Naecia twisted around as the clementine giant gathered Aptat’s helmet and chest plate from the floor.

The violet skin around Aptat’s mouth quivered angrily. “Those are mine.”

Oush’s orange face seemed to brighten. “A wise barrister once remarked that possession is ten-tenths of the law” he said, wrapping the armor in his steampipe arms. “But, if you think you can come and... reestablish possession, well, you can try, I guess.”

Aptat’s face was monstrous rage.

Oush went on, “I’m not about to run only to end up dead anyway. Besides, everyone we know is here. I plan to get back to them one day. We go after the Earth man. Now.”

“And there are some nuns on Sobliel I want to see again,” said Izairis.

“So,” Oush said, “once we’ve solved the problem of the Earth man, you may have your precious shell back.”

Aptat laughed, but it was defensive and choked. “He is too far gone. Scythin tech carves bulkspace like nothing I’ve ever seen. The Child is fast, but my bulk drives are comically outmatched.”

Naecia knew all about bulkspace even before she’d first experienced it on the Knell. It was a layer of nothingness sandwiched between dimensions that presented a way to get from one place to another at what seemed like superluminal speeds. The bulk created a shortcut between two points in the conventional universe, allowing one to reemerge at a spot further than light would have traveled in the same amount of time, but without actually traveling faster than light while inside the bulk. It wasn’t surprising that the Scythin’s mastery of it exceeded conventional technology, considering they were extra dimensional. But even the fastest bulkspace drives were standing still compared with instantaneous transport.

“I’m sorry,” Aptat continued, “but there is no way for us to reach them.”

Naecia plodded across the floor and sat onto the rim of neural dredge. “Put me back in.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

The door’s filamentous structure pulled wide. Eyes stomped inside and I followed, the door reforming behind us. The room was mostly dark, but as we trudged in dull violet lights came up along the perimeter, giving the space size and dimension. Atop a plinth in the center were a pair of neural dredges, sat side-byside like the outdoor bathtubs in pharmaceutical commercials advertising boner pills.

“His and hers?” I joked.

Eyes repeated my words airily back to me, hisandhers.

That I was going to be dredged was hardly a shock. Given the highly advanced nature of Scythin technology, I guess I’d expected them to have fancier, and maybe less traumatizing, equipment. The fact that they’d just gone down to the dredge store and bought a couple of dredges was kind of a let-down.

Save us. Gone is the Bloom of God. Find the Chime, the Note of Jecca. Eat nectar.