Keeva contacted Oln Ro Dee, easily her least favorite of the Ullian representatives, “Hello, this is Ryan. I would like to speak with Oln Ro Dee.”

Neither of the remaining two factions tried to hide their bases anymore so it hadn’t taken long to find who was where. There were even signs of attempts at settling the surface, but all had been abandoned.

There was also a small modular space station in high orbit and several devices that appeared to be designed to clear the chaff from orbit, but Keeva ignored those for now.

A random male voice returned Keeva’s greeting, “This is Ruoe command. Please standby.”

A minute passed before Oln’s nasally voice came over the radio, “What do you want, Ryan? I thought we had agreed to go our separate ways.”

Keeva sighed and shook her head, “Yeah, but we had an idea about how to get rid of the Dregasi faster.”

A pause, “Go on.”

“We put a virus in the Dregasi stations and probes and have them spread the virus around the galaxy. You have more experience with the Dregasi software so we thought you might already have an idea about how to make a virus to use against them.”

A shorter pause, “Interesting. We have considered using a virus before, but had no way to deliver it. If you can get us a copy of a station’s propagation algorithm we should be able to alter it in such a way that it will disable or destroy any Dregasi device while using their probes to further spread it.”

Keeva already had the data ready, but only what Anton thought they’d need, “We’ve already got the data available. Is it okay if I transmit it?”

“Yes. Give me a moment…” a pause, “Ready.”

Keeva began transmitting the data, “Alright. Transmitting.”

The data packet wasn’t actually that big, and only took a moment to transmit.

“Data received. Hmm… this is adequate. I will let you know when we finish with the virus.”

Keeva was glad the conversation had gone smoothly, “Thank you.”

There was no reply.

Keeva turned to Anton, relief over the conversation going smoothly and quickly loosening her posture, “Alright, now we just need to deal with the Meatballs in the Dregasi home system.”

Anton crossed his arms and nodded, smiling, “My gatling drones can handle them just fine.”

Becky nodded in agreement, “Yeah, but what are we gonna do if any left on some ships? We can’t track them in warp.”

Keeva was worried about that too, “Maybe we can hack the station’s computer, or a ship’s? If the meatballs haven’t turned off the computers or the ship tracking stuff we might be able to see if any left.”

Becky’s uncertain expression brightened a little, “That’s a great idea!”

Anton seemed impressed too, “Sweet. Sounds like a plan.”

Keeva brought up the video feed for the probe they’d left in the Dregasi system, “Looks like they haven’t patched up the hole we made on the station. Let’s get Sashae and maybe she can help us find a place to connect to the station’s computer or something.”

Keeva felt a rush of guilt as she had almost forgotten about Sashae with how hectic things were the last few days. Sashae had been content staying at Shina’s and playing music for the customers there and had never tried to join in on any planning. 

Becky nodded, “Yeah. She’s been looking kind of left out, but said she didn’t know how to help.”

Keeva had noticed Sashae watching them plan, but the language barrier still kept her from joining in most of the time.

Charlotte put her hand in the pouch she kept the Gateway remote in, “Do you want me to open a Gateway?”

Keeva turned to Charlotte and nodded, “Yeah. I was going to ask you, anyway. I wanted to test one of the replacement parts Anton and I made for the core.”

Anton looked only partly confident, “Should work, but that tech’s more advanced than Luna’s so the fabricator might not’ve printed it right.”

Keeva nodded, “If it weren’t for the enhancements we got from the dwarf tech it definitely wouldn’t have.”

A Gateway opened.

Evan rushed through the Gateway almost as soon as it finished opening, “We have a problem! The singularity in Mljos Tersa’s core destroyed the core’s casing!”

Keeva had never seen Evan so flustered, “What!?”

Anton swore and tsked, “Guess everyone’s screwed.”

Evan turned to Keeva, “Can you fabricate some portable cold fusion generators? Lady Niamh and I came up with a plan to evacuate everyone.”

Keeva pulled up a schematic for an attack drone and started printing just the reactor, “Uh… will a reactor for an attack drone do? It’s about the right size to fit through the Gateway. And… Why do we need them?”

Evan thought for a moment, “That should do. How many can you print in six hours? As for why we need them… We need as many as we can get to connect to the Gateway devices to keep them open as long as possible.”

The cold fusion reactor wasn’t the most complicated piece of tech compared to some other things, but it still had a lot of small parts so it still took a while to print and assemble, “Four, but it shouldn’t be that hard to connect stuff to the drones we’ve already built.”

Evan nodded, “Alright.” He turned to Anton and Becky, “You two come with me.”

Anton hopped through the Gateway, “You figured out how to hook a reactor to a Gateway?”

Evan nodded again, “Yes. The magic crystals seem to be neutrino absorbers, so all we need to do is attach a device that emits neutrinos to the crystals.”

Keeva raised an eyebrow, “How’d you figure that out?”

Evan stepped through the Gateway, “The dwarves. They’ve been studying the crystals for centuries.”

Becky sighed, “Figures it’s the dwarves.” She stepped through the Gateway, “So… where exactly are we sending everyone to?”

Keeva stopped just shy of entering the Gateway, “One of the other museums?”

Evan nodded, “Yes. I believe you said the “Museum of Ancient History” looked almost identical to Mljos Tersa?”

Keeva recalled her investigation of that museum, “Yeah. It’s full of replica cities from every ancient civilization. There should be more than enough housing and other stuff, just no magical animals.”

Becky seemed satisfied, “It’s pretty convenient all that’s there for us to use.”

Keeva laughed, “The Builder definitely saw this coming.”

Charlotte walked next to Keeva, “Um… So… what about food?”

Evan nodded, “That is an issue, yes.”

Anton moved towards the Gateway’s control panel, “Keeva, hurry and get those drones through. We need to start moving people.”

The drones not on Mljos Tersa were in the airlock so it didn’t take long to move them through the Gateway.

Keeva was about to step through when Evan stopped her, “Focus on fabricating more reactors. The dwarves and Aos Si will help provide enough support for our needs.”

Keeva stepped back, “Alright, good luck.”

Anton turned off the Gateway.

Keeva turned to Charlotte, “Okay… Mljos Tersa is screwed.”

Charlotte was chewing on her lip, “Can… can they rescue everyone?”

Keeva thought about just the population of Ildathach alone, “Probably not. And that’s just Ildathach. What about the other cities? There’s dozens spread out all over Mljos.”

Charlotte’s ears flattened against her head, “There’s… there’s nothing we can do?”

Keeva scratched her chin, “Depends on how many Gateways the Aos Si and other cities have and how long we can keep them open. Then we have to convince everyone to leave…”

Charlotte dropped to her haunches and hugged her knees.

Keeva sat in a nearby chair, “If only we could take Luna back…”

Keeva thought about how the glowing orbs opened a wormhole to the place between universes. How had they done it? She could probably get to the Builder’s pocket universe if she could get them outside. Still, even if they did, what could Luna do? Their wormhole wasn’t like a Gateway and collapsed after less than a minute. Not nearly long enough to get more than a few dozen people through. There was also the risk of Meatballs coming through. Of course they could always fit a few hundred people on Luna and ferry people between museum worlds, but it wasn’t near enough to save the tens of thousands they needed to.

A thought appeared in Keeva’s mind, “Charlotte, I’m gonna try something.”

Charlotte looked up at Keeva, tears running down her face, “Hmm?”

Keeva activated the wormhole device, destination: none, “I’m gonna see what happens when I open a wormhole to nowhere.”

Charlotte cocked her head to the side in confusion.

The wormhole device took only seconds to charge before firing.

A wormhole appeared before Luna, showing a near infinite amount of universes.

Keeva jumped in excitement, “It worked! It was that easy!”

Charlotte stood up and watched the hologram Keeva brought up for her, “Is this… the place between?”

Keeva nodded as she moved Luna though the wormhole, activating the anti meatball defenses, “Yup! It’s swarming with Meatballs though, so we gotta hurry.”

Luna’s anti meatball devices immediately lit up swarms of hundreds of Meatballs and Keeva opened fire on them with Luna’s plasma weapons.

Last time the golden orbs had kept the meatballs away, but this time Luna was on its own, “Gotta hurry! There’s too many Meatballs for the plasma gatling to handle!”

Charlotte somehow became more nervous than she already was, “Will… will we be okay?”

Keeva looked around the room and found a plasma pistol on a table, “If we hurry, but grab a plasma pistol just in case.” She turned off the gravity in the mess hall, “And stay away from the floor and walls. They can go through them.”

Charlotte immediately started tumbling through the air and started whimpering, “I can’t move!”

Keeva slapped her forehead, “Crap! Should have put on spacesuits first!”

Keeva spotted the pocket dimension nearby, orbiting their universe like a small moon.

Another thought hit Keeva as she looked at the universe. One could see the entirety of the universe from their vantage outside. Was it possible to enter at any point? If so, they could travel anywhere in the universe with minimal fuel usage. In fact, she was using more fuel fighting off the Meatballs than she had opening the wormhole just now. Sure it was more dangerous considering the swarms of Meatballs, but they only needed to be out here for moments. Probably.

Luna reached the pocket universe and Keeva realized another problem. How’d they get back inside? They didn’t need to enter coordinates to leave, but how did they choose where to reenter?

Keeva looked at her map she’d made of the Builder’s pocket universe. If this didn’t work, she didn’t know what else would.

The wormhole device accepted the coordinates to Mljos Tersa after Keeva entered the data for the map of the immediate area of their location between the universes and soon a wormhole opened, revealing the museum world not far off.

Meatballs immediately flooded through the wormhole, and Keeva had to cut through them with plasma while simultaniously avoiding plasma coming from the Builder’s anti Meatball defenses.

Thankfully, the Meatballs seemed to care more about rushing through the wormhole than attacking Luna. Perhaps a world filled with thousands of people was much more tempting for them than a ship with only two?

Several bursts of plasma impacted Luna’s hull as they passed through the wormhole as Keeva didn’t have enough room to evade them. Thankfully, the hull took the hits without getting breached, but there was noticeable melting and warping of the hull so she’d have to do repairs later.

Once through the wormhole, Keeva warped Luna past the Builder’s defenses.

As soon as this happened several Meatballs appeared from Luna and rushed towards the Museum world. Keeva also picked up the telltale signs of Meatballs moving towards the mess hall from the dorsal and ventral hydrogen tanks.

It looked like she was wrong when she’d thought the Meatballs ignored them.

Keeva opened fire on all the Meatballs leaving Luna, but several plasma turrets on Mljos Tersa did most of the work.

Keeva pointed to the mess hall’s ceiling, “There’s a Meatball heading this way, can you get it?”

Charlotte pulled a flashlight sized rod from the same pouch she kept the Gateway device and aimed it at the ceiling, “Y… yes!”

Keeva pointed her plasma pistol below her and to the left, “I’ll get these two!”

Keeva worried because they didn’t have any anti meatball devices, but the Meatballs would have to show themselves to attack so hopefully they wouldn’t need one. Hopefully.

Charlotte opened fire, and Keeva heard screeching as her attack hit the Meatball. It took a second hit to kill it.

Keeva’s two targets appeared just as Charlotte killed her target, and she opened fire with her plasma pistol.

The plasma pistol was more powerful than Charlotte’s weapon, and killed the first Meatball in just one hit.

The last Meatball must have sensed the danger and retreated back through the wall, just in time to avoid Keeva’s second shot.

Keeva tsked, “This last one’s gonna be hard…”

An anti Meatball device from Mljos Tersa shone at Luna, and almost immediately after, a plasma shot hit Luna and tore through its hull from one side and out the other. The museum planet’s plasma cannon had targeted the Meatball inside Luna and killed it.

As Keeva closed bulkheads to the affected areas she realized that the earlier hits Luna had taken might have been weakened on purpose and that they had only used their full power when it looked like the Meatball might cause trouble by hiding on Luna. Maybe.

Charlotte turned to Keeva, her eyes showing her worry about the attack Luna had just taken, “Wh… what happened?”

Keeva shook her head, “The Builder’s plasma cannon just took out the Meatball for us, but put a hole in Luna.” She checked the damage reports, “Huh, looks like they hit us at an angle that didn’t do much damage. Went through the airlock, down the hallway, and exited just below the main emitter for the wormhole device. Got a few holes to patch up, but that’s it.”

Charlotte relaxed a little, “We’re fine?”

Keeva nodded as she turned her attention to Mljos Tersa, “Yep, but it looks like the repair drones I sent here are disabled already and the one I kept on Luna is assembling the reactors so we’re gonna have to wait to fix Luna up.”

Keeva had access to all the drones she’d sent via Gateway and noticed they were all inside some underground room that had walls covered in tree roots.

The dwarves immediately noticed the activity in the drones and Keeva told them to continue working.

Keeva noticed Niamh supervising the dwarves as they attached the drones’ reactors to several Gateway devices, “Hey! Mom! Need some help?”

Niamh walked to the nearest drone, “You’re early. Was there a problem making more reactors?”

Keeva made a hologram of herself, “Nope! I figured out how to bring Luna back! We’re coming through the airlock right now.”

Niamh cracked a smile, “That is good to hear. Luna’s participation should help with our plans greatly.”

Keeva agreed, “Yep. Had a bit of trouble with the Meatballs on the way, though. Builder’s defenses put a hole in Luna trying to kill one that got inside. Shouldn’t take too long to repair, though.”

Niamh nodded in understanding, “I see.” She turned towards the exit to the room, “Come to Hy Brasil. The ground isn’t safe. This singularity has started causing earthquakes that are getting worse as time passes. There have already been reports of fissures opening in the ground so it is not safe having Luna land anywhere but here.”

Keeva would have been excited to finally get to visit the floating island of Hy Brasil, but even from the airlock she could see the damage the earthquakes were doing. Every city had damage, with some on fire, and the ground around the entrance to Mljos Tersa’s command center had collapsed, with several fissures spreading away from the area.

Charlotte looked devastated as she watched the images Keeva showed her, “C… can we save everyone?”

Keeva shook her head, “I… don’t know.”

Charlotte turned away from the video feed, “I wish… I wish we had more time.”

Keeva had no idea what she could do other than what they already planned, “We’ll just have to hope we can open the Gateways long enough to let everyone through. Maybe hooking Luna’s reactor up to a Gateway will let us keep it open for a long time?”

Charlotte still looked unsure, “I… I hope so.”

The airlock opened allowing Luna inside and Keeva jumped just above Hy Brasil.

It didn’t take long to spot Niamh waving to them from a clearing in the thick foliage.

Keeva set Luna down and jogged to the airlock, Charlotte following just behind.

Niamh was looking at the hole now directly in the center of the airlock door made by the Builder’s defense turret as Keeva and Charlotte arrived, “I hope this doesn’t prove a hindrance.”

Keeva looked at the still cooling metal around the hole, “Shouldn’t take too long to weld a temporary patch over it if we need to go into space.” She looked up to Niamh, whose usual calm expression was showing hints of stress, “How long until you’re finished with the Gateways? I can take them wherever we need them in Luna.”

Niamh glanced at Keeva and Charlotte before turning away and waving for them to follow, “Three are ready to take to Ildathach. The king is already getting the humans ready to go through and the elves and Aos Si are already ready to leave.”

Keeva jogged to keep up with Niamh as she led them underground.

The Aos Si tunnels on Hy Brasil were amazing. Keeva knew they were underground, but somehow they made it appear like they were still in the forest, dim natural light and all, but instead of tree trunks it was tree roots. There were some rooms and hallways that looked more ‘normal’ like Niamh’s place, but it seemed they preferred the more natural look. It even smelled like a forest.

They were met by some dwarves carrying a Gateway device, when Niamh stopped, “This is ready to be taken to Ildathach?”

The lead dwarf nodded, “Yes, ma’am. We’re taking it to the Gateway room.”

Niamh turned to Keeva, “Take it to my daughter’s ship and start disassembling Hy Brasil’s Gateway once the last of my people finish evacuating through it.”

The dwarf turned to Keeva, recognition showing in his eyes, “Good to hear you got your ship back here!”

Keeva smiled at the dwarf, “Yeah, just watch out for the hole in the ramp.”

The dwarf looked slightly curious at Keeva’s comment, but Keeva turned and waved for the dwarves to follow her before he said anything.

The dwarves moved remarkably fast despite the bulky equipment they carried, and soon they were unloading it in a spot prepared for it just outside Ildathach where a large crowd thousands strong waited and the sight of that many frightened people waiting to flee humbled Keeva. 

They needed to hurry. They could probably get most of these people through, but this was just one town of many.

Keeva wasn’t sure they could do it. Would the other cities and cultures even want their help?

An earthquake shook the ground. If only they had more time.

Wow... I always forget about Sashae. Can't remember how many times I've had to leaves notes for myself to go back and add her in. Last couple of chapters I didn't even notice she wasn't anywhere. Not that she would be helpful fighting, but I could have at least mentioned her.