On this planet - a large ball of dried-up soil, as if rolled along by a stellar dung beetle around a distant neutron star, white in the dark sky - many dwellings had sprouted, for lack of a better description.
Ada, now well-versed in the quick practice of the stellar tongue, had asked for directions from village to village until she reached the temple of the Humble Epic of All Life. The "villages" were large termite mounds, ten to fifteen meters high, grouped in sixes or sevens, centered around a pile of refuse that seemed to serve as a canteen and gathering spot for the local Xenos. Hardened paths, carved through the cracked mud scales covering the entire planet, linked all these identical places, separated by just a few kilometers... and this, all over the planet.
The landscape was uniform... it kept giving the impression of returning to the same place over and over again. If, on their own planets, humans had turned everything into fields and cities, giving more or less the sense that everything looked the same everywhere, here the colonization by the dominant species had pushed that idea so far that it had become a form of art.
The Xenos here resembled beetles without chitin, elongated, about the size of a human, and they spent their days hanging upside down. At dusk and dawn, they gathered to murmur clicks around the waste pile. How they had conquered space, learned the stellar tongue, or integrated into the interstellar Xenos cults was a mystery.
Disappointed by the HS and the League, disgusted by the Aleph, she had decided to follow her destiny and find, with Alpha and Kukth, the Gates of Empyrean. But on HS planets, the cult of the Epic - her point of origin - had been dismantled overnight, and she had had to turn to other planets - Xeno planets. But where to find Xeno planets? The LE had directed her to a monograph, a work not yet digitized but on paper, deposited at the University of Lennox, which she had reached just as the HS was losing contact with the planet.
The UniNox was in great turmoil, and she had been received and guided by an old man with sparkling eyes, who loved the Xenos. He had entrusted her with a book signed by a certain "Andreï, Captain of the Stellar Fleet", and she dared not imagine it was that damn captain who had once given her a Raven. The author had studied Xeno planets, inhabited or not. More than that - somehow, he had managed to calculate Drift coordinates. Thus, she had arrived on Void Planet, a lovely temperate world where she had wandered without finding a soul, and then had succeeded in reaching this one, Anqa. All names were assigned by the author at his own whim. Anqa itself was a Xeno colony of a mother planet that he believed lay very far away in the universe.
The Xenos here were not very talkative, but they had an outpost of the Epic cult, and she had progressed by giant leaps with her Raven. The white star was high in the sky, and Ada had a respirator that raised her oxygen to 20%, echoing her own breathing.
She made her way to the tallest termite mound, a large hourglass-shaped structure, and pushed open the entrance, which had for a door an obstructing plate of mud. Like all the other homes she had visited, it was strictly devoid of furniture or decoration, and the Xeno was asleep, hanging from the ceiling. She pulled herself up with Alpha's help, planting her MAR into the soft soil of the walls.
The creature, awakened by the vibrations, slowly unfolded, and its ten - then sixteen - eyes, surrounded by complex mandibles, faced Ada upside down, back to Alpha. Kutkh whimpered from the heat on Ada's shoulder.
They began a difficult dialogue for the young woman, because the Xeno was signing upside down, using all its mandibles simultaneously to form unique sentences, while she had to respond sign by sign. Once introduced, it confirmed:
- I RELIGION / CULT EPIC LIFE UNIVERSAL. ARMOR. PILGRIM. MESSENGER.
- I LOVE YOU, I SEEK GATES EMPYREAN, Ada signed.
- I LOVE YOU, I, YOU, ALL PEOPLE, SEEK GATES EMPYREAN
- YOU KNOW LOCATION GATES EMPYREAN, QUESTION
- NO
Ada grew discouraged. Behind him, Alpha's vacant but ever-present gaze gave her back her faith.
- YOU KNOW INDIVIDUAL, INDIVIDUAL KNOW LOCATION GATES EMPYREAN, QUESTION
- YOU KNOW GATES EMPYREAN HOW, QUESTION
- I SEE, PAST SITUATION, DWELLING TRAVELER
- YOU SAINT, YOU GIVE GREAT GREAT HONOR ME
- I SAINT I MUST GO GATES EMPYREAN, Ada explained.
- DWELLING TRAVELER, NUMBER LARGE. DWELLING TRAVELER ON PATH GATES EMPYREAN
- PATH, LOCATION, QUESTION
- DWELLING TRAVELER ON PLANET, DWELLING TRAVELER, OTHER, ON PLANET OTHER, DWELLING AND DWELLING CREATE PATH
- Okay, said Ada to Alpha. You get it? Basically, he's saying that the places with the strange Xeno house - which must be the Traveler's - form a path. I think the Gates of Empyrean are there. GATES EMPYREAN AT END OF PATH, QUESTION
- YES
- I LOVE YOU, this is a fantastic discovery, Alpha! YOU KNOW GATES EMPYREAN LOCATION HOW, QUESTION
- I LOVE YOU, ALL PEOPLE KNOW
- Everyone knows? But then ALL PEOPLE KNOW LOCATION GATES EMPYREAN, ALL PEOPLE GO GATES EMPYREAN, QUESTION
- I DO NOT KNOW
- I WANT LOCATION PATH
- YOU, FOLLOW ME
The Xeno dropped to the ground. It rippled forward, moving on small legs, under the sunlight that seemed to repel it somewhat. Though the star was high in the sky, a few stars could still be seen, and it straightened. It waved its mandibles toward one star - perhaps the brightest.
- ON PLANET, FRIEND ME
- ON PLANET, TRAVELER, QUESTION
- NO
- ON PLANET, PATH, QUESTION
- NO
- He's driving me crazy. YOU SHOW PLANET, REASON, QUESTION
- ON PLANET, FRIEND ME
- Yeah, you already said that. YOU TALK FRIEND, REASON, QUESTION
- FRIEND KNOW ALL
- Oh really? He knows everything? FRIEND KNOW ALL ALL ALL, QUESTION
- YES
- GRATITUDE, FRIEND
- I LOVE YOU
And the creature rippled back toward its home and the shadow. Ada pulled out a terminal that blinked under the rays of the deadly star. She thought she should probably see a doctor and recorded the stellar position of the star the priest had pointed to.
A blue-colored Ozymandias from the Stellar Fleet flew at low altitude, and Ada and Alpha pressed themselves against a termite mound-home. The young woman grabbed her MAR. A sound of deceleration… the Ozy landed. A few indistinct words, sharp orders. She climbed to the outside of the hourglass-shaped mound, then, digging handholds, climbed to the roof. Lying flat, she held her MAR in her hands and observed the explorers. A group of six soldiers, rifles in hand. In their midst, a man in a blue uniform, like on Calchas-3. Some sort of bureaucrat.
- "Inhabitants of this planet!" he shouted. "I see you have an HS Raven. We come in peace! The HS wishes to offer you a chance to live alongside it!"
What bastards, thought Ada. She aimed her MAR and fired at the feet of the squad leader. All the soldiers pulled back behind a termite mound, dragging the bureaucrat who didn't understand what was happening.
- "The people here don't want the HS!" shouted Ada. "Go back where you came from, or no one's leaving alive!"
- "What authority do you have on this planet? And who are you?" shouted the bureaucrat.
- "I am an initiate of the Humble Epic of All Life and Saint of the Xenos! I have more authority than you, that's for sure!"
The bureaucrat - Fergal, a guy with the nose of a Persian prince and the beard of a lumberjack - murmured to the team leader, Salman:
- "What's she saying? Do you think she's crazy?"
- "Goddamn it," said Salman, looking at his soldiers. "It's Gorylkin."
Salman had the pale complexion of a man who had spent a long time in 0G stations, and barely any hair. Even his eyes were a little too light. His team looked at him intently.
- "Gorylkin? Who's that?" asked Fergal, a bit lost. "I know the League's soap opera, but…"
- "It's the nickname of a girl who took back Orion Prime. A killer. A real one. She asked strongholds to surrender, and when they refused, she would somehow cross our lines like she was invisible and kill one or two. They say she has magical powers and the Xenos call her the Saint."
- "Magical powers?" repeated Fergal.
- "She might've met a Transient…"
A few heavy breaths, amplified by their respirators, followed. It was hot here. The doctor had said: no more than one hour outside, because of the radiation. Fergal said sharply:
- "You're Calmcalm, right? They hired you for situations like this."
Salman looked him in the eyes. Five years earlier, during a popular riot in Prefecture 444 of Prospero, he had managed to separate rioters and law enforcement by shouting at the top of his lungs, "Calm ! Calm !" - which had made everyone laugh, earned him a stupid nickname, and ultimately calmed things down. The erroneous legend of a negotiator had grown, and he had risen in rank. Under pressure, he had indeed taken a few mediation courses, but... he shouted:
- "Gorylkin? My name's Salman. Can I come talk to you? Yelling through respirators is a pain!"
- "Yeah, right! So you can shoot me as soon as I show myself? Do I look STUPID to you?"
- "Gorylkin, I know your reputation, and I know you could kill us without us even realizing it. And I'll be honest: I didn't come here to kill anyone. I'm going to step forward and put down my weapons."
He stepped out of their cover with his hands in the air, then placed his MAR on the ground, as well as a knife, which bounced on the cracked mud. He raised his hands again.
- "I order my team to follow no other command but this: wait until my talk with you is over and I rejoin them. They will do nothing until then. Anyway, we all need to be back under shelter in an hour because of the radiation. Gorylkin, I trust you - please don't hurt me."
He advanced and walked around the house where Ada was. He was surprised to see her climbing down, rifle in hand, flanked by her Xeno companions. His hands were still raised. He looked at her. Unbelievable - she had a stuffed toy strapped to her belt.
- "Can I put my hands down?"
- "Yeah, come on, let's sit."
She was still aiming the rifle at him, but they sat not far from the garbage pile, on two large dry rocks.
- "You're a legend, Gorylkin, you know."
- "Really?"
- "The invisible killer."
- "I haven't killed that many people."
- "You've killed more than I have. I'd like to end my career without having killed anyone."
- "You picked the wrong job, Salman."
- "The green Xeno over there, is he one of the locals?"
- "No, the Xenos from here are still in the shadows - it's too hot. Why did you come, seriously? You already have a million empty planets!"
- "The HS is changing, I think. Not necessarily how we'd like. The new boss, the Aleph - he wants us to go to the Xeno planets and ask the Xenos to give their land to the HS. I don't know…"
- "Why doesn't anyone put that clown back in his place?"
- "You mean put the Aleph back in his place? Gorylkin… he killed Transients."
- "Pfft, are we even sure of that?"
- "Yes. There are no more Transients in the HS. Actually, I've been thinking - I believe that's his plan: he wants to eliminate the Transients. And it starts by marching on every planet."
- "So what are we going to do?"
- "The territorial officer who came with me - that guy in blue. His biggest dream is to kiss the Aleph's ass. He came so that the leader of the local Xenos signs a paper declaring the planet surrendered to the HS and that their civilization will collaborate with the HS."
- "He can dream on. They don't have a leader, this isn't even their home planet, they don't speak our language, and I don't think they even have the concept of property - I mean, I come from a Shareplace. Property is a notion for lunatics, and I can't believe we still think we rule the universe using practices like that."
- "I'm a former member of the League," said Salman, tapping his chest. "The mind overcomes strength."
- "The mind overcomes strength. And you've been with the HS since Shasko dropped his pants?"
- "My path is complicated. I get what you're saying about the Xenos never being able to sign anything... but you don't know stubborn diplomats, they're complete idiots. No philosophical speech will make that guy leave. I'm proposing a deal: you go see him, you sign his stupid paper as Saint of the Xenos or whatever - and we each go our separate ways. Because otherwise, what happens? Okay, maybe you kill us, or maybe not - but in any case, we return to base looking like idiots. Then they'll send even more people. And imagine - you kill them again, or they find no one to sign their paper. They'll come back again and again. And eventually they'll drop big rocks from the asteroid belt until the planet is declared lifeless. All because the Aleph wants a damn signed paper that means nothing."
- "That sounds like a stupid idea. If I sign this paper, what will happen?"
- "Nothing! Absolutely nothing! Like you said, the HS has a million other, nicer planets that are totally empty. They'll have done their dumb formality, and they'll leave these poor Xenos alone."
- "It doesn't seem fair to me, Salman. I don't trust the Aleph."
- "Gorylkin, you know that in the League, we keep our word. If something shady happens here after the signature, you come find me. You can kill me if you want then, but I swear I'll help you set things right if it turns to shit. I'm not in love with the Xenos, but I love the HS, and I won't let it screw over innocent people."
- "I've never known a single person who kept their word," Ada lied, thinking of her uncle, of Andreï, and of the Wau.
- "There's a first time for everything."
- "You're an honest guy, and I believe you, Salman. But I still feel like something's off. Something neither of us sees."
- "Look."
They turned their eyes toward the horizon. Cracked mud scales on a planet bathed in radiation. The contemplation lasted like a speech - long minutes.
- "There's nothing here, Gorylkin. Nothing."
- "Alright, you win. I'm coming with you."