She finally got herself upright and ordered coffee from the cabins kitchenette. She drank it while calling up a series of images that revealed to her the Magi ships current location. They were deep inside the Calafat-Holt Cluster, and had just entered the very same system the Beauregard had voyaged to more than a decade before. They were currently decelerating from a significant fraction of light speed, and making a fast sortie of the inner worlds.

The Wanderer had meanwhile made its presence known. It had by now regained its former dimensions, and was orbiting the same small moon where the Beauregard had found it. Deep gouges on the moons surface showed how the Wanderer had made further use of it as a source of raw materials for its reconstruction.

The question was, could she communicate directly with the Wanderer without compromising her own sanity? And was it even possible to do so without Bash?

The ship itself will act as a bridge between yourself and the Wanderer, she heard the Librarian explain, from within the confines of her own skull.

She almost dropped her coffee. If I need to know something, she said out loud, Ill just ask you, okay? Just . . . keep the hell out of my head until then.

We understand.

The presence faded, but that sudden tension in her shoulders remained.

A small red icon suddenly glowed on a map of the local stellar region, which was floating to one side of her. She focused on this icon, and it expanded into an image of what, to her practised eye, was clearly a long-range expeditionary ship, its lengthy hull bristling with drive-spines. The Damien Ingersoll, Otto Schellings ship, had jumped in-system just half a day after the Ship of the Covenant, and it was already decelerating on its long, looping inward journey.

She put the coffee down, her stomach suddenly feeling small and tight. We might as well get this over with, she declared to the empty air. Lets see if the Wanderers feeling chatty.

Make yourself comfortable and we will attempt to establish a link.

Megan nodded stiffly, then glanced around to see a low, soft couch that she couldnt remember being there the last time she had looked in that direction. Had it simply escaped her attention, or had it always been there at the periphery of her vision?

Nothing here is real, she reminded herself.

She settled back on the couch and closed her eyes. Ready when you are, she murmured.

This time was different. The chaos was more ordered, more comprehensible, because the Ship of the Covenant filtered out all the extraneous noise that had caused her such terrible distress in the past.

WE (you) ARE (you are) ONE (are one) IN MANY (in) ONE. WE ARE REMEMBER WE YOU (small, bright) FAST.

<We share a similar goal,> Megan sent in reply. <The destruction of the Makers.>