“Yeah. So? Why does this matter to you, Father?”

  Bonju reached for the pipe.

  “I think I’ll have a puff after all.”

  He wasn’t a fan of this particular leaf blend, but it once pleasured young Hokkis during better times.

  “Moon, I’ve hid nothing from you. All my work. All my successes and failures. What is the one overriding question neither Amayas Knight nor I have been able to answer?”

  The boy’s frown turned to visible disbelief.

  “Wait. You can’t be serious, Father.”

  “I am.”

  “You believe Scripture can lead you to the Origin?”

  “The nebula is directly referenced twenty times. The Origin, ten times. And that’s on a primary word search. There must be hundreds of nuanced references.”

  “Hold on. Amayas Knight said the Origin only exists in his universe. Alpha. If that’s true, it can’t be inside one of our nebulas.”

  “What if Amayas was wrong? My lone encounter with him left far more questions than answers. I’ve only heard from him twice since then. The first time, through Ya-Li. The second time, he sent me a message through his front man, Shin Wain: ‘One temple twice.’”

  Bonju pointed to the nebula.

  “I misinterpreted that message. I think he was telling me of a discovery. One temple. The Origin. Twice. Do you see?”

  Moon’s eyes ballooned.

  “Wait. He thinks the Origin can be seen in both universes?”

  “Why not? It’s the connective fabric to all nine. The place where eight fractured from the original. The biggest mystery we haven’t solved is when and how the fractures occurred.”

  “If you find the Origin, you find Creation itself. It’s an incredible idea, Father. But it’s also blasphemy if the wrong people hear you talk about it. Plus, it doesn’t help us escape.”

  Bonju smiled.

  “I did the calculations. We can reach the nebula by Worm in twenty hours. If we had some way to identify specific celestial coordinates, the journey might bear fruit.”

  “Again, Father. It’s exciting. But why is this suddenly so important to you? You proved we can travel across the divide with Splinters for navigation. We know the way out.”

  “For us. Yes. But what if we can do more? What if we can save billions of lives? Don’t you think we need to take the risk?”

  “We, Father?”

  “Most of my partners are gone. I’d like to know my son is with me.”

  “I love you, Father. I’ll always be here, but our family comes first. We have to save them.”

  Bonju hugged his son. The day that went from bad to worse made a late turnaround. For the moment, he didn’t have to think about the twenty-day deadline.

  16

  B ONJU UNVEILED THE SECRETS of the universe to his first-born son at his sixteenth birthday. Beyond passing down the knowledge of Splinters, multiple universes, and the fate awaiting most of Creation, Bonju needed a trustworthy spy. Moon was a curious, disciplined boy who obeyed his parents and acted as their surrogate for the other seven children. He’d take up this mantle, too.

  The idea arose during visits with Ya-Li in the Alpha universe. Bonju often followed Ya-Li around to observe the Taron family dynamic. He found social gatherings most fascinating. At one such party, a Taron cousin made a mess of himself after drinking heavily. The cousin, who Ya-Li derided as ‘Moonface,’ was eighteen at the time, three years older than Ya-Li. They bore a strong resemblance to each other though their personalities clashed.

  “He seems troubled,” Bonju observed. “Why does he behave in such a boorish manner?”

  Ya-Li gave a blunt assessment.

  “His father hates him. Or so Moonface tells people.”

  “Why?”

  “You’d have to know his father. Or maybe all those brothers and sisters. Moonface is the kid in the middle. He got lost in the mix.”

  “How many siblings does he have?”

  “Eight. Four above him, four below him. The first ones are all in the family business. On the fast track. All they gave Moonface was a kept woman in the city.”

  “I think there’s a word for such a man.”

  “Yes. Black sheep. But not Moonface. He acts like a fool, but I’ve seen him when he’s sober. He’s intelligent, and I think he’s biding his time. They’ll hear from him someday. It won’t be pretty.”

  Moon Taron.

  Was it possible? The Taron line followed a similar path in Alpha and Beta, with a few deviations because of marriage. If Bonju’s son and this drunk were genetic counterparts, ‘Moonface’ could be mined for intelligence. Bonju didn’t present this possibility when he introduced his son to the Splinter.

  Rather, he allowed Moon a few weeks to build relationships with four counterparts across the divide. One evening, Bonju shared his hammock with Moon, and they revealed the stories of their other versions. Moonface played a prominent role. Moon said it was like finding a long-lost older brother in need of an older brother.

  They shared a laugh while Bonju worked through the potential.

  Four months later, Bonju laid out his plan for Ya-Li, Ryllen Jee, and the experiment for crossing the divide with Splinter navigation.

  “Moonface won’t be at the center,” Bonju told his son. “But he’s a Taron, and he has access we might need.”

  “What must I do, Father?”

  “Help him back into his parents’ good graces. That household will have a role to play if my experiment works. Show him what it means to be a good, faithful son.”

  “You want me to lecture? He’s three years older.”

  “No. Just talk about our family. Our relationships. Just avoid the classified specifics we’ve discussed many times.”

  In other words, nothing about the Swarm or their isolated paradise.

  By the week of Ya-Li’s wedding to Kara Syung, ‘Moonface’ achieved a measure of gravitas among the Tarons and held a mid-level officer’s role at Hotai Counsel. Moon reported this progress with a measure of pride, though he refused to take full credit for the turnaround.

  In the meantime, Ya-Li told Bonju he wanted a reward for his efforts to help set up Ryllen Jee for the Splinter crossing. He wanted a cube of his own – and he wanted certain Tarons, Syungs, and Alliance leaders dead. He had a plan of his own.

  “I’ve worked it out,” Ya-Li told Bonju. “Everything will fall into place. I’ll remake Hokkaido. You’ll be proud of me.”

  It was, of course, the plan of a sociopath destined for a horrible end. Yet Bonju dared not warn Ya-Li off the path; he saw too much at stake. Already, Bonju was working with Talon soldier Ryllen Jee to “steal” Splinters with his team and cross the divide, completing the loop Ryllen began at Mangum Island years ago.

  “I will make certain Ryllen is prepared to meet your terms,” Bonju told Ya-Li. “I’ve already warned him of the clear and present danger posed by Amayas Knight. I’ll convince him that threat also resides within your own family. Give him names, but make no mention of your own ambitions. Ryllen will only kill these people if he believes it will make him a hero.”

  Bonju’s elaborate plan succeeded. Ryllen led his Talon unit on a daring raid – staged for their benefit – and took two Scramjets across the divide, where they destroyed the Invictus after a younger Ryllen stole its Splinter. The loop was complete, Ya-Li contacted the new arrivals, and Moon Taron was amazed his father pulled it off.

  The boy did not back down when Bonju warned him of the massacre Ya-Li intended at his wedding.

  “You said it yourself, Father. Progress requires sacrifice. If a few have to die so we can save the universe, then they have to die.”

  In this case, those deaths seemed like bad cinema rather than reality. Moonface sat on stage with other cousins when Ryllen Jee killed old Ban-Ho Taron with a Force Drum. Moon watched quietly through his counterpart’s eyes as a slaughter of some of the most powerful people on Hokkaido/Alpha proceeded. He stayed with Moonface through the traumatic aftermath, where surviving Tarons hid the truth in order to maintain their social position. He watched Moonface take an aggressive role in the days after a second round of assassinations killed his parents and two siblings. He saw Moonface lead a conspiracy against Ya-Li in pursuit of Taron holdings – including Hotai Counsel – only to silence the whole matter when Ryllen Jee led a second Taron slaughter.

  “They’re horrible people,” Moon told his father. “How can they be so much like us but completely different?”

  “They’re the product of choices their society made generations ago. Before the Swarm, many Hokkis here showed the same vanities and cruelties. Fortunately, we learned how to be an egalitarian people.”

  “Father, if we have no choice but to cross the divide, all I ask is that we don’t live on Hokkaido.”

  “I’m not sure that choice will be entirely within our power, but it’s a fair request. I won’t forget.”

  In the weeks after Ya-Li’s death, Moonface became a valuable source of intelligence. Moon heard about interesting developments in Pinchon almost daily. The situation inside Hotai Counsel in particular deteriorated. Moonface manipulated his way to an executive-level position, no longer biding his time.

  Bonju calculated the probabilities for a massive jump across the divide. While his contacts inside Division LM put his theories to the test with a team of volunteers and prepared to bring their case before the Admiralty and the Empress, Bonju realized two things:

  A vulnerable Hokkaido/Alpha offered the best potential for a first incursion, and Moonface Taron might be a useful partner.

  Still, the details needed refinement, and the Swarm would not approve resources for such a mission without a commitment from the top. It seemed like the longest of shots. The odds grew longer when the ATB-5 with Maj. Otolski and Lt. Doshenko went down, and someone assassinated Dr. Noor and his team of volunteers.

  Bonju laid out everything to his son the day after meeting with Empress Chastain IV. Moon didn’t take the news well.

  “There’s no one left to protect you, Father. We’re fucked.”

  “The situation is difficult but not impossible.”

  “If you don’t prove your theory in twenty days, the Empress will kill you, and that’s the same as killing the rest of us.”

  “I think she is more flexible than she appeared. The Admiralty has her ear, and I have a few supporters who thought my work was worthy of her review. In the worst case, I can turn to your great aunt. She is a respected administrator and …”

  “Aunt Hoija is evil. She sold out the Hokki people before the invasion began. She’d send all eight of us to an education farm.”

  Bonju asked his son to take a breath and sit.

  “Hoija is the worst of us. I agree. Yet I’m working with her. I worked with officers of Division LM, which has done unspeakable things in the name of so-called science. I’m in no position to choose my allies based on their morality, Son. I need people with power and resources. So, I turned to the ones who stripped away what we used to possess on our own.”

  “What about the Talons?”

  “They’re contractors for the Orzed Confederation, which is based two hundred light-years away. Their job is to kill F-grounders. No more. They will not take me seriously unless the Swarm asked for a cease-fire on the grounds of a galactic cataclysm facing all humans.”

  “Which there will be.”

  “Yes, but acceptance of this future requires a staggering leap of faith. They have fought each other for more than a century. This may be too big of an ask.”

  Moon fumbled his pipe through butter fingers.

  “I don’t understand, Father. You manipulated Ryllen Jee and his Talons into completing your experiment. Why can’t we find another Talon unit and make a pitch to them? Except this time, we arrange it so our whole family crosses over to Alpha.”

  “Assuming that was possible, you want us to leave tens of billions of people behind to meet oblivion, with no understanding of how to save themselves?”

  Moon pulled from his pipe.

  “Yes, Father. I’d be ashamed, but at least we’d be alive and together. Maybe you’d be able to find Amayas and set things right before the eight fractures disappear.”

  “Amayas can’t stop this. I saw his evidence years ago. I feel it every time I look through a cube. The eight spikes represent their struggle to hold together time and humanity. And we don’t know how to make more in order to compensate.”

  “Is this why you’re fixating on the nebula now? Do you think it might hold answers?”

  “I can’t rule it out, but I don’t know what the Origin actually is. A physical place? A celestial doorway between realities? A wormhole? Does it exist in visible space, or is it found inside black matter? Amayas and I hypothesized it to be the source of the fractures, but we based that on little more than conjecture. Any effort to find it may be futile. But the nebula is twenty hours away by Worm.”

  “Haven’t the Swarm been exploring it for ages? They think it’s sacred.”

  “That’s also the reason they might have stayed away. Travel to that region is classified. Only the Admiralty, the Empress, and the Church know the truth.”

  Moon didn’t speak; his father allowed him a contemplative moment. Instead of talking, Moon stashed his pipe and headed toward the rear of the lab. Bonju followed. Moon threw up a security holo on a tall cabinet and blinked twice. The cabinet door slid away.

  He retracted three shelves, each stacked neatly with Splinters.

  Moon grabbed one and rolled it around in his left hand. The spikes directed toward the cube’s eight corners were pulsating.

  “Father, you made me your partner because you trust me.”

  “Always, Son.”

  “We have sixty-two Splinters. That’s sixty-two evacuation ships.”

  “Times three. In a perfect design, we’d utilize remote command to link three ships to one nav.”

  “Think of all the people we could save, Father. We could put together a fleet with nothing but the smallest ships. Utility Scrams, Worm-capable haulers, mining barges. Anything that can make the jump and hasn’t been commandeered by the Swarm. We can do it quietly. We can save so many people. We’ll start with everyone on this island and recruit any Hokki who wants to escape. They won’t be hard to find. They don’t even have to know where we’re headed. It's off Hokkaido, and that will be good enough. This is our way out. All we have to do is leave here in less than twenty days.”

  Bonju loved Moon’s passion. He made a strong case, though it wasn’t anything Bonju didn’t already consider.

  “You make it sound simple, Son. Tell me, how far are you willing to go to acquire those ships? Are you willing to kill the very people you might save?”

  “Wait. What do you mean?”

  “The ships have owners. Some will consider us thieves. Imagine that. Resistance during wartime will have to be met with force. Are you willing to kill some Hokkis in order to save others?”

  Moon did not hesitate.

  “I’ll do whatever it takes. We’re all dead anyway when the fractures collapse. Yes, Father. I’ll kill anyone who tries to stop us.”

  “Hmm. Bravado is easy in the abstract. Killing the enemy can be rationalized. But murdering innocent people? You won’t recover.”

  “I’ll be alive. So will you and Mother. So will Sela, Liu, Lin, Meena, Muna, Nan, and Yong. I’m begging you, Father. We have to take this chance while there’s time.”

  “The odds of hiding this from the Swarm are small. If they latch onto even the first irregularity … well, we won’t make it far after that. And then there’s the matter of Worm travel regulations. The penalty for using a wormhole without a licensed transponder is death. No trial, no mercy. My experiment with Ryllen’s unit succeeded only because I had protection inside LM. That protection is gone. If we don’t succeed the first time, we die.”

  “You’re making excuses, Father. The Swarm aren’t everywhere. Not yet. We have to try, even if it costs us everything.”

  “You’d put little Sela at risk?”

  “She already is. Father, I …”

  Moon shut down. Water glistened in his eyes.

  Bonju grabbed the Splinter and hugged his son.

  “You’re the bravest man in the room, and you have the biggest heart. But we need more than courage and compassion. We will …”

  Huh. That’s strange.

  Bonju lost track of his thoughts as he held up the Splinter. Why didn’t he see this before? The spikes had widened by millimeters.

  “Hold on a moment, Son.”

  Bonju took a close-up look at the other sixty-one Splinters. They too were radiating with abnormal excitement.

  “What is it, Father?”

  “All of them at once.”

  No. It can’t be.

  “Follow me.”

  Bonju led Moon back to the main lab and a large bank of holos. He called up a geolocator.

  “What are you looking for, Father?”

  “A signal. When the Splinters behave this way, they’re responding to a new presence. It’s happened twice before.”

  “Presence of what?”

  “Another Splinter, newly arrived.”

  “How?”

  “The last time I saw this, I tracked the signal to its origin. That’s how I found Ryllen Jee. My first Alpha link since Amayas.”

  “Someone else crossed the divide?”

  Bonju pointed to a broad topographical holo.

  “There! It’s …”

  “The signal is faint, Father. Here, I’ll triangulate it.”

  A few seconds later, the transmission’s origin became clear. Too many haphazard thoughts raced through Bonju.

  The timing. The location.

  Bonju did not believe in coincidence.

  “Two kay southeast of Sai-Por city center,” Moon said. “Wait. That’s not far from where the transport went down. Father, what does this mean?”