Page 111 of Star-Born Anomaly
Everything she saw made more questions erupt in her mind.
“How does this exist?” She leaned forward to watch one arm disappear beneath the ship. “How are people protected? Is there shielding?”
“In a manner of speaking.”
She reached and grabbed his arm. “Iax. Talk to me straight here. I’m kind of freaking out. Please explain to me how this is possible.”
He turned his head and met her gaze, then stared at her a long while before he gave her a nod. “Everything you see is connected. Life. Death. Birth and rebirth. Nothing exists on its own. Everything is shared, distributed. What makes up the outer shell of our territory also makes up the outer part of me. We are stronger because of it.”
She snorted. “That’s a long explanation tonottell me what the heck I’m looking at.”
His mouth twitched, then he faced forward again. “It is both organic and inorganic working in tandem.”
The central mass of the structure distracted her from more questions, because she finally,finally, recognized something.
Within the confines of the black twisting shapes, the appendage of a ship stretched outward, its white metal composite contrasting with the organic forms. More transparent corridors existed here, all leading to the center, these mostly parallel with each other instead of twisting in all directions.
“That’s theCalypso, isn’t it?” she asked, standing to get a better look at the ancient ship.
“Yes. It is our heart. Our birth.”
“Does it still fly? Or has it been altered irreparably?”
His head tilted, but he didn’t answer.
Too classified? Or something else?
Movement caught her eye, and she leaned forward to stare around Iax. A small ship, something like she might see on Earth, traveled between the larger, bulbous shapes. More of them flew behind it.So many.She’d thought they were stars in the distance, but no, the expanse of the nebula hid the stars. Little ships buzzed everywhere, from the center of the structure and beyond.
And it extended so far. She tried to think of a station or colony that rivaled it in size, but her mind grasped no comparison. Nothing in orbit around a planet or moon.
That’s it.It was like theCalypsohad turned itself into a planet.
Its size only increased as they flew closer. Soon, the central structure’s vastness obstructed everything. She focused on the one part she could identify, the engine connected to engineering, then found more. The biodome stood out among the bands of black encompassing it.
Iax circled downward, then sidled up to one of the transparent arms that spiraled from below.
Wynn had all but forgotten her fear as she’d taken it all in, but it returned tenfold when she heard the ship connect with the arm. Thehollow sound reminded her of a docking clamp. She hadn’t seen a docking hatch, but air hissed around the door.
The controls powered off, and Iax stood. Wynn found her feet glued to the deck, her fingers tight on the edge of the main terminal.
“They are waiting,” he said after a moment.
“Who?”
“The Four.”
The names he’d told her bounced around in her head, and with them, the memory of Briar Galloway’s face at her birth.
Resolve straightened Wynn’s spine, and she stood to meet Iax’s gaze straight on. The Four had a lot of explaining to do, and she wouldn’t rest until she got answers.
When Iax reached for her hand, she took it willingly. A steady feeling swept over her. She might be nervous about what she was about to find on this strange station, but she had Iax at her side. That meant more than anything.
Swallowing, they stopped in front of the exit. The airlock released, then the door slid open. She almost expected to be sucked out into space at how flimsy the corridor looked, but warm air entered, accompanied with the scent of something earthy and moist.
“No harm will come to you,” he said, gently tugging her forward.
Wynn gripped his hand tight, and he squeezed hers back. The action grounded her and stalled the spinning sensation that wanted to take hold.
