Андреа Хёст - The Starfighter Invitation

[[I’ve directed The Hare to dock with the Orafa ,]] Dio told me. [[So long as you return within the day, you won’t lose your slot at Valles Marineris.]]

"That’s great."

I considered the floating mote of light drifting around the Pod, fully aware that I had been thoroughly distracted, without any intrusive questions asked, or even some pointed comments about how many lux points I was willing to spend, just so I could go somewhere other players hadn’t been first.

One of the reasons I’d stuck with Corpse Light was they left me alone. They were flexible enough to let me meander along almost as a solo player, and then welcome me when I felt like going all-in on guild activities. None of them knew me in real life, none of them knew I had a collection of participation trophies from running, had walked away from my design career, was in danger of hyper-ventilating in crowds, and cramped up if someone waved wheat flour in my general direction.

Dio—if te really was an AI, I wouldn’t be surprised if te knew all of those things. But for the first time I didn’t feel a thread of resentment for the interference of a personal alien overlord.

"Thank you, Dio," I said quietly, and te changed colour, but didn’t otherwise respond.

"Okay, I have no clue what to do here."

"Same."

For the final stage of the gauntlet series we had emerged via stairs into the centre of a circular park. The pool at the top of the series of waterfalls formed a crescent, and a smooth wall curved around to meet the pool, without any of the rougher edges of the crevice accessible. The space between was filled with grass. After a good half hour of exploring, we had found no blasters, no symbols, and no obvious exits.

"But we have our clue," Arlen pointed out to Silent and Nova. "It is just that we do not understand it yet."

"Perhaps there’s an extra hint in the whole sequence," Nova said.

"You mean the first letter of each or something?" Silent said, and shared our notes of the clues from the whole gauntlet series.

Enter the Maze

Choose a Path

Find Your Way Down

Behind the Shadows

Beneath the Stars

Where the Meadow Weeps

And the Dawn Blooms

Take the Blade

Follow the Thread

To Find the Core of All You Are.

"Can’t see any clear letter code," he said. "Word puzzles would be complex to pull off, given the number of languages this game supports."

"Nothing obvious in Japanese," Nova added. "If we’re following the pattern, then this section requires us to Follow the Thread . Although, since this is the last stage, perhaps we should combine them: Follow the Thread, To Find the Core of All You Are ."

"Probably a reference to lan," I said. "Core Units, etcetera."

"And lan is spirit or soul," Silent said. "Though following a thread suggests a maze or minotaur, which doesn’t match. Never seen any space less maze-like in my life."

"Under the water, is it possible?" Arlen suggested. "Water is life?"

We made a speculative tour along the rim of the large crescent-shaped pool. The surface was deceptively smooth, but there was clearly a lot of movement given the roaring of water falling at the lip.

"Let’s sit on the edge and rest while we think," I said. "We’re just tiring ourselves out, wandering around shields up."

Despite our frustrations, I maintained a good mood. My round trip to Ka Bol Ka Fan had been spectacularly self-indulgent, but a crowded system and many-mooned primary planet had fulfilled my dearest wishes for space-views. Even my brief wander through the accessible sections of the Orafa had given me much fuel for future plans. I mightn’t be ranking as quickly as I’d like, but I had had a right-place-right-time bit of good fortune that was a balm to envy, even if it couldn’t bring balance to wildly disparate lan strength. I was starting to grow concerned about losing my bet with Dio, though. Not that anything was currently trying to kill us, but there didn’t seem to be a clear path forward.

"If anyone’s watching the stream of our Challenge, they’re going to be very bored," Silent remarked—a fortunate reminder, since I’d been on the verge of deactivating my focus.

Pulling my boots off instead, I probed the water with my feet. "Deep, and the current’s strong," I said.

I carefully didn’t look too long at Nova, who sat cross-legged and apparently relaxed on the edge, but would certainly not be keen on a Challenge that required swimming lessons. She was otherwise her usual self, reverting to the teen magical girl look, and revealing no sign of tension or particular awareness of Silent. But I supposed TALiSON hadn’t necessarily been wrong: I was bad at picking up on that kind of thing.

"Too deep to go paddling, and I’m not sure I’d care to risk swimming," Silent added. "Let’s leave it as a last resort."

"If it’s not in the outer wall, perhaps there’s something concealed in the grass," Nova said.

We surveyed the park without enthusiasm. It might not be nearly so large as the lower terraces, but it was still a formidable space. Going over it in minute detail would stretch our endurance. But we couldn’t risk not keeping at least one shield up.

"Start at the centre stairs, spiral out?" Silent suggested. "Two groups?"

Unheatedly discussing whether multiple groups would end up covering the exact same ground or not, we returned to the entry stair, and divided into two, but before we could begin our examination of the grass, Imoenne pointed to the pearly rim of stone surrounding the stair and said: "Stitches?"

She had indicated a line of tiny holes—each no greater diameter than a knitting needle—that ran around the entire outer rim of the pale stone stairwell. This, too, was a circle, and vaguely resembled a yin yang symbol, with the void of the top of the stair forming a misshapen yang.

"Stitches with the thread unpicked?" Nova said, dubious.

"Maybe it’s an example," I said. "And there’s some intact stitches somewhere, with a thread we can follow."

"Unless it’s in the grass, or too high for us to see on the outer wall, we didn’t miss anything like this." Nova was firm on the point, but then hesitated, surveying the unobtrusive curving line. "Not that I can see anything to do with these things."

Arlen knelt and ran his hand over the nearest couple. "Too small to make of any use."

"I’ll try dropping a shield over the whole outline," Silent said, and did so to no apparent effect.

Imoenne folded gracefully down to kneel beside the rim of holes, her soft voice barely audible as she said: "But we are to make the thread, are we not?"

A faint whine accompanied her attempt to push a thread of lan into the nearest hole, and I was not the only one who instinctively responded by snapping up an additional shield. Imoenne straightened, abandoning her exploration, but no attack followed.

"I saw it rise," Silent said. "Came up partway, but went back down again without firing."

"One hole, one blaster?" I said, and began to count under my breath.

The rest of my group had come quickly to the same conclusion. "Twenty," Nova said. "Even if they only shoot once, that’s going to tax us."

"Single shots are too much to hope for," Silent added. "This is the final stage, the biggest hurdle, and every hole we activate is going to add to the pounding."

"Three of us on shields, at least," Nova said. "And the other two trying to thread all these holes as quickly as possible. Let’s do a quick comparison of who can sew faster than the rest."

Arlen and I were the fastest, and we divided the circle in two, with the three on shield duty standing between us.