(1 month, two weeks, and 3 days later.)

...

Like a silver arrow stained with the seething energies of interstellar transition, my flagship pierced the invisible, intangible line that divided the Sol system from the rest of the universe. As with any irritated organism, Terra’s far reaching nerve network was firing on high gear, though in this case with transmission beams darting to and from the many outposts and scanners brushing over every detail of my vessel.

Electronic communications spilled back and forth from my ship and guardian vessels nearest a large ring. Most of what we sent was getting ignored. Even when my crew tried to convey who I was.

The visual onscreen was vaguely similar to the great halo-shaped superstructure of Sunburst Station, but this machine had a far greater purpose to it than housing distant outcast noble families and petty gladiatorial contests.

It was an accelerator of ships designed to send them from the edges of the dwarf planet Pluto’s lonely orbit straight to the homeworld of mankind.

A bow for my starship’s arrow.

It was possible to fly directly past all the planets and through the great remainder of the void all under our own power, but the rate of speed one used at interstellar distances usually took into account a margin of error far larger than what lay ahead. We could easily miss the right time to retransition and decelerate.

“They want us to let our shielding fall, sir.” A Navitae pilot of the flagship said. “Your orders?”

“Drop it.” I said.

Our protections against their sensors peering into every nook and cranny of the Fulvion flagship. I could feel the ghostly touch of them against the hull of the ship, feel them trace the patterns and outlines of our onboard armories.

Out of my own curiosity, I reached out with technopathic abilities far grander than anything the defenders wielded, and seized their control centers.

Or tried to.

I could listen in their computers’ unceasing processes as they observed my soldiers simultaneously, but trying to grab hold of something to command just made it slip away harder. Augustas didn’t craft walls that flimsy around his central domain.

“This is taking too long.” Antonias said. His twisted wings drew grimaces and distaste from the rest of the control bridge of the ship.

“Be patient.” I admonished him. “Don’t be a child.”

“No, I’m not saying it is taking too long because I’m bored, though I really am, I’m saying that because this is a slight. They’re doing it slower on purpose.” Antonias said.

“It’s a big ship.” I said.

“It’s an unshielded one and this is meant to guard Terra’s solar system.” He replied. “They could get it over in seconds. They haven’t even scanned the bridge first.”

“You think my grandfather’s enemies have captured and taken control of his outmost defenses?” I said. I found it hard to believe his servants would be so lax.

“I think this flagship of Persias’s is one of the grandest in the Apollonian system. First rate there.” Antonias said.

“-And fourth rate here.” I said. “They think we’re not important enough to prioritize.”

Antonias’s eyes burned with scarlet.

“Allow me, Adrias, to introduce you properly to these insufferable wretches.” My friend said, more devil than angel in that moment.

“You’re going to get us shot to pieces.” I said.

“Only if you let their bullets and blasts hit. We’re Golden. The universe should shrink in terror before us, not the other way around.” Antonias said.

The search was still going on. Agonizingly slow. Lazy malice without an illusion of genuine incompetence to hide behind.

I reached out to the central computer network of the accelerator ring once more, querying the length of an average scan.

1.4 seconds, It answered.

“Don’t kill anyone.” I warned Toni.

His smile widened as if that made the opportunity even more delightful for him.

“Oh, I won’t.” Antonias whispered. “Your command?”

“Go ahead.” I said.

Toni sucked in a breath, inhaling continuously at length, before contorting his face into a scream. No sound left his lips, but his lungs were emptying and something insidiously silent was escaping from him. I traced the lines of that power, found connections radiating from him that stabbed off into the void towards the space station watchtowers.

Sound was vibrations that traveled through a medium. A Leechling’s medium was and would always be-

Blood.

Toni howled through the crimson that ran in the veins and arteries of every person wasting our time.

Automatic weaponry activated, antimatter cannons and distortion field generating missiles and nuclear ballistics revved to life, all sensors zeroing in on my friend, to the point of tunnel vision.

I could still listen to the internal electronics at work, like a child with his ear pressed against a crack in a door.

Contingency: Zero-CALV-Dispatrian-Red

Priority: Annihilation of primary target.

They seemed to be ignoring me in favor of focusing on one threat.

“Look at me.” I said, reaching out with one flaming hand to take the sensors’ focus in a tight grip, the fact that there was nothing physical to touch or grab onto no longer mattering to a thing like me with their presence so concentrated.

Held captive, their sight had nowhere to look but straight at my face.

The computers froze and their users fought to override their functioning. No matter what the humans tried, they apparently could not reactivate the weaponry once I had been identified. The Regent had left something in the code evidently.

One man still fought. To say he was fighting valiantly would be a stretch, but he was typing as fast as he could to stop my flagship’s forward movement. I watched the digital struggle as if my head was jacked directly into the same interface.

>Institute Class One authorization requirements. He sent.

Citizen is authorized under Class One. The machines answered him.

>Institute Class Two authorization requirements.

Citizen is authorized under Class Two.

With the staff being locked out, he had no idea who I was.

>Institute Class Three authorization requirements.

Citizen is authorized under Class Three.

He’d have to aim higher. So much higher.

Right as we reached the launch field of the acceleration ring station, he must have gotten stressed enough to try anything.

>Institute Regent level lockdown.

Lockdown installed.

I imagined he had some sigh of relief at that in the moment. At finally shutting this anomaly down. Squeezing some sense of victory out of this tribulation.

Citizen is authorized under this restriction. Lifting lockdown. The computer responded to him.

I almost felt bad for the guy.

We passed the threshold of the jump and our arrow was fired.

The colors of the seats and blinking buttons of the bridge surged vibrantly, glowing until everything went white.

When I opened them again, I saw for the first time the birthplace of the gods and humanity.

Terra.

There was more greenery than I had expected, even with heavy urbanization and industrialization the Regent had enforced some restraints on how much the works and homes of humans could swallow up the landscape. Still, an incredible number of humans had been fit into the world, anywhere my grandfather did allow people to settle, they had built great monolithic pillars that untold masses were born in and lived in and died in.

The fires of war were clear too. Smoke pouring from certain parts of the continents, the dirty haze hiding from orbital vision the true extent of the damage.

“Take us to the Regent’s palace.” I ordered my crew.