I really shouldn’t have been surprised at all. We had finally managed to get the anti-possession spell put in place, so of course something else had to go wrong. So many thoughts about what possibly could have happened to make my grandparents and the others fail to respond to messages even though the Olympus was here, let alone what could be blocking my father from recalling to Grandmaria, kept filling my mind. I couldn’t stop imagining all the possible terrible things that could be going on over there. Sometimes, my imagination was the worst. Especially when it had so many real-life examples to pull from.
The ‘we’ that were going over there included my parents, Dare, Sariel, Apollo, Athena, Mercury, Larissa, Haiden, Theia, Pace, Avalon, Miranda, and me. With Tabbris, of course, though she would be inside me. Which was a fair number of people. But then, it was also a fairly large ship. Not the biggest out there, of course. Nowhere near. But still a bit too big to easily explore with only a few people. Besides, we had no idea what would be waiting for us over there, or how quickly we needed to find Puriel and the others. We would be splitting up to look around, each group keeping one of the actual Olympian Seosten so they could help us find our way through the, again, pretty large ship.
Mom had wanted my father to stay back here on the station until we established that it was safe on that ship, but he was having none of it. Not this time, anyway. They were both incredibly stubborn, and he had the edge given his parents were involved. In the end, she finally agreed as long as he promised to be careful and stay with her. And all of us had to carry emergency teleport things that would bring us back here if things went wrong. Somehow, I restrained myself from asking what would happen if the thing that was blocking recall and stopping Puriel from communicating also affected those emergency teleports. I had the feeling that a question like that wouldn’t help matters, relevant as it might have been.
Athena was going over last minute instructions about how to activate the extra emergency beacons that would draw the others to our locations if we needed them quickly. Along with a few words about how stupid it would be to try to handle anything we saw without calling for help. She made us all promise to call for assistance the second we saw absolutely anything out of the ordinary. This, as she put it, was not the time to try to solve anything on our own.
“Apollo,” she added pointedly with a look that way, “You’re absolutely sure that none of your… friends have said anything about this?” She was referring, of course, to the myriad future-seers, fortune tellers, and the like who owed various favors and help to the man. He had used their assistance many times in the past, including directing Haiden to Sariel in the first place. Yeah, apparently that had been a whole conversation. I wasn’t privy to the exact details, but it had obviously all worked out. Especially considering just what Haiden meeting Sariel had led to.
In this case, the man gave a quick shake of his head. “Sorry, I’ve got nothing from anyone. Could be because it’s not that important, or because it’s being blocked, or they just missed it. Or… the list goes on.” With a slight grimace, he quietly added, “That’s really the problem with relying too much on people to tell you the future. When they don’t, it leaves you feeling half-blind. And they’re never perfectly accurate or detailed anyway. It’s an aid, a bit of help now and then, not something to base too many decisions on.”
“Fair enough,” Athena murmured before focusing on the rest of us. “With that in mind, let’s get over there before something else goes wrong. I don’t want to pull too many people away from the celebration until we know exactly what’s going on. If this is something we can handle, we will. If not… well, we will cross that bridge if we come to it, as I believe the saying goes.”
“Perhaps my mother has found the ship first,” Theia mused thoughtfully. “I am not aware of any skill she might have in stopping my father from communicating, or blocking recall from this close. But then, I was also not aware that she had the skill to come back from the dead and turn herself into a super-ghost. So, perhaps she has other surprises as well.”
Before anyone else could respond to that, Pace put her hand on the other girl’s shoulder, voice flat. “Whether it’s your mom or anyone else, we’ll deal with it. And if it is her, we’ll deal with it extra-hard.”
Clearing her throat, Sariel spoke up. “Yes, well, in case it is her, everyone take these.” She extended an open wooden box full of pieces of wood about the size and shape of a pencil, with intricate runes carved into them. “If you see Kushiel, or any ghost, snap the wood. That will release a containment field that… well, should trap the nearest ghost. In Kushiel’s case, it might simply slow her down. Either way, snap the wood and then call for help. Or do both at the same time.”
“She means everyone snap your wood and call for help,” Mercury put in. “If you see Kushiel, don’t just assume someone else will deal with her. The more of these things she gets hit with, the better off you’ll be. Which isn’t saying much, given how bad being around her is. But still.”
“Mercury is correct,” Athena agreed. “The more of these spells she, or any other ghosts, have to work their way through, the better off we are all likely to be. Focusing my way, she added, “And I shouldn’t have to add this, but those of you who are skilled in Necromancy–”
“Don’t worry,” I assured her, “I’ll snap the stick just like everyone else. Trust me, I already saw just how strong she is when I tried to stop her last time. And she’ll be more ready for Tabbris to boost me now. Doesn’t mean I won’t try. Every little bit helps. But I won’t rely on it.”
Mom nodded, her hand reaching out to gently squeeze mine. “You know to be careful. Not only when it comes to Kushiel, but anything we might find over there. Whatever it is, we’re all better off handling it together.”
With that, they triggered the portal. Sariel and Mercury had done most of the work with that, judging exactly where the Olympus was, how much it was drifting, and comparing that to their own memories of the ship’s interior. Assuming their calculations were right, the portal would lead us to the bridge of the ship. It felt like the best place to start. If we were incredibly lucky, we would find everyone right there and having this whole group ready to search would end up being pointless. I didn’t expect that, of course. Again, I had seen too much to be that naive. But still, it was nice to dream sometimes. And that was certainly one thing I’d love to be wrong about.
In my head, Tabbris spoke up. We’re gonna see Mama’s ship! Belatedly, she added with a sense of guilt. I mean, I’m sure your grandparents are okay. And my new brother and sister! She added the last bit with a tone that made it clear she was still surprised by that thought. We’re gonna find them!
Your grandparents too, I reminded her. And it’s okay to be excited about seeing the ship your Mom was on for so long. You’ve been waiting a long time for this. I’m sure she told you all sorts of stories.
There was a brief, yet firm mental hug from my little sister before she spoke again. And when we find… Grandmaria and Grandpartie, they can tell us stories about their trip. So can Spark and Omni. They’ll tell us all sorts of stories. After a brief pause, she added hesitantly, Do you really think they’re okay?
That was the real truth, I realized. She was trying to focus more on being excited about visiting the ship, even though doing so made her feel guilty, because otherwise she would be obsessing over worrying about her new siblings, grandparents, and the others. And yet doing so made her feel guilty about not worrying about them. She was stuck in a loop like that.
We’ll find them, I assured her. They have Puriel with them, remember? I mean, I know we both basically always saw him as a giant asshole in all the stories, but he’s… uhh, better now? Whatever, he likes them, right? So he’ll definitely be protecting them. And whatever’s going on, I doubt it can hurt Puriel before we get there. Don’t worry, it… it’s gonna be okay. Of course, I didn’t know that for sure, but I needed to say it about as much as Tabbris needed to hear it.
We all passed through the portal a couple at a time, and I found myself feeling like I had walked into Star Trek even more than I already had, given the fact that we lived on a literal space station and I had visited multiple other worlds. Looking around this fancy bridge, I wouldn’t have been surprised to see Data, Picard, or Sisko standing at one of the stations.
But, there was no sign of Star Trek characters. Worse, there was no sign of anyone else either. My brief hope that we would find my grandparents and the others waiting for us was immediately dashed. Again, it wasn’t surprising at all, but I still gave a very soft sigh.
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Beside me, Avalon took my hand and whispered, “I know, I was hoping they’d be here too.” She gave me a brief, understanding look and I felt a little bit better. At least whatever we were going to have to deal with here, I would have Avalon with me. Not to mention both of my parents. Having Dad with me through all this made me feel a little funny. But he deserved to be here as much as anyone. They were his parents, after all.
Even as I was coming to terms with the fact that this mission wasn’t going to be incredibly easy after all, Mercury was already starting over to one of the consoles. He moved his hands quickly over the holographic controls for a few seconds before pivoting to look toward Athena, who was watching him expectantly. “Looks like the system is locked down. I can get into it so we can access the records and ship controls, but it’s going to take a little while.”
After considering that briefly, the woman gave a short nod. “Stay here and work on that. Haiden, Larissa?”
“We’ll cover him,” Larissa agreed. She and Haiden both moved to either side of the main doors leading out to the rest of the ship, taking up position to wait in case anyone who wasn’t one of us came through.
“There are three lifts just beyond the door, down that corridor,” Athena informed the rest of us. Well, those of us who hadn’t already spent many years on this ship. “The first two go through the rest of the Olympus. The last one goes up to bridge officer quarters. Apollo, take Joselyn, Lincoln, Avalon, and Felicity on the first lift and head for the engine compartment, then work your way around to the cafeteria. Sariel, take Theia and Pace on the second lift to the main crew quarters, work your way through those to the botanical gardens and then down to meet the others in the cafeteria to compare notes. Virginia and I will check the officer’s quarters with the third lift.” Finally, she looked to the last remaining person there. “And Miranda…”
“Yup!” Miranda chirped understandingly before abruptly creating a couple duplicates. “I get it. Technically, I can stay with every group.”
One of the new Mirandas nodded. “And if something happens with one of the other groups, we can give a little tug and jump over to the original to let her know.”
“Good,” Athena confirmed. “It’s always best to have multiple backup systems just in case something goes wrong.” Giving the group a brief once-over, she grimaced slightly. “I’m sorry, we really should have more people to search a ship this size. I am… hoping this is something we can solve ourselves. But if not, consider this a scouting mission. Remember, the moment you see anything out of the ordinary, contact everyone else. And if you need to retreat, do it. We need information, not martyrs. We find out what has been happening over here, and then decide how to handle it. Do not split up into smaller groups than this. I do not care what your reasoning is. All of you stay together, no matter what.”
Only after getting an audible agreement from everyone did Athena gesture and urge us to move through the door. Sariel went first, with Apollo just behind her. The rest of us followed suit, as I felt Tabbris mentally school herself to calm down and focus on why we were here. Again, I couldn’t blame her for being excited. Hell, I was still excited about being on the actual literal Olympus. Seriously, there was of course that worry about my grandparents and the others. But still. I just had to promise myself that I would be giddy about actually being here later, once we knew for certain that everyone was safe. When that happened, I was going to come back here with Tabbris and get someone from this ship to give us a full guided tour. Hell, maybe Puriel himself would do it, if he was all… nicer and all now.
Okay, maybe not him. I still wasn’t sure how that whole situation was going to go. But someone.
The room beyond the bridge was shaped a bit like a triangle with the top cut off. The door we had come through was around the middle of the left side of the triangle. To our right, where the ‘bottom/wider’ part of the triangle was, two elevator doors were roughly equal distance apart. Those were clearly the ones that went to the rest of the ship. Meanwhile, to the left, at the cut-off ‘top’ part of the triangle, was a single elevator door with an obvious security panel next to it. That, I was willing to bet, was the one that led to the officers quarters. I also saw a door straight ahead which Athena walked straight to and opened by putting her hand against a glowing button there. Beyond was what looked like a conference room. Probably where the officers met to discuss plans or briefings or whatever. Either way, there didn’t appear to be anyone or anything inside, judging by the way Athena glanced in and then turned away with a shake of her head. “Let’s keep moving.”
So, we split up as planned. I went with Avalon, my parents, and one of the Mirandas and followed Apollo to the first elevator, where we crowded onto it and headed down. From what I understood, the bridge area was around the center of the main orb of the ship, while the engine compartments were right near the bottom, and the main crew quarters, where Sariel’s group was going, were near the top. Using Athena’s instructions, our two groups were basically going to hit the top and bottom of the main orb, then work our way around and inward to meet on this same deck where we were starting, but over where the main cafeteria was. On the other hand, she made it sound simple, but the Olympus was pretty big. Five hundred meters in diameter, just counting the main, central body. One thousand, six hundred and forty feet. Meanwhile, the longest aircraft carriers in the Bystander world were just under one thousand one hundred feet. Not to mention the fact that this was an orb, so it was as long from top to bottom as it was from one side to the other. One thousand, six hundred and forty feet tall. I’d looked it up before, and the Empire State Building was one thousand two hundred and fifty feet from ground to roof. Three hundred and eighty meters versus the Olympus’s five hundred. We were basically looking through something that was as tall as the Empire State Building, and as wide as that laying on its side. And then some. It was an orb so that size shrank the further out you went, to an extent. Still, it was very large.
Too large for just a few people to search. And that was before we even added in searching the attached gunships. Each of those was several hundred meters long by themselves. If we had to start searching them, this was going to be an even bigger project.
But before we started worrying about that, we had to focus on this search. As we waited for the elevator to take us down to the engines, I looked over at Apollo. “So, how weird does this feel?”
He offered me a rueful smile before nodding once. “Definitely feels weird, I’ll tell you that much. It’s ahh, been a long time since I was here. But the place doesn’t look like it’s changed at all.” Pausing, he nodded toward the wall opposite me. “That’s pretty new though.”
Turning, I squinted at a mark that seemed to be etched into the metal. No, not a mark. Letters. A & M. A and M. Arthur and Maria. Seeing that, I smiled and reached out to tug Dad’s arm so he would look at it. Of course, he realized what it meant immediately, reaching out to touch the etching with a soft gasp. Both of us exchanged knowing looks. My grandfather had etched that there. He’d left his mark on the Olympus, just like carving their initials into a tree. Somehow, knowing my grandfather the way that I did, that didn’t surprise me at all. God, I hoped he was okay.
We’ll find them, Tabbris quickly assured me. They’ll be alright. We just have to figure out where they are and… and then take them back to the party. They’re just making a dramatic entrance, right?
As I gave her a firm mental agreement, Miranda spoke up. “It’s them, isn’t it?” She was pointing to the initials, squinting uncertainly. “It must be, cuz I’m pretty sure it’s not talking about the university from Texas.”
Chuckling despite myself, I opened my mouth to reply. Before I could, however, the elevator stopped, doors sliding open to reveal a pristine white corridor that looped out toward the left before reaching a T-junction, with several doors along either side along the way. A steady humming sound could be heard, just barely audible. This was the main engine floor, and each of those doors led to a different section of them. If I understood things right, the engines themselves ran throughout this entire floor, while the corridor and attached doors led to the specific parts that people would need to get to for maintenance, repair, and such. You had to find the right door to get to the right area of the engine you wanted to work on, because trying to crawl, climb, hop, and whatever else your way through the actual engine itself to find your area would be incredibly dangerous and time consuming. You followed the guide in moving through the maze of corridors to the right door. Or, if you were a Seosten who was supposed to be there, you simply followed your own perfect memory.
Mom stepped out of the elevator first, already drawing Mordred’s sword. She was supposed to be using it for awhile until it, like, acclimated to her or something so it would show us where Mordred’s body was. I wasn’t exactly sure how that worked, but they insisted it was right, so we were going with it. Mom just had to use the sword until something happened, I supposed.
“Check every door,” Apollo was saying. “On both sides of the corridor. We’ll walk the main route, opening doors as we go and looking in to see if anything looks out of place. You should be able to see the whole space you need to check from the doorway without going inside. And trust me, if you don’t want to end up getting lost for days in there, do not leave the doorway. You may think you’re only going a few feet, but it’s really easy to get turned around and completely lost. Just open the door, look inside, then move on. If there’s something wrong, you’ll see it.”
My mouth opened to agree, just as that steady humming we had been hearing abruptly grew louder. The floor vibrated a bit under our feet, and I heard a high-pitched whine from down the corridor, somewhere else in the engine floor.
“Uh, what just happened?” Miranda demanded.
Avalon nodded, looking around quickly. “Yeah, what the hell is going on? That doesn’t seem normal.”
“Oh, it’s normal,” Apollo flatly replied. “At least, it’s normal if the ship you’re on has just activated its slide-drive.”
“Wait,” Dad put in. “Are you saying–”
Apollo gave a short nod, his face grim. “I’m saying, this ship is moving.
“And I’m pretty sure none of us are in control.”