《Fight For Hope》 Chapter 1 Ryen Tauk¡¯s eyes fluttered open as he floated in midair, affixed to a thin scaffolding of plastic struts and pipes by a rat¡¯s nest of IV tubes and chirping sensors. His eyes flickered around, taking in the countless others suspended and shrink-wrapped around him in a similar state.His teeth clacked together and he shivered violently as his breath made a mist in the air. One member of Cohort Alpha Takora-pack floated orthogonally to him, methodically ripping out the tubes one by one. He hissed in pain as she removed a large one, sending an icy sensation shooting through his bloodstream. ¡°Name?¡± said one of Takora-pack dispassionately, her own teeth chattering even though she was already in uniform. Tauk frantically curled his tail to cover himself. The realization that something important was missing rushed through every subtree in his brain. ¡°Where¡¯s Ryen-pack?¡± he rasped, his throat utterly devoid of moisture. He desperately glanced at the faces of those adjacent to him, but none were important. Other uniformed figures hovered next to shrink-wrapped bodies here and there. The member of Takora-pack turned, peering through the dimly lit chamber. ¡°Apologetically, they were frozen in the wrong subtree. They¡¯ll be revived in the best time. Name¡­now?¡± ¡°Ryen Tauk,¡± Tauk croaked, following the Cohort Alpha¡¯s gaze, straining to see if he could get a glimpse of them in the gloom. ¡°Do you know where you are?¡± she continued. Tauk nodded curtly. ¡°Request, try moving your fingers, toes, tail-tip.¡± Tauk obeyed, shifting his tail to cover himself further. Each movement sent an icy bolt of pain through his extremities. ¡°It hurts,¡± he muttered softly, more to himself than anything. ¡°Request, look at my moving hand and don¡¯t move your head,¡± said the member of Takora-pack. She moved her palm from left to right, then up to down as Tauk¡¯s eyes followed, then turned her wrist so Tauk was gazing into her watch¡¯s screen. ¡°Can you trace the shortest path between the colored nodes?¡± A small undirected graph appeared on the screen. Tauk traced the path instantly with a claw on the screen, barely even glancing at it, but taking care not to touch its owner¡¯s wrist. A second, larger one appeared; this one had a dozen nodes and actually took a second. The member of Takora-pack yanked her arm back as soon as he was done and tapped some notes into her watch. She pulled out the final tube from Tauk¡¯s arm, leaving him floating motionless next to the scaffolding. ¡°Where¡¯s Ryen-pack?¡± he repeated, his ears flattening against his head. The member of Takora-pack pushed off the scaffolding without glancing back, silently drifting between the rows of bodies. Tauk decided he would follow, trying to force back the anxiety and nausea; Takora-pack seemed to know where Ryen-pack was stored. He pushed off in close pursuit, ice shooting through his extremities with each movement. To his dismay, he had to adjust his tail, exposing himself once again. Tauk surveyed the stacked bodies as he drifted past. The pipes running alongside the scaffolding, thinning and branching out into narrower tubes and connecting to shrink-wrapped bodies formed a tight m-ary tree, twisting around and around, leaving paths through the vast, dim chamber. It was pretty, even if the leaves were a bit macabre. Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings. ¡°Tauk!¡± shouted a familiar voice ten or fifteen meters above his head. He grabbed the scaffolding to cancel his momentum and craned his neck to look. The lanky form of Ryen Roztek was hurtling towards him with outstretched arms. Tauk¡¯s arms instinctively shot out, grabbing the scaffolding with a vice-like to stop Roztek¡¯s momentum from setting them adrift as he wrapped his arms around Tauk, licking his cheek and snout with a tongue that was all too dry. Tauk gently bit one of Roztek¡¯s long ears, holding it in his mouth just to savor the closeness. He took one hand off the scaffolding to run it over Roztek¡¯s chest, feeling the rough slate-gray scales. ¡°Do you know where Ryen-pack is?¡± said Tauk at last. ¡°Yes!¡± said Roztek, pointing the way he came. The two of them pushed on the scaffolding, more gently this time, and drifted over. Another member of Cohort Alpha Takora-pack was removing the final tubes from Ryen Ractun, who pushed herself over to join them. Tauk and Roztek instantly pounced on her, licking her passionately. Ractun patted Tauk and Roztek¡¯s chests, nuzzling each of them in turn with a dry snout. ¡°Forget this,¡± she rasped, ¡°We are never doing cold sleep again.¡± ¡°Because I think we¡¯re here, we don¡¯t have to,¡± said Roztek softly, laying a hand flat against Ractun¡¯s chest. Not far from them, as member of Takora-pack was removing the tubes from another shivering body, he was saying, ¡°Request, look at my¨C¡± The figure glanced at the three of them, her eyes widening. Tauk stared back, gasping, his heart skipping a beat as he registered her: beady golden eyes, a short, broad snout, face tesselated with symmetric steel-blue scales, a compact toned frame the perfect balance between raw power and resource-efficiency. It was Ryen Kyada. Ryen-pack¡¯s structure was complete again. Kyada ripped out the last of the tubes and sensors herself, flinging them aside to drift aimlessly and pushed herself into position between Takora-pack and the rest of Ryen-pack, holding out her arms to shield them. ¡°Where did you forget our clothes?¡± she hissed at Takora-pack, staring into the nearest member¡¯s eyes and baring a mouthful of pointed, glassy teeth. One of Takora-pack silently pointed at the exit hatch, nearly fifty meters away. She pointed at each member of Ryen-pack in turn, counting under her breath, ¡°One, two, three, four,¡± then made a note on her watch and drifted off in the opposite direction. Kyada turned to Ryen-pack, raking them with her eyes. ¡°So system-beautiful,¡± she whispered hoarsely. Tauk glanced warily at the receding components of Takora-pack and cautiously uncurled his tail from in front of him. Kyada looked down, then reached down and gave him a gentle squeeze, letting out a high-pitched trill. ¡°Where were you, Tauk? Are you okay?¡± she said, licking his snout. Another wave of nausea rolled over Tauk. ¡°I was just frozen in the wrong subtree for five epochs,¡± he said, managing a weak trill. In a flash, Kyada reached out, digging her claws into Ractun¡¯s and Roztek¡¯s arms, clinging to part of the structure of the most beautiful subgraph in the universe as it was complete once again. ¡°I¡¯m never letting us be more than one connected component again,¡± she whispered before breaking into a violent bout of shivering and wincing at some shooting pain. ¡°Can we stop floating here because we¡¯re freezing!¡± protested Ractun. Tauk nodded and Ryen-pack pushed off towards the hatch¨Cand the bag with their uniforms in it, just visible in the gloom amidst a row of identical bags clipped to the wall. Chapter 2 ¡°I still don¡¯t see why it had to be Flagstaff, of all places,¡± said Luke Watson, staring morosely out the window at the endless scrubland zipping past, each mile blurring into the previous ones. Scott Watson sighed, not taking his eyes off the road. ¡°Luke, do you know how many astronomers would sacrifice a kidney to be a visiting astronomer at the Lowell Observatory?¡± he said. ¡°I don¡¯t know, Dad¡­most of them?¡± said Luke. ¡°Yeah well, after six summers, I thought I was gonna be one of them. But my time has come!¡± said Scott, ¡°And if I can get some time on the telescopes to confirm my theory that glycine, alanine, and serine are up to three times more common in Oort Cloud objects than previously¨Cshit!¡± He slammed the brakes, sending them lurching forward, as the back of a semi loomed ominously close in front of them. ¡°Dad!¡± said Luke, exasperated. They continued on in silence for a while as the scrubland gradually grew denser. ¡°Look, I don¡¯t want it to seem like I¡¯m not happy for you,¡± he went on, ¡°I am, it¡¯s just¡­¡± He took a deep breath. ¡°It¡¯s just, I thought this summer we were gonna spend more time together. Do a week on the Pacific Crest Trail. Maybe even sit down and talk about, you know¡­that winter.¡± He grimaced at the last couple of words. ¡°That winter¡­¡± repeated Scott faintly. ¡°I know, I¡¯m sorry. It¡¯s just that trying to get tenure¡¯s a real pain in the ass. Teaching three courses a semester, spewing out a million papers full of fluff so I don¡¯t get axed for someone with more publications, filling out mountains of forms for some bigwig morons who¡¯ve never set foot in a lab in their lives, trying to do some research that actually matters on the side.¡± He turned to Luke. ¡°If this summer goes well, I¡¯m definitely getting tenure though. And then I can finally breathe a bit and things are gonna change.¡± ¡°You¡¯ve been a professor for like seven years. And it wasn¡¯t like this until a year and a half ago. Are you sure it¡¯s because of tenure?¡± Luke narrowed his eyes. ¡°Or¡­is it because of Mom?¡± Scott didn¡¯t respond for a long moment; the silence hung thick in the air. He pulled out a pair of sunglasses from the cup tray and donned them, staring at the road ahead with the steering wheel clenched in his hands. At last, he said, ¡°We¡¯ll hang out whenever I get the chance this summer. And we¡¯ll do the hike next year, before you go to college. You can hold me to that.¡± Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site. ¡°Hmm,¡± said Luke. He turned his attention back to the scrubland outside. The rest of the drive to Flagstaff passed in relative silence, culminating at a two-story house in a cul-de-sac, surrounded by pines. Luke got out, yawning and stretching. ¡°Nice place,¡± he admitted, giving the house an appraising glance, ¡°You found this on Airbnb?¡± ¡°Mmhmm,¡± said Scott, gazing past the house to the hill behind it, where the buildings of the observatory could just be made out. ¡°Right,¡± he said suddenly, snapping back to the here and now, ¡°Can you help me get the stuff inside?¡± There was still one box sitting awkwardly in the doorway and several piles of clothes and odds and ends scattered throughout the hallway when Scott¡¯s phone began vibrating. ¡°Hello?¡± he said. ¡°...mmhmm. Yes. Thank you¡­Funny you should ask, we just got here¡­Yeah, definitely!...No it¡¯s not a bad time at all¡­Great, see you there...Bye!¡± He turned to Luke. ¡°Hey, I¡¯m heading to the observatory now, alright?¡± ¡°To the observatory,¡± repeated Luke. ¡°Yeah, Dr. Boyle said he wanted to show me around,¡± said Scott. ¡°Around the observatory. On a Saturday morning,¡± said Luke incredulously. ¡°Well, I should know how the equipment works before I have to use it,¡± said Scott. ¡°Guess I¡¯ll just sit here then,¡± said Luke. ¡°You could go for a walk. Maybe try to make some friends?¡± said Scott. ¡°Dad, literally nobody does that anymore,¡± Luke muttered, rolling his eyes, ¡°Not since the 90s and especially not since the lockdowns started.¡± ¡°So what do they do?¡± asked Scott. Luke silently held up his phone. Scott chuckled. ¡°Okay. I¡¯ll be back around five. Want to get dinner in town then?¡± He stroked his stubble thoughtfully. ¡°Well if there are any decent restaurants left.¡± Luke nodded. ¡°Alright, see you bud,¡± said Scott, clapping Luke¡¯s shoulder, ¡°Try not to blow up the house.¡± Luke watched Scott stride briskly back to the car and back out of the driveway, then shoot down the street towards the main road. He pulled the remaining box into the house, shut the door, and stared briefly at the items strewn throughout the hallway. He briefly contemplated finishing unpacking, but decided he¡¯d rather just leave everything where it stood. Instead he flopped down on the bed in the first-floor bedroom like a ton of bricks and began scrolling aimlessly on his phone. Chapter 3 Getting into uniform in zero gravity was no easy task for Ryen-pack, but they managed. Tauk finished first, zipping up the plain grayish coverall with built-in tail sleeve before turning to help Roztek with his. When they were done, the pack could almost be mistaken for any ordinary industrial worker, save for the faint QR codes outlined over their chests. The hatch slid open with a faint hiss, allowing Ryen-pack to drift out into the path. Here it was mercifully just a cool 35 Celsius, not freezing like in the cryo-chamber. The path was more than three hundred meters long but less than nine meters wide, extending in both directions as an expanse of white, lit by harsh blue LED strips running along the walls. Scattered along the walls were containers lashed to the walls, looming on all sides and jutting into the narrow path, casting shadows wherever they occluded the lights. A handful of uniformed packs were attending to the containers while a steady trickle of other packs drifted down the path. ¡°Which one equals the Nest Ring¡¯s location?¡± said Kyada hoarsely, clutching the translucent rope lattice and looking forwards and backwards in turn. Tauk pointed along the path towards the front. ¡°It¡¯s away from the engine because of radiation,¡± he said. Ryen-pack drifted along the path until they neared the end, where four long chutes, even narrower than the path, spun lazily around, just slow enough to push one¡¯s way inside without getting bashed against the wall of the path, but just fast enough to require timing and finesse. They pushed their way in one by one, waiting at the top until they were all through. Tauk jumped at Kyada to lick her snout as she came through, almost losing his grip on the ropes in the process. As they descended the tunnel, the gravity gently increased with every second. First Ryen-pack pushed themselves off the mesh of translucent ropes that lined the tunnel walls, then they held them to slow their accelerating descent, and finally they climbed down rung by rung until they dropped into the Nest Ring. They clung to each other to stay upright in the sudden intrusion of gravity, icy pains shooting through their extremities. Ractun stepped away from them, looking as if she were about to be sick, but Kyada licked her face and gently pulled her back to the rest of the pack. Kyada looked at her watch. ¡°Row 87, column 4, lower nest,¡± she said. They began walking, tails dragging on the floor and hands clasped so tightly their claws dug into each other¡¯s scales. The floor beneath their feet was made from rows and rows of bivouac nests, each one held in place by a thin plastic lattice that also ran underfoot, supporting their weight and carrying more strips of whitish-blue light. Every footstep was partly on the lattice and partly on the fabric of the nests beneath, making their footing slightly unstable. The ceiling pressed down barely above their heads, looking as if someone had simply copy-pasted and flipped the floor: more plastic lattice, more light strips, more packed rows of nests. In every direction, occasional blocks of machinery¨Ccarbon scrubbers, water reclamation, meat tanks, climate control, toilets¨Cjutted out of the floor and into the ceiling in place of nests, like chips on a circuit board, and even where the space was clear of them, the curve of the Nest Ring itself cut short the line of sight in every direction. Ryen-pack soon found their nest. Kyada held her watch up to a sensor, which chirped and flashed yellow. Roztek unzipped the nest hatch and the four of them tumbled in, the inflatable cushions at the bottom breaking their fall. The nest enclosed them in an area about three meters across and a meter high, made of a rough black fabric held up by its own plastic frame, though the cushions at the bottom were soft and smooth. A small, flexible screen and a dim light strip, barely enough to see by, were embedded into one side. Kyada ran one claw along the light strip, brightening it to an acceptable level, while Ractun zipped the flip above them. This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report. Lying on a cushion was a small bag, almost bursting at the seams, but no more than 5.4 kilograms in total¨CCohort Alpha Takora-pack had made sure of that.. They quickly emptied it: a set of civilian clothes for each of them, their personal watches, a couple of paperback books, some random mismatched jewelry, and a drinking bowl. As Tauk pulled the last item out, he said, ¡°I feel really thirsty.¡± Kyada nodded and Ryen-pack clambered back out via a rope ladder, making their way to the nearest life support block that didn¡¯t have some pack milling around, and came back a couple minutes later with the bowl filled to the brim. Perhaps a little too full: a few drops spilled on the cushion as Tauk handed it to Kyada. Ractun looked at the spilled water as though it hurt to look at. ¡°I knew we shouldn¡¯t have put so much in it!¡± she said through gritted teeth. ¡°Sorry,¡± said Tauk, his ears drooping slightly. ¡°The water evaporating and moving back into the life support system is why it¡¯s okay,¡± said Kyada softly, caressing one of Ractun¡¯s blunted, triangular ears, ¡°Move the water into you first?¡± She offered Ractun the bowl. ¡°You, not me!¡± protested Ractun, carefully pushing the bowl back. ¡°You, not me!¡± retorted Kyada. Ractun at last relented and began lapping from the bowl as though she hadn¡¯t drank for a century, closing her eyes in ecstasy as the water rushed over her tongue. When all four of them had drained the bowl and licked it dry, Ractun began stacking Ryen-pack¡¯s scant personal items on the far side of the nest, while the other three flopped down on the cushions. Kyada began activating the screen. A date appeared, stark and white on the black screen: 1324 | DAY 118 | 03:19 | RELATIVISTIC DISTORTION: 251 DAYS. ¡°Shit,¡± said Kyada, her eyes widening. ¡°The year equaled 976 when we left,¡± breathed Tauk. Ractun silently stopped arranging the items and crawled over to lie down beside the others, her gaze just as fixated on the numbers as the others. The screen finished booting, showing a vast field of stars hanging in an immeasurably black void like isolated nodes. But one star was noticeably brighter than the others. Kyada tapped on her watch and zoomed in as far as she could in the general direction of the bright star until something new came into view: a small smudge of green and¨Coddly enough¨Cblue. ¡°Does that equal¡­Hope?¡± said Roztek. Kyada nodded, leaning over and slowly, methodically began licking the top of his head, which he happily rested on her chest. As Roztek splayed his tail onto Tauk, the latter squirmed closer, comforted by the familiar, heavy weight on his lap, absently brushing against Roztek¡¯s leg with the tip of his own tail. Tauk reached out towards Ractun, gently running two claws over her uniform, down the dull bluish scales of her torso and then along her arm when it impeded further progress in that direction. After a while, he thoughtfully tapped on the surface of the nest. It made a dull, muffled sound; beyond the fabric of the nest was a centimeter of radiation-resistant plastic, twelve centimeters of water, another centimeter of nanotube-aluminum composite, and beyond that, absolute nothingness. Chapter 4 The command module aboard the center strider was more of a large closet than anything, barely large enough to fit all of General Tyrak-pack. There were six of them, floating in the command module at odd angles, limbs and tails and torsos brushing up against each other as they typed intently on half a dozen keyboards. Tablets and heavy workstations and screens were bolted all over the command module at every angle and position imaginable, some on the floor, walls, and ceiling, others clinging to scaffolding that jutted into the area, all of them linked to each other by a tangle of multicolored wires so thick that they obscured what lay beyond. Surrounding this area were ring after ring and row after row of angular, austere-looking computing blocks, radially arranged and affixed to the hull of the center strider. There were over two thousand of them, each about the size of a large fridge, clad in dark grayish casings studded with blinking lights, with yet more cables as thick as Tyrak-pack¡¯s wrists and cooling pipes bringing water from the hull to the computer clusters, snaking between and around all the blocks. Tyrak-pack themselves wore the same dark gray coveralls with tail sleeves and QR codes as any other pack on the void strider or center strider. Only their presence in the command module, and the several chipped or missing teeth, faint scars, and scales just beginning to fade to the point that makeup could no longer cover it up. ¡°The optimal strategy is to position the major telescope so we really know about Hope¡¯s city-graph,¡± said one member of Tyrak-pack. He reached out to two other members and laid his hands flat against their chests, bumping his snout against each of their faces in turn. ¡°And to begin running the tactical engine in analysis mode,¡± he continued, ¡°while learning the great-centrality cities with the best eval bar.¡± He caressed two more members of Tyrak-pack, then nuzzled them, with the same measured intensity as the first two. ¡°And to learn the social graph of the officer set in the best time, before we arrive,¡± he finished. He reached out to the final member of the pack, caressing her thigh as she was awkwardly angled, floating near the ceiling. At his touch, she grabbed onto a mounted workstation and used it to reorient herself to face him, gazing adoringly at him. ¡°This is correct, yes?¡± said the first member of Tyrak-pack. The others twisted and reoriented around as best they could in the confined space, nodding and murmuring assent. Those who were close enough leaned over to touch their snouts against his. ¡°Begin,¡± he said softly, almost nonchalantly. All six of them began typing on various keyboards as screens flashed to life around them. Outside the center strider, a colossal telescope, its lens nearly twelve meters wide, began drifting away from the hull, attached to an unfolding boom. Once the boom was fully extended, the telescope began rotating up and down, clockwise and counterclockwise, each silent movement a little more subtle than the one before it, until it at last hung motionless in the void. Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings. On several screens in the command module, images of a star field with a small smudge of blue and green in the center were abruptly replaced with a new image: the gibbous disc of a planet, a bit blurry but still large enough to fill the screens. Most of this planet seemed to be water, though a few expanses of land could be seen scattered throughout. Six pairs of eyes locked onto it: four brown and two yellow. The land was, to Tyrak-pack¡¯s first impression, quite garish in its coloration. Great swathes had such a vibrant greenish hue that they could only be modern arable land, yet they were far too large for any city to support; indeed the more muted greens and browns of empty land were in the minority. One piece of land was, for some reason, apparently made entirely from ice. Vast white swirls and patches were scattered everywhere¨Cclouds that masked whatever lay below¨Cbut in the thin, clear atmosphere, their edges were sharply delineated. And there was so, so much of that homogenous, almost hypnotizing deep blue, like a flat, featureless expanse of blood covering three quarters of the planet. The night side was more promising. In the small crescent obscured from the sun by the planet¡¯s bulk, city lights were visible. One member of Tyrak-pack zoomed in on the city lights, downloading the raw imagery as it came in and loading it into a graph solver to estimate the relationships between the cities. Another turned to the center of the pack, her ears angled in a grave expression. ¡°Maybe the optimal strategy for us to understand a foreign city-graph is for our own eyes to look for patterns and resource-beautiful areas. I want to look for a long time,¡± she said. She sniffed derisively, casting a glance at one of the screens. ¡°Yet! I think the night half will be more system-beautiful.¡± ¡°You¡¯re quite dense, Kazun,¡± said a member of Tyrak-pack, his ears rising approvingly. He lit a pipe and took a long drag, then exhaled, watching the perfectly spherical puff of smoke float around the command module. He handed the pipe to Kazun, who put it in her own mouth and turned to bury her face in the screens, though their hands remained clasped. On several other screens, a progress bar materialized: KENIT 28.3 ACTIVATION | ANALYSIS MODE | 1 CORE. The number of cores began slowly ticking up, and as it did so, the computing blocks went from a gentle humming and whirring to a loud whine interspersed with the occasional odd, mechanical clank. As each block began spinning up the tactical engine, more and more yellow and green and blue lights began to turn on in their metallic casing. As more and more cores came online, the command module began to heat up despite the water cooling pipes, and within a few minutes, most of Tyrak-pack were panting. ¡°Necessarily and quickly, we will speak so that the other officers know about this city-graph and the location of the first war will be known to us,¡± announced one member of Tyrak-pack at last, looking up from a screen split between a stream of adjacency matrices and a diagram of the top of the management tree, with photos of all the officers. ¡°The white land,¡± quipped another member, garnering a few trills. The previous speaker gave him a pointed look. The center strider continued to hurtle through the void, with its companion, the void strider, traveling close by, just a few thousand kilometers apart. Their fusion engines continued to burn, and they continued to gently, almost imperceptibly decelerate. Chapter 5 The sun was beginning to go down in Flagstaff when the astronomers began trickling out of their offices. Scott Watson was slumped at one desk out of six in the office that the visiting astronomers shared, several books as thick as his arm scattered open across the desk, interspersed with a sea of papers annotated with scribbles and equations, and three separate coffee mugs. On one side of the office, the blinds on the windows just barely let the golden sunlight into the room; on the other side, a giant blackboard loomed large, every surface covered in diagrams and equations. Someone had drawn an alien poised as though writing one of the particularly gnarly differential equations. As Scott stared idly at his screen, looking at a simulation tick by without really watching it, he was brought back to Earth by a knock on the door. It was George Boyle, the lead astronomer of the Lowell Observatory, a corpulent man in his late fifties. ¡°Hey! New guy¡­uh¡­what¡¯s your name again?¡± he said. ¡°We¡¯re getting a couple of drinks at the bar in town before we go up to the observatory. Wanna come? The IPA is to die for. Hell, it¡¯s almost worth the twenty dollars a drink.¡± He chuckled at the last bit. Scott tore his eyes away from the screen, stifling a yawn. ¡°Yeah, sure. Let me just wrap up a few things,¡± he said, terminating the simulation and closing about a dozen arxiv tabs in rapid succession. ¡°Alright then. We¡¯ll wait outside,¡± said Boyle. He took a couple of steps further into the room, glancing into a corner ¡°¡­Oh! What about you, Lauren? Coming?¡± A woman in her mid-twenties, wearing a hoodie, with long dark hair framing her face, glanced at Boyle. ¡°It¡¯s fine. I actually found something really interesting to look at. I¡¯ll meet you guys at the observatory tonight,¡± she said, then immediately went back to her work. ¡°Great! See you there,¡± said Boyle, giving her a thumbs-up before heading out, leaving the door slightly ajar behind him. Scott finished closing his tabs and shut off the computer. Just as he was getting up to leave, he grabbed one of the papers on his desk and stood there skimming the conclusion, or at least trying to¨Cthe information stayed in his mind like water in a sieve. He sighed heavily and looked over at the woman in the corner. For some reason, his gaze seemed drawn to that part of the room. ¡°You found something?¡± he asked. ¡°Mmhmm,¡± said Lauren, not looking up from her screen. Scott flashed her a smile. ¡°Lucky you, I¡¯ve got nothing.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it. We¡¯ve only been here a week,¡± said Lauren. ¡°Which means only eleven weeks left,¡± said Scott, ¡°So¡­can I ask what you found?¡± Lauren gave him an appraising look, then pulled out the chair next to her and said, ¡°Sit.¡± He did so, looking at her screen, where a squiggly time series curve was displayed. ¡°I was looking at this data from a broad night-sky sweep for signs of primordial black holes and I found this,¡± she said, tapping on the time series with a pen, ¡°a faint X-ray emission, at the limits of our best detectors. I thought it was a glitch, but it was there for hours last night, until it went below the horizon.¡± She paused, leaning close to the screen, absently wrapping a lock of hair around one finger. Scott forcefully tore his eyes away from her face to look at the chart. ¡°No. I lied. When I did some basic signal processing, I found that there were two, with intensity curves on the same order of magnitude, roughly a few milliarcseconds apart,¡± Lauren went on. This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. ¡°Er¡­is this a common phenomenon?¡± asked Scott. ¡°No,¡± said Lauren flatly. ¡°Forgive me,¡± said Scott, ¡°I¡¯m just a humble planetary scientist, so I had to ask.¡± ¡°I know. I read a couple of your papers,¡± said Lauren with a half-smile. ¡°What? Why? Uh¡­I mean, thank you. Uh¡­I mean¡­¡± Scott trailed off into silence, his brain running full throttle for something intelligent to say. ¡°I was bored,¡± said Lauren simply. She sighed, turning to face Scott full on for the first time. ¡°Do you know how many astrophysics papers do nothing but tweak one parameter in some theoretical model with no evidence?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t think mine are that different,¡± admitted Scott, ¡°It¡¯s a numbers game. There¡¯s never any time for pie-in-the-sky dream projects. Nor funding these days.¡± ¡°But you do have a pie-in-the-sky dream project in mind, right? Something you¡¯d do if only the powers that be would let you? You seem like the type,¡± said Lauren, leaning forward intently. ¡°Biomolecule formation in interstellar space,¡± said Scott without missing a beat, ¡°Maybe it could get us one step closer to figuring out if panspermia is real, if there¡¯s any life out there, something like that¡­I don¡¯t know.¡± Lauren nodded. ¡°Ambitious. I like it.¡± ¡°Do you have one?¡± asked Scott. ¡°I¡¯d love to find a primordial black hole someday. I learned about them when I was eight. Always thought the idea was beautiful. Just these motes of dust as heavy as asteroids hiding throughout space like a trillion trillion ghosts.,¡± said Lauren, her voice hushed and her dark eyes seeming to stare straight into Scott¡¯s soul. ¡°Is this related to that?¡± said Scott, gesturing at the screen. ¡°Maybe. It could be from interstellar dust or gas interacting with a primordial black hole. I want to look more tonight, that¡¯s why I had to take care of some other stuff before we go,¡± said Lauren. ¡°Oh, I thought it¡¯s because we only have three months here and you¡¯re desperate to make every day count,¡± said Scott. ¡°That too.¡± Lauren laughed. ¡°Or were you hoping to stay?¡± asked Scott. ¡°Nah, I¡¯m going back to UC Berkeley to finish my PhD,¡± said Lauren. ¡°UC Berkeley? So you¡¯re really a rising star!¡± ¡°Maybe a red dwarf. Just one of billions burning softly in the background for a while.¡± ¡°Or maybe an O-type star. The brightest and hottest,¡± said Scott, ¡°and the ones that make their mark on the whole galaxy before long.¡± Lauren giggled at that. ¡°That¡¯s a good one!¡± she said, fiddling with her hair while suddenly very preoccupied with the screen. ¡°Do you know how far away these X-ray emitters are?¡± asked Scott suddenly. ¡°No,¡± said Lauren, her expression sobering, ¡°That¡¯s what I wanted to look into next.¡± Scott¡¯s eyes flickered from her to the chart and back again. ¡°Want any help? I¡¯m stuck on my project anyway,¡± he said. Lauren didn¡¯t look away from the screen, but smiled slightly. ¡°Sure. I¡¯d like that. See you on the hill, Scott!¡± she said. Chapter 6 Ryen-pack was huddled together in their nest, a mass of limbs and tails entangled with each other as they absently watched the clock tick by and the endless star field on their screen. Kyada took a deep and oddly labored breath, leaning up against the edge of the nest. The past few days, the weakness, nausea, and strange icy pains of cryo-sleep had gradually worn off, but now the air itself seemed strangely thin. She leaned over and intensely began licking Ractun¡¯s face. ¡°Hey!¡± she said, ¡°We feel okay, no?¡± Ractun snapped shut the notebook she was drawing in. ¡°No,¡± she said, before taking as deep a breath as she could, turning away from the pack and burying her face in a cushion. Kyada turned to the other two and caressed their faces. ¡°Tauk and Roztek?¡± she said. ¡°The amount of air is little. Should we go to the Nest Ring?¡± said Tauk, pulling down the little rope ladder that led out of their nest and beginning to unzip the flap. As if on cue, Cohort Alpha Takora-pack began speaking through the screen, with the individual voice doing the speaking changing every sentence. ¡°We equal Takora Cohort Alpha. The reason for the reduced oxygen, done solely by the General, is acclimatization like mountaineers and that Hope¡¯s atmosphere is sparse. We think speaking so that this cohort knows is good. Advice, if any unhealthy changes occur in anyone¡¯s body¡¯s systems, we should be informed in the best time. Thanks. The day is yours,¡± Takora-pack said. ¡°Forget the General!¡± snapped Ractun. Roztek squeezed Ractun¡¯s hand. ¡°We should go up because now is the time for Takora-cohort,¡± he said. The four of them climbed up into the Nest Ring. It was fairly sparsely populated as usual, with a few packs from the last batch of cohorts still dropping or climbing into their nests and around thirty or forty packs in Takora-pack¡¯s cohort scattered around the ring, and hundreds more from the ten other cohorts who shared this time-block on the Nest Ring, though only a few dozen packs were visible to Ryen-pack from where they stood, the rest obscured by the ring¡¯s curvature and the life support blocks. They hurriedly made their way to the nearest life support block with a water dispenser and meat tank, their breathing labored as they strolled across the tops of the lower nests. There were a couple of packs who had gotten there first, a sight which Kyada bared her teeth at. One pack of five¨CKaarie-pack, Kyada vaguely recalled their name to be¨Cwere filling a drinking bowl with water, their slight frames clustered around the dispenser. Meanwhile, a member of Cohort Alpha Takora-pack was pulling patties out of the meat tank with a pair of tongs and depositing them into their drinking bowl. One pair of hatchlings was play-fighting on the floor with one of the adults in Takora-pack, who effortlessly held off their snapping mouths full of tiny glass knives with just his hands as they trilled maniacally, at last dropping them both to the floor with one swift tail swing. He then gently lifted them up, whispering sweet nothings into their ears, and the process began all over again. Another smaller pair of hatchlings was riding piggyback on two more members of Takora-pack, their tiny claws digging into the adults¡¯ shoulders as they sniffed the air intently. ¡°Food! Now!¡± one of them chirped. At last Takora-pack was done at the meat tank and Ryen-pack swooped in, with Kyada dragging Tauk and Roztek by the hands, to take their place before Kaarie-pack could, ignoring a low growl from them. Roztek looked into the hot, smoky meat tank, using the tongs to poke at the precooked cylindrical slabs of microbe-grown meat, sniffing and staring intently, then at last pulling out several large grayish patties with a hint of blue, flecked with dark streaks of synthetic flavoring. Ractun gently laid a hand on Roztek¡¯s arm. ¡°I want a fake neuz,¡± she said. Roztek picked up a fourth patty, this one whitish-grey, and stacked it in the drinking bowl. ¡°This is good, yes?¡± he said, licking Ractun¡¯s snout. Ractun nodded. The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. Takora-pack was beginning to quietly slink away down the Nest Ring, but Kyada called out, ¡°Cohort Alpha Takora!¡± Takora-pack stopped and turned slowly, almost sheepishly. ¡°How do we regularize and prune the space-tree of items in a Nest Ring that doesn¡¯t contain air?¡± she demanded, before taking a deep, laborious breath. One member of Takora-pack, balancing a hatchling on her hip, met Kyada¡¯s gaze unblinkingly. ¡°The oxygen will increase again at night. This instance of altitude training policy is because Hope contains a thin atmosphere,¡± she said. ¡°We know Hope contains a thin atmosphere!¡± said Tauk indignantly. He and Kyada pointedly engaged in a brief, passionate licking of each other¡¯s snouts. A second member of Takora-pack, with an intricate binary tree tattooed on the top of his head, did a similar display with another member of Takora-pack before they said, ¡°We are trying to cause General Tyrak¡¯s instructions and this cohort¡¯s optimal strategy to be balanced. Request, everyone causes this to be easy.¡± ¡°Our manager wants packs to manually transfer cargo from the path to the Nest Ring, around the Nest Ring, and back during their Nest Ring time-block because of their instructions,¡± chimed in another member of Takora-pack, ¡°The reason for this is soldiers¡¯ acclimatization being optimal in the best time, before the beginning of combat.¡± He inhaled deeply. Kaarie-pack, who had stepped away from the life support block as a throng of packs began jostling for their meat and water, stood a few meters away from Ryen-pack and Takora-pack, silently watching and appraising Ryen-pack. One member abruptly spat a mouthful of water back into the drinking bowl at Takora-pack¡¯s last proclamation. ¡°What?!¡± he choked. ¡°No! It¡¯s really ridiculous!¡± burst out Ractun, baring her teeth at Takora-pack. A member of Takora-pack held up her hand. ¡°Yes. Acclimatization equal to the General¡¯s instructions requires only vigorous activity for the entire time-block. Us not knowing a different example is the problem,¡± she said. Ryen-pack looked awkwardly at each other and the nests beneath their feet in silence. ¡°Does the Cohort Alpha think cleaning is an instance of vigorous activity?¡± interjected a member of Kaarie-pack suddenly. A couple members of Takora-pack turned to glance at them. ¡°Maybe, yes,¡± said one of them, ¡°If the cleaning is really intensive, you all fix everything that breaks in your time-block and revert the Nest Ring to its prior state.¡± Ryen-pack and Kaarie-pack went back to their respective nests to eat in private, each pack holding hands to cut their way through the increasingly dense crowd of packs milling around the Nest Ring. Takora-pack watched them go. ¡°This doubly connects nodes,¡± said one of them under his breath, ¡°The soldiers will be acclimated and our manager will cease creating complaints because the Nest Ring is not clean after our time-block.¡± ¡°Yes, if they are fully acclimated after this,¡± said another member, his ears drooping worriedly. ¡°Tazuk. It concerns the gods,¡± said the previous speaker reassuringly. He licked Tazuk¡¯s cheek, his tongue running sensually over the other¡¯s zygomatic arch. ¡°Random cargo movement for acclimatization was ridiculous anyway,¡± he said. Another one sighed heavily. ¡°Inception and triangulation and social graphs,¡± she said, ¡°Us being an Army manager is really fun.¡± She glanced down at one of the hatchlings, sitting on the floor, wolfing down the smallest patty out in the open. She swooped in from behind and lifted him high with the air of a raptor snatching its prey. ¡°Do you think so?¡± she cooed, covering his snout and eyes with sloppy licks as she held him in midair, his legs flailing for purchase and his tail thwacking against her arm. ¡°Ugh! You¡¯re getting heavy!¡± ¡°We like it!¡± said the hatchling happily. Another member of Takora-pack gasped. ¡°A depth-two sentence-tree!¡± ¡°Yeah! He¡¯s created many recently!¡± said the one holding the hatchling, her ears rising. Takora-pack wandered back to their own nest, drinking bowls full of meat and water and two pairs of rowdy hatchlings in tow, for a few moments of peace and quiet before the acclimatization regimen began. Chapter 7 As a four-meter telescope slowly, carefully tracked the movements of two mysterious X-ray sources across the night sky, faithfully attended by Lauren. The only light in the telescope room was her laptop softly illuminating her face as it crunched the raw numbers collected by the telescope in real time. She struggled to keep her eyes open as she faced the glowing rectangle in her lap like it held all the secrets of the universe. She heard the faint sound of footsteps crunching on the gravel outside, and then the door swinging open. ¡°Hi Scott!¡± she said, without turning around, stifling a yawn. ¡°Hey, guess what? We have the rest of the night!¡± said Scott cheerfully, plonking himself into a chair next to Lauren. ¡°What? How?¡± asked Lauren, ¡°I thought someone else booked this telescope.¡± ¡°I may have talked to some people and traded some telescope time to hog it for a bit longer,¡± admitted Scott slyly. ¡°What? You didn¡¯t! Thank you!¡± said Lauren. Scott shrugged. ¡°I wanna see where this is going. It¡¯s interesting,¡± he said. ¡°You¡¯re interesting,¡± said Lauren. The minutes and hours ticked by in the darkness with only the tapping of keys and the occasional tiny movements of the telescope repositioning itself. At some point, Lauren drifted off and Scott reached out to grab her laptop before it fell. As he watched the latest batch of numbers come in, his eyes steadily grew wider and his fingers flew over the keyboard, running scripts and plugging numbers into the calculator. At last, he stopped, slack-jawed, and a palpable silence fell over the room, punctuated only by Lauren¡¯s deep breathing and the occasional mechanical noise from the telescope. Scott reached over and touched Lauren¡¯s shoulder, gently shaking her awake. She felt warm somehow, despite the chilly wind outside. ¡°Hmm¡­what? Oh shit, did I fall asleep?¡± she said. ¡°I think I¡¯ve finished triangulating your X-ray emitters. Their current position is over 100 AU from Earth. Oh and both of them have an identical heading,¡± said Scott. ¡°And?¡± said Lauren. Scott could practically feel her eyes boring into him in the dark. Scott took a deep breath. ¡°The current velocity is roughly one percent of light speed,¡± he said. ¡°What?!¡± said Lauren. In a quick motion, she snatched the laptop back from Scott, looking intently at the screen. ¡°What the hell¡­,¡± she murmured. At last she turned back to Scott. ¡°There aren¡¯t many natural objects that move that quickly. Even fewer that fit the profile we¡¯ve seen here. Maybe a pair of primordial black holes orbiting each other,¡± she said softly, almost reverently. ¡°That somehow got, I don¡¯t know, ejected from the galactic core without losing each other and just traveled across the galaxy together. I¡¯ll have to run the numbers and see if that¡¯s possible or¡­¡± she trailed off. ¡°Or it¡¯s a new type of celestial object entirely. Xie-Watson Objects. XWOs. Has a nice ring to it,¡± said Scott. Lauren facepalmed and let out an exaggerated groan, though Scott caught a hint of a smile. ¡°Give me a break!¡± she said. They continued tracking the pair of X-ray emitters until they disappeared below the horizon, and then begrudgingly vacated the observatory and continued crunching numbers in the office for the rest of the night. At some point, Scott made a LaTeX document entitled ¡°A Pair of Co-Moving Hypervelocity X-ray Emitters in the Oort Cloud¡±-- ¡°such a momentous title¡±, Lauren had said. By sunrise, they found themselves in town, ordering coffee and breakfast from a random diner. Much to Scott¡¯s chagrin, there was no indoor seating, but at Lauren¡¯s suggestion, they sat down at a bench in a small park, watching the sunrise trickling through a stand of pines. ¡°I think we gotta tell someone, Scott,¡± she said. ¡°I don¡¯t know, NASA? The government? This could be bigger than us. We know it¡¯s moving straight towards the inner Solar System. That there¡¯s a nonzero chance that whatever it is, it could hit Earth. And with how fast it¡¯s going¡­¡± She shivered, and it wasn¡¯t entirely from the early-morning cold. Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author''s preferred platform and support their work! ¡°Ten to the minus five percent according to my simulations,¡± said Scott. ¡°That¡¯s not zero,¡± said Lauren. Scott sighed heavily and took a bite of his bagel, staring moodily into the trees. ¡°Have you ever been scooped, Lauren?¡± She shook her head. ¡°Good. I hope you never do. Really. I mean it. You deserve better.¡± Scott went on, ¡°But trust me on this. I¡¯ve been doing this a while and when you find something big¨Cand believe me, this is big¨Cyou publish early, publish often, and don¡¯t let anyone take it away from you because if they get a chance, they will.¡± ¡°I thought we were all supposed to come together and figure out the universe and our place in it,¡± said Lauren. ¡°Yeah, I thought so too,¡± said Scott bitterly, ¡°You¡¯re special, you know that? We need more people like you. A pity they all get crushed these days.¡± He drained his coffee cup and crumpled it up. ¡°It¡¯s a rat race, that¡¯s what it is. I had a call with my department chair yesterday, you know. Apparently my publication count ¡®needs to be higher to be considered for tenure¡¯. Did it matter what¡¯s in those publications? Do you think anyone reads them? No. They just count them. This is all just a dick-measuring contest.¡± Lauren slumped backwards against the bench, wrapping her arms around herself, her face bearing an expression of utter defeat. Scott inched closer, unable to take his eyes off her face. A million thoughts raced through his mind like trains on a tangle of crisscrossing tracks until at last, in one abrupt, jerky motion, he put an arm around her shoulders. She slid closer to him, wordlessly. ¡°But we¡¯re in a good position. I know we have something real here,¡± said Scott. Lauren glanced at him. ¡°We can dash off this paper before anyone else does, and you know what? With everything we have, we can break it down into at least two or three publications in top journals. Maybe more, if we keep looking into this.¡± ¡°I¡¯d like to keep looking into this. But we¡¯re gonna need a bigger telescope,¡± cut in Lauren, ¡°And more time on it.¡± ¡°I can get us that. It¡¯ll take some schmoozing, but I¡¯ll do it,¡± said Scott. ¡°Thanks,¡± said Lauren. She shifted uncomfortably, looking for words. ¡°But still¡­this might not be just a weird blip in the sky. It might actually matter. For normal people, not just us. And dealing with that as just the two of us¡­it scares me. Excites me a little, but also scares me.¡± ¡°It won¡¯t be just the two of us,¡± said Scott, ¡°as soon as we publish the results. It¡¯s a win-win situation. I get tenure. You get a tenure-track position at a top university.¡± ¡°Is that really guaranteed?¡± asked Lauren warily. ¡°I¡¯ve tried so many times and it¡¯s just¡­nothing, anywhere. Tenure-track, not tenure-track, whatever. It¡¯s like screaming into the void and getting radio silence back. And I¡¯m almost done with my dissertation and it just feels like I¡¯m hurtling towards a cliff at one percent of light speed and now there are these things hurtling towards us at one percent of light speed and¡­¡± she trailed off into silence. Scott wrapped his arm tighter around you. ¡°No. Nothing is. But I meant what I said¡­you¡¯re special.¡± Lauren was silent for a long moment. ¡°Okay,¡± she said at last, quietly. Scott nodded. ¡°Great. So for the related work¨C¡± ¡°Not now. Let¡¯s just enjoy the moment,¡± said Lauren. She stared at him. ¡°Do you play RPGs?¡± The conversation swerved to lighter matters until they finished their food and stood up, stretching. ¡°I have to get some sleep, but do you wanna meet up later and start writing?¡± Scott said. ¡°I can start. You should get more rest. And maybe check in on your son?¡± said Lauren. ¡°Ah. Right,¡± said Scott, ¡°Tomorrow then?¡± ¡°Tomorrow,¡± agreed Lauren. Just before she turned to leave, Scott stepped forward and wrapped her in an embrace. As they held each other, he stared into her eyes, his thoughts once again like too many trains on intersecting tracks. He felt like many forces were pulling him in mysterious directions, but before he could solve for all of them, Lauren solved them for him with a quick peck on the lips. ¡°Thank you,¡± she said, ¡°For being you.¡± And with that, she was gone, leaving Scott with his thoughts to derail and crash into each other. Chapter 8 On the void strider, days turned into day-blocks, and Ryen-pack began to settle into a rhythm. For an hour every day, they would climb out of their nest and jostle their way through the dense clusters of other packs sharing the time-block to try and get their meat and water from the nearest life support block and use the toilet¨Ca couple of times, Roztek had cheerfully said ¡°It¡¯s so edges and right because it returns to the meat tanks and turns back into food¡±, which even Ractun¡¯s ears twitched upwards at, though she had dourly muttered something about that being nothing compared to the resource loss of war. The rest of every time-block was spent meticulously scouring their part of the Nest Ring for anything that had broken down and cleaning any messes that had been made during their time-block¨Cor, occasionally the previous one, if other packs had been lazy, or none at all, if they thought they could get away with that. And when the obligatory hour was up, Ryen-pack quickly retreated back into their nest, where they could hold each other and be close and not have to deal with other packs. The rest of the time they spent holding each other and talking quietly or wiring up one of their civilian watches to the comm screen to watch a movie or making love. In the meantime, the oxygen levels would fall in the daytime and rise at night in an endless cycle until the simulation of Hope¡¯s atmosphere gradually shifted from miserable to somewhat bearable. More and more, they found themselves silently staring at the approaching planet on their screen as it grew from a dot to an ever more detailed disc. Ractun shivered, and it wasn¡¯t entirely because the nest was cold. ¡°Hope looks¡­really unoptimized,¡± she murmured, a little ways away from the rest of the pack. Tauk pressed himself up against her, passionately running his hands over her scales. ¡°We know that,¡± he said, looking apprehensively at the screen. ¡°The gods think we will have to be connected to how many wars?¡± he went on. ¡°Too many,¡± muttered Ractun, turning away from Tauk. ¡°Our best years will be deleted wastefully because we will be doing war in many cities in series. Is rotating many edges in the city-graph on Hope to connect to Ikun such that Ikun¡¯s centrality in it is high, is actually an instance of something you think will take little time? All nodes of Ryen-pack will eventually be deleted on an alien planet!¡± Kyada looked over with an oddly intense expression, her ears sinking. ¡°Ractun. It equals our optimal strategy,¡± she said in a measured but firm tone. She straddled Ractun and cradled Ractun¡¯s head in her hands, alternating between licks and little nibbles. ¡°The city-graph we left was soon to be losing nodes and edges and becoming an instance of something dead. We will create hatchlings more safely on Hope than there.¡± At the mention of the word hatchlings, she wrapped a hand seductively around Ractun¡¯s uniform¡¯s zipper and began to unzip it. Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original. ¡°Not now,¡± said Ractun icily. Kyada paused. ¡°Me making love with you is an instance of fairness because it equals the optimal strategy for Ryen-pack¡¯s cohesion. That¡¯s especially true if we see incohesion in Ryen-pack¡¯s nodes,¡± she said gently. ¡°I¡¯m not an instance of an incohesion source!¡± protested Ractun, ¡°I create a command causing you to stop!¡± ¡°Okay, okay. Kezdtun¡¯s ears! Ractun! I didn¡¯t say that!¡± said Kyada, rolling off of her. In her absence, Tauk and Ractun had closed the space she left behind and were now rolling back and forth on the floor of the nest, playfully trying to bite each other¡¯s snouts. Kyada sighed heavily, wondering if it would make Ryen-pack more cohesive if she joined them or lay next to Ractun, and ended up doing neither, awkwardly remaining in the middle instead. ¡°Also, Koranah dominating the Climate Control System when we were on the homeworld doesn¡¯t imply that the city-graph is dead, yes,¡± said Ractun dourly from behind the notebook she had pulled out and begun to draw in, ¡°It¡¯s just an instance of politics.¡± ¡°It does for Ikun!¡± said Kyada indignantly. Tauk and Roztek stopped their passionate roughhousing to gaze intently at Kyada. ¡°You create resource-beautiful words,¡± said Tauk, laying a hand on Kyada¡¯s chest and feeling her scales under her uniform. Kyada shot a glance at Ractun, decided that showing Tauk extra affection wouldn¡¯t hurt Ryen-pack¡¯s cohesion, and gently bit down on his ear. ¡°Will Ikun move to the city-graph on Hope and retain high centrality there?¡± he asked hesitantly. ¡°Tauk, yes,¡± reassured Kyada, licking Tauk¡¯s snout. ¡°When I was a hatchling the pack I was a node in moved 7400 kilometers across many city-graph edges to be in Ikun for a reason,¡± blurted out Roztek. ¡°Ikun being connected to the city-graph on Hope will make the city-graph very resource-beautiful and system-beautiful. A pack aligning with Ikun is always equal to its optimal strategy!¡± ¡°Well, I don¡¯t know that,¡± muttered Kyada softly. ¡°We¡¯ll certainly be fine!¡± said Roztek cheerfully. He licked Tauk¡¯s and Kyada¡¯s snouts in turn. They settled back into their quiet rhythm after that. Ractun began sketching a drawing of Ryen-pack in the nest while the other three started a new branch of some random forgettable TV show. Every time the story-threads coalesced, they flipped back to the telescopic image of Hope, anxiously checking it even though it had not visibly moved. ¡°I feel fear,¡± admitted Tauk presently, ¡°Do we?¡± ¡°A little,¡± said Roztek. ¡°A lot,¡± said Ractun, ¡°We¡¯re all blundering into an unmapped foreign city-graph and creating an unknown number of wars. This may be dangerous! Nobody knows the topology of the city-graph after many iterations of this. The reason is that Project Hope equals City Center Nytektak¡¯s vanity project. Forget them!¡± Kyada¡¯s golden eyes raked over the top of the nest, studying a loose thread very intensely. ¡°Yes. We feel fear. Despite that, Ryen-pack will always be a system-beautiful, fully connected clique. I know we love us,¡± she said, pulling her packmates close. Chapter 9 Luke sat alone on the porch, sullenly picking at a microwaved chicken dinner, his gaze flipping back and forth between the phone on the table and the decidedly empty road. Scott was nowhere to be seen; he had stopped by the house in the early afternoon to drop off a box full of books and papers and then taken off to who-knows-where. And on top of that, he had taken the car as well. Luke was shaken from this line of thought by the sudden vibration of his phone; the screen showed the name ¡®Harrison¡¯. He snatched the phone up and answered in a flash. ¡°Yo,¡± said Harrison, with no further context or introduction. ¡°Finally. I¡¯m literally dying of ennui here,¡± said Luke. ¡°Shit man, I thought you were just metaphorically dying,¡± said Harrison. ¡°Oh shut up,¡± said Luke, rolling his eyes, though he had to laugh at that. Their conversation drifted aimlessly until, after a long pause, Harrison asked, ¡°So actually, how¡¯s Flagstaff treating you?¡± ¡°Honestly, it¡¯s kind of a dump, nothing¡¯s even open here except takeout places and Walmart,¡± said Luke, ¡°I thought maybe this summer was gonna be better than the last one, but Dad¡¯s always God knows where at all hours of the day and night, and you know what? He always takes the fucking car. Hell, I might have to touch grass at some point this summer.¡± ¡°Oh no! The horror!¡± said Harrison. ¡°Yeah, try living it,¡± said Luke, spearing a piece of chicken with his fork. ¡°Maybe you should just barge into the observatory and see what¡¯s up. Didn¡¯t you say your dad pretty much lives there now?¡± said Harrison. ¡°Nah, I¡¯m sure he¡¯s fuck off somewhere else if he saw me coming,¡± said Luke. ¡°Then you have the telescopes all to yourself to swoon over,¡± pointed Harrison. ¡°I can tell you why he¡¯s like this,¡± said Luke, ¡°It¡¯s¨C¡± ¡°He¡¯s found a summer fling!¡± interjected Harrison, ¡°Hell, maybe you should too.¡± ¡°What,¡± said Luke flatly. ¡°Think about it, it makes sense. Have you seen any sign of a girl?¡± asked Harrison. ¡°Uh¡­I mean once or twice I think, she looks like a college student or something though,¡± muttered Luke. A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. ¡°Mmhmm, go on,¡± said Harrison triumphantly. ¡°I could¡¯ve sworn I smelled perfume in the car once, but I figured he was giving a coworker a ride,¡± said Luke. Harrison snorted. ¡°Oh, he was definitely giving her a ride!¡± ¡°God dammit Harrison!¡± said Luke indignantly. ¡°Look, I¡¯m sorry he¡¯s being an asshole, but give him a hard time for that, not for the girl. I mean, he¡¯s still a dude even after¡­everything,¡± said Harrison. ¡°Hmm,¡± said Luke. He gazed down the road and saw a familiar car heading down the cul-de-sac. ¡°Oh shit, speak of the devil. He¡¯s here at last. Uh, see you man,¡± he said before hanging up. Scott stepped out of the car, carrying a cardboard box filled with books and papers and a laptop, nodding at Luke as he reached the porch. ¡°Evening Luke,¡± said Scott as he dropped the box with a heavy thud, fumbling in his pocket for the key. Luke turned and stared stonily at him. ¡°It¡¯s like 9 PM. Where were you all evening?¡± he said. ¡°Oh, you know. Work¡¯s been hectic, as always,¡± Scott said, nudging the box with his foot, ¡°Just trying to slap together as many skeletons for papers as possible before the summer¡¯s over.¡± ¡°And were we ever gonna check out the observatory? You keep saying you¡¯ll show me around,¡± said Luke, a faint accusing note creeping into his voice. Scott looked at his phone. ¡°Uh, I think people might already be working there,¡± he said, yawning. ¡°And I¡¯m pretty tired, I think I¡¯m gonna hit the hay.¡± ¡°Or do literally anything that doesn¡¯t involve me being stranded in this dump of a town while you just disappear and do whatever the fuck it is you do all day?¡± snapped Luke. Scott opened his mouth to say something, but Luke pressed on, ¡°Or is it because you¡¯re busy fucking some girl twenty years younger than you?¡± ¡°She¡­it¡¯s not¡­well¡­she¡¯s a coworker,¡± muttered Scott awkwardly, looking like he was seriously considering walking into the forest behind the house and never coming out. ¡°Do you think I¡¯m stupid? I can tell you don¡¯t give a shit about me,¡± said Luke. He stood up abruptly, starting Scott straight in the eye, his voice growing louder and harsher with each sentence. ¡°Just like you never gave a shit about Mom. She fucking dies and you just sit in your ivory tower for a year and a half and then go replace her with a newer model!¡± ¡°Sarah will never be replaced. Ever,¡± said Scott coldly, a sharp tone creeping into his voice. ¡°But it¡¯s been two years, Luke. It¡¯s not 2020 anymore. The world keeps spinning.The sun keeps rising. Life has to go on.¡± ¡°Easy for you to say!¡± snapped Luke, ¡°It was your fault all along! Maybe being stuck in the house for months with the threat of getting arrested if you dared to walk down the street was fine for you, but it wasn¡¯t fine for us! Not that you¡¯d have cared, just holed up in your cushy home office with your Zoom calls and comet papers. You weren¡¯t the one who had to find her dead on the floor with a bottle of bills. Maybe if you¡¯d given a shit about it you could¡¯ve prevented it. You¨C¡± ¡°That¡¯s enough!¡± roared Scott. He shoved the box inside and slammed the door behind him, leaving Luke to wipe his eyes on the porch. A few moments later, he returned wearing a hoodie. ¡°Going to hang out with your fling?¡± said Luke acidly. ¡°I¡¯m hitting the bar, and then the observatory,¡± said Scott, not looking at Luke. He took off with a screech of tires.