The Celestial Way

Chapter 7.3 - First Steps of the Way

Airo examined his surroundings with studious will.

He and his unofficial team had roamed for days. They kept a steady course, yet even so he knew distances meant little on a paraworld. He tracked the landscape carefully, wary of another spatial maze like that mountain range. So far, there had been no hints of repeating patterns. Yet there had been endless miles of snow, ice, and rocks. No signs of life, sapient or otherwise, and, of course, no trace of Ferrtau's whereabouts. Only the energy pillar towered on the horizon, coming no closer despite their constant travel in its direction.

"Have any of you been able to access the Transnet?" Airo had asked on the second day, scanning all channels and frequencies for the hundredth time.

"The Transnet?! What the fuck?" Kiana blurted, and glanced at him sideways from the pilot's seat. "Are you from the Ground Age or something? The Transhuman Order hasn't existed for centuries."

"It's called the Viirt now, Boss," Zuckeroff said.

"Viirt?" Airo asked.

"Virtual Integrated Interplanar Reality Transference," Kiana recited. "Viirt for short. Has three generic levels – mesh, network, grid. Local connection, big-ass infrastructure, or whole-system scope – you pair the terms accordingly. Real basic stuff.

"And to spare you the grand effort of asking again – nope, we haven't found any active nodes. I would've noticed instantly otherwise. And that's mighty strange, because even with this war and all between the Consortium and the Union there still should be comsats out in orbit which respond to military tightbeams. I think something planetside is fucking things up."

"I see," Airo said, making a mental note to learn more about 'this war' later. "Did your starship get shot down in combat?" he asked to keep the conversation – and information – flowing.

"It was hardly a fair battle," Zuckeroff said. "Our main cruiser was en route to a rendezvous point, when we got jumped by an entire task force!"

"Yeah, those hutters caught us with a glitch in the smartclos," Kiana added. "We... we were told to reinforce a Consortium strike fleet here in the system. When we... got to the coordinates, there were none of ours, but plenty of the Union. They pummeled us in seconds. The captain sounded the evacuation order. Me and Zuckeroff grabbed the auxiliary patrol cutter, but the hutters lanced us badly during the escape. We made a controlled crash down the gravity well. After that... we put out a distress signal, and hoped our people would find us. That's the story." She shrugged. "Instead, out of nowhere a Consortium Paladin appears, demand us to pledge undying loyalty or face halting state, and then drags us into the great unknown which is this fucking frozen rock of a planet. So here's a counter question: where are we going, and why the fuck are we traveling toward that big-ass, blinding-bright, obviously-dangerous pillar of light on the horizon?"

"For lack of better navigation," Airo replied.

"You have no idea where you're going, do you, Commander?"

"I have not," Airo nodded. "Yet I know what I am looking for."

There was a heavy pause. He knew Kiana wasn't buying his story; neither was he believing hers. It was a matter of who held the bigger secret. Airo thought he was winning easily on that front.

"What is a 'war'?" Veralla asked in the abrupt silence. Kiana and Zuckeroff shifted their attention to the dragonet, while Airo resumed his patient observation of the landscape.

At nighttime, while the party camped around the ATV, Airo practiced his fighting routines, working moves and techniques back into his muscles after seven centuries of disuse. He trained both barehanded and with the katana, remembering a host of elaborate strikes, parries, positions, and other maneuvers he had self-learned in his youth and then refined to perfection in the Starspire Academy. The power armor, despite its advanced design, hindered some of his more elaborate movements. After this activity, Airo sat down and conversed with the others, forcing himself to get to know the people who accompanied him better.