He didn’t need her to tell him what was so amazing. The entire environment took his breath away. The seabed around them was covered in towering monolith and fan-like corals of different sizes and colors. Thousands of fish swam among the formations, some of which shimmered with an iridescent glow. Other alien creatures floated in the water, one with a huge shell on its back that seemed to puff out gas to propel itself, short tentacles glowing as it moved along.

  Curious, he turned to look at the unlit side. “Shine your light over here, Dag.” The little bot turned at Yasmin did, the spectacle even greater on this side. The glowing sea life became a fluorescent alien diorama, peaceful and mesmerizing.

  “At least there’s still some beauty in all of this shit,” Yasmin said, squeezing his hand. He squeezed back but didn’t speak, taking it all in until Scott moved to the edge of the umbilical.

  “We should finish crossing, Cap.”

  “Agreed,” Nicholas replied. “But make sure you take a few seconds to take this in.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  Nicholas and Yasmin finished crossing. Jennifer met him as he exited the airlock. “Captain Shepherd,” she said, throwing her arms around him and hugging him. “I’m so glad you made it. “Both of you.” She released him and hugged Yasmin too.

  Nicholas wasn’t sure what had gotten into her. She was normally much more reserved. “Are you okay, Jen?”

  “Yes, sir. I just…you’re my family now. And I don’t want to lose you.”

  “We lost Gills,” Scott said, exiting the airlock ahead of Caleb. “He was family too.”

  “I know,” Jennifer replied as Caleb edged around them. “I’m sorry. I know you liked him.” She wrapped her arms around Scott. “I’m glad to see you too, you big idiot.” She drew back and grinned up at him.

  He returned the grin. “Good job out there. We’re only here because of you.”

  “You’re welcome,” she replied, releasing him.

  “Salutation,” Max said, he and Dag the last to cross over. “I am Max.”

  “I’m Jennifer,” she replied, staring at the Intellect.

  “Affection. I like hugs too. Hahahaha. Hahaha. Ha.”

  Jennifer hesitated before embracing the alien AI. After she let him go, she looked down at Dag. “Why not?” she said, doing her best to hug the small bot.

  “Captain, I’m going to close the interlock,” Caleb said.

  “Go ahead,” Nicholas said, he and the others making their way into the main compartment. It didn’t look any different than Foresight Two had, but somehow it felt more like home.

  “Yazz, I need a full engineering review,” Nicholas said. “If we’re safe down here for a little while, let’s make sure when we leave we’re as ready to fly as we can be. We’ll still need to get around Koth’s blockade.”

  “Yes, sir,” Yasmin replied. “I’ll be in Engineering if you need me.”

  “Macey, Scott, Briar—I want you three to head up to your racks and try to get a little rest. You too, Jennifer. Your bodies have been through a lot in the last few hours, and I need you in top shape.”

  “I’m fine, Captain,” Scott argued. “I just wasn’t expecting that last maneuver.”

  “It’s not a request,” Nicholas countered.

  “Yes, sir,” Scott replied, joining Macey and Briar as they headed to the ladder leading up to berthing.

  He turned to Caleb. “I’m not going to guess how you feel, Sergeant. You’re welcome to stick around or head to the upper deck to get some shut eye.”

  “I’ll stick around, Captain,” Caleb replied.

  Nicholas nodded, shifting his attention to Max. “You broke Dag’s chest plate. I assume you can fix it?”

  “Affirmation,” Max replied. “I can repair him. Good as new.”

  “Get started then. I’m going to park us a little bit further from our entry point just in case Koth sends anything down here after us. Then we’ll talk.”

  “Affirmation. Dag, come with me.”

  Chapter 34

  Nicholas spent nearly an hour piloting Foresight through the water, using the vectoring nozzles instead of the main thrusters to push the ship along at a relatively calm pace. He covered nearly ten kilometers before locating a chasm on the ocean floor. The thought of hiding in the depths of the gap tempted him, but it also seemed like too juicy of a hiding place for Koth to ignore, should he send anything down after them. Nicholas already knew the tentacled aliens could survive underwater. The huge one that had killed Toast had been submerged for some time in the Thames before attacking them in London. He definitely didn’t want one of those things coming after them down here. It really would be like 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.

  Instead, he guided Foresight to the edge of a rocky shelf, carefully squeezing the ship into a crevice in the formation. After allowing the ship to settle and ensuring it would remain in place against the current, he left the flight deck, ready to descend to the hold.

  He didn’t need to go that far.

  Caleb, Yasmin, Max, and Dag were in the main compartment. Dag’s chestplate was reattached, both of his arms once more available to use. Yasmin stood at the Round Table with Max, looking over a schematic of Foresight, while Caleb was slouched down in Gills’ former seat, his chin resting on his chest, his hands interlocked across his belly. He appeared to be sound asleep.

  Nicholas pointed to the projection hanging above the Round Table. “What are we looking at here?”

  Caleb stirred in his seat, eyes slipping cautiously open, obviously woken by the sound of his voice. Seeing there was no immediate threat, he let them fall closed again, leaving Nicholas to guess if he went back to sleep or not.

  “Max had some ideas on how to modify the anti-gravity system to also provide inertial dampening,” Yasmin explained. “To ease up some of the stress of hard maneuvers.”

  “I see,” Nicholas said, looking over at Max. “How much of a reduction can we achieve?”

  “Estimation. Fifty percent,” the Intellect answered.

  Nicholas stared at the projection. “See, here’s what I don’t understand, Max. You’re Aaron Grimmel, right?”

  “Consideration. Complexity. It is not as simple as you desire to make it. But for the sake of the argument, let us say I am all Aaron Grimmels. Hahahaha. Hahaha. Ha.”

  “I don’t want to go that far. But you were the Aaron Grimmel we knew. You set us up to make it to this planet and put you back together again, not that I understand the whole time shift thing. Your future becoming the present and all that.”

  “Affirmation.”

  “Then why didn’t you give us inertial dampening in the first place?”

  “Limitation. Requirement. The supercapacitors do not provide the necessary energy.”

  “But you planned for me to recover the energy unit. You expected us to have enough energy.”

  “Revision. Excessive advancement would be suspect.”

  “From dampeners? The arkships have them. They’re just too big to implement on a ship the size of Foresight.”

  “Confirmation. That is my point. Miniaturization breeds suspicion.”

  “I don’t think anyone else would have suspected you were an alien artificial intelligence casting a holographic projection over yourself, but okay, if you say so.”

  “The point is that we can upgrade some of our systems now,” Yasmin said. “I personally think it’s pretty exciting. And useful.”

  “I agree, it’s definitely useful. Getting back to Aaron Grimmel, that’s part of what I need you to explain, Max. You said you used the slip drive to insert yourself into one of the layers as Aaron Grimmel, correct?”

  “Confirmation.”

  “And based on what you said about the layers, then that would mean that all of the layers that hadn’t reached the same part of the timeline would have a benevolent alien AI masquerading as Grimmel, correct?”

  “Confirmation. Caveat. The echo of my insertion would only spread through so many layers before fading without amplification. The process must be duplicated a number of times.”

  “Okay. That doesn’t change my questions. One, who was Aaron Grimmel before you took his place? Two, how did the layers go from a benevolent Grimmel to a malevolent Grimmel, like the one that sent Sergeant Card here without the resources he needed to get around the Relyeh that had taken over?”

  “Explanation. Complexity. Aaron Grimmel was a wealthy businessman and inventor responsible for driving the innovation that allowed humankind to reach further into the stars. In the origin layer, he helped develop the generation ships used to escape the Relyeh on Earth.”

  “So you didn’t change his story that much? I always found it suspicious that so little was known about him. Yasmin, you remember. I told you he was like a ghost.”

  “I remember,” Yasmin said.

  “Explanation. My insertion occurred two centuries prior to Aaron Grimmel’s birth. I befriended Aaron Grimmel’s ancestors, working with them in various capacities over the years. Requirement. It was necessary to slip in early to disrupt Koth’s efforts of location. He followed me through the slip multiple times, but could not devine my intentions. Hahahaha. Hahaha. Haha. Amplification. Nearly thirty times before Koth understood.”

  “You put yourself into a layer to repeat the benevolent Grimmel thirty times?”

  “Affirmation.”

  “But we’re the first to succeed in restoring your cortex,” Yasmin said. “What happened with the others? Why didn’t they succeed?”

  “Explanation. Shub’Nigu tasked Koth to traverse the layers and make alterations that would improve the Relyeh’s odds of total victory within the stack. Periphery. This task seems straightforward. It is not. Too many alterations or the wrong kind of alterations risk shifting the narrative of the layer beyond recognition.”

  “Like replacing the ladyfingers in the tiramisu with Oreos,” Nicholas said.

  “Hahahaha. Hahaha. Haha. Imprecise. More accurately adding chocolate chips to the ladyfingers.”

  “Point being, if he makes too big of a wave, it might crash down on him too,” Yasmin said. “And change the layer enough that he has no idea what’s going to happen next.”

  “Which defeats the purpose of changing it in the first place,” Nicholas added. “Because he could actually make things worse for himself and the Relyeh.”

  “Affirmation. Alteration is delicate work.”

  “So how did you know what changes to make safely?” Nicholas asked.

  “Negation. I did not. Decision. To counter Koth requires anomalies. His alterations cannot be negated without assistance.”

  “And you picked me to help you,” Nicholas said. “Why? Out of all the people in the universe. You could have selected Caleb. He’s ten times the warrior I am.”

  “Negation. I require you. No offense to Caleb Card, but he is a terrible pilot. Hahahahaha. Hahaha. Haha. Admiration. You, Nicholas, are the best.”

  “I doubt that’s true,” Nicholas said.

  “And he’s so modest,” Yasmin added, shoulder bumping him.

  “Do you know the alterations Koth has made, then?” Nicholas asked.

  “Negation.”

  “What about the malevolent Grimmel?” Caleb asked, awake and listening now.

  “Negation. There can be no malevolent Grimmel. Only Max starring as Grimmel. Explanation. Two dimensions may be thousands of layers apart, but only minutes apart in their unique timeline. As such, one amplified alteration may lead to a slightly different outcome than in another. Vis a vis, one Max who is more prepared, another who is less prepared.”

  “We’re not talking a little less, Max,” Caleb countered. “They have Dag, the Swarm, and an unlimited power supply, among other things. We had guns and armor and little else.”

  Max didn’t respond right away, as though he was thinking about the problem. “Uncertainty.”

  “Could it be Koth?”

  “Affirmation. It is possible Koth made an alteration by capturing a version of myself before I became fully self-aware and inserted me in Aaron Grimmel’s place.”

  Nicholas glared at Max. The answer lacked the Intellect’s usual tone. Could he be lying? “Are you sure?”

  “Negation. Uncertainty. I do not know. But I do know that in your origin layer, Koth had Luke Shepherd killed. Koth also tried to stop you from using the slip drive. If he had succeeded, the event would have echoed across the layers, and perhaps you would have never arrived to return my backup to my body.”

  “Which you split why? Because you knew Koth would find you otherwise?” Yasmin asked.

  “Affirmation.”

  “Why didn’t he take the orb? Your backup?” Nicholas questioned.

  “Information. He didn’t know it was there. Koth rarely leaves his dreadnought. He can control any of the Hunger through their Collective. He has no reason to go anywhere in person. But the xaxkluth lack the intelligence to understand the importance of the orb even if they knew it existed. The khoron might know its value, but it didn’t know it was here.”

  “I take it xaxkluth are the squids?” Nicholas asked.

  “Confirmation.”

  “What about the Collective?” Yasmin said. “What’s that?”

  “Every Relyeh has an organ composed of special fibrous, conductive muscle that connects them to one another at a quantum level, linking to a network that exists in a pocket universe outside the stack. Any Relyeh can read the thoughts of another Relyeh no matter where in spacetime they are. The most powerful, the Ancients, can also control others or probe their minds through the Collective.”

  “That’s some trick.”

  “Affirmation. Intention. To stop the Hunger, we must undo Luke’s death and stop Koth from initiating new alterations.”

  “How do you propose we do that when he just finished kicking our tails?” Nicholas asked. “We don’t have enough firepower to stop him.”

  “Negation. We do not currently. Maybe we will. Requirement. Get past the blockade. Activate the slip. Save Luke. And then go to The Place.”

  “What place?”

  “The Place,” Max repeated.

  “Does it have a name?”

  “The Place.”

  “So the name of the place is The Place?” Nicholas asked.

  “ The place is The Place,” Max replied. “ Hahahaha. Hahaha. Haha.”

  “Of course, why not?” Nicholas shook his head. “I need to get a little rest before we go anywhere. I’m exhausted.”

  “Me too,” Yasmin agreed.

  “Max, I trust you and Dag can keep an eye on things while we sleep? I assume you don’t need rest.”

  “Confirmation. We do not. We will keep watch.”

  “One last question,” Nicholas said. “You told us you took Aaron Grimmel’s place. He just let you replace him?”

  “Negation. I killed him in his sleep. Hahahaha. Hahaha. Haha.”

  Nicholas stared at the Intellect. There was nothing funny about that, but Max either didn’t realize it or didn’t care. He and Yasmin looked at each other, and he could tell they were both thinking the same thing. What did the Axon AI really think of their importance, or lack thereof, as humans?

  And could they really trust him?

  Did they even have a choice?

  Chapter 35

  When he awoke, Nicholas didn’t know how long he’d been asleep. It seemed like barely ten minutes, though his dreams suggested much longer. His subconscious had tried to work through his experiences of the last day and a half, leaving him with mental imagery filled with tentacles and violence, his heart racing and his body in a cold, clammy sweat.

  He found immediate comfort in Yasmin, lying beside him on the mattress inside their shared bunk. He stared at her face for a minute while his heart rate calmed, pleased to see she seemed to be resting peacefully. It was a shame it had taken such outsized events to bring them closer together again. To allow them to spend time like this. Falling asleep next to one another was something they had both taken for granted for a long time. But no longer. All they had was each other now. He hoped neither one of them would forget that anytime soon.

  He did his best to get out of the bunk without waking her, slowly removing the thin sheet covering them both and lifting his leg over her thighs until he straddled her. Pausing there to ensure she didn’t wake, he took in her face from this new angle before reaching for the bottom of the screen to lift it aside.

  Yasmin’s eyes opened. She flinched, pushing her head further back into the pillow, surprised to find him looming over her until she realized he had been on his way out. “Nick, don’t go yet,” she whispered, reaching up to cup his cheek. “Let’s just lay here for a while. I can’t remember the last time we snuggled.”

  Nicholas smiled, lowering himself toward her. She picked her head up, their mouths meeting in the middle. The kiss wasn’t overtly passionate, but it was the most emotion-packed connection they had made in what seemed to him like years. He wrapped his arm around her back, supporting her as their lips parted in a moment of tenderness he had almost forgotten could exist between them.

  Laughter from outside the bunk caused them both to freeze. Nicholas removed his hand from Yasmin’s back, and she dropped flat again. He had also almost forgotten they had a trio of minors making up the bulk of their crew, and the privacy shield was opaque but not sound-proof.

  At least they weren’t laughing at them. The sound had come from too far away. Most likely the kitchen.

  Yasmin smiled beneath him. “It’s like that time Luke came home sick from school and nearly walked in on us.”

  Nicholas nodded. “I’m surprised you wanted to even...do this again.”

  “You’re the one consistent thing I have, Nick. You always have been. Even when we had problems, you were still there for me. My emotions are all over the place right now, but the one thing I’m more sure of than ever is that I’m fortunate to have a husband like you. There’s nothing wrong with connection and comfort, even in the midst of grief. If we let that consume us, we’ll die. Worse...we’ll fail.”