Adamant Blood 130

Mark wandered into the grand eting hall at 9:52, right into a pair of crewn who were checking credentials. The hall was full. A thousand people, at least, scattered over stadium-like seating, all faced a stage. A few people sat on chairs on that stage, talking softly to each other, while the podium in the middle remained empty, for now.

“Mark Careed,” said one of the crew, before Mark could introduce himself. “You’re up front, on the bottom level.”

Mark blinked, oriented, and said, “Oh, uh. Thanks!”

The crew gestured down the main walkway, giving small instructions that were easy enough to follow. The crowd was huge and noisy, with everyone talking over everyone else. Mark was halfway to his seat all the way up in the front, ters from the stage, before he felt Sally and Isoko sitting in the crowd up above, on the second audience level. It didn’t take much to spot them among the crowd, with his Unionsense guiding him most of the way. They waved at him and Mark waved back. He wondered where Eliot was and he mouthed as much. Isoko and Sally both pointed toward the stage.

Mark turned, and there, among the seats, was a seat for Eliot, with his na printed onto paper and taped to the chair. Eliot wasn’t there yet, but he would be. Mark nodded up at his team.

He arrived at his seat.

He mostly ignored how a lot of people in the crowd were looking at him, all of their desires feeling like a wash of color to his Unionsense. Greed was there, but also surprise and joy and a feeling of relief, as well. Sussing out exactly where those emotions were coming from was too much for Mark to bother with, so he sat down in his chair.

Mark found himself seated among other expected team leaders, with the front row only holding one person every other seat, instead of the full crowds of the rest of the theater space. There were paladins of Freyala in breastplates, warriors who had opted to walk around in their heavy armor, mages with robes and chainmail, and even more like Mark, who wore webweave under normal clothes. Mark was not the only one wearing black webweave, but he was one of the few. Two people were straight up wearing superhero costus, all bright and tight against their skin—

“Hello,” said a man seated to Mark’s left, as he put his hand to his own chest in a weird sort of greeting that Mark wasn’t familiar with. “I’m Tartu Solari. Domainer.”

Tartu was an athletic, barely-20 man, with white and blue hair, cut short in a military style. He wore mostly white. His armor was more ‘mage’ than ‘warrior’, and Mark was absolutelysure that he had heard the na ‘Solari’ sowhere, but he could not place the na at all. It was an important na, though…

Mark put on a nice face, saying, “Nice to et you, Tartu. I’m Mark Careed. talshaper, Union.”

Tartu smiled a little, his fist relaxing. “More than that, I heard.”

“… Ah. Yeah?” Mark was not sure what was happening right now. Not divulging everythinghe could do was a small lie of omission. A perfectly reasonable lie, too. Mark moved on. He asked, “What’s a Domainer?”

Tartu smiled and said, “An Arch Skill. I set up areas with Laws in them that must be obeyed or fought against before they can be ignored. Against low level threats it’s a no-sell sort of ability. ‘Warder’ is the na of the Arcane Skill. Perhaps you’re more familiar with that one?”

… Was Mark imagining it, or had Tartu put on so weird sort of stress on that last bit. ‘Perhaps you’re more familiar with that one’? Huh?

“Nope! Never seen it, or heard of it,” Mark said. He had never heard of ‘warder’, but he did know the relationship between Arcane and Arch Powers. Eliot’s Man-made Manipulation was an Arch Power that allowed him to make things but on a much grander, more personal scale, than the original Arcane Power, known as ‘Create Object’. Arcane Powers were based on demon-created magic, but Arch Powers took the demon magic and allowed it to be twisted based on personal desires. Whatever this ‘Domainer’ did, was able to make space that had to be obeyed, though, so the base Power probably had vastly limited effects. Mark asked, “I can imagine you’re great at point defense and even offense, too, in certain scenarios?”

Tartu seed to tense inwardly but relax outwardly. It was the telltale sign of soone trying to hide in public, which was a familiar situation for Mark. Had he touched upon sothing too serious? Maybe.

Mark felt he had ssed up this eting, sohow.

Tartu said, “More defense than offense, I’m afraid.”

Mark blinked, wondering why the guy was lying. He asked, “You can deny the ability to breathe and kill sothing, can’t you?”

Tartu was a riot of internal emotion, his face a broken mask. He rapidly hid whatever he was trying to hide, and mumbled, “No. I can’t do that.” He added, “But of course a villainwould think like that.”

… What was happening here?

Was Tartu… Was he coming for Mark? Like, to pick a fight? Or did he just not understand his Power? Or did Mark misunderstand? Mark probably misunderstood, but… But Tartu called him a villain? Like it was a bad thing? Maybe it was a bad thing to soone from Daihoon!

Mark laughed. He couldn’t help himself.

Tartu was suddenly furious, though he tried to hide it as best he could—

“Sorry, sorry!” Mark said, “I did not an to laugh. But… Like. You gotta know what your Power does, right? All aspects of it? You even called it a no-sell Skill, so—”

“I antthat I could deny monsters the power to leavea space, or to invade another space. It’s a mana-cage Skill.”

“… You can’t invade a space with your Power— Skill, sorry.” The guy seed to be upset every ti Mark nad it a ‘Power’, which was weird. Daihoonians called their Powers ‘Skills’, though, so maybe that was a Big Deal to them? Mark asked, “You can’t overlap an astral body with your Skill?”

“No, I can’t,” Tartu said, his face turning a little red with a asure of embarrassnt and rage. “It breaks imdiately. They can move into the space, but then it starts to degrade and— And that’s unimportant. Why is the Dragon’s Brotherhere and not on stage? That’s what I wanted to ask.”

Mark shrugged, saying, “I’m just a team leader, but the team is kinda full of leaders. Eliot is the one on the big stage, of course.”

As Mark confronted Tartu’s anger with a shrug, Mark had a weird mont sowhere between shrugging and talking about his team where he was amazed at himself, at being capable of shrugging off what was obviouslyant to be a dig. Tartu was angry and he wanted to make Mark angry, too.

Tartu huffed, then looked at the stage as he muttered, “I’m gonna be your first formal challenge in the Hero Program. Look forward to it, Dragon’s Brother.”

Mark sat in stunned silence for a good 3 seconds before he found the wherewithal to speak—

But soone was on the stage, and they tapped the mic on the podium. A soft boom echoed through the room, the room fell to silence, and Mark turned toward the stage.

General Aurora Valen was there, at the mic, and all of the seats on stage were full.

“Greetings, hunters, and welco to the first official warrior hall of the settlent project.”

So people cheered—

Aurora continued over the noise, saying, “I am General Aurora Valen of House Valen. My Skills, as I would call them, or Powers or Talents, as those of you from Earth would call them, are Supre Telekinesis and Telepathy, along with a smattering of magic. I will be your leader for the next five years, and after that we will have elections, and I will transition to the leader of the armies. A lot of things will change when the settlent is settled, we vote a na for ourselves, and we transition to a developing city.

“But for now, and for the next five years, while we develop the land, we will be at war with the world around us. Wars require generals and hierarchy, and I will be providing that. Officially, and to the rest of the world, I am your General and you are my soldiers, but I expect to be called ‘Aurora’ by my soldiers and my people. Outsiders will know as General Valen, but not you.

“I will always make ti for you, and I expect you to make ti for .

“But, I will not be leading many of you directly. For that, we will look to the hierarchy of the settlent. All of you are already familiar with most of what I am about to say, but as this is the first warrior hall, I will be stating many things for the official record.

“The organization of this system is as follows:

“From the General, that is , we have our Seconds. From the Seconds, we have all of you. That is how orders will flow in the settlent. The civilians are outside of this command structure. They will follow a similar ordering, though their orders are based on houses and organizations.

“There are no people in the settlent who are not part of the hierarchy. That will co later. Think of us like a business in the beginning. When we settle the land, the real civilians can co in and expand the city to massive size. But until then, the order is like this.

“Directly under , and primary among the Seconds in Command of the Warriors, is my brother, Kandon Valen, with the Skills for True Brawny and Telekinesis.”

Aurora gestured to a large, muscular man with bright white hair, just like her, sitting to the side. He had on army greens, just like Aurora, and he nodded at being nad.

Aurora continued, “Most of you are brawnies, or you have co here individually, and outside of a team of your own. You know who you are. Most of you will be working under him. He will be organizing the primary defense of the land, so everyone here will know him in so capacity. All of the guilds, all of the individual teams, superheroes, or villains here, or anyone else who wishes to enact their power upon monsters for the good of us all, will be working under him in so capacity.

“Most of you will probably be delegated to smaller contacts and only interact with Kandon a few tis a month, if that. As for those smaller contacts, there are a few you should know by sight and na. I don’t expect you to know these people right away, but you will learn them, and you will know them.”

Aurora began to gesture to the people sitting behind her and naming nas.

Mark paid attention. He did. But there were 12 people on that stage and Aurora only said their nas once.

At least he could point out Kandon Valen, the overall leader of the ard forces, while Aurora was the General of the whole project. And then there was Eliot up there, introduced as the main reason that they were able to put together the settlent project so quickly.

Eliot stood when he was pointed out, took a bow, and then said, “I can build anything, as long as I have help to build it! Look up online under ‘VeryHuman’. I have so building guides up for viewing! I’ll be making the housing, and you can have almost anything, but there is paperwork involved! Happy filing!” Eliot sat back down, seeming inordinately happy.

Aurora moved on, introducing person after person. Soon, she reached the end of the line, and what she said drew Mark’s full attention.

“There are a few thresholds to clear to be able to even entertain the idea of a settlent in new lands, and one of the most important is the presence and capability of people who can take down kaijus. The leader of our team of kaiju killers is this man.” Aurora gestured to a man who wore green fatigues with a black and silver shouldercape. “Nightbolt, real na Sam Ranger, of Earth.”

Not everyone Aurora introduced stood up and spoke to the audience, but Sam was one of those who stood and spoke.

In his military outfit, Sam said, “I’m Sam Ranger. Threadmaker, hero na Nightbolt. So of you may have seen on the screen for Weekly Showdown, or on the news, when the kaiju would co up the Mississippi River. I’m the one that lays down the lines and the kaiju kill themselves upon those lines. My family and I have decided to move to the settlent, to the future twin city of mphi. I look forward to working with those of you who desire to kill kaiju, either as the ones who hold the blades, or make the blades, or support those who hold the blades.” Sam looked directly at Mark, and then toward soone else in the front row, and then toward yet another person, as he continued, “So of you, I hope can do all of it. We’re the big killers, and we’ll do the big killing, but all of you will still be fighting the good fight in the smaller defenses of the land.”

Mark felt so attention focus on him. Most remained on Sam.

Sam bowed, and then sat back down.

Aurora turned back to the gathering and spoke, “As you know, kaiju are attracted to portals that bridge Earth and Daihoon. Once we get the permanent portal set up, we expect to open that portal once a month, and while the shippers move stuff, the kaiju killers and all the rest of the settlent will be on high alert, because that’s when the kaiju show. Once a month, for 2 days, we’re on high alert and everyone works, and then for all the rest of the ti we’re at a much, much lower activity level. We’ll be a tier 10 city eventually, but the workload will be that of a tier 4 city, outside of portal days.

“It will be an amazing achievent, and every single person in this room will beco incredibly wealthy, powerful, and influential. Every single person in this room will go on to beco the bedrock upon which our city will grow and prosper. All of you have power, and all of you will get more, because we’re going to be a bridge between Earth and Daihoon.

“What I see before is not just brawnies, or otherwise.

“What I see is the future.

“Our future.” Aurora stood tall, seeming to shine as she said, “Our gloriousfuture.”

Mark felt enlivened, like he was ready for anything. From the emotions in the air, he was one of many who felt that way.

Aurora glowed, just a little, her eyes sunset-bright as she gazed out into the crowd, and said, “That’s it for the mandatory eting.” She gestured to the side and so soldiers in green opened a big set of double doors. The other people sitting on the stage all stood up and took their leave, walking off the stage, into the other room, as Aurora said, “The grand hall has been prepared with food and drink, and I and everyone here will be accepting questions and eting all of you for the next two hours. I am sure many of you will wish to et each other, as well. It might not happen tonight, but I look forward to eting all of you, eventually.”

Getting into the other room involved a bit of self-organized chaos, but eventually Mark ended up over there, standing with Eliot, as Eliot ended up eting about a hundred different people, all of whom were nobles or sothing like that. Mark wasn’t sure how he ended up standing with Eliot, but that’s what happened. Eliot did almost all of the talking, which he loved, but Mark ended up fielding a few questions about Addavein, which he did not want to do.

“I don’t know about him. I have asked him to call before he shows up. I don’t know if he will do that, though.”

Unlawfully taken from , this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

Aurora ca by, sohow, and whispered to Mark, “You’re too caught up on the politeness of Xerkona Etiquette. Learn how to glare politely to get them to stop asking about certain things.”

Mark started glaring at so people, and it worked better than he thought possible.

It was a whirlwind that Mark wasn’t sure how he survived, and then it was over.

“Oh my gods,” Mark said, walking down the halls with his team, away from the crowds.

Eliot laughed. “Bah! That was great fun!”

Isoko said, “I’m with Eliot on this one. I truly enjoyed talking to Nightbolt.”

Sally asked, “Kaiju teamwork won’t be most work, though?”

Mark said, “Surely not—”

And then Mark caught sight of that Domainer guy from earlier, whatever his na was, walking away down a different hallway. He had a team with him, and an older man leading the way in front of him, and the only reason Mark thought of him again was because, in that mont, Mark realized that he was the only team leader, sitting in the front row of the eting, who did not co up to see Eliot. Mark had ended up talking to every other major team leader. The two superhero guys had been great fun, but Mark couldn’t rember their nas at all. They were both fliers, though. Mark rembered that much.

He couldn’t rember the Domainer’s na, either.

“Oh shit. What was that guy’s na?” Mark asked himself, just as much as he asked Sally, Isoko, and Eliot. When the three of them had no idea who he ant, since there were lots of people, Mark pointed to the disappearing guy, saying, “The white-and-blue-haired— Hmm. They walked away. Can’t see them anymore.”

Eliot humd.

Sally said, “I have no idea who anyone was tonight, but I’m gonna be studying them. I know Nightbolt, of the kaiju squad, Kandon, of the general army, and Bert Ironclad, the one who will probably be making the missions for the big teams. And Aurora, of course… It’s weird she wants us to call her by her first na, right?”

Eliot said, “She’s like that. She’s very casual to her friends, and she wants to be friends with warriors. The noble houses have to call her ‘General Valen’, though.”

Sally nodded, but she was unsure. “Yeah… I can see that.” She added, “I kinda like that.”

Isoko said, “I noticed Yoro Windrunner. She’s the major scouter for the army and also a speedster. Another dual-Skill.”

Sally exclaid, “There were so many! Is that normalon Daihoon?”

“For nobles, yes,” Eliot said. “We’re all practically dual-Skilled too, you know.”

Sally scoffed. “The Chosen System is notthe sa.”

Isoko nodded. “Not the sa at all.”

As they chatted, they walked down a hallway, down a staircase, and past a few gathering areas with people hanging out, talking about this or that. Mark, Sally, Isoko, and Eliot were halfway to their housing.

Mark was still trying to think of the na of the white/blue-haired guy.

Mark said, “The Domainer. The one that makes the ‘special wards’. He was really pissed at for so reason. And he had an important na. He was sitting right next to ?” He looked at his friends. They had nothing. “Nothing?”

Eliot said, “I got nothing, sorry.”

Sally smirked. “I’m sure you’ll wipe the floor with him, and—”

Isoko’s vector tanked as she flinched as she walked. Her face went pale. She said, “TartuSolari.” She added, “The only child of Grand Mage Rekaro Solari, the leaderof the Mage Guild at the settlent. The guy whodetermines if you learn magic or not.”

The four of them stopped in the hall because Isoko had stopped.

Isoko looked panicked. She whispered, “What did you do?”

“Nothing!” Mark said, “He wanted to fight, though, so… I’ll fight? That’s fine, right? Big deal?” Mark added, “And he might be the son of so Grand Mage —whatever that is— but he’s obviously sandbagging and trying to hide it from everyone, for so reason. He lied about not being able to use his power offensively. He claid that his Skill was a way to control the battlefield, instead of directly harming sothing.”

Sally said, “Let know if I need to punch soone, or if I need to prepare for an assassin.”

Mark scoffed. “It’s not thatbad. He’s just— Oh! Yeah.” Mark rembered sothing else. “He told he was going to be my first formal challenge in the Hero/Villain Program. So I think he was picking a fight for whatever reason. That’swhy I wanted to know his na.”

Isoko went from worried, to calm, and then directly to disbelief. “The Hero/Villain Program is at the settlent?”

Eliot said, “They shouldn’t be there, but so people put so pressure on Aurora because of… Well. You know. Addavein wanted to do the hero thing and Mark is doing the villain thing.”

Isoko went, “Hmm.” Then she said, “Okay. That’s fine, then. Sorry. I was just… really concerned—” Her eyes went wide. “Are you going to make bets with this guy, Mark? Because you should. You can bet on anything in an official battle. You could even bet on magical training.”

Mark and Sally were both surprised.

Sally’s surprise rapidly transford into worry, but she ended up overall smirking, and saying, “Because of course Mark is going to win.”

“Oh well yes. Of course.” Isoko waved a dismissive hand, saying, “That much was never in question.”

Mark chuckled.

Isoko added, “And he’s a villain. He doesn’t have to actually give up whatever he wagers. As a hero, Tartu would need to co to the battle truly prepared to lose sothing, otherwise he gets a derit in the system. Enough derits and he’s relegated to henchman work.”

Mark hadn’t really paid attention to the various possibilities of the H/V-P, but Isoko certainly had.

Mark said, “I didn’t know about the betting thing.”

Isoko waved a hand, saying, “It’s all rather informal, and if soone is trending on Weekly Showdown or any of the other shows, then losses and stuff don’t matter. Tartu could easily forgo any wager made before an official battle, but you could bring it up every ti he battles you from then on and use it against his popularity, which would directly affect his ascent to becoming a popular superhero. I’d imagine that any lingering confrontation would end in you taking a fall and then getting the magical knowledge you wanted after taking a fall.”

Mark didn’t pay attention to popular superheroes, but his Uncles had. They were total hero nerds. Mark knew that Glorious Man was the top hero, both in popularity and power, and Mark still looked up to him, just as he had when he was a kid and growing up, but hitting the real world beyond Curtain Protocol had lessened the ti that Mark spent watching small and large screens. Mark had never paid attention to the actual chanics of becoming a popular hero or villain, but Isoko thought a lot about it.

Sally asked, “Do you know who is popular in this settlent program, Isoko?”

Isoko said, “I wasn’t even aware that the Hero Program was in the settlent, but… But Nightbolt is a big one, but he was pretty minor at mphi. He’s obviously looking to get out into the world and make a na for himself. I think he has three kids and one of them was just born, like, a year ago, or sothing like that. They were born on Daihoon though, so that’s probably why they’re moving to the settlent, since the option ca up.

“Back in mphi, there’s Credenza. She’s a very popular villain who does a lot of slapstick cody with heroes who try to fight her. She’s got that whole Luck thing going on, so people trip over their own feet all the ti.

“Sentinel is the big na in mphi. He’s been top hero for a decade. Frozenfire is nipping at his cape, and he and Credenza have this sort of play off of each other happening that have made them truly popular, and it helps that the two of them working together make killing kaiju easy, since Frozenfire doesn’t have the best control over where his fire and ice go—”

Lights flickered in the hallways, and Isoko went silent. Everyone stilled.

Mark felt a ripple of worry pass through the world, through every vector all around him.

And then a chi echoed lightly.

Half of the lights turned to orange and Quark vibrated in Mark’s pocket, his voice overlapping the voice that spoke in the hallway, in the entire ship.

“Pursuing kaiju spotted, battle designation: sky snake. Please prepare for increased speed and deterrent actions.” And then Quark’s voice separated from the one in the hallway, and Quark spoke directly to Mark and his people, saying, “Mark is requested to report to station C-3, in the middle of the ship, and distribute a Union of resilience and weakness toward the back half of the ship, taking from the front half. Please move now.”

Ah.

So so shit was going down, huh?

Mark got moving, and so did everyone else. So doors slamd open in the hallways, people poking out, trying to see what was happening, and Mark raced by, already beating his heart, weakness and resilience flowing through him, connecting him to everyone else in the ship. There were easily 30 paladins of Freyala here, already running Unions, and Mark connected to all of them, massively expanding their ranges and his own. Isoko was right beside him doing the sa.

They reached the central room that looked like any small eting room. This one had two big screens that showed the battlezone outside.

A skysnake, like a gigantic red tube of teeth and claws, flowed through the air, toward the ship. The kaiju was the thickness of the entire ship, and twenty tis as long. It was a nightmare in glowing red eyes and reflective red scales, the very air around it seeming to glow with the power of its astral body made real.

Nightbolt stood on the back of the ship, reaching his hands into the air, while the skysnake undulated closer and closer.

Mark reached through the world and touched Nightbolt. He instantly slamd all of the power he could into Nightbolt, and the man seed to glow with darkness. Mark was not the only one empowering the man, but Mark noticed when his power hit the man, and Sam Ranger noticed, too.

Sam chuckled a little, saying sothing too quiet to hear on the caras, and then he lifted his arms and shot out spellforms that Mark easily recognized as bolts. But they were bolts of a different sort. They left trails as they flew off into the night, like lines of black dusted with sparkling stars. The bolts sailed up and away, so of them spinning, so of them jagging back and forth, all of them going up and away, none of them headed toward the monster itself.

Mark wasn’t worried about Sam’s ‘terrible’ aim, for he had been briefed on Sam’s Power in the after-eting, but Mark felt a ripple of worry pass through so of the people of the ship. Not everyone here was from mphi, or even knew who Sam was at all, but they could see the battle through whatever thods they were using.

Sam did not actually focus on the power of his bolts, though, which is why he didn’t aim at the beast. The power of a bolt was a normal thing to focus on with that particular spell. Mark had seen good bolts rip right through so monsters, if the monsters were weak to Arcane Powers at all. Most things were weak to Arcane, so that was a good way to do that sort of magic. Bolts fired at monsters could travel 250 ters or more.

Sam focused on the unspooling of power from those bolts; In the effluence of power left in the wake of their travels. His bolts only went about a hundred ters, like he had thrown out self-propelled spools of thread. The thread lingered, and since the ship was moving forward, the thread flowed toward the skysnake. So Wind Shapers stood beside Sam and helped guide the flow of those threads better.

Lines of starry black slipped through the front edges of the kaiju and began carving into the beast, like hot wire laid against soft foam, practically burning onto the monster and parting flesh from flesh. The lines of night failed to get through harder things, like bone and scale, but it didn’t have to. The thread did what it was supposed to do. It carved. The kaiju had lost almost its entire face before it realized it was in danger. It ducked to get away, screaming—

The scream vibrated the world, and the video feed cut.

The entire cabin shook under an undulating roar of pain and attack. Mark switched his Union to add resilience everywhere, to everyone in the entire ship, and especially along the Body category. The kaiju itself was too far away to take power from, and not even its astral body had reached the ship, so Mark did what he could for everyone. The roar continued unabated, becoming stronger, heavier, more deadly. Mark felt his bones ache. His heart falter—

The cry failed before Mark could, and Mark switched his Union back to supporting Nightbolt.

Eliot was working on the ship, getting the video back on.

The video ca on just in ti to see Nightbolt’s last few threads carve through the center of the body of the skysnake, sending both halves crashing through the clouds below. The monster was massive, though, so it took a long ti to crash.

The ship sailed on long before they saw the body actually hit the ocean below.

The alert ended.

Mark flicked his Union toward healing anyone that had been injured, and there had been so injuries. From what he was feeling, it seed like so kids were hurt. Mark healed them fast enough—

A chi echoed through the ship.

Aurora’s voice ca over the coms, “I am happy to announce that there was not a single casualty. Injuries from the roar, yes, but no casualties at all. This bodes well for our successes on Daihoon. Good job everyone.”

The intercom cut.

Sally exclaid, “Holy fuck! That was fucking fast! Both the start and the end! How long was that whole encounter? 5 fucking minutes?” She muttered, “Longest fucking 5 minutes of my life. Damn.”

Isoko nodded, her skin fading from platinum to her normal paleness. Mark hadn’t even seen her turn platinum.

Mark continued to heal the hurt people out there, as he asked, “The ship is only made of tier 4 materials, right? Because that sonic attack kinda ripped through… a lot. Should I be worried? I am worried. I thought it could boost to tier 7 during an attack.”

With his eyes half-closed, and his attention far, far from here, Eliot still managed to say, “The sonic attack was a strong one, and our defenses were active, Mark. That was with our defenses fully active. That was… a dangerous kaiju. The repairs are… going… Pardon. I need to concentrate.” And then he closed his eyes all the way.

Isoko took a seat to the side, sighing a little.

Sally nodded, and sat down beside her, saying, “Will we be coming here often? We could… like. Sleep here, right?”

“Instead of having to rush over here,” Isoko said, nodding as she finished Sally’s thought. “We could just stay here.”

Sally said, “Yes. That.”

An hour later, Eliot was done with repairs on the ship, though Mark was done a lot earlier than that. They ended up moving into a room just off of that central eting room, but they kept the actual room clear.

As Sally put her stuff away in the new room, she said, “You know… I didn’t see a singlekaiju in my entire ti over on Daihoon, orin traveling back and forth both other tis.”

Eliot laughed.

Mark smirked, saying, “Lucky.”

Isoko said, “I’ve seen thousands, but mostly from far away. That’s the third closest I have ever been to one.” She looked at Sally. “It’s fucking terrifying, right?”

Sally shuddered. “My gods, yes it is.”