Vai

My body and the Shadow jumped further away. My spirit spread across space as I searched. I wasn't sure searching out the Corruption in this form was a good idea, but the Awakened One had been in his trance for days now and wouldn't answer us when we tried to reach him. We had been tasked with finding the Corruption's homeworld and so we figured this was our best option at the moment. It would be so much easier if the Awakened one would just return to his body and tell us the location.

We didn't know enough about the Corruption or the light to know if they could harm us when we were in this form. Did they have some way to sever us from our body? The Awakened One had warned Esther before that the Corruption could find them in this form, but he didn't say if they could harm us in this form or if they could just follow us back to our physical bodies. The Corruption knew where we were, there was no point hiding at this point.

The broken wall Esther had stolen from the Museum of the I.A. Shadow was taken from a K'thaktran colony. That wall had belonged to the Awakened Ones not the Corruption so it was no use searching there, but the Corruption had targeted the K'thaktra first. That was how the whole K'thaktran war had started, so were they near the K'thaktra? Maybe near their homeworld?

My spirit crossed the dark expanse in less than a blink. If only physical travel could be as quick. I didn't sense any mass congregations of the Corruption. The others had a difficult time even now sensing the Corruption. And if what happened on Doussix was any indication, the Awakened One had a difficult time sensing them too. My light recognized them now. I could sense them in individual K'thaktra. I didn't spend too much time with that as I was worried I would get lost in the need to heal. It was only a cursory glance. Then I moved on to the first K'thaktran colony.

I was greeted with a similar situation, individuals with the Corruption, but no mass Corruption hiding.

"Vai." It was quiet and sounded far away. It made sense. My body was far away from me. I blinked back into my body and opened my eyes. Warpaint and Owen stood by my bed. It had been Warpaint who spoke to me.

"Any luck?" Owen asked.

I shook my head. "You?"

"No," Owen said. "I've got to be honest with you, friend. I don't see how it's possible to find their homeworld this way. The universe is endless. How are we randomly going to find their homeworld?"

I sat up on my bed. "I don't know," I said. "I thought I'd check the K'thaktra homeworld and some of their colonies seeing as how the Corruption first invaded the K'thaktra, but I didn't come across anything."

"I can't even sense the Corruption," Owen said. "I can't help but feel this is a waste of time. Although, Minmin had the idea that we might be able to narrow it down by examining the ancient ruins found on different colonies. She and Esther are doing that now. Esther has eliminated a lot of the ancient ruins already saying they belonged to the Awakened Ones."

"The Corruption wouldn't have ancient ruins like we are familiar with, would they?" I asked. "They are small. They aren't going to build buildings like we do."

"Well, at some point they'd have to evolve into what they are now," Owen said. "There has to be some trace of them somewhere."

"Where's Shel while they are doing this?" I asked. I stood and stretched my back. My stomach took that opportunity to growl loudly.

"Sir," Warpaint said aghast, "you are starving. I never should have let you take a nap for hours?"

"It wasn't a nap, Warpaint, it was...wait. Hours?"

"Yes, sir. Four hours."

It hadn't felt that long. I took a mental note to be more aware of the time when I was in that state. Warpaint got me an algae bar without asking if that was what I wanted. I supposed it didn't really matter. In the end it was all algae anyway. Did it matter what it tasted like?

"Shel is on duty on the bridge," Owen answered my earlier question.

"I don't think we can find the Corruption without the Awakened One's help," I said. I took a bite of the algae bar.

"Do you want to go down and try to wake him again?" Owen said.

Was it really waking if the Awakened One really wasn't sleeping? Owen led the way down to the shuttle bay. The Awakened One was in the exact same position as I had last seen him. Owen and I sat next to his enormous form while Warpaint stood protectively behind me. The pilots and mechanics were used to us by now and ignored us, barely even glanced at us.

"Hey, overly large friend," Owen said, "wake up already. We need your help." The Awakened One didn't stir.

"Are you arguing with your people?" I asked not expecting an answer. "Trying to convince them to join us? If you can hear us, tell them we want to strike at the Corruption first. We want to destroy their homeworld."

The Awakened One's large, yellow eyes fluttered open for the first time in days. Owen and I looked at each other in surprise.

"Sir, you woke him," Warpaint said with glee in his voice. "You truly are amazing, sir."

"You are going to try to strike them directly?" the Awakened One asked. "Can you find them?"

"It seems pretty much impossible at this point, my friend," Owen said. "Which is why you need to tell us where their homeworld is."

"Little One," the Awakened One said, "their homeworld was destroyed long ago. They survive and thrive hidden in the vastness of space. We lost because we could not pinpoint them. We could not strike all at once and they whittled us away until there was almost nothing left of us."

Owen groaned. "Then what are we supposed to do? Let them keep attacking us and slowly destroy them bit by bit? I don't think that's going to work out in our favor."

"Spreading the light to the others like you is a good step," the Awakened One said. "You Gatherish are larger in numbers than we were. You might have a chance of outlasting them."

"Outlasting?" I asked. "For how long? That's likely to drag on for generations."

"Possibly," the Awakened One said, "at least until you learn how to sustain yourselves like we do."

"How did it go with your people?" Owen asked. "Any possibility of them joining us?"

"Possibility, yes," the Awakened One said. "Likely? I don't know."

"So, what, we just wait and see?" Owen asked.

"What more is there?" the Awakened One said.

My okulus beeped with an incoming call. It was Shel. I answered. Esther and Minmin were connected on the call from the quarters.

"The Awakened One is awake?" Esther asked. "Why didn't you inform us immediately?"

"Because it just happened," Owen said.

"Did you get a chance to ask him about the Corruption's homeworld?" Minmin asked.

We relayed the Awakened One's words to them. When we finished, Shel finally spoke. "That's actually why I'm calling," he said. "The Gathering Council just called Captain Axa to tell her they think the Corruption might be making Brist their base of operations. They don't have a way to confirm it though since the Corruption don't show up on our sensors and the Brist have cut off all communication." He looked at me and I knew what I had to do.

"I'll go look," I said.

"We can't destroy all the Brist," Esther said. "They are an entire people."

"If it can destroy the Corruption, you must," the Awakened One said. "Do not be weak."

"It's not weakness," Esther said.

I closed my eyes not needing to hear another argument between the two of them. It didn't take me long for my spirit to drift in space as the Shadow and my body jumped through F.T.L. I blinked towards the homeworld.

They were there. Everywhere. From a distance I could sense them. Everyone - to the youngest of babies, to those old and near death - everyone was infected with the Corruption. There were too many of the Corruption to inhabit every body on that planet. All across the planet the skies were filled with a pink cloud of Corruption.

I returned to my body and opened my eyes. The Awakened One and Esther stopped arguing when they saw me. I didn't know what expression was on my face, but all of them - even the Awakened One - looked on me with despair.

"I'll tell the captain then," Shel said knowing what I had seen without me even needing to say a word. He ended the call.

"We can't destroy an entire people," Esther said quietly.

"You must do whatever you need to do destroy the Corruption," the Awakened One said gently.