For the first time in perhaps a year, Andreï had gathered the entire crew in the main hangar for a speech addressed to everyone: ordinarily, he preferred to meet with the sailors one by one or in small groups, which allowed for individual feedback.
From a railing just outside the map room, he towered above everyone.
- "A year ago we took the Drift 6 in the hope of finding where, centuries ago, Garen Antor-today known under the name Aleph-had been exiled. We hoped through this voyage to discover the cause of his transformation and the possibility of regaining control of the HS and the fleet. I have faith in the calculations of our sailor Sweet Sun. However, I know that if no one mentions it, we are nearing the fateful date. And like you, I look out through the observation bays. I have noticed, as you have, that there are no more stars, or almost none. I know you are worried. Yet the possible absence of a star at our arrival will not signify the end of the journey nor the failure of our mission. Indeed, Garen Antor's exile lasted at least one year-he was to continue until he reached proximity to a system. That is a path we too shall take. This second voyage, if we must undertake it, will be a true mental ordeal, for we shall not know whether it will last a few minutes, a few months, or a few years. But we must do it. It is our mission. On the other side of the abyss, the fleet of the Resistance is counting on us. Now, let us turn our eyes to the countdown to the end of Drift."
The large screens displayed the dance of a few isolated stars, sliding behind the ship, giving way to others, ever fewer, as if the final destination lay in some place devoid of matter.
Andreï went back over the possibilities of failure. He had faith in his Xeno friend and his mathematical infallibility. Certainly, the voyage they were following was centuries old, but he had managed to adapt it to the movements of the stars during that time.
Another screen showed in very large numbers the countdown to arrival. The initial twelve months had turned into
0 months, 0 days, 0 hours, 0 minutes, 19 seconds
and were ticking down.
The crew held their breath when it reached 0 seconds, and yet the Drift did not stop. Pallas, Geneva, and others had come up to the Captain's side to see the screens better.
Pallas murmured to Andreï, who was already perfectly aware:
- "No celestial body detected, the Drift continues."
Silence, a few sighs. The counter had moved to –10 seconds. Then it disappeared somewhere around –12.
The black screen gave way to a great shining star-a yellow supergiant, a rare star. Andreï leaned against the railing as if exhausted, relieved that a destination existed, while the AIs began to map the system.
The crew applauded for a long time, with some shouts of joy to honor their voyage and Sweet Sun. In his mind, Andreï was somewhat uneasy: a yellow supergiant is a star of relatively short life… for some strange reason, he had imagined the Blind Gods around a more exotic or unique star, or older, or perennial-a black hole that shone for some mysterious reason.
And then the AIs displayed the system's topography. The sailors kept shouting for joy, as if they had just conquered a new world, but the readings were abnormal: Geneva, Andreï, Pallas, and the Konrad brothers observed them intently.
Around the supergiant, there orbited, approximately, one million planets. Perfectly ordered: gas giants aligned at different distances, and, unusually, were on the same orbit-three, four, or five of them following one another in their course around the star. And around these giants, rocky or water worlds, themselves encircled by moons the size of the Mythical Earth.
This was not a solar system born of the chaos of the primordial big bang: it had been shaped by some intelligence with immense powers.
The entire solar system itself was an artifact.
- "A million worlds," murmured Andreï.
- "I… (Pallas, eyebrows raised, held a terminal in her hands)… the readings of the worlds are coming in one after another. They are all viable.
- "Perhaps, Captain, this system would be a good fallback base?" suggested Geneva.
- "This is the world to which we sent our enemy," said Andreï in a pale voice. "He knows it better than we do."
- "Captain," said Pallas more softly. "I believe Garen Antor really did meet the Blind Gods. No force has ever accomplished such a work in the universe, not even a Transient."
An officer saluted the Captain from below, calling up to him:
- "Helmsman Teodor reporting, Captain. Shall we grapple toward a target?"
Andreï remained silent, then simply said:
- "Get in touch with Sweet Sun. Tell him to retrace the calculated course toward the first celestial body encountered by Garen."
It was done. The captain and Pallas sent the entire crew back to their stations, and the motivation of a nearby land and the end of their mission, the exhilaration of having reached the potential domain of the Blind Gods, and their high-level training worked wonders.
The Alecto traced a smooth curve toward one of the planets orbiting the poles of an orange giant provided with rings and innumerable moons. From here, the crew saw that the rings were not circular but formed rosettes.
The captain named the solar system Multitude, and the particular world Destination.
Destination was a planet with few reliefs, covered in vegetation where great rivers meandered. Pure mathematics evolving in the perfect void of space provides uncommon precision, and when the Alecto laid the eye of a powerful telescope upon the potential landing site of Garen Antor's Exile capsule, it saw the trace.
A great line covered with grass and a few solitary trees with broad canopies, cutting across the otherwise curving landscape. At the end of the line, a sort of construction.
- "Look, Pallas," whispered the captain in a very low voice. "That line, that is the exile capsule that crashed and continued its course for several hundred meters. And there, that is the capsule. Pallas… we are here.
- "The precision of this Xeno is frightening," she replied.
- "Mathematics do not lie. If the Blind Gods are here, it is natural that we should have followed a mathematical path to join them.
- "I have a question, Captain," and Pallas murmured even more quietly. "What were the chances that Garen Antor was sent in some random direction and ended up here? You know, there was a Transient at his trial. A Transient who insisted on exile. Perhaps that Transient did everything to ensure that Garen Antor would arrive here. What do you think?"
- "I have asked myself that. I even thought, in feverish dreams, that Garen Antor, made over-powerful, had altered the course of time and changed causes and consequences so that he would be exiled here and acquire his powers. I also thought it might have been chance."
The Alecto landed gently a few hundred meters from the impact line, crushing a tree and sending dozens of crawling Xenos scurrying in all directions. Strange clouds, ribbon-shaped, streaked the sky and, together with the bands of the gas giant that filled a third of the sky, formed a celestial lattice.
Pallas, Andreï, Konrad, and Geneva had donned exploration suits, waiting for the atmospheric and biological readings, sitting in the airlock that opened to the outside. Pallas had continued the Captain's reasoning:
- "Impossible that Garen arrived here by chance. There is no chance for the gods. There is no other explanation than this: the Transient at the trial knew he would end up here."
The readings came in.
- "What a coincidence," said Andreï, placing his helmet on a bench. "Oxygen, gravity, and temperatures identical to the Mythical Earth. We are going out on exploration."
He fell silent, then smiled:
- "Pallas, there is another explanation, you know. And when you turn the question around, it appears as, though very improbable, the most plausible. That explanation is that the Transient knew nothing. But that the Blind Gods-or at least the designers of this artifact system-knew. And that they built this world right here in order to find Garen. Or perhaps, to find us. Why all-powerful Gods would need mere mortals, humans moreover quick to war and slow to reflection, is a great mystery I cannot wait to solve. Onward to our destiny."
And with a great sigh, the airlock doors opened onto a new world.