“Did you find what you were seeking?” Hesho asked from the dash.
“Yes,” I whispered.
“Then count yourself lucky indeed,” he said, settling into his cupholder. “For being blessed to discover what exactly it was that you wanted.”
“It was less a discovery,” I said, glancing at Chet, “and more a gift.”
I lifted us off and turned us straight toward the lightburst. Then I hit the overburn, and this time it felt entirely appropriate to go at full speed.
My hands grew slick with sweat on the controls as we continued onward, and the distance between us and the lightburst shrank minute by minute. Scud. This was insanity. We were facing a near-infinite number of delvers in the part of the belt where their power was the strongest.
“The plan we devised earlier can work,” Chet said to me, his face in the corner of my proximity monitor screen.
“It seems so unlikely…” I said. “What if we distract just one, rather than the whole crowd?”
“Ah,” he said, “but remember, they all think exactly the same. If you were facing a hundred people, and you had a plan that was one percent likely to fool any given person—you would fail. You’d fool one out of the hundred and be dead from the ninety-nine. But with my kind, if you fool or intimidate one, you will fool or intimidate them all. Statistically this is much better—a much more true one-percent chance.”
It was an all-in gamble. We had little chance of success, but at least it was a chance.
Ahead of us, the light started to boil. It churned and seethed, undulating and rippling, becoming uneven in patches. I glanced at the clock; we’d been flying for about forty-five minutes since we left the Solitary Shadow.
“They’re preparing,” Chet said.
I glanced at his picture on my screen. “I hope we—”
Then I screamed. Chet was melting.
His face began to drip off. His eyes began to glow white.
“It’s all right,” he said to me. “I’m still me. I did not realize…getting closer to the lightburst… It is growing difficult for me to hold this shape.”
“You look like that burl!” I said. “From when we first entered!”
“Yes,” he said. “She was possessed by one of my kind, and her self started to disintegrate. Hesho held to himself better and retained his shape. We can hope that like Hesho did, the unfortunate burl returned to normal once the delver left her. But for now you must ignore me and continue.”
“Does this mean you’re losing your identity?” Hesho asked him.
“More that I’m focused on not doing so,” he said, “and so am not keeping as tight a control on this physical form. I am well, Spensa. I promise.”
Right. I could do this. But it was unnerving regardless.
“Continue,” Chet said, the word slurring as his lips melted. He turned off the image of his face, so just his voice came through the headphones in my helmet. “Courage, Spensa. We decided to do this. Not to run. We decided.”
“We decided,” M-Bot said.
“We decided,” Hesho agreed.
A fluting sound. Doomslug sent her determination to me in the form of images. I’d told her to get away if she could, but she understood what we were doing—at least the fundamental ideas. Her kind had evolved to be afraid of a type of creature from her home planet. The delvers were an even more terrifying version of those.
If she could help me defeat the delvers, make them not a threat to her kind… Well, she would be like Prometheus bringing fire to the humans. （My metaphor, not hers—since hers involved more mushrooms.）
“Together,” I said to the others, “we are decided.” I took a deep breath.
The lightburst’s rippling was growing more violent. Our ultimate goal would be for me to fly directly into the thing, ship and all.
Unfortunately, we were still a good ten minutes away—and the delvers wouldn’t want me to get close enough. Soon objects started emerging from the lightburst—leaving behind shimmering, undulating waves. As these shapes were backlit, and a good distance away, it took M-Bot’s scans to highlight what they were.
Starfighters.
“I guess,” M-Bot said, “they decided to upgrade from moving ram-happy asteroids to starfighters.”
“My kin have access to everything that ever entered the lightburst,” Chet said, his words slurring. I decided I did not want to see what he looked like right now. “Those asteroids are the best we can do in your reality. Here we’re not so limited.”