The Celestial Way

Chapter 8.5 - Haven by the Way

Airo overestimated his understanding of the situation.

Exhausted both physically and mentally from the perilous journey through the paraworld's frozen wastelands, he went straight to sleep. After spending numerous weeks inside his power armor, the subtle freedom of movement and the comforts of a real bed utterly defeated him. When he finally woke up, the display on his grid-caster informed him he had slept for almost forty hours – ten over a whole standard day. He checked the local clock and saw Terra Para had the same rotation period as Arceria. Interesting.

He, Kiana, and Zuckeroff had been accommodated in one of the larger caverns near the High Temple. In the absence of draconic inhabitants, the large interior space had been converted into public dormitories. Individual rooms were suspended along the walls in a loose spherical pattern, leaving the central part of the cavern as an atrium. Each room had basic amenities, and was furnished with a small food maker and a computer terminal.

Airo rose from the bed, and staggered into the hycab. He felt like he had crawled out from some deadly battle within an inch of his life. An hour later, after a max-stimulation ion shower and some solid – if plain – meal he was again in shape to think and act adequately.

The door's intercom chimed. Airo went and opened.

Veralla stood at the threshold, looking at him happily. "Hi!" she said.

"Get lost," Airo growled.

"For what purpose?" she asked, perplexed.

He closed the door in her face, and locked the access panel.

He accessed the local mesh, and told Yeoman Cloud to subvert all major systems of Dragon Retreat. The advanced SAI had little trouble bypassing the shrine-town's electronic defenses. Once Airo had control, he checked if what the town council had told him was true. They hadn't lied. Dragon Retreat's industry was almost non-existent. There were a few large-scale fabrication facilities, yet they were tied mostly to the local economy cycle. Volatiles, exotic materials, high-grade refineries – none of those were present in any significant quantities, and they were required for the construction of something as complex as a suborbital shuttle or some other long-range aerial vehicle. Yeoman Cloud suggested some highly theoretical models, substituting parts and production methodologies, yet those were either too improbable to work, or they would've taken forever to create.

Airo tried searching for some other options. He called up available information on the Beacon Highway. The HHI display bloomed with a three-dimensional map of the planet, encompassed by a web of bright dots, each denoting a functional E-beacon. No dots glowed beyond the equator. Dragon Retreat, along with any other settlement in the far northern hemisphere, was cut off from the rest of civilization.

Airo checked one last thing. He tried to establish long-range communication, instructing the SAI to use all of the available network bandwidth. He managed to connect through two satellites, and reached a relay somewhere in the southern hemisphere – with ninety-eight percent signal loss. Seconds later, he was disconnected automatically.

Yeoman Cloud explained the session was overridden by someone else, although it was useless anyway. Even a tightbeam laser was no help. Reason? Probably something to do with the paraworld. Quantum entanglement comms? The shrine-town had no such facilities. Creating and launching a local satellite? See previous information about lack of fabrication materials.

Airo angrily logged off. He thought for a while about what he could do. He replayed the audience with the town council in his mind, and the conversations during the trip to Dragon Retreat. He remembered Kiana's off-handed comment and her reluctance at rejoining the Consortium. That was it. It would be hard to make her assist him, but Airo had no better options.