37. Hestia Part V The Ark

Auren had been expectingLupo to say something to the crowd. When he hadn't, he'd looked to Fengári, who didn't seem up to it either. He'd even briefly considered that Ophion might step up and give some inter-species dialogue a try… but nothing.

"Look, we—you—we've all been through a lot," Auren began, his voice filled with urgency. "And it's not over. Not by a long shot. In there, Charon showed us something terrible. Something not from here ripped its way into our space. It's coming for us. And if we don't run, we'll die. Everyone needs to get on board the asteroid now. There's no time to explain, but I promise we will fill you in once we're safely in hyperspace. Go. Go!" Auren gestured.

At first, no one moved, perhaps because they didn't trust him. Or probably because after all they'd been through, they were all equally weighing the option of assured oblivion with some consideration. Then a woman near the back took off running toward the asteroid. First one, then another Lupo darted after her. Within moments, the horde were stampeding as if their lives depended on it.

Which was good, Auren thought, because they did.

You can run, but you can't hide, the whisper caressed.

"We'll see about that," Auren said.

He reached out and took Lupo's and Fengári's hands. He gave them each a squeeze and then let them go.

"I don't have to live on the asteroid with Ophion and all the robot people, do I?" Fengári asked after a while.

They'd begun to jog toward the Fortunato. Behind them, the sun had finally risen over the glacial mountains, and the bizarre temple the alien and Bartie had built shone brilliantly in its pale light.

"No," Auren laughed. "You can stay on the Fortunato with us. Though I think we might park it inside that bad boy once we get into orbit. The more… well… anything between us and them, the better."

"Good idea," Lupo said. "We should consolidate our resources. We can make intermittent stops to resupply when needed. I'll have the asteroid start printing up resource-harvesting drones once we're in hyper."

"My brood should be fully developed within six months. We can add them to our ranks," Ophion hissed.

"What do you mean, in six months?" Lupo asked.

"They are born with a genetic imprint of my collective experience. They require little care. And no education. We are a species of war—and if the Skotádi want a war, we will give them one. It's what we are made for."

Auren couldn't help but grin as they passed back into the familiarity of the Fortunato.

The grin remained as they took off. He stared down into the smoldering crater they'd left at the center of the acropolis—where they'd killed their first demon. Ophion had blown it clear apart. The skull portal that had dominated the center of the space was naught but a hulking wreck now.

His thoughts went to Bartie—to what Charon had been able to do with that red mist. To his eyes, the technology had almost been like magic. Auren knew he would never forget the sound of Bartie's scream when his flesh had been stripped from him. He realized with a wave of agony that countless others might be meeting a similar fate. Or worse. And it wasn't a singular, abrupt doom. No, it was endless.

"This is the Fortunato to the Minotaur—are you prepared for takeoff?" Lupo's voice stirred him from his worries.

"Affirmative," came a voice from the other craft.

Auren wasn't sure, but it sounded very much like another Lupo.

"Engage. Set a destination for Andromeda. It will take them a while to consume this galaxy. Our best bet is to jump to the next one while they keep themselves busy and see what kind of resistance we can mount when we get there."

"I couldn't have devised a better plan if you'd asked me to," the other pilot replied congenially.

Auren was convinced that it was, in fact, another Lupo.

"Coming in for a landing once we clear the atmosphere and then get us out of here," Lupo finished.

"Roger that," the other clipped before cutting out.

"You… realize that was you, right?" Auren asked.

"Oh, definitely." Lupo grinned back at him.

"Just checking," Auren replied. He took his seat beside Lupo.

The asteroid looked more extensive than he remembered it. He marveled that the thing could lift itself off—more so that it could clear escape velocity and launch itself back out into the void it had come from. Whatever technology and secrets were on board were about to be theirs for the taking.

Auren eyed it uneasily, realizing it would be unlike Bartie not to fill it with his share of traps, too.

"This is kind of like that old story—the one with the boat," Fengári said as the Minotaur's bay doors opened for them.

"I don't think there was a lizard in that one," Auren chuckled.

"Actually, you know what? I think there was," Lupo said.

Auren grinned as the door shut behind them, sealing them inside the asteroid base alongside the other remnants of their species—none of them genuinely human anymore. And yet they were, and no amount of whispers would ever dislodge him of the notion that that was true.

To be—to exist—was enough.

Auren looked at Lupo's handsome face. He was managing to smile as he talked politely with Ophion and Fengári. They were all exhausted. They were all traumatized by what they'd been through. They were all family. And it was the first time he'd had such a thing in his life. He realized as he looked at them that he felt connected to them—to himself—in a way he'd never dreamed possible in his youth.

When he'd been a boy and later a man, he'd always been running from one thing to the next. He'd always expected that if he could sit down and rest for a moment, stuff would come into focus. But that hadn't been the case. He'd run and run until there was nowhere else to go. He'd run all the way to Vesperion and beyond. And somehow, in all of it, he'd survived.

No, he hadn't just survived. He'd overcome. The pride at the feeling of being more than he believed himself to be filled him with a sense of belonging and purpose he couldn't have imagined before.

Auren didn't care if they needed to repopulate an entire galaxy to strike back at their foe. The demons weren't going to win without a fight. And they had all the time in the universe to give them one. Or at least, that's what he chose to believe.

He had a family now and would do whatever it took to keep them safe. After all, Lupo had said it himself:

It was love.

Minotaur IIblinked out of space over Hestia.

…TO BE CONTINUED SEPTEMBER 6TH 2024!