Having four eyes, the sight before her is twice as magnificently wondrous as it is for other normal people. However, she knows it for what it is, which is simply an industrialized process. And despite its scale, an ironically fragile one at that; looking at the webs of energy essentially going through portals upon portals, she wondered how there hasn’t been a terrorist attack to collapse the whole structure by now. Or, a coordinated sabotage could enclose the black hole, leaving it rebounding its own energy until it blows up the entire sector.

  Arriving in Gateyard Olmona, General Hiau’s warship emerges from the gateway with its new fleet, all following her command.

  She had received a message from Gahn shortly after her arrival. He communicated that Zviedal has been able to negotiate terms with the gateyard’s manager there, and that they would in fact be able to get a gateway ready and running in the span of a few hours, perhaps even less. It almost sounded so absurd and unheard of to her before reminding herself that this was Zviedal he was talking about, here. Maybe the man had ferocious negotiating skills, too. Or, more reasonably, he found a way with forcibly coercing the manager.

  Good riddance if he did. Having read his records, she would like to rip the spine out of a man of that type as well, if he had one.

  She had passed this down the line to the rest. But more importantly, she had successfully ensured that the crew of her warship remained staunchly loyal to her no matter what. She knew what she prepared to do.

  The clock was ticking as she stood upon the bridge, and soon, they parked in orbit above the planet, amongst the multiple artificial rings.

  *****

  “A few hours?” asks Lym. “Really?”

  “Yeah,” replies Vertan. “I was surprised too.”

  “What did you offer him?”

  “Well, actually, he offered it to me first. I guess he thought I was one of them, so he was ready to hand it to me on a platter.”

  “That’s still impressive, though.”

  Vertan and Lym once more found themselves sitting outside in a generally less populated and busy area. Despite everything appearing as though it should be a sunny day out, the sky is black with stars, and the black hole and its megastructures shone in the far, far distance.

  “I suppose you can say it’s impressive,” replies Vertan.

  “I know you groan about it,” says Lym. “But you do contribute quite a bit to your reputation, you know that, right?”

  “I couldn’t have done what I did just now without your help, though,” replies Vertan with a wry smile.

  “It’s still just a bit of support.”

  “Really? You can destroy the whole planet if you wanted to, and you’re calling it ‘a bit of support’?”

  “I prefer to be humble about it.”

  Vertan couldn’t help but find himself chuckling with a grin.

  “Can you believe we’re actually almost there?” he continues.

  “Barely,” she replies. “The past few months have felt so long to me.”

  “Really? I thought you people live for thousands of years.”

  “We do. But it doesn’t go by any faster for us. We experience it just as slowly as you, all the same.”

  “Wow. I can’t imagine.”

  “Sometimes, I can’t imagine it either. There’s plenty of things I don’t remember anymore.”

  A moment of quietness passes between the two. A ship leaves the planet’s atmosphere in the distance.

  “Do you remember when we first met?” asks Vertan.

  Lym finds herself smiling softly.

  “Of course I do,” she says.

  “What was it like for you, that day?”

  Lym considered the thought for a moment.

  “You were just a stranger, in a strange world,” she says. “I remembered first seeing you peering through the trees when I landed. And then you fainted. I was surprised to find myself on a planet with life similar to me. And then I was so confused as to why you were so far from everything.”

  “I remember feeling the shockwave when you landed,” says Vertan. “I didn’t even know it was you yet when it shattered all my windows.”

  “Oh, sorry.”

  “It’s alright now.”

  “Is that why you didn’t like me at first?”

  “What?” Vertan chuckled. “I was worried you were going to cause trouble!”

  “I mean, we eventually both did, anyway,” replies Lym.

  “True, that.”

  If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  “How am I to you now?”

  “Well, I tolerate you.”

  “Wow.”

  “I’m kidding, kidding!”

  “It’s only fair, I didn’t like you either.”

  “Excuse me?”

  “I was kind of putting up with you to do what I needed to do.”

  “Alright, alright.”

  “Your mother was always sweet to me, though. You should listen to your mother more.”

  “Shit, she must be so worried right now.”

  “It’ll be alright. Everything will work out.”

  “I kind of can’t believe that it is.”

  “All thanks to you, really.”

  “Really? You mean that?”

  “Well, in hindsight, I definitely don’t think I could have made it back on my own, no matter how hard I tried.”

  “I guess that’s fair.”

  Another moment of quietness passes.

  “So, what’s your home like?”

  “I actually don’t really know. It’ll be my first time, too.”

  “Really? You’ve never been to Happia? But you’re a Happian?”

  “I was born outside, elsewhere. On a military base, I believe, not sure if it’s around anymore. Often, people stay long enough to live there for generations.”

  “Do you remember your parents?”

  “They faced discrimination for having me and my brother as members of different species.”

  “Oh, I’m sorry to hear.”

  “It’s alright. It was all long ago.”

  “So they’re like that, huh?”

  “Everyone has a role to fit to help each other survive, so giving them a mixed child is like saying to them ‘here’s an unspecialized role that fits nowhere.’”

  “But they still have to accept you in when we get there, right? They’ll still recognize you as one of their own, right?”

  “They will. The main part is to get past Happia’s defenses, but it will recognize my gunship and let us all pass through.”

  “I take it that we can sort it all out after, then.”

  “There’ll be challenges, but nothing we can’t manage, right?”

  Vertan smiles back at Lym after she says this.

  “After everything we went through?” he responds. “We have no choice but to make it work!”

  *****

  From the surface, Gahn notices and watches as a fleet of warships glides far above the artificial sky. Upon closer inspection with his telocular, he receives visual confirmation that indeed, it was General Hiau’s fleet, recognizing the distinct silhouette of her vessel.

  His men and women are at the moment dispersed around the general area. There wasn’t much to do at the moment but to simply wait, though there were nonetheless some amenities, venues, and other desirable places available, likely for the locals who worked and lived there. Gahn wondered if anyone has ever raised a family in such a place, or if the entire planet was simply designated to be a worksite.

  Regardless, it will all be over with very soon. Whatever Vertan did in that meeting, he managed to reach a deal in which the gateway will be ready within a few hours’ time. Gahn wondered how he also managed to get them to cater to his demands. Perhaps blackmail, or the threat of Subject-000002.

  Already, Gahn could see the massive structure being placed in position in the planet’s orbit, most likely a previously available one that was already near completion and only needed to be calibrated for the transit.

  For a short moment, Gahn felt a twinge of doubt.

  In just a few hours, Vertan will be forever gone from his life, and this would be a conscious choice that he himself would enable.

  When stepping back to look at it, he realizes that he’s known Vertan the longest out of anyone still in his life. His parents have since passed away a few years ago. He, Vertan, and Hilgo were all friends together since they were young children in school. They wouldn’t meet Tilko and Mohya until much later into adulthood. The same went for his wife.

  Suddenly, now of all times, Gahn began reminiscing all of their shared memories. From when he first embarked on this completely unexpected journey with him. To when he first found him worn and crazed on the streets after his time in the Expeditions, years ago. He remembered how often he would see him with Hilgo at that cafe after the two’s day out fishing together. By the cosmos, when was the last time the entire group had all sat together there?

  He remembered going through school with him. The jokes they bantered. Helping each other in times of need. All of the times he and Hilgo had to pull Vertan out of trouble. Even those became memories to laugh with, given enough time.

  For an instant, Gahn flinched. What he would give to sit in that cafe, all of them together again, just like all those years ago. Before Vertan left. Before Hilgo never came back. Before all of…this.

  He considers it. What if he were to call it off right now? To backpedal on the terms and objectives of his negotiations? What if he deliberately sabotaged his own operation? What if he simply booked it out of there, never to be seen again?

  But none of that would ever work, right? He would be prosecuted for desertion. He would have to force his family into exile and live as fugitives if he prepared to avoid all of that. He would have to live the current lifestyle that Vertan does right now. He would lose everything with no way back even if he succeeded past the current short term. More likely, he would immediately get killed for the confusion he would cause, especially trying to play games with an individual as dangerous and loaded as General Hiau.

  And then the reality of the present moment came crashing back, and it was no longer the natural atmosphere and three moons of Ulminh, but instead the industrialized black hole taking up much of the sky of an artificial planet.

  And then, he remembered every other thing about Vertan. Always getting himself and others into endless trouble, whether of his fault or not. Their distance between their ideals, morals, and differences have become an abyss. How can he any longer defend a man wanted by the government and directly responsible for the loss and destruction of countless lives on this single journey alone?

  Thus, he is confronted with the literal manifestation of the age-old hypothetical dilemma. Between saving the many or an individual deeply personal to you, which would you choose?

  For Gahn, his answer would be unquestionably the former. Vertan is but one sacrifice to save countless lives, each with their own potential. He can’t let personal feelings get in the way of what in the end is ultimately necessary.

  It still felt like a punch in the gut, before finally subsiding into a strangely calming acceptance.

  Gahn looks back up to the sky above. The fleet was gone, having moved elsewhere in its orbit around the planet.

  Turning back down, Gahn looks at the bottle in his hand. There was only a little bit of his Qiaouian whiskey left, the same one he had taken with him as a souvenir, and potential gift for his wife. Despite everything, he had managed to hold onto it, relenting sips here and there, until he realized it was no longer worth it to bring back in its entirety. He would have had to save it untouched since the beginning, but the stress had been too much.

  With a deep swig, he chugs the rest of the bottle, leaving it empty of even the smallest drop. He almost chokes on it for a moment as he wipes his mouth, his eyes tearing up.

  With a final toss, he dumps it into a nearby bin, and walks back off to his ship, slightly swaying with each step.