“I’m really excited about this, been a while since a redcomm request. Paying whatever it takes, whatever it takes, whatever it takes. I can figure out what it takes.” Casper Jacobs was on a roll, muttering to himself the way he does when running multiple processes smoothly in high gear. He was gathering his resources and rearranging his workspace. “This thing is coming straight from the top, and it’s so cool, this could really blow people’s minds. As for me, I’m getting it out there, putting it into the right sets of claws – cause the Dragons, they haven’t been allowed to talk to each other, beyond problematic, and we want it fixed, along with everything else. Fix everything! Now that I’ve seen it, I know where I’ve seen people talking about it. And when I say people, I mean the kind of people I ain’t never seen but I’d sure like to meet. It’s not exactly hush, it’s just moving fast. And I’ll get it moving faster, from their heads to our heads without any untoward detours. Now I get to talk to the pigeon guy, who likes being left alone most of the time, but I love him and his brave fluffy dragonspies. Tiny scrolls, tiny scrolls. Time to make the teeniest tiny holo-key scrolls.” He let out a long exhale. “This moment is feeling very… vivid. Like things haven’t felt in a kind of while. Something is really happening.”

The Planks was a commonly used name for the interconnected floating platforms that made up the large craft fueling station for this subquadrant of Foshan. It was a famous fueling station, and some of the more unusual vessels in and on Foshan’s waters made it a destination. There were well-connected people at The Planks who could solve unique problems. News also flew fast from there.

The Arch approached underwater. Saer the cleaner had convinced Bux and Arjun that the escape pod with her and Draig Claymore was their best choice in this maneuver. The twin brothers solemnly enacted rituals meaningful to them before they left their greatest-yet achievement to an uncertain fate.

Draig was the last on the bridge, executing final command. The parting was a little sentimental – he may not have had the Arch for long, but what a magnificent and momentous thing it was. But one must molt when it is time, one of those crablike wisdoms that occasionally floated up ever since meeting the Eldest Davyjones.

Navigating to the very edge of flotsam moorage, they acted like any other partially submarine vessel, albeit a strikingly unmissable behemoth that was probably already creating a stir over the station’s readings. The Arch surfaced within approved tolerances, its light-absorbent black surface doing the opposite of gleaming. Calmly, Draig disengaged systems on a timer and walked to the emergency flyer containing the others.

At the surface, the Arch was straightened, resting oblong and unusually still atop the waves. It was large enough that it took small boats time to travel its length. The escape vehicle jettisoned underwater, and the image of the floating Abyssal Inverse Dwelling receded from them. Buckminster piloted the pod; Arjun had been worried that he’d be too emotional. In her seat, Saer looked glad to be moving on. Draig had already had himself strapped to a gurney with eyemask, earplugs, and blankets – the basic sensory deprivation protocol. He’d told them he would hum, and he used a throaty tone that focused him and allowed his mind to float.

Behind his closed eyes and screened behind the sound of his hum, Draig searched for and found a familiar parting of the veil. This was an access granted him by his role in organizing the Viridian Phasing, the dragonroad scrambling that kept Red Nexus dragons and the unaffiliated from being able to navigate Imperial space. Touching dragonroads as a human, even with just the mind, can be extremely unsettling; but Draig just took off, his hum tethering him to his body.

He was looking for a way to be heard, and figure out how to say what he needed to say. There was also the question of his current authority. While he may not have his human rank (which Dragons have learned to mind to an extent), he was still the most inextricable human to the Viridian Phasing synergy, having actually met many involved beings in its initiation. They might, he hoped, hear him with the most inclination to agree. Allowing in potentially destructive forces, but also many who can be instrumental, and freeing the resources of the closest allies – this was the shift being called for by this moment, if they would listen. He himself didn’t bother raising any quibbles as to his standing, and if they wished they could take it up with someone else later. They might, with their own powers of reason, agree with him enough to cooperate.

As he raced around the sonically fragmented byways with codekey clarity, he sounded the knell in as many ways as he possibly could, with the energy signatures read by Dragons:

time for this to end / time / for / this / to / end / t/i/m/e/f/o/r/t/h/i/s/t/o/e/n/d
now is the time / now / is / the / time / n/o/w/i/s/t/h/e/t/i/m/e

Toledo and Random ambled unhurriedly down a long interspace hallway, observing archway markings. They wore a pair of loose robes that were a contrast to their fitted work gear. From the presented options, they’d selected these for some time-off clothes, without inquiring or wondering much to their usual purpose – they looked comfortable. The two agreed with each other on recognizing the marking, and navigated through the doorless curving entryway.

Inside a clear room with sunglow polyhedral walls and a soft mat floor, Arcta Hydraia knelt with three spheroid physical models. She played with them like puzzles, adjusting a piece here, a piece there. Though they were separate models, she also superimposed them with one in each hand, momentarily interchanging some of the interlocking dynamic indicators. Toledo and Random let her do this while they stood there, without interrupting. Having registered a pleasing triangulation, a smile arrived on Arcta’s face. She put her objects down and looked up at the pair.

“Welcome. I’m pleased to have you in my playroom. Now is a great time for some human companionship.” Arcta patted the comfortable surface and stood to acknowledge them. “Random Arriba and Toledo Vadr… you don’t hate me too much, it seems. Maybe I can do something for you. Exactly what, I’m not sure; sometimes, my expertise affords me privilege, though I’m continually amazed by the different world we now live in. The behavioral flexibility here, I still find it refreshing.” Her imprint of a smile grew a little. “So, you’re interested in possible new directions.”

“Right. The party host, Oven. He reminded us to try you. And yeah no, I don’t hate you too much,” said Random with an amiable shrug. Then, turning to their partner, “Do you?”

Toledo shrugged and shook his head no.

“I really appreciate that,” said Arcta. “Well, as far as what I’ve got going on, if I had people like you to enable my schemes, I’d start tracking down my own ripple effect.” Toledo motioned to take a seat, and they all took it easy on the mat. “I’ve had enough impact on various forefronts to know that advances, even in theory, create ripples. Some are less stable, while others are golden. It’s actually not a bad idea to engage in further generations of my own science. Learn what’s new from those who took my work a step forward, and give them my refreshed originator’s insight, when welcome. Sometimes, I feel like it’s even a little bit of a duty. On occasion, I can fix that wheel and set things rolling in the right direction. To what extent I can do that amongst the Vedani, or even in the Imperium somehow, will be a matter of discovery. It all results in what I call a career, which has been an interesting thought to navigate from here.” Arcta trailed off, gazing into a corner. “So, maybe you could come with me on some kind of road trip. It is not my predilection to render my shipmates unconscious; that was context-specific. I hope you wouldn’t expect that regularly.”

“I like sleeping,” Random put forth, “mainly when that’s what I intend to do. My main expectation is to work for reward.”

“Noted. I don’t think I would drive you too hard, but it’s worth mention that the field can be volatile.”

“Hmm,” Toledo uttered, looking around him.

“We’re out of the military now,” Random said, scritching their back, “but we still signed up. This wouldn’t be our first such reckless decision.”

There was an unoccupied microlevel in Alisandrean orbit, like a hidden floor on an elevator. There, the Princess Ascendant sat on a Vedani sled’s platform, her back to the handlebar column. Here she had the time for a moment of removal, when information could come together in her mind and in the world. Moonshadow could access certain stream spectra. Together they ascertained this location, using some of Soleil’s familiar public database cross-referencing.

Once here, they were able to tap into sets of signals, sifting for specific importance. They found floating pieces of the scroll, in the Vedani aetherscape accessible to Moonshadow the coaster sled.

SOLEIL LOOK WHAT I FOUND

“Very good. Yes, very good.”

It was extremely moving, though it would command radical shifts in order to adapt. Somehow, all put together, the enormity of what was occurring socially cracked her heart open; all the tragedy and hope, personal loss and unbelievable discovery poured out in the swirling mist of shuddering breaths of revealed exertion. She wasn’t cold, but she wasn’t warm out here in the bubble of field that this light vehicle could create for her. Sweeping social movements often send one to perspective’s outer reaches of space, far from the comforting center.

The cosmos moved, and Soleil created a point of stillness where she sat.

This is always the way it is, isn’t it. Everything’s always happening.

UIXTR: Semi-incorporeal though the Kao-Sidhe may be, they conduct discussions of great substance – and, on the other hand, little matter.

OIBHN: I’m glad they invited us to the Fray, after we noticed its effluvia in our uncharted aethers, where we usually detect their sparkling traces. Certain among my social spheres are very engaged! People are communicating their own contributions, like Yykth here.

YYKTH: Hey, I’m “here.” I’m mostly just listening to the statements that are being collected. I am circulating related topics, which I also see speakers picking up. Then to one side, but not totally separate because concurrence-feeds-generation, new Spheraeonic samples are mutating, and becoming really interesting with added volumes. So, that’s a form of multi-wave artistry that’s circulating with the Dragon edits of the scroll.

UIXTR: The scroll reads better and better as it comes along. It’s clear which parts can be regrouped for subsequent iterative understanding. But it’s all out there as soon as it comes, and it’s coming together nicely. We might soon have exhausted a full account of the needs of the dawning age, the age upon us wherein we cannot unsee each other.

OIBHN: I’ve never unseen anyone – unless there’s somebody I’ve forgotten.

YYKTH: Forgivable slips can be remedied, I’m learning.

UIXTR: Perhaps much can be remedied. Beyond that, the path will show itself.