“I agree. Consider yourself an honorary member.”

  Siraj laughed. “Thank you, Prime.”

  “You should consider yourself highly commended as well,” Tyson said. “You and your team. Unfortunately, I don’t have anything to reward you with. Only my admiration and appreciation.”

  “We’ll take it,” Joseph said.

  “Prime, you should know,” Morales said. “I’ve got the drones all sweeping the ship. No sign of any more little black boogers.”

  Tyson raised an eyebrow toward the Guardian.

  “What?” Morales said. “They do look like boogers. Sir.”

  “They do,” West agreed. “Or little killer Shmoos.”

  “What’s that?” Joseph asked.

  “Don’t tell me you don’t know Shmoo.”

  “No.”

  “Before your time, I guess.”

  “Before your time too, Second,” Tyson said. “But I know what you mean. Anyway, Doctor Rose is working on a means to definitively assure the ship is clean. She expects it will take a few weeks to implement.”

  “There’s no need,” Joseph said. “It’s gone.”

  Tyson flinched in surprise. “You seem very sure of yourself.”

  Joseph nodded. “The entity almost got me. Second West killed it before it could destroy my mind and steal my body. But I touched it, and it touched me. It spoke to me. I have this vague sense of it now. Like I know the sample is there. I can’t pinpoint it. All I can say is that the…I’m not really sure how to describe it…the essence?...is reduced.”

  “You’re sure it’s gone?”

  “Yes.”

  “I’ll expect a full debriefing on the entire experience. I also want Doctor Okoye to run every test he has on you, to ensure you’re as healthy as you seem. I might bring Doctor Rose in to help analyze the results. What you’re describing sounds more like magic than science.”

  “Yes, sir. It felt a little bit that way too. But I think it’s science, just older and more advanced than anything we understand.”

  “Don’t take this the wrong way, but I intend to have Doctor Rose continue her work, just so we can be sure.”

  “It’s a good idea. I would probably think I’m crazy too.”

  “I’m going to check in on the other injured,” Tyson said. “I want all of you to rest up. With the ship on autonav and the added acceleration, we should still make the outer solar system in two week’s time. I expect the new Guardians to be ready to assume their duties at that time.”

  “New Guardians, sir?” Joseph asked.

  “There are only six of you remaining,” Tyson explained. “Not nearly enough to see us through to Avalon. Plus, sealing Metro early means we have crew on the outside who were supposed to be in the city. Engineers and bridge rotations. Nearly thirty spacemen in all. We have enough pods for all of them. But they don’t get a free ride to our new home.”

  “Understood, sir.”

  “I’m one of your new recruits,” Siraj said.

  “Not so honorary after all,” West said.

  “No. I was scheduled to spend the entire journey in stasis, but I want to do my part.”

  “We’re happy to have you,” Joseph said. He looked at Tyson. “Should I expect a demotion, sir?”

  “No,” Tyson replied. “There are no ranks in the Guardians. Only a Prime and a Second. When Commander Siraj has completed her current duties, she’ll be your subordinate until we arrive at Avalon. Besides, you’ve more than earned your position.”

  “Thank you, sir.”

  Tyson left Morales in the room with Joseph and West, heading back to offer thanks and encouragement to Madani and Alesso. He had special words of thanks for Madani, who helped protect him on the bridge.

  Once that was done, he and Siraj started making their way back to the bridge. There was little they could do from there. The ship was on automatic, guiding itself through the stars, Metro was sealed off, the alien threat eliminated, at least according to Joseph. Maybe now he could take a minute to relax.

  “Well, Captain?” Siraj said as they walked.

  “Yes, Commander?”

  “I think you still owe me a walk through the ship. So you can get familiarized.”

  Tyson smiled. “Yes, I guess I do.”

  “I’ve got some time now.”

  Tyson laughed. “Me too.”

  Tyson pointed to a junction ahead. “I don’t think I’ve ever gone to the right from there.”

  “Then we’ll go right. Maybe you can explain what a Shmoo is while we explore.”

  “I’ll do my best.”

  62

  Cross

  Pioneer. Officer’s Stasis Chamber. 11.27.2052. 0900 hours.

  Joseph stood outside the secured hatch leading into the officer’s stasis chamber, located in a small compartment behind the conference room and a heavy blast door. Captain Grant was still down in sickbay with Doctor Okoye, getting prepared for immersion into the hibernation pod that would preserve his life during the long journey to Avalon. It was a preparation Joseph would need to do himself when the time came, which included using a laser tool to remove every single hair on his body. The procedure was imperative to entering stasis because the cold gel filling the pod held an electrical charge to stimulate the muscles, and growth of any kind could disrupt it, potentially causing atrophy in the affected area. As it was, the gel would also inhibit the regrowth of that hair. When Grant came out of the pod over two centuries from now, he would be ten years older and as bald as when he entered.

  “Captain Grant is on the way up, Prime,” West said, her voice coming out of his comm badge. She was down in the CIC, keeping an eye on things at the command station. Her mobility remained limited for the time being, the damage to her replacement legs too severe to repair and no new augments available to get her walking again. Oslo and Okoye were still working on a plan to use what they did have, but it would take time before they could fashion something suitable.

  “Copy that,” Joseph replied.

  West was handling the situation well. Her spirits were good. It was easier to manage knowing the ship was safe, and that Grant couldn’t send her to Metro if he wanted to. The city was sealed tight, closed in and locked until Pioneer was orbiting Avalon, at which point the ship’s computer would assess the status of the vessel’s interior and decide whether or not to open the locks.

  Assuming Governor Nash had learned his lesson about using his power to open the seals ahead of time. He had no way of knowing the alien threat was eliminated or that the ship was clean. Rose’s work on a detection system had proven it was the case. Reprogrammed Dragonflies had scanned every centimeter of the bulkheads and compartments and found no evidence of Iagorth’s remains. Even the membrane was gone, gladly burned to ash by Joseph in a ceremonial act of final liberation.

  Joseph still couldn’t get the entity completely out of his head. Alone in his barracks room, listening to the steady hum of the reactors, he sometimes felt like he could hear the alien speaking to him in the same repetitive phrases he had heard it speak before. When he closed his eyes, sometimes he saw his sister, both in the flesh and in the oily black residue. And sometimes he saw the horrific mouth of grinding teeth threatening to tear him apart.

  Iagorth, the Devourer of the Relyeh, was gone from Pioneer. But a part of the entity remained in Joseph, having reached inside him and nearly stolen his life.

  “PRIME, ARE YOU OKAY?” Guardian Siraj asked.

  Joseph looked over at her. She had taken to his crash-course in combat training well, attacking his lessons with the same passion he imagined her using when learning to command a Naval vessel, and then to be XO of humankind’s first starship. She had passed that passion on to some of the other recruits, her leadership skills helping liven up her fellow recruits and turn them into valuable assets. With thirty Guardians instead of twenty, they would be able to rotate shifts less frequently and arrive in Avalon younger than originally planned. He would be forty-two when they arrived. Not bad at all.

  “Yeah,” he replied. “I’m good.”

  “You get this look in your eye sometimes,” Siraj said. “This lost expression, like you forgot where you are or where you’re going. Or even who you are.”

  Joseph nodded. “I feel that way sometimes. Okoye ran all the tests he had and everything came back normal. But something’s different. I feel like it’s dangling just out of reach, like a carrot on a stick. Sometimes I feel trapped.”

  “By what?”

  “I don’t know. Myself?” He shook his head. “It doesn’t make any sense.”

  “It doesn’t need to. You’ve been through a lot. Time heals all wounds.”

  “I hope so.”

  They fell silent, coming to attention as the outer hatch to the pre-chamber opened and Captain Grant stepped in, along with Chief Oslo and the two surviving members of engineering. They were all dressed in simple white gowns and slippers, heads shaved, eyebrows and eyelashes gone. Joseph didn’t think the look suited Grant. It made him look older and more diminutive, like he had just escaped a mental hospital.

  “Captain Grant,” he said. “Guardian Prime Cross and Guardian Siraj reporting as ordered, sir.”

  “At ease,” Grant said. Joseph and Siraj fell into parade rest, each standing on either side of the stasis chamber door. Captain Grant reached up, rubbing his face. “I should have used the laser this whole time, instead of a razor. I don’t think I’ve ever been this smooth before.”

  “Yes, sir,” Joseph said. “It’ll be my turn in a couple of years.”

  “And mine sooner than that,” Siraj added. “I’m not in the first rotation.”

  “Who did you decide to pair up with, Prime?” Grant asked.

  “One of the recruits. Guardian Rojas. He’s a little behind the others, and I’d like to get him up to speed.”

  “You won’t get any arguments from me. I trust you to do the right thing. And to wake me if there’s any hint of trouble.”

  “Of course, Captain. You and Chief Oslo both. But I think the worst is behind us.”

  “Let’s hope so, Prime.”

  Grant stepped between Joseph and Siraj, swiping his ID to open the stasis chamber door. He led the group into the room, where a series of pods waited in two rows of six. Each one was shaped like a pill, with a window along the top and a display and terminal beside it. Wires and tubes ran out of the bottom and into the bulkhead and floor, to equipment beneath the deck.

  Grant headed for the first pod near the bulkhead. “Guardian Siraj, will you do the honors?” he asked.

  “Of course, sir,” Siraj replied.

  She joined him there, pulling out the control pad and tapping on it to activate the display. He swiped his ID against it and his name and image appeared on the display, registering him to the pod. The top half of the machine swung open, revealing a comfortable gel padding on the bottom. There was no liquid in it yet.

  Captain Grant bent and removed his slippers before pulling his gown up and over his head, leaving him naked beside the pod. He shivered slightly, goosebumps lining his arms as he climbed into the machine, shifting into a comfortable prone position.

  “Are you okay, sir?” Joseph asked.

  “A little cold,” Grant replied. “A bit nervous.”

  “Understandable,” Siraj said. “You’ll be fine.”

  “I will. Prime, Pioneer is yours now. Take good care of her for me.”

  “I will, sir,” Joseph said.

  “Thank you. Initialize the hibernation.”

  “Aye aye, Captain.”

  Siraj tapped on the control pad. The lid of the pod rotated closed, thunking and hissing as it sealed. The soft hum of a pump followed, and then the gel began feeding into the chamber, filling quickly from above Grant’s shoulders and between his feet. The display showed Grant’s heartbeat in the corner, quickly increasing with his anxiety. It spiked even more when the gel covered his mouth and he breathed it into his lungs, reaching nearly one hundred seventy beats per minute for a few seconds. Then Grant realized he wasn’t drowning despite his lungs being filled with the gel, and it began to slow. Then the machine began to freeze the gel and it slowed even more, Grant’s eyes closed peacefully, his beats per minute dropping all the way down to five.

  “Hibernation successful,” Siraj said.

  “Sleep well, Captain,” Joseph added.

  63

  Cross

  Pioneer. Guardian Module. 12.25.2052. 1600 hours.

  “Merry Christmas, Prime,” Hoffman said, offering Joseph a short embrace.

  “Merry Christmas, Janet,” he replied.

  The other Guardians were repeating the well-wishes across the Guardian module. It didn’t matter if not all of them had ever celebrated Christmas before, or that not all of them were Christian or even religious at all. That wasn’t the point. Today was a moment of solemn celebration, the last day that the full contingent of Guardians would be awake for the ride to Avalon. The date made it easy to come up with a reason to celebrate, to give thanks and to say goodbye.

  There was no alcohol to be had. No fancy meals with all of the fixings. Only meal bars, though today Thanksgiving Dinner was more popular than ever, as was Apple Pie. The Guardians had grown close over the last month of togetherness, especially since their burgeoning numbers had meant swapping the beds in some of the rooms with two-person bunks. They were a unit, but also a quickly formed family.

  Joseph was going to miss them all.

  “Merry Christmas, Prime,” Siraj said, making her way to Joseph’s place near the CIC’s command station. “How do I look?”

  Most of the Guardians were ready for hibernation, already lasered and bald. Joseph was surprised to see how well Siraj was able to pull off the look. He wouldn’t have guessed when she had first started training with them that the overweight XO would get into shape so quickly, or that she could pull off hairlessness so well. She still wasn’t a small woman—her overall figure made that impossible—but she could keep up with any of them in the gym or during training runs.

  “You know I can’t answer that,” he replied with a smile. “I’m not falling into that trap.”

  She laughed. “When I’m a Commander again, I’ll order you to answer me.”

  Joseph laughed back. “You’ll have to court-martial me.”

  “Prime,” Morales said, coming up behind him and putting his arm over his shoulder. “Are you flirting with the Commander again?”

  “Are you flirting with me again?” Joseph countered.

  “Always,” Morales said.

  “Should I leave you two alone?” Siraj asked.

  “I’m going to miss you,” Morales told Joseph. “Seriously, amigo.”

  “No you won’t. Time passes in an instant when you’re hibernating. You’ll literally be awake again before you know it.”

  “Not during my duty cycles.”

  “Fair enough. But we’ll see each other again.”

  “Count on it, Sarge.”

  Joseph’s eyes shifted when the door to the module opened and West rolled in, freshly out of sick bay and prepped for hibernation. Siraj and Morales noticed too, and they immediately cut him out of their conversation, leaving him to go to her.

  She smiled as he walked over, though Joseph could see the hint of sadness in her eyes. Okoye had been unsuccessful in fashioning new legs, leaving her confined to the makeshift wheelchair. While the result was tough for her to accept, she was fighting through it with her typical strength and dignity, doing her best to hide the disappointment Joseph knew she was feeling. Once she went to sleep, she wouldn’t wake until they arrived. She couldn’t fulfill her duties as a Guardian, and he knew it was hurting her more than her inability to walk.

  “Prime,” she said when he reached her. “Is it me, or is there a draft in here?”

  He smiled with her, kneeling to get to eye level. “Merry Christmas, Keesh.” He put his arms out, and she leaned forward so he could take her in a longer, more powerful embrace. They had been through so much together. It was impossible for him not to have his own emotional turmoil from her situation.

  “Merry Christmas, Joe,” she replied.

  He pulled back to look into her eyes again. “Are you ready for this?”

  “As ready as I can be. What about you?”

  “It’s going to be lonely out here without the rest of the Guardians. And especially without you.”

  “You’ll have Rojas.”

  “He’s a good kid, but it won’t be the same.”

  “I know.”

  “Well, everyone’s prepped and ready. We probably shouldn’t linger too long, or make the goodbyes any harder than they need to be.”

  “Probably not.” West turned her head so she wouldn’t scream in his face. “Guardians. Attention!”

  The conversations all stopped, the twenty-eight other Guardians snapping to attention where they stood.

  “They’re ready for you, Prime,” she said.

  “Thank you,” Joseph replied.

  He straightened up and turned around. Every eye was on him, every face a mixed expression of hope and fear. Rojas stood out like a sore thumb in the room, his dark hair a beacon among the sea of bald heads.

  Joseph wasn’t sure what he wanted to say or how to say it. He had never been one for big speeches or pep talks. He always preferred to let his actions speak loudest. He decided to just start talking, and whatever came out, came out.

  “I want to take a moment of silence, in remembrance of all of the brave men and women who gave their lives so that we could be here today. From the members of the armed services of every nation on Earth, to the original members of the Guardians who didn’t make it this far. As Pioneer continues its journey toward our new home, let us take this opportunity to give thanks to the sacrifices they made.”

  He bowed his head, closing his eyes and focusing on his heartbeat, loud in his ears. He recited the names of the Guardians they had lost in his mind. Chun, Turani, Tran, Bourne and Sykes. He remembered the men and women he had served with on Earth too. Colonel Hale and all of the others, especially his brothers and sisters in the Magnificent Bastards. He thought of the scientists, technicians, engineers, mechanics and the thousands of others who had come together to design and build Pioneer and the ships like her. The people who had given them the chance to be here now.