Beacons in The Dark

Chapter 53 - Uplink Restored

**author's note: "I apologize for the feed degredation of my last chapter; it was probably some malfunction in my nodelink

"Data malfunctions are meaningless as long as there is no human malfunction" - Ago Pennifer, Chief holoprogrammer of the Nodelink network

The survivors were being isolated inside their hospitoriums - there was no Medical Guild on Krist with it's shining white ampuarms and surgical rays. This work was done with saw, meat, and Jhiva energy - which made the treatments more virile and amplified their workings.

Xerath was shaking in the shadows of a doorway, a broken hut with blobs of congealed blood still on the floor. Something or someone was out there.

And something was coming.

He could feel it before he would ever see it, the teeming masses of energy building invisibly to radar systems, crawling around the atmosphere of the planet, bringing it to sharp focus, the day turning evening air taking on a sharp contrast that more than quite a few noticed.

After hours of this and the Loremaster and his companion not back yet, visible ripplings in the space of the air could be seen, faraway stars seeming to undulate like waves in a vast ocean, beacons in the dark calling you to forever.

But it was more than that, the old Jhiva user knew. Far more.

He said only one word, and that word was followed by silence. "Starslinger."