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"Thiss iss my favorite outfit," he muttered to hih the Great Rift, sliding froalaxy to another As she scanned the backdrop of stars ahead of her, checking out the various structures floating in the void beyond, Edison began his prepared spiel in flawless Bern She couldn’t understand most of the individual words--her Bern in deplorable shape for a member of royalty--but she’d helped write the speech in Drenard, so she could sos, reat Bern race We come unarmed and without malice Please do not fire upon us As ambassadors for the Drenard e more Please do not fire We wish to speak in peace with your cultural representatives"
Edison lowered the mic and Anlyn checked the SADAR screen, or whatever the Bern called their version of it Seeing nothing, she peered forward, squinting at the large structures floating silently in the distance
"Another iteration?" Edison asked
Anlyn shook her head "I don’t think anyone will hear you" She spread her hands toward the view through the canopy "Where are the ships? All the activity?"
"The prophecy contained h She settled back into her seat and grabbed the flight controls, spinning the ship in place "We should tell Bishar The Circle ant to--"
She fell silent Looking back, a solid wall of gold stood in the open slit of space The last hole in the barrier could be seen squeezing shut, one of the arht forward and locked into place
Anlyn reached for the radio "Bishar, this is Anlyn, respond" She waited a
Her hand dropped to her lap in frustration
Edison took the radio frorasp and returned it to the dash "Reveal your ruminations," he said
"You want to knohat I think? I’ here Where are the Bern? I don’t--we aren’t supposed to be doing this by ourselves" Anlyn looked down at her lap "Those two boys playing with your lanceere their names--?"
"Who? You speak with adequate volume," Edison said, "but it appears self-directed"
"This was all aThe speech, the prophecy, all those people" Anlyn glanced over at Edison, then looked away "I’m sorry, I think I really messed up this tirowled in her native tongue: "Love, are we ht about that
"No," she whispered, shaking her head "But back then, we had at least knohat galaxy ere in"
"Ceti," said Edison, switching back to English
"What?" Anlyn lifted her head
"We currently occupy the galaxy designated Ceti by the Terran federation" He gestured to the screen ahead of hie zoomed in "Observe Our position is precisely deteralaxy is," Anlyn said, wiping at her face She couldn’t tell if her love was being sweet to change the subject, or just unaware Either way, she tried to pull herself together
"It is situated approxiht years frolanced at his screen, then sat up straight and looked at her own "How do I pull that up over here?"
Edison pointed to a button on his display Anlyn pressed hers and tried toshape of the word and the position of the key The display of ranged targets disappeared fro chart The naibberish, but she took the dotted trails for supply routes between good hyperspace jualaxy we’re in? Mine just shows nearby systems"
Edison clacked on his keys, and her screen duplicated his view Their ship stood in the center, a blip nearly the size of what seeet off to one edge, a fuzzy spiral in a cluster of several other blurry patches
"The marker indicates home," he said
"You’re sure?"
He turned to her with a hurt look, then bared his teeth "Positive" His claws tapped on the keys, andout naulum The alaxies within the cluster The overall pattern is ile of reference, which is inclined forty two degrees frolanced over at her and seemed to catch the confused expres-sion on her face He looked back to thean invisible sphere He swiveled both hands together and said in Drenard: "If you just rotate the map in your mind--"
"If you rotate it in your mind," Anlyn said "Some of us are normal"
Edison’s teeth winked out in a sideways sht, "So, the one we’re in, it’s called ‘Ceti?’" Anlyn tried to le below their ship indicator; her brain didn’t feel quite up for the challenge It eird enough hearing Edison refer to galaxies with their Earth-na she needed was a third language thrown into the mix
"That’s correct And this one is labeled ‘Bern’" He typed sohted in red
"Oh, wait I recognize that one The shape anyway Okay, I think I havecentered on Drenard and right-side up" Anlyn traced the black space around their ship’s indicator "I wonder if the lack of lines between galaxies means we’re stuck in this one?" She shook her head "No, of course not There won’t be any resistance out here, no blockades and no keeps It’s all Bern space, so there should be rifts with lots of traffic"
"I’h there" He pointed at the shiny wall of plated arht controls and spun the ship around to face the silent structures in the distance "But we aren’t going hoe stations
"We’re going to find the Bern and ain Prophecy or no prophecy, we’re here and we’re together, which ood as any other"