“Are you sure?” Derek asked for what had to be the hundredth time.

  From NOVA’s speakers, Vanda released a flawless simulation of an exasperated sigh. “Yes, Derek. None of the data you’ve gathered matches the star charts in my possession. We still don’t know where we are in the galaxy.”

  He dragged a hand through his hair and paced the room, weaving between tools and armor scraps littering the floor.

  The workshop was chaos incarnate, and by now he barely registered it. Ithara hovered around NOVA, her motions deliberate yet strange, like she was preparing an altar instead of repairing armor.

  When she began carving runes into the floor, he had clamped his mouth shut. No sense asking questions. Her answers would be as baffling to him as his rambling on quantum mechanics and NOVA’s neural interface would be to her.

  He froze and turned toward NOVA’s speakers, where Vanda’s voice poured out smooth and alive. “What about the name Elyndra? Ring any bells?”

  “Let me see… ah, yes! There it is.”

  Derek’s jaw slackened, pulse kicking up. If Vanda had found Elyndra, she could chart a way home- Maybe even fire off a message if they weren’t too far. “You’re serious?” His voice came out tight, almost breathless.

  “No,” Vanda said flatly. “There’s no planet called Elyndra in the databases. There is, however, a lake named Elandra. Supposed to be lovely in the warmer months.”

  The spark in his chest guttered out. He dropped into a stiff wooden chair that groaned under his weight. “Vanda… you’re getting more unbearable by the day.”

  “That’s because I’m getting to know you.”

  His mouth twisted into a grimace.

  Vanda let out a thoughtful hum. “Scans show your serotonin levels are low. Your MHPG is practically flatlined.”

  He arched a brow. “I’m good with physics and cybernetics, not physiology. Translate?”

  “That you are… depressed.”

  A rough hand pressed to his forehead. “You sure about that?”

  “Yes, Derek. I even fabricated the Elyndra report just to give you good news, and even then your levels barely twitched.”

  “Oh great, now you’re running experiments on me?”

  “May I ask what’s troubling you? Other than the usual things, I mean.” Her tone ignored the jab entirely.

  He tilted his head. “You mean aside from losing the Kolaar Node the second I had it, being stranded on a rock with no way off, surrounded by zealots who think I’m their Messiah, and dodging monsters that try to eat me every other day?”

  “Correct. Aside from that.”

  A sharp huff burst from him. “Can’t you stay out of my business and my bloodwork? My serotonin’s my problem.”

  “Monitoring your emotional state to maintain peak mission efficiency is part of my directive.”

  He shook his head. “Trust me, this isn’t something you can patch up.”

  “Does it concern your last conversation with Isabelle Blackwood?”

  The chair screeched against the floor as he shot to his feet. “Vanda, I said it’s none of your damn business.”

  She pressed on, unshaken. “Yesterday you visited Alyra at her school. How did that go?”

  His jaw locked tight as he snatched what looked like a screwdriver off the table. “Keep pushing, and I swear I’ll uninstall you.”

  “I don’t believe that’s possible with a screwdriver,” Vanda replied evenly.

  A hand clamped around his wrist, halting him mid-motion.

  Ithara eased the tool from his grip. “This… is not a screwdriver,” she said with deliberate care. “It’s a magical flow modulator. If you poke something as saturated with power as your armor without knowing what you’re doing…” Her gaze cut sharp into his.

  Derek blinked. “Boom?”

  She gave a single grave nod, then swept the tool into a small wooden cabinet, securing it with two sharp turns of a heavy key. She slipped the key into her pocket and returned to NOVA, her glare lingering long enough to make her point.

  A bead of sweat traced down Derek’s temple. The workshop suddenly felt stifling.

  “So,” Vanda said, tone clipped and professional. “You were telling me about your issues with Isabelle and Alyra.”

  Derek rolled his eyes to the ceiling. The routine was wearing thin. “For God’s sake, Vanda, what do you want me to say? Isabelle’s still the same zealot she’s always been. She shoved a Death sphere into Alyra’s hands just to pull me out of the fire, all because she thinks I’m the bloody Messiah here to save her world. Shocking, right?”

  “And what do you intend to do?”

  Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

  He snorted. “Stay clear of her. Same way I’ll stay clear of screwdrivers in this cursed lab.”

  “I see,” Vanda said evenly. “And Alyra?”

  His eyes dropped, and his voice followed. “I… tried to explain who I really am, what I used to do before I came here.” He cast a nervous glance at Ithara and cleared his throat. She was absorbed in her work and paying them no mind, but it still felt safer not to mention his career as a thief. “What I still do, actually. If she ever decided to leave this planet with me, she deserved to know what she was getting into.”

  “So now she knows?”

  A frown creased his face, and after a beat he gave a reluctant nod. Somehow the idea didn’t feel so clever anymore.

  Vanda let the silence drag on so long he almost checked if she was still online. “And how did Alyra react to learning that the person becoming her only anchor in this world, after losing her family, was nothing more than a liar?”

  And a thief.

  Derek raked a hand through his hair and forced a crooked smile. “Didn’t go over too well, from what I could tell.”

  “I wonder why.”

  He shrugged. “The girl’s strong. She’ll be better off without me.”

  “Well,” Vanda said, “that clears things up nicely.”

  Derek folded his arms and scowled. “Oh yeah? Great. So you’ll leave me alone now?”

  “Derek,” Vanda said. “Tunga has returned to his tribe for now. Isabelle and Alyra have both distanced themselves from you… you’re alone.”

  He stretched a smile across his face that didn’t reach his eyes. “I’ve got Erasmus to keep me company.”

  “Do you trust him?”

  Derek blew out a sigh. “Not even a little.”

  “But I’ve got Ithara!” He pointed at her like he’d just won an argument.

  The scholar turned with one brow arched. “I am… flattered you remember me, even after Erasmus.” Her stare flattened, then she went back to her work.

  “Derek,” Vanda said, “you’re more alone now than you’ve been in quite some time. I believe that—”

  He threw his arms wide. “Bullshit! I’m fine on my own. And to feel better I sure as hell don’t need crazed savages, religious fanatics, or little girls who still believe in Santa Claus.”

  “Are you certain?” Vanda asked.

  A sharp kick sent a chunk of metal skidding across the floor, the clang echoing through the workshop. “If I’m depressed, it’s because I’ve got no clue how to get off this galactic armpit. The Church, the heretics, the Death Cult, the list of people trying to kill me gets longer every damn day. And the only thing that’s kept me breathing so far”—he jabbed a finger at NOVA—“looks like it went through a meat grinder.”

  “No, Derek. You haven’t been this motivated to find a way off this planet in a long time. They’ve already tried to kill you, and NOVA has already been badly damaged. We’ve been in the Citadel for days, yet only now do you bother to look for star maps. You want to escape because you think you’ve lost the people you were starting to bond with.”

  His jaw tightened. This conversation was getting ridiculous. “Vanda, cut the crap. I won’t say it again.”

  “Perhaps she is right,” Ithara said. She was crouched on the floor, carving strange symbols into the stone.

  He sighed. “Don’t you start too.”

  “I only mean her reasoning is logical.”

  “Thanks for the input, Ithara. Now go back to ruining your own floor with that chisel.”

  Her brows furrowed as she shook her head.

  Derek stepped closer to NOVA’s speakers, eyes narrowing as his voice dropped. “I want out because this place is a lot more than it looked at first. Remember when we thought it was just a theme park? Well, here’s what I’ve learned. Looks like the humans on this planet were brought here four or five thousand years ago.”

  It took Vanda a moment to respond. “What is the source of this information?”

  Derek smirked. “My new buddy Erasmus. I asked him to dig up the earliest prophecies about the Cashnar, and he said they date back to that era.”

  “That’s impossible.”

  He shook his head. “No, it isn’t. The Wardilai—”

  “The Wardilai disappeared long before then,” Vanda cut in. “They were already gone from the galaxy when the Egyptians founded their first kingdom.”

  “Well, gone from the sites we know. Maybe before vanishing entirely they stopped here, on Elyndra.”

  “Assuming Elyndra is even in our galaxy. And why would they bring humans with them?”

  Derek scratched his head. “How should I know? Maybe they wanted pets?” He froze. “Wait. Why did you say ‘assuming Elyndra is in our galaxy’?”

  “Derek, I’ve been analyzing stellar cartography since we arrived. I just added the astronomical data Erasmus provided, and… it seems their people are excellent astronomers.”

  His pulse kicked up. The last thing he cared about was their astronomy. “What are you getting at, Vanda?”

  “That after all my calculations, I still can’t pinpoint a single reference point or any known celestial body to orient us.”

  The strength drained from his legs. He dropped into the hard wooden chair, staring at nothing. “Which means we might not even be in the Milky Way anymore.”

  His palm pressed to his forehead, heat rising under the skin. Even with a starship, it wouldn’t matter. No one crossed the gulf between galaxies, not with any tech he’d ever seen.

  Maybe the Wardilai had managed it once, but according to Erasmus they’d disappeared from this planet thousands of years ago, right after leaving behind the ancestors of Elyndra’s humans.

  “Vanda…” His voice was raw.

  “Yes, Derek?”

  “How the hell do I get home?”

  “I don’t know. Perhaps the same way you arrived.”

  He turned to NOVA, a spark of hope flaring in his chest. “You mean…?”

  “Yes. Another Kolaar Node might send you back. After all, one was responsible for bringing you here.”

  He shook his head, firm and sharp. “Vanda, that thing lit up on its own. I wouldn’t even know where to start, assuming I could even find another one on this planet. If I start poking at it here, in this pre-industrial magical mess, odds are I’ll just blow myself to pieces like Yuki… and I wouldn’t even know why.”

  A metallic clink snapped his head around.

  Ithara had picked up a small tool from the floor. “I’ll help you. If this Kolaar Node you keep talking about is tied to Orbisar’s magic, I’ll help you figure out how it works and keep you from blowing yourself up like you almost did with that ‘screwdriver.’” She gave a weak smile.

  His mouth hung open. Puzzle pieces began sliding into place in his mind.

  Ithara and her knowledge might be the key.

  Finding another Kolaar Node wouldn’t mean a damn thing if he didn’t know how to use it. Even if he dragged it back to his lab, odds were he’d end up vaporized, just like Yuki. Maybe what he and Yuki had never grasped was that they hadn’t been dealing with alien technology at all.

  But with that insane stuff they called magic.

  And Ithara knew magic better than anyone he had ever met. “You… you’d do that for me? I know you’re passionate about working on NOVA, but you don’t have to—”

  Her gray-blue eyes, framed by a tumble of copper hair, fixed on his with startling intensity. “No problem. Truly.”

  Derek cleared his throat, heat rising in his neck. “Well, I don’t… I don’t know what to say.”

  “Try ‘thank you,’” Vanda said.

  He nodded and rubbed the back of his neck. “Well, thanks, Ithara. If there’s ever anything I can do…”

  “Take me with you,” Ithara said.

  Derek blinked. “What?”

  “Yes, take me with you. I want to see the stars. I want to learn everything about the world that can build something like NOVA.” She clasped her hands to her chest as if in prayer. “There’s an ocean of knowledge I’ll never reach if I stay locked inside this Citadel.”

  A smile tugged at Derek’s lips. “If we really are in another galaxy, and if the Kolaar Node really is the only way out, I can’t promise I’ll be able to take anyone with me. Hell, I’m not even sure I’ll make it out myself. But if you help me, I promise I’ll try.”

  Ithara’s lips curved into a smile that lit her entire face. “Then I’ll help you, and together we’ll find a way to reach the stars.”

  He nodded. “But first, we need to put NOVA back together.” Derek glanced at his power armor—still mostly dismantled, its pieces scattered across the floor—and raised a brow.

  Ithara followed his gaze. “I think I’ve just finished.”

  He frowned. “Finished what?”

  “The Death energy was trying to overwhelm the other flows inside your armor. But I believe I managed to stabilize it. I created barriers in the magic conduits to contain it, and now I think it’s under control.”

  Derek grimaced. “Couldn’t you just get rid of the stuff altogether? I mean, sure, it came in handy—helped me shred that giant corpse-monster, which was awesome—but it feels too damn dangerous to keep around. And trust me, my risk tolerance is sky-high.”

  The scholar shook her head. “Even if I forced it out, I couldn’t control that much power. Not even the defenses in the simulator could contain it. That kind of energy would kill every living being within a radius of…” She gave a helpless shrug. “It’s so unstable I can’t even calculate the distance. But Rothmere would certainly cease to exist.”

  A cold ripple ran down Derek’s spine. He dragged a hand over his face. “Well, thanks for that info. I feel so much better now.”

  “Excellent work, Ithara,” Vanda said warmly. “Now that you’re finished, we can proceed with standard repairs.”

  “Any word on where the Repair Bots wandered off to?” Derek asked.

  “How curious you should ask now,” Vanda replied.

  He frowned. “Why?”

  “I am detecting the two Repair Bots approaching this location. They are flying in from the northeast and moving quickly. Their energy signature appears to be… increased.”

  “Increased? Vanda, are you sure it’s them and not a couple of giant birds trying to kill me again, like last time?”

  “Yes, Derek. Their transponder’s IFF code checks out. They are simply… larger.”

  He narrowed his eyes. “How much larger?”

  Before Vanda could answer, a metallic hum—like some monstrous insect—drowned out every other sound.

  Derek spun toward the window.

  Two massive cylinders, almost as tall as NOVA, surged through the opening. Four ion thrusters at their base kept them aloft. The same type used on interplanetary shuttles, though these were scaled down. How the hell had they pulled that off?

  Their surfaces gleamed in seamless steel-gray, smooth as sculpted stone, no hatches or ports in sight. The tiny manipulator arms they usually carried were gone. The only feature was a forward porthole sealed by a metallic iris diaphragm.

  Derek instinctively stepped back. “What the—?”

  Both diaphragms snapped open at once, and from each slid a long metallic nozzle, chrome-bright and hollow, leveled straight at him.

  But they weren’t just nozzles.

  His mouth went dry, heartbeat stumbling in his chest. “Vanda…” His voice dropped to a whisper. “Are those what I think they are?”

  “I’m afraid so, Derek. The Repair Bots are aiming plasma cannons at you.”