Nils’ celestite amulet was still with Tremplir but they found a matching set of auralite bracelets and wrapped them around the same wrist. Then they walked slowly through the city to the layer of farms surrounding it.

The farms were lined with grids of alder trees and other species that nitrogenate soil or moderate other nutrients. They laid down under an alder and watched it sway in the wind.

The lion was right, there was a part of Sheran’s higher consciousness that couldn’t be reached because of the plasma burn.

A being like an Arcturian can choose to inhabit bodies acting in several dimensional spaces at once. Each space experiences slightly modified expansions or contractions of the same energy; physics and mind-set are interwoven and distort together as they flow through separate dimensional spaces. Sheran’s body existing in 6D space allowed a 7-dimensional consciousness to interact through it into what it experiences as a 5D body; a projected extension of the 7D awareness similar to an appendage that dips through several layers of an atmosphere.

Preserving this experience for prolonged periods is stressful to the mind and requires perfect precision and concentration. The consciousness must remain aware of itself in three places at once, all of which are interwoven but act as if separate.

Her 7D body was currently meditating in a healing bay aboard a starship around Jupiter. The burns in her 6D body on Terra left a 5D fragment of her consciousness, a fractal seed of the higher mind, isolated in Terra with limited integral flow from its higher fractal.

Nils and Sheran inhabited the same body in 7D. Two emissaries of their 9D worlds were joined in sexual union in Sirius, their roots wrapping into each other as they descended together into lower levels of consciousness. They worked together for a sacred pilgrimage into the Terra Experiment that would ensure the blessed outcome of the whole project to be experienced for its highest good.

Nils and Sheran inhabited separate 6D bodies on Terra, so that their 5D projections could exist independently. That way each of their worlds could express itself through them without requiring the other to be directly involved, while still being intrinsically linked at the heart.

Nils could still empathically feel Sheran the same way she felt everything else around her. Sheran’s ability to telepathically interact with other beings was dysfunctional because touching other minds hurt due to her psychic burns.

At the same time, Nils was also logy and bloated, almost nauseated and irritable. The toxins from Daadgre had been purged but they’d damaged her emotional body. Had they been in Avalon, she would have been experiencing the same dis-integration Quid experienced when he arrived there.

Each aspect of the experiences in our awareness can be expressed as its own body, simply as a way for the consciousness itself to project the experience and interpret it in a manageable way. Nils’ empathic abilities focused on nourishing her emotional body, whereas Sheran’s focused on amplifying the mental body.

In their own ways they were both injured: Nils’ emotional body was poisoned; Sheran’s mental body was burned. While both were otherwise able to function adequately, neither of them felt complete in themselves, especially without the other.

Trees’ ability to absorb the love of the sun and transform it into physical energy gave them a good innerstanding of the process of grounding higher dimensional energies into a 5D body. This process is extremely important for many forms of health and Sheran’s inability to do so would restrict her energy absorption. She would be tired and disoriented for months while she healed.

Sheran began to connect her roots to the tree’s and it shared its wisdom on the topic of grounding, helping her reconnect to her higher selves temporarily and assisting them in grounding into their lower bodies. Still it was going to take more than that to cure her.

Meanwhile Nils stretched her body, which always helped her ground, but now her aerobics were slowe; an expression of sadness rather than the more dynamic dances she would normally perform.

Gnosa was in the lower levels of the inner sanctum, mourning for his lost armor. It was such minor damage, only two pieces were broken, and yet it was enough to offset the magical flow through the stones and suddenly the protective magic simply wasn’t the same quality.

He didn’t have any spare pieces to mend it with. He would have to reassemble the entire suit to reset it properly, or make a new one but that require a lot of time and materials. He sighed and sat for a while, staring sadly at his once-perfect armor.

He’d be able to find green tourmaline in town, although finding the right size would be tricky, but a stick of heliodor of the right size was unlikely in the human world.

Having learned manifestation techniques in Nidhavellir, instant manifestation in other worlds was a simple task to the Dwarves. In the back of his mind he knew he’d be given what he needed but in his sudden depression he felt it was almost impossible to trust that what he wanted would simply appear. He felt it was just too much to bear.

The dark elf Hakkal walked in. “Brother! You look forlorn.” Gnosa merely nodded and after a few moments of reading facial expressions and feeling energetic disturbances he said, “Looks like your tower is falling.”

In the human world, the tower was a symbol from the age of strife, tracing back to the tarot divination set. It represents a structure built on a bad foundation and is now exceeding its own capacity. Suddenly it’s hit by a storm, leading to a disaster of our own creation. When we feel lost in despair it’s easy to blame the storm but more often than not the real cause of the loss was inside us and only by realizing our mistakes and fixing the foundation can we rebuild the right way.

Gnosa grimaced uncomfortably at the metaphor and met Hakkal’s eyes. “That armor was perfect. I’l never be able to make it that way again.” He’d never anticipated meeting an enemy like Daadgre on Terra.

“Apparently not,” Hakkal scoffed sarcastically. “The problem with perfection is, one tiny problem ruins the whole thing. Why remake the same thing you already had?”

Gnosa nodded in begrudging agreement. “Well either way, I’ll never find the materials I need for it around here.”

“A friend in Alfheim can get you whatever you need and you know it.” Hakkal had seen this kind of thing before. “What’s really bothering you isn’t whether you can find it. You don’t want to because the need itself feels unfair.” Need is the meaning of the rune Naudhr, a fence we built for our benefit which becomes a limitation that must eventually be transcended for growth.

Gnosa looked up in confusion. He knew there was truth there but some part of him didn’t want to acknowledge what it meant. He had to search around for the inner trickster, hiding the truth in the shade of its deception.

Hakkal continued. “That armor represented more than just protection. It was an accessory you made to showcase your triumph and beauty. For a while it helped you ground your authenticity but eventually it became an heirloom to a false identity you no longer need. Now that it’s broken you’re afraid that it won’t feel the same if you rebuild and you’re also afraid that’s because you can’t be the person you were anymore.”

Gnosa stood up with a serious air and gave Hakkal a bear hug. “Thank you, brother!” He had to dig further to find what all this really meant but he knew this was exactly what he needed to hear right now.

Hakkal backed off when he was released. “I’ll prepare a voyage to Alfheim when Alatone returns from Shambha-La.”

Nil’s exercises had carried her a few trees away from Sheran. The physical distance felt so much more relevant now than ever before. They would normally be inside each other regardless of where they went but now this mild separation felt like being worlds apart.

They’d been unified as one being in two bodies for far too long in a space that wasn’t designed to accommodate the type of collective consciousness they were attempting to embody.

In other worlds this collectivism would naturally extend beyond just them, they would experience oneness with a wide variety of beings simply by sharing the same space. Collective awareness is like a forest, with roots entwined in a thriving network of loving unity.

Here they were surrounded by individuals; they were supposed to be individuals but they simply rejected the experience of oneness until now.

The pocket realm of 5D, created by the dragons, made the fundamental unity of all life and matter impossible to truly experience for extended periods. Only when the entire collective consciousness remembered how to choose unity would it ascend back into 6D where they watched the Terra Experiment play out. Until then, the individualism of every cell within the 5D collective would have to be tempered and perfected, crafted into something far greater than it currently thought possible.

A gnome appeared from the roots in the tree between them. Elemental earth spirits, the gnomes stir soil and help disperse nutrients and energy throughout root networks, working mainly with insects and mycorrhizae as they flowed immaterially with the soil’s energy field. They held a fundamental innerstanding of the way individualized beings entangle in a collective.

The gnome condensed into the projection of a physical body, a holographic representation of its will. Nils and Sheran moved to sit next to the gnome.

The gnome said, “when two trees root too close to each other, they begin to merge. They learn to operate as if a single tree. They become stronger and yet they often lose the ability to moderate themselves alone. When something bad happens, they may lack the ability to respond as well to it as a single tree would.”

“The problem you’re experiencing,” the gnome continued, “is that neither of you is sure where you’re supposed to grow from here. Your branches no longer know where to extend because you’ve spent so long sharing what you receive from the heavens and the earth.”

Nils and Sheran thought about that silently a while. They’d each been able fill roles the other was not; yet if they’d lost a sense of themselves then they could no longer fill their own role properly, and the unified whole could no longer embody what it needed to.

The gnome said, “disentangling your roots will feel painful, or sometimes numb, but mostly confusing. The confusion itself is a clue as to where your deficiencies have accumulated and the spaces where you need growth are the spaces where the single You needs to be stronger in the future. You will no longer be able to support each other in the precise ways you have been, so you will need to learn how to support yourselves there, so that the other can receive the type of support they need.”

The only way for them to truly feel through who they needed to become was to disentangle and ground into themselves, into the experience of individuality among individuals. Then they could begin to reintegrate as new, fresh beings, into a new whole within the pair.

This disruption to their established paradigms was the gift of Draconis to their soul. The confusion and pain it involved is the reason that beings in lower levels of consciousness tend to prefer avoiding such destructive energies as those of a Draconian warrior like Daadgre - but the reasons we fear that disruption are exactly the reasons that such energies are needed.

Change comes in many forms, the ways we meet it more so. If we continue to avoid it for too long, eventually something will break and the tower will fall; so that we can change as we need to. It is a beautiful gift that comes in an unpleasant wrapping.

Ancient humans told stories of an epic tower that would reach the heavens. Eventually the tower became too tall and it collapsed. The chaos that ensued represented the original cause of disagreement and conflict. In truth, the tower collapsed because it was not built adequately to reach the stars. The chaos that grew in its place was a reflection of what needed to be resolved in order to make a better one; facing that truth is often more difficult than it sounds but it must be done.

The gnome said, “you will need to spend a period of time in reflection. You will need to determine why this disaster has occurred within you before you can find what to do about it. You have to search your roots for a place where you lack the ability to be yourself and discover why you’ve chosen to avoid growing there.” There was a silence, uncomfortable to Nils and Sheran but quite pleasant for the gnome. “You are injured. The road of recovery takes time and energy. Do not be afraid to settle into this feeling until you are ready to move out of it. There will be a reunion when you are ready for each other’s embrace but until then, there is wisdom to earn and joy to be found in the honing of your individuality.”

Tremplir was feeling wonderful. Her time spent working playfully with the spirits of the ocean had been both effective and enjoyable. They’d found every tiny scrap of foreign metal and gathered it aboard the Atlantean submarine.

She gratefully bid farewell to the undines and selkies, the cephalopods and other deep sea creatures who’d assisted in the clean up project. They’d had so much fun together but now it was time to part ways and return to their own lives with a new friendship instilled between races.

She thanked her ancestors for their support and packed her Elven rune charm into the equipment chest. Then she carried the chest into the Atlantean submarine with a lifting device that magnetically hovered above electrical conductors built into the floor.

She would have a long ride back to Atlantis without her siblings in the Order but she was looking forward to spending time playing with the merfolk on the way back to their homes in Rantepol.

Everything was going great for her and she was profoundly grateful for this adventure.

Adenpo was inside an asteroid field around Tau Ceti, one of the stars closest to Sol. The laws of the four planets in this solar system prohibited the importation of external conflict. They were rigidly neutral and demanded a cessation of all hostility within their sector. Still, there would always be people out there who don’t like Draconians. Adenpo felt safer hiding in an asteroid field amid chaos than orbiting a planet, out in the open like prey.

Like the Arcturian and Pleiadian she’d seen on her sensors earlier, she also had a higher self in 9D and they knew they loved each other up there. Down here, in lower levels of consciousness, everything seemed so violent and real. The internal conflict they felt, and chose to embody, was reflected externally in a way that felt so undeniably tangible.

She hated them in a certain way but it was more than she desired their harm. She longed to see their towers crumble in the wind, if only because she detested their feeble attempts to establish foundations in such muck as 5D consciousness. Lower beings were detestable to her people, those who chose to close their awareness lost the ability to do things the right way and they often cause problems they’ve forgotten how to innerstand.

Like all of her people, she loathed the idea that such beings reject their responsibility to retain awareness of their own actions and the denial of their responsibility for the consequences of actions they refused to admit they made. Despite her inability to perceive what her higher self saw, she burned with primal satisfaction at the idea that her brother had wrought such destruction on the false temples they coveted.

Her higher self simply saw that Nils and Sheran’s souls were reaching a point in their journey they wouldn’t be prepared for unless they made a major change very quickly. It was a friendly nudge up there. Down here it was almost a war.