With the whirlwind turnaround to rescue Capal, I was glad we'd had that day of rest back on the Fakra's forward operating base. There hadn't even been a proper debriefing with General Takahashi, with Velke shooing us right back onto the ship; it wasn't ideal, but the Marshal clearly wanted to hurry us along by the second. Besides that, I didn't want to leave Cappy to rot in a cell any longer than necessary—his hosts seemed to have been rough with Dawson. I'd telepathically messaged Takahashi a handful of details that had been glossed over, before we left.

I hastily described everything from the Justiciary and the Elusian traitor, how 5D knocked us out for 11 hours, how the probe had shattered after a few glances, and my newly-unearthed far sight ability. Her head had snapped toward the spacecraft, when I told her right before we warped off Earth's soil that Corai and I were an item. It was probably a good thing that she never heard the part where I broke the Watcher out of prison, endangering humanity for someone who might not have been on our side.

"How are we going to find your friend?" Velke demanded, having retrieved the nanobot vials at a blistering pace. The Marshal might have the secondary motive of wanting to return to supervising his insane invasion as soon as possible. "You don't seem to know where he's being held prisoner."

I scratched the back of my head. "Er, I'm gonna do it like I trained the normal precog? Once we get to Caelum, just warp me…two feet, until it works. It seems like it's only for stuff in the dimension I'm in. Like, I've done it once, but I also just knew things."

"Excellent. That's reassuring. You inspire such confidence in your abilities."

"I'm sorry, would you magically understand how to use freaky brain abilities? I can't just read a singularity like a book."

"Preston cannot read any books," Mikri added. "He's computationally-challenged and basically illiterate."

Sofia crossed her arms. "Mikri, I love you, but you can't call anyone illiterate after your takes from our book club. You're asking for Messton to clap back at you."

"Obviously. I want to be 'roasted!'"

The scientist frowned with displeasure. "Wouldn't you prefer compliments that elevate your self-worth?"

"No. I know I am great. I like being stepped on and eviscerated! That's how I know it comes from the heart."

"A roasting? Not over a fire, presumably," I mused. "You'd be shitty cavalry, because your lazy behind never holds a charge."

"Ooh. Great. My turn! Your jokes are so cheesy—that's why you're afraid of mice!"

"Wait. You're afraid of mice?" Corai snickered.

A growl rumbled in my throat. "Mikri…"

"Shut the fuck up!" Velke shouted, fury shaking his voice. "We're crossing over to Caelum. Figure out how to find your friend, or else!"

The Vascar pulled a party horn out from under one of his wrist panels, and placed it in my mouth. I complied and exhaled with gusto, though the Marshal wasn't provoked by the whimsical noise. He waited for his people to generate a new portal to Caelum, much like when they'd built an opening to Sol; Velke set his vessel to autopilot, then let his brain be temporarily deadened. Corai plucked the noisemaker from my mouth, and unfurled the paper right onto the tip of my nose with a smile. She winked at me, before allowing the nanobots to knock her out for transit.

Wait, is the random panel under Mikri's wrist clean at all? He doesn't even dust himself, ever. If we all make it out of this war in one piece, I'm gonna celebrate by gifting him a feather duster. Glorious.

I decided to focus up as we passed through the 5D portal, hoping I could tap into the far sight to locate Capal. It didn't work in 5D for some reason, likely because every universe was too much, while 4D narrowed it down to one. Corai rebounded from being resuscitated yet again, though she was looking exhausted. The Elusian opened a simple portal effortlessly—show off. I remembered how I'd reached out to the singularity through the 5D probe, so I tried to reach out yet again with my mind: where was Capal?

One foot through to hop to the back of the ship, and I was elsewhere: looking over Meganerd's shoulder in a drafty cell, as some buffoons that called themselves Brigands were keeping an eye on him. They'd forced Capal to build some kind of negative-energy device, which was nearing completion. Jakov…I remembered that name from before, had sent Zitrae to monitor Cappy's progress, since that traitorous metal lump understood what he was doing better.

I could see a hopelessness in the organic Vascar's eyes that I knew all too well, and I reached out toward his feelings even further—a formless extension of myself that could absorb knowledge like a sponge. Capal was running a test with a negative energy sample, and there was no way he was letting Jakov get his mitts on this. The time to act was now. The Brigands had pulled him away from the group, so that he wouldn't try to escape, which was why…

"Hey, Ficrae?" Capal prompted, rage in his eyes.

Ficrae leaned forward, satisfied with lording over the creator. "Yes?"

"Fuck you."

The Asscar yanked the handle on his device, praying that his plan would work. He'd only have a split second after it opened up to dive through and rejoin his buddies. It was simple—oh, of course that motherfucker thought that was simple! Capal's reasoning was that he didn't want to warp his friends straight into Ficrae's arms, by opening the portal right on top of them. However, he conveniently placed the teleporter's other side right in the middle of the wall to Dawson's cell, dematerializing it.

Capal dove through the newly-opened portal, just after it deleted the wall. Dawson was caught off-guard as the Asscar frantically waved at him; the battered human crawled like an infant, unable to walk. However, just driving a shoulder into Jetti, Redge, and Hirri's cell was enough to destroy it, since that wall wasn't built to contain humans. While he wasn't fast, funnily enough, Mr. Fields could keep up with the Caelumites on all fours. Wild.

"What an inferior plan!" Ficrae whirred with rage in another room, running to catch them with a contingent of guards. "I thought your services may have been useful, Capal, but you are done. DONE!"

My grip on the scene was slipping, though I asked it one final question, vaguely remembering that I needed an answer. Where are you? Coordinates! The numbers appeared in my head in human notation, as if I'd always know them. I burst the bubble of my vision with an explosive push, like emerging from beneath water's surface while drowning. I turned toward Corai, and hurled the digits at her mind before I'd regained my senses enough to speak. The Elusian nodded, making another portal.

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"You're abandoning the ship?" Velke exclaimed.

I turned back for a split-second, huffing with frustration. "No time! In and out. We can warp right back into it. Or you can stay here."

The Fakra scowled, before grabbing his gun and trudging after us. Sofia tested her raisers and gave me a nod; she walked alongside Mikri and I as if we'd scripted it, finally acting together in the midst of danger. Before she got teched up by the Elusians, I would've been worried about Dr. Aguado in a combat situation, even with Sol strength. However, raisers and nanobots made us godlike compared to what any Brigands were capable of.

Blood rushed to my brain stepping through the portal, but I shrugged off another far sight vision, fighting through blurred senses. Now wasn't the time. I lurched forward while the world was mere pixels, and found that my far sight had given us the exact location of Capal's cell. The Asscar and his friends had already run off ahead, which meant we had to play catch-up. Corai and Velke emerged right behind us, while Mikri jumped on my back not to slow us down. I figured our hyper-advanced Elusian and Fakra party members could fend for themselves.

"I can't keep up, but I can warp alongside you. Don't worry about me. Let's go save your friend," Corai said, echoing my thoughts.

I sprinted down the hallway toward the sound of the noise, as the Elusian placed a helpful portal in front of us on the fly. It was disorienting to barrel at full, Sol-enhanced speeds into another hallway, and I knocked in a wall trying to turn on accident. It was all I could do not to slow down—not even to rub in to Sofia that she was falling quite a few steps behind, despite me carrying an overweight tin can. I could vaguely hear the sound of Capal pleading around the next corner, as Ficrae and her subordinates had caught them.

"Kill them and dispose of the bodies. We will get other scientists to continue his research, like Jakov said," the android ordered.

"Corai!" I could hear the sound of gun safeties being unclicked, and we were out of range to use our raisers or to catch up in time. "A little help?"

The Elusian threw several portals down in front of us, ensuring that the five of us were deposited in the same room as Capal and crew. My hand snapped upward, sensing metal fragments where I could and freezing them in midair. Corai, Velke, and Sofia helped as more rounds were unloaded by a firing squad around Capal. Together, we levitated hundreds of bullets in suspended animation, until the Brigands wielded empty weapons and stared in shock.

"Wait, what the…" Capal looked up from where he was ducking, with his paws over his poofy head. His jaw dropped with pure confusion. "Elusians have hair?!"

Oh, right. We have gray skin now.

Corai smirked, glancing at me. "That's an awful lot of bullets. Very cute. Not as cute as Preston, of course."

"It's me, Capal! I got a glow-up, and this is my girlfriend, Corai." I spoke into the Asscar's mind, causing him to jump nearly a foot off the ground with his fur sticking upright. "Well, I don't want to hog all the bullets. Return to sender."

I flicked my wrist, sending my fragments flying back at the Brigands who'd fired them. The firing squad dropped with a bunch of new holes that hadn't been there before, a squelching sound of tearing flesh being the last one they ever made. Ficrae was all that was left, and Sofia handily flung it back against the wall. Redge stared in shock, while Jetti actually looked happy to see us; Hirri looked to be on death's door. I could disembowel Jakov for letting that cute, sick kid rot in a cell!

Mikri circled Ficrae, diabolical intent in his eyes. "You disgrace our network. I'm telling them everything you did too, so expect no mercy; I won't let them forget where our loyalties should lie. You tarnished our reputation in the eyes of the humans and everyone else, when I've worked so hard to be seen as a person!"

Come to think of it, it must be weird for Mikri to be reconnected with his network, after all of this time not being in communication with them; they'd been an omnipresent part of his life. I hadn't even realized enough to ask whether the separation was distressing, for the months the Vascar had spent helping us train with Corai and traipse across Suam. Perhaps that had contributed to some of his lapses with attachment issues, since we were all he had.

"A person? You defile yourself," Ficrae sneered. "You're the most laughable Servitor of them all."

"You are a sadistic fool who cares about vengeance instead of compassion!" Mikri slammed the other robot's head into the floor, with a screeching beep. I noticed Velke flinch at those words. "I'm going to reinstall the memory wipe on you, so you can pay for your hatred!"

Sofia pulled the tin can away from his rival. "No, Mikri! That's not how we do things. We have to handle this civilly, like we would with any organic, or what will the network think? We're going to take Ficrae back with us, and try it for its crimes. We're better than doing something cruel like that God-forsaken memory wipe."

"Hey, what the fuck did they do to you? To us?" Dawson yelped, horrified by our skin color update.

Corai walked over to the group, trying to act soothing and non-threatening. "It's just nanobots. It's okay. We're going to take you somewhere safe. I'm sure you've been in a lot of pain, but if you wanted to try nanites out, they can fix your injuries. Your friends will need to take them too to come back to Sol with us—and as a replacement for little Hirri's medicine."

The Derandi child coughed. "Pres-ton. I knew you'd save us."

"It's me, little man. Delivering a nice can of whoopass!" I chuckled.

Velke tossed a vial to Corai. "Give them to the child first. He doesn't sound good."

"And who the fuck are you?!" Dawson protested, backing away from the Elusian and the Fakra.

"They're the Fakra," Capal answered. "Ficrae told me about them; the network found their dimension-traveling crew comatose years ago. I take it since then, they figured out that you need to die in transit."

The Marshal gaped at the Asscar. "How—how do you know that?"

"I've had plenty of time to think it over. The nanobots, presumably, are an ingenious solution—flipping a switch in the brain. At least, I assume that's why…Preston's girlfriend says we'll need to take them to cross. Elusian technology is starting to make some sense. If you don't mind, I'd love to know your capture mechanism for a white hole's negative energy. I'm missing that piece, or at least, the means to achieve it."

"Holy shit, Preston. You're not usually a credible source." Corai stole a glance back at me, while injecting Hirri with the nanobots. "Wow, Capal. And you've had no contact with us or prior explanations about any of this? Dear me, I am…impressed. You figured out what took us millions of years…in a prison cell?"

Capal mimicked a human shrug. "It was obvious. What other solution was there?"

"I told you: I don't call him 'Meganerd the Brown' lightly!" I cheered, grinning.

The Elusian tapped a finger to her chin. "I would love to hear more about our beloved Meganerd's research notes."

"As would I," Velke grunted. "And for the record, the Fakra were the Elusians' first created species that they abandoned. You have some catching up to do on the history side, at least; much has transpired and been learned by humanity in your absence."

"Shit, I'm just glad the humans are back," Redge chuckled. "I didn't know if we'd ever see them again, or what happened to Preston and Sofia in the Tunnel. I hope this means we can resume our work in Caelum—and deal with that bastard Jakov."

Sincerity burned in Jetti's eyes. "Thank you for saving us—for saving Hirri. He was really suffering, but those nanobots seem to have already given him a second wind. You were never out for yourself the way Jakov is."

"Yeah, thanks, Preston the Gray," Capal murmured. "I'd love to see Sol; I was jealous of you guys being able to torch a path through The Tunnel from day one. Maybe now, I can have a real conversation about moving to Earth—and I'd love to catch up—but can we please get out of here? You do have a plan, right?"

Corai offered a gentle smile. "I'll warp us back to Velke's ship. We can get you fully up to speed there."

The Elusian warped all of us, including prisoner Ficrae, back onto the Fakra's cozy ship. These four could use a hot meal and a cushy bed, on top of a medical lookover, but I was relieved that our rescue mission had gone smoothly. It was nice to have our old Caelum lineup back together, after all this time since our makers derailed every painstakingly-cultivated friendship we'd earned.

With Capal impressing Corai and Velke with what he discovered on his own, humanity might get the chance to focus on scientific research instead of manning Suam's front lines.

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