By the time Tursa, Shosho, Jack C and the others had returned, the course of action was decided.

Every member of the household and most of the crew of the Mr. Astley was packed into the brightly lit kitchen. Outside, it was dark…but it was the darkness of very early morning. Through the fronds and branches of the trees, the barest hint of pink sunlight shone over the waters. And despite it’s having been a subject of much of the night’s discussion, no one had any idea how Jonathan had generated an adult clone, nor whether she was alone…or merely one of many.

“Goddamnit,” said Allico, Grayman fussing over her despite her insistence that she hadn’t been hurt. He was, apparently, not only a body guard to the Scions when at work, but a medic as well—both skills he’d learned during his service in the Elysian Defense Corps. But that institution had been eradicated and replaced by the Benefactors years ago, along with all other vestiges of human military tradition.

“No offense Indri, but I was really hoping it would never come to this.”

The other woman waved her off.

“Offense? Are you kidding me? I chose the Warp over a life with those peo—”

But at a glare from Rin, she fell instantly silent.

“Sorry,” mouthed Indri to the captain. Allico made a face, but no apology.

Lore sniffed.

It had been no easy task, convincing her of the necessity of our course. And in the process, Rin had to tell her things about her father, things she was no more ready to divulge than the fledgling was to hear. It saddened me to see the effects of this information on her bearing. As though there had been some little light in her before, but now it had gone out. Smothered. Learning that the Greatship Griffin was in possession of an especially fantastic aquarium had, at least, coaxed the hint of a smile from her.

[I am endlessly fascinated by the effect of human genetic additions on not only my physiology, but my thoughts and thought processes as well. I regularly find myself speaking and thinking in similes that would have baffled me before.]

We returned, largely by public transportation, to the spaceport. Jonathan considered himself a humanitarian, and so we were fleetingly safe in populated spaces. Rin had chosen a second-in-command to oversee the underwater base, and left it packed with a staff of her own choosing. As predicted, most of her ex-husband’s people had gone over to her willingly once freed of his influence, but there were only some whom she trusted. Those she did not, or who didn’t willingly reassert their loyalties to her, were imprisoned as Jonathan was. Another dubious use of resources, but perhaps they, too, were in possession of valuable information.

Upon our boarding of the Mr. Astley, Punjibar released a ululating scream and proceeded to loop and circle around everyone’s legs. I followed the crew’s example and accepted this, waiting until they were finished with me before progressing any further. Due to the addition of Grayman’s wives and children and the human tendency to cluster together in times of distress, the mess hall was quickly crowded.

Luckily, the journey was a short one. In fact, it took us nearly as long to gain entry to the hangar of the Greatship upon our arrival as it did for us to reach it from Makaria—time which most of the humans used to rest and which I spent repairing my scorched flesh.

“Welcome home, Ms. Indri and friends!”

As we stepped at last out of the hangar and into a bustling concourse, we were greeted by a carrier-drone, all silver curves inlayed with lumicells in shifting tones of blue and violet. At its front it bore a silver crest depicting two species: a mongoose and an orchid.

“Please, allow me.”

The hatch on its back popped open and its arms extended, plucking up the others’ luggage and packing it away. As we followed the carrier to a nearby series of lifts, I perceived my surroundings in greater detail. The concourse’s many towering palm trees were wrapped with lumicell ornaments, while gold and white banners hung from the open arches which lined its upper levels. Strangers stared as we passed—not only at me, but at the Warped members of the group as well. And I could not help but notice that the dour, desperate mien that hung over the humans of Elysian in wake of recent events was fainter here, hardly present at all.

Indri’s extended family possessed an entire level of the starboard residential wing, and a number of them greeted us as we stepped out of the lift into its central foyer. One of them, a tall woman whose short, silvery hair was swept back in a sort of crest, strode forward, wrapping the younger human in an embrace as firm as it was brief.

“Oh, Indriana, sweetheart. Happy Arrival Day! It’s so good to have you safe at home with everything that’s going on.”

As the apparent matriarch stepped back, her gaze lingered on Indri’s fang-tipped smile, a deep crease appearing between her brows.

“If only you’d have come to your senses sooner.”

Ignoring this, Indri whipped around to face the others. Her attention torn from her daughter, the woman’s steel-gray eyes flitted first to Marah and her additional arms and then to Allico and her gills, the furrow deepening substantially before finally her gaze settled on me.

“Well, most of you know this is my mom, Maye. And mom, you know pretty much everyone from video chat, I guess. But this is the newest addition to the Mr. Astley crew I told you about. Zyr.”

“So I assumed,” said Maye, her nose curling somewhat as her eyes roved my features. But then her lips pulled up in a smile, displaying a set of overly-white teeth. [Which, by the way, are not bones at all, something I learned only after thorough incorporation of human DNA. In fact, human teeth have more in common with their hair and nails than with their bones. A common trait in species of Earth origin, apparently.]

“It’s lovely to meet you,” said Maye, putting a strange emphasis on the word “lovely” which I could not discern the intended meaning of.

“You’re all entirely welcome here, of course, for as long as we can keep you. Now, let me see those grandba—oh! My word, I’m not sure I’ll ever get used to those wings.”

As Maye bent over the child in Marah’s arms, Indri and Grayman standing to either side of her, the auburn-haired woman threw an eye-rolling glance over at Allico. She returned the look with a smirk, lingering near the back of the group as though hoping to shield her own offspring from the elder’s scrutiny. The matriarch’s inferiors came forward then, a man with black and gray hair who turned out to be her mate, as well as an entire clutch’s worth of Indri’s siblings, interspersed with the odd cousin and aunt.

We were shown, from there, to one of the many guest suites…a collection of entirely unoccupied rooms with more than enough space for all of us. The matriarch and her retinue left us with the information that “everyone would be having dinner together for Arrival Day,” and that (firmly, but in a gentle tone) we were expected to “dress up” for the occasion.

“What is Arrival Day?” I queried when all of the extraneous relatives had gone, wishing for confirmation of my inference.

Indri sighed.

“It’s the day the Griffin celebrates being, well, supposedly the first human ship to reach Elysian,” she explained.

Allico scoffed.

“They take a lot of pride in that, for a bunch of people who’ve barely stepped foot there.”

Ah. I’d heard something of this. There had actually been two Greatships which reached the planet first, once the Benefactors had made the allowance. Two massive vessels, initially designed for long-term residency by earthen oligarchs. They housed the planet’s elite, offered them an early escape before they even had a heading, and a haven from the Warp once they did. They are home to humanity’s elite still. To those who own and control the majority of Elysian’s mines, factories, and infrastructure. The two ships—Griffin and Exa—are rivals of sorts, with Jonathan’s own family hailing from the latter.

With its strict entry protocols, impressive array of defenses, and large population of civilians, the Griffin would serve as our haven now, but for how long…I couldn’t be sure. I did not doubt the Scions would find no shortage of work among its denizens, at least.

The others quickly chose their rooms, with Rin and Tursa sharing one. Having no preference, I took one of those left over. It was an unnecessarily large space, one entire wall coated in lumicells which were currently masquerading as a window. There was an attached bathroom, as well as a closet with a built-in garment synthesizer.

Browsing its pre-designed selections, I found something which intrigued me—a black three-piece suit paired with a vividly blue shirt. I felt it would “bring out the color of my eyes,” a concept I had learned from Real Domicile-Mates. After making the necessary accommodations for my tentacles, I set it to generate, laid my cloak aside and stripped off my approximation of a uniform. When the suit was complete and I’d put it on, I considered for a moment donning the cloak once more…but decided against it. Allico and Marah had not liked it, the way the humans of the Griffin stared at them. But with my tentacles uncovered, the unWarped would have plenty to point their eyes at. Examining myself in the mirror, I decided that I was killing it.

There was a chiming sound from my chamber’s main door, and I called for it to open as I emerged, freshly dressed, from my closet.

Rin entered. She wore a black, subtly shimmering dress that reminded me, somewhat, of my own newly-shining tentacles. It flowed over the curves of her body as if the fabric were a liquid poured into place, parting in a slit over one thigh to drape down either side of her left leg. The skin of her face reddened as I perceived her.

“I know,” she said, brushing a rose-gold lock behind her ear and avoiding my gaze. “It’s gross and ridiculous. Putting on a fancy dress and going to a…a dinner party at a time like this. But we have to make nice with these people, and…and…” as she raised her eyes at last to look at me, they went suddenly wide. Her words faltered and fell away.

“Oh, wow,” she breathed.