Another flash of light. Ha pulled the curtains aside.

Ha’s room overlooked the terrace, with the beach below it and the open ocean beyond. The moon had set, and the stars were muted behind a thin, high-altitude screen of clouds. The water near the hotel glistened, casting back the few lights from the hotel. Farther out, the water was a pure black that shaded into a brighter horizon, where the stars lent the clouds a dark gray glow.

Then, along the horizon, a light flashed.

Crump.

An explosion, out at sea.

Glancing down, Ha saw a figure on the terrace. Evrim, robed, their shadow an elongated cutout in a trapezoid of light from the open door panel of Altantsetseg’s security module.

Ha ran down the hall, through the lobby. As she exited the hotel, she saw a fury of lights along the horizon: multiple flashes, and then an explosion large enough she could feel its pressure wave across her face.

The windows of the hotel rattled.

She was beside Evrim now. Yes, Evrim was wearing a robe—gold thread, the weave filled with chimeras in white and silver.

“What is going on?”

Something on the horizon was burning—a pumpkin-colored flickering smear between dark sky and darker water, reflected in Evrim’s pupils. Hard to read, that face. Not quite aligned to human expression. There was that perfectly human smile, before … but there were other expressions. Things not fathomable. Crooked syntax. Readable, but like reading Chaucer for the first time. Concern? Sadness? Ha had wanted to ask if they were in danger, but that face told her they were not—this was something else.

“They are trying to breach the perimeter.”

“They?”

“A group of fishing vessels.”

“Automated?”

“Most are these days. We fired warning shots.” Evrim turned to face her. “That must have woken you. I am sorry.”

“Something is burning out there.”

“Yes. The ships did not heed the warnings, and tried to force the perimeter anyway. Now Altantsetseg’s drones are destroying them. The fire is fuel leaked from the ships. It’s unfortunate, but I am sure that Altantsetseg’s drone extinguishers are working already to put the fire out, and her nanocleaners will clear the pollution from the water.”

“Why would they risk destruction?”

“Profit is a powerful motivator. To them, the ocean is nothing more than an extraction zone. They have scoured the seas nearly bare and now find themselves competing with one another for the dregs of what once were endless schools of fish. This area has long been protected, if unevenly: its fish population is too much of a temptation for them to pass up.” Evrim walked toward Altantsetseg’s security module, the gold robe billowing in the slight onshore breeze like a cape. “Now they seek to ruin this place as well. But we will stop them.”