“Fine passengers of the aft cabin, rise and shine! We are nearing the Vasser system, jewel of the quarter, and ocean homeworld to our friend, our comrade, our brother from another species entirely; Oseto!” Bruin shouted over the shuttle’s intercom, stirring much of the party awake.

  Having no need for sleep, Oseto, who had been enjoying a game of cards with a sleep-deprived Findlay, now raised his fronds and rustled them in a contained fanfare.

  “–If you’ll look out over the shuttle’s right wallscreen,” Bruin continued despite everyone’s groaning pleas for quiet, “you’ll be able to make out the blue marble that is Vass, namesake to the vass people. Atmospheric entry in just under one hour. Our lovely cabin host, Kara, will be around shortly to help you make any last-minute preparations.”

  Kara, who had neglected to tell the captain of her early retirement from Mobius, shook her head with eyebrows raised.

  “You didn’t tell him?” asked Nora softly, being careful not to wake Tolly, who, despite the captain’s unceremonious announcement, had remained asleep with her head cocked back against a bulkhead, her mouth wide.

  Kara shrugged, “He’ll find out soon enough. Bruin’s nice and all, just a little too dedicated to the company, if you get my meaning,” she said.

  “A corporate zealot,” Findlay said, cupping a yawn, “Me and him might just get by.”

  “Where is your suited friend, dear doctor?” rustled Oseto, only to be answered a moment later with the opening of the stateroom door.

  In the doorway, a battered, bruised, yet markedly more healthy-looking Oscar stood wearing a pair of borrowed Mobius-embroidered pants and not much else. As if sensing his presence, Oseto and Findlay paused their card game to gawk, as did the rest of the people in the crew cabin. Tolly, stirred awake by the sudden silence, snorted and snapped to attention. Oscar locked eyes with her, a smile arcing between them.

  “Are you alright, mister?” asked Kara through a scrunched nose.

  “Much, much better,” Oscar said. He walked into the cabin, stretching his arms wide as he did, and let out a yawn. Findlay reciprocated.

  “You should get some rest,” Oscar said to Findlay, “It did me wonders if my present visage is any metric.” Findlay nodded his way through another bout of yawns.

  “No time. We’re almost there,” said Tolly, checking the wallscreen.

  “So we are,” Oscar said, moving to inspect the wallscreen himself. “Vass–? I’m not sure I’ve ever expected to come here.”

  “You haven't taken many trips off your homeworld before, Oscar?” Nora asked. She knew he had, of course. But any chance to peel away some thin veneer of truth from him, she couldn’t help herself.

  “I have seen more than a handful of worlds, read about many more, but to see one such as Vass, so up close,” he said, taking a deep breath of cabin air. “remarkable….”

  “Then wait no longer,” said Oseto, “You are most welcome on my world, my home. I cannot wait to truly swim again. I can almost taste the waters.”

  “A world with so little land–” Nora said, zooming in on the wallscreen feed to show the turquoise world in full view. “I have to admit I did not think I would ever come here either.”

  “Then enjoy it all, you shall!” Oseto said, passionately standing and tipping the card table over. Findlay shrugged. The game over, and with his friend’s attention directed elsewhere, he slumped back against a bulkhead and closed his eyes.

  “Wake me when we’re landing,” said Findlay.

  “No land, no... fire,” Tolly remarks. “I can’t imagine a world so vast and none of it ablaze.”

  “You come from a strange world, Tolly,” said Oscar, strapping himself in across from her and Nora.

  “Where’s your environment suit?” Nora asked, “You’re not contaminating us out here, are you?”

  “You and I know that bioweapon business was just a bluff,” he said. “Besides, now that you’ve seen what I am, I might as well let my skin air out while I can. It helps with the healing.”

  “I still want to know how you do that. I still want to know a lot of things, actually,” said Nora, poorly masking her derisiveness.

  “I– I don’t know that you do,” he said.

  “You can tell us when you’re ready,” interrupted Tolly.

  “You need not hide yourself among my people, Mister Oscar,” boasted Oseto, “You are to my eyes just the same as any other human if I may be honest.”

  “Rude,” said Nora.

  “He looks nothing like me,” said Kara hotly, “I don’t understand what’s wrong with him. He looks sick.”

  “In a manner,” said Oscar. “But no, Oseto, I don’t think I will be accepted. Even among the legendary vass. A curiosity – is it not – to name a people after their planet?”

  “Vass is not my peoples’ true name, only one given to us by the humans,” said Oseto, “Neither is Vass truly our world.”

  “The planet Vass isn’t your species’ home?” asked Nora, vaguely reaching at a prick of a memory in the back of her mind.

  “Oh no, dear doctor, I misspoke,” said Oseto, “Vass is our home, truly. But it is not ours, for we are not the masters of it. Another species dominates this place.”

  “Fascinating,” Nora said, realising she recalled little of the Vasser origins aside from a footnote of vass being largely nectivores. “The vass are not the only intelligent species in the oceans?”

  “We are not alone. That much has been evident since the dawn of collected thought,” Oseto said, “The ones known as Eijtan hold dominion here.”

  “How can two intelligent species coexist on the same planet?” Tolly asked, “classical biology assumes only one species can be the top in natural selection.”

  “That may have been true in millennia past,” Oseto said, “I apologise, for I am no historian. But from what I recall, Eijtan once ruled Vass, from the surface waters to deep down in the depths. And, through war and much strife, we managed to reach an accord. The Eijtan govern the waters, having little love for the skies, leaving that domain to my kin.”

  “So your kind was the first to discover space travel?” asked Nora, “I would imagine that would tip the scales in your favour.”

  “We did, and it did. Though sympathisers to the Eijtan have gifted them the same technology. And, though they can now get out and explore the wider universe, the vast majority of Eijtan choose to remain in their depth cities. It is through this twist of fate that we now hold governance over many more worlds than the Eijtan ever considered.”

  “Do you hate the Eijtan for subjugating your people?” Oscar asked.

  “Animosity between our two races runs deep. But I do not hate,” Oseto explained, “I do not fault them for following their nature.”

  “Especially when that nature limited them to a single planet,” said Nora.

  “It is the will of a species to adapt that will ultimately prove the most fruitful,” said Oscar.

  “Well said, Mister Oscar,” Oseto rustled. “And indeed, the Eijtan are masters of this world, though we vass far outnumber them. It might be more a matter of ceremony now, or the peaceful ways of vass, that leaves them in power. Either way, my village is near to the surface and free of Eijtan, a quaint place of warm water and abundant life. It is quite a sight.”

  “Is that why the vass are amphibious– because the Eijtan forced your people out of the depths and close to the surface?” asked Nora.

  “I admit, I am vague on the details. But I like your theory, dear Doctor,” Oseto admitted. “It has also allowed us to commune with you humans.”

  “Why did you ever leave, Oseto?” asked Tolly, “I can’t imagine ever leaving a place that sounds so magical.”

  “You know… I can’t quite recall. It has been so long,” Oseto said.

  As the shuttle neared the orbit of Vass’ solitary moon, the planet’s surface came into sharp focus. On the closest side to their approach, several thousand small islands making up one of several archipelagos broke through the vast waters. Some of the islands bore small cities of distinctly Vasser construction, some had nothing but vast farmland, while others still showed signs of human habitation with many towers breaking up the landscapes.

  “There is a human population here,” Nora said, watching the feed. “Several million if these bioreadings are accurate.”

  “Humans can live here?” asked Kara, sounding intrigued.

  “Humans are our partners on many of our worlds,” said Oseto, “as the Eijtan have no love for surface waters, we too have no real affinity for the land. It is through our partnership with humans that every parcel of land is cultivated. All humans are welcome here, as I said to Mister Oscar. You too, if you so wish.”

  Kara nodded to herself, and Nora presumed the young woman had found her new calling.

  “What about you, Findlay–” asked Nora, rousing the man from his half-sleep, “Kara’s found her destination, Oseto is heading home, are you going to go look for Tim?”

  “I’ve sent out some feelers,” Findlay said, after an exaggerated yawn, “it may be some time before it comes back with anything.”

  “Plenty of time for a swim!” rattled Oseto.

  “Patience, old friend. We have to land first,” said Findlay.

  “There’s a thing about that,” interrupted Bruin over the shuttle’s intercom.

  “Problems?” asked Nora.

  “You might want to get up here,” he said.

  Nora unbuckled herself with a sigh with ‘what now?’ being the only thought on her mind.

  “What have we?” she said as she entered the cockpit.

  Bruin turned to her, a fresh cup of coffee in hand.

  “Have you been sleeping up here– shouldn’t there be another pilot on duty?” asked Nora.

  “Do you see another pilot?” he said, “it was just a few hours. And I had the ship wake me when we neared the Vasser system.”

  Nora nodded, not quite sure she liked his answer, but given that no other ship would have taken them out of Belltower System, she supposed she shouldn’t judge. She gestured to the cockpit’s wallscreen, to a wall of text that Bruin had been scrolling through.

  “Doing some light research?” she asked.

  “Oh this, standard station security jargon,” he said between sluggish sips, “what I called you up for is what’s not being said. I hadn’t even transmitted a landing request yet when the vass sent me this. And, along with a novel of regulations, I received this.”

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  Bruin called up an attachment that had been transmitted along with the terms and conditions.

  From the Office of the High Collegiate:

  All Alien Vessels With Intent to Disembark on Vass’ Surface are Hereby Subject To Search. Forward Interface Request to Human Embassy of The Terran Sovereignty or Risk Vessel Impoundment or Disability.

  “This is not standard practice?” Nora asked after double-reading the notice.

  “Not like this,” he said, “I hadn’t even broadcasted our heading or governmental origin yet. We could have just as easily been property of the Herd or another unaffiliated group. But for them to tag us as Sov– well, that’s what rubs me the wrong way.”

  “You think they were tipped off to our arrival? I wouldn’t think Saturnus’ reach extended out here,” she said, then remembering Oscar’s warning that men with money had little trouble finding the means. “What do we do?”

  “I don’t think heading to The Sov embassy will do good for any of our skins,” said Bruin, “with your permission, I think I can reach out to a contact in-system.”

  “And you trust this person?”

  “She’s one of mine. Though I’ll keep an eye on fast-ones,” he assured.

  “Do it then. I can’t see us staying in this system for long, but I promised we’d drop off Oseto and the others.”

  “Aye. I’ll let you know when I have something,” he said as Nora left the cockpit.

  It would be several more hours drifting in the black above Vass that they would hear anything. Tolly and Oscar had spent the intervening time quietly chatting, a connection blossoming that Nora dare not upset. She was happy for the girl to finally have a somewhat kindred spirit, despite how alien he seemed to Nora.

  Oseto had been pacing. Findlay, who tried his best to quell his friend’s anxiety, eventually folded and returned to his nap spot against the bulkhead. Having been on edge since Oscar’s appearance in the crew cabin, Kara had since moved up front to the cockpit to sit with Bruin and, Nora hoped, to give him her notice.

  “We have clearance to dock,” Bruin said, half-heartedly on the ship’s intercom, “though I don’t know if it’s what you were expecting.”

  Nora stood from her seat to step towards the wallscreen. “How can it be worse than this?”

  “My contact could only get us so far,” he said, “we’ve got a berth on Utom Station. It’s one of the older stations orbiting the Vass moon of Rognau.”

  “What pitiful strife!” Oseto rattled, “Rognau is centuries old; a true relic forgotten to time.”

  “That bad?” Nora asked.

  “Rognau Station…” Findlay said, pulling up what data he could find on his terminal and casting it to the wallscreen, “...he wasn’t kidding. The station is from before first contact with humans, built to prioritise vass and Eijtan biology above all else.”

  “What does that mean for us?” asked Oscar.

  “The station is catered to aquatics. There is no atmosphere on board except for what is needed for the recyclers to reoxygenate the water environment,” said Findlay.

  “So we’re stuck in here, still,” said Tolly. “This ship is beginning to feel like a prison.”

  Nora nodded; it was hard to discredit her sentiment.

  “At least we are outside The Sovereignty’s jurisdiction,” said Nora. “Your contact can’t do any better for us?”

  “I’m afraid this is the best she can offer, given the circumstances,” said Bruin.

  “We should try the Herd embassy,” pressed Tolly. “I know Matriarch Nagoya. She should be able to help us.”

  “You haven’t heard? I suppose not; word travels slowly out here. Matriarch Nagoya isn’t leading her flock anymore, that Cattleheart has disbanded and scattered to the wind.” Bruin said, to which Tolly sneered sceptically.

  “No,” objected Tolly, “The Matriarch wouldn’t do that.”

  “I don’t know what to say. Those are the gathering whispers,” said Bruin.

  Tolly slumped back in her seat to ponder something alone. Nora could see some sort of turmoil bubbling beneath the surface but didn’t know of any regimen that might help.

  “Doctor Gaul,” Oseto said, “Perhaps we can accept the hand we have been dealt and try our luck another day. It may not be the waters of my village, but this station’s waters come from the planet itself. It will do me good.”

  Nora nodded. “Findlay– you’re okay with this?” she asked.

  Findlay nodded. “I’ll get out an environment suit and see if I can’t rustle up some flippers. That is– if our little stopover is okay with you?”

  “I can’t see a way around it,” Nora admitted, “We promised to get you to the surface. We will stay here until we see that done. Besides, I have some research left to do.”

  Nora turned to look at Oscar, who seemed to recognize her sentiment.

  “I will remain,” said Oscar, “with you and Tolly, I mean to say.”

  Maybe he wouldn’t offer his answers as freely as she’d hoped when rescuing him, she thought, but with no direction left in her life to head, she decided to chase the one trace of fate that the universe seemed to have handed her.

  “We’ll stay until you and Oseto can secure a ticket to the surface,” she said to Findlay, knowing full-well that would drain what little remained of her funds, even if Bruin offered for them to remain on the shuttle for a severely discounted rate. Then looking over at Tolly, who now bore a concerned look on her face, “after that, I suspect we have business within the Herd.”

  “To Ganon?” asked Tolly, satisfied with their new heading.

  True to her word, Nora let her funds dwindle over the next week, and when the chance arose, she spent nearly the last drop of credit on a portion of two tickets for passage to Vass. Kara, who had chipped in what she could from her newfound wealth, had paid the rest of the way.

  Setting off into the watery innards of Rognau Station – and taking two of the shuttle’s three remaining environment suits with them, Findlay, Kara, and Oseto departed. Their time together had been short, but Nora was beginning to realise that despite the tight friendship she had shaped with Corine over the last few months and how sluggish it was to form, that friends began to come more freely now that she had shed the yolk of her own professional drive.

  That was, except for one unshakable itch that kept gnawing at the back of her cerebellum; what secrets did Oscar hold?

  Unable to just sit idle over the coming weeks after their departure from Rognau and the Vass System, Nora busied herself using the shuttle’s rudimentary onboard scanners to test any and all samples she could swipe from Oscar’s body when he wasn’t looking. She had taken a swab of his ear when he and the rest of the group were asleep one night, only to drive her lust for answers further.

  Nora had saved a saliva sample from the ship’s recycler, taken from a banana flavoured reconstituted patty that even he had trouble eating, only for questions to grow deeper. She was looking at the same silvery cells and the same black mucous that had hounded her for the past year, only to arrive at the same dead end. She knew what she saw could not under any definition she knew of be considered human. But, if what Oscar had said about The Rys had any semblance of truth to it, then he was undeniably human.

  “What am I missing?” Nora said to herself one mid-morning. Tolly and Oscar were asleep in the captain’s quarters, and Bruin had nodded off in the cockpit, or so Nora had believed.

  “Still stumped?” Tolly asked her, entering the cabin. “You’ve been at this for days.”

  “You caught me,” Nora said, turning away from her terminal.

  Tolly sat beside her and leant over to look at Nora’s terminal. She sighed.

  “He knows you’re running tests on him, you know,” she said. Nora hadn’t expected that, though she supposed she shouldn’t be surprised.

  “He knows then.”

  “He’s been practically leaving samples around for you,” said Tolly, “I don’t know why. Maybe he thinks he owes you.”

  “Oscar told you all this?”

  Tolly nodded. “He’s actually quite sweet once you get him to open up.”

  If only he’d open up and tell me what I wanted to know, Nora thought.

  “It’s good he’s found someone to confide in. He’s been through something awful,” Nora said. “I suppose you have been too.”

  “I know he recognizes that as well. So far, though, he’s been too kind to ask,” said Tolly, “I don’t even know where I’d start. ‘Your people killed my world, and my sister’ feels a bit heavy.”

  Nora could see Tolly’s pain plainly masked beneath those words.

  “You don’t need to hide yourself,” said Nora.

  “I’m more scared to hear what I am going to find out once I do tell him. My planet, my family, everything I knew was wiped out from under me, and he might know who’s to blame. The thought of it makes me sick.”

  Nora glanced back at her terminal. Tapping a few commands, she brought up her most recent scans of Oscar’s saliva.

  “He is a curiosity. This is what he’s got running around inside of him, shaping and rebuilding him into something resembling a human,” said Nora. “I’m not sure if I should take him at face value. He argues that he is human because he looks human to our eyes, and as flimsy as that may be, it may have some weight to it. He has answers within him, and the only way he’s going to stop hiding is if we start treating him as what he asks us to.”

  “I thank you for your sentiment, Doctor,” said Oscar through the remaining environment suit’s intercom as he finished buttoning it up, stepping into the room. Neither Nora nor Tolly budged, instead waiting for what, if anything, he had to say.

  “I know you have questions about me, rightfully so,” he said, sitting across from them and buckling himself in. Noticing the flashing banner on the wallscreen warning of their arrival in the Ganon system, Nora and Tolly did the same.

  “We’re here!” Bruin said over the shuttle’s intercom as if on queue, “touchdown into realspace in thirty-seven.”

  “Let us work to shed the veil,” said Oscar, “You have saved my life, rescued me from the surety of death. I will share with you what I can of what I cannot go back to.”

  “You can start with this,” Nora said, handing him her terminal, its screen open to the same sample she had been sharing with Tolly.

  “Remarkable,” he said, zooming in on the sample, “It still marvels me seeing it in real-time. The biology of my people is protected, you see. It is closely guarded by our own augurs.”

  “Augurs?” asked Tolly.

  “Scientists, historians, or even maybe priests. These are the shepherds that cultivate my people. For any citizen to wish to craft the future of what we are, they must become augur. For anyone else to attempt it is heresy.”

  “That is a lot to unpack,” Nora admitted, though she could see where this was going. “You’re saying you don’t know what makes your biology tick?”

  “I am no scientist, not like you, Doctor Gaul,” he said, “though I have taken an interest over the years. Some of the less stringent augurs may have let slip a trade secret on occasion. And there are always the stories.”

  “Do tell,” said Nora.

  “I spoke of The Rys, of my wayward people,” he said; Nora and Tolly both nodded. “What I did not tell is what happened next. Taught to me since I was a child, our people came from an old, dying world, only to spend countless years amongst the stars. Until one day, an outsider arrived and led us to salvation.”

  “Who was this outsider?” asked Tolly.

  “The augurs tell it was a god, resplendent in its own glory,” he said as if reciting poetry, “an entity both vast and wise whom we call Cronsuwhede. It is Cronsuwhede that led my people to our home.”

  “Where is your home?” Nora said, weeding through the hyperbole. “What planet did the descendants of The Rys’ population settle on?”

  “Utopia, a world without sorrow, a paradise of golden monoliths.”

  “Your world sounds perfect. I have always wanted to get out and see other planets,” Tolly said, “Do you think I could see it one day?”

  “I don’t buy it,” said Nora, “there is no such thing as perfect or utopia.”

  “And this is but part of the lie. A tale spun for generations. It is far from perfect, in truth.”

  “Is that why you left?” asked Tolly.

  “It is a fair assumption,” he said. “No. However, it is not. The reason for my departure is one of treachery and schemes. I was forced out by my own brother, disowned by my father.”

  “That’s horrible,” said Tolly.

  “My father is as much a prisoner in his own life as I was to mine. I know he cared for me, in his own way; I rest no fault on his shoulders.”

  “But to be abandoned by your own like that… My father left me when I was small. I know it’s plain that without my sister looking out for me, I would not be here today.”

  Oscar’s eyes softened at this as if feeling a kinship in Tolly’s words. “Where did your father go?”

  Tolly let out a sigh. “Blane told me he left to farm on a Vasser world. She said he would send money every once in a while, but it had been a long time since the last time that happened before….”

  “Before?” he said, leaning in. “Tolly, I must admit I overheard yours and the Doctor’s conversation earlier– about your sister and your world. There is something you are not saying.”

  “There is a lot of that going around,” Nora said before biting her tongue. This moment was not so much about her as it was about catharsis for Tolly.

  After a moment of deep thought and a long, drawn-out breath, Tolly began recounting the events that started and ended with the destruction of her world. At no point during her speech did Oscar attempt to interrupt, dismiss or otherwise intercede. Instead, he remained still, intently listening. When she finished, and after a great deal of tears, Oscar unbuckled himself from his seat and stood. Wiping away some of her own tears, Nora paused, unsure what Oscar was about to do.

  Without a word, Oscar moved to Tolly. He knelt down and placed a hand on her knee. As their eyes locked, Nora could see a sense of comfort wash over the young woman, as if some outward influence directed her towards calm.

  “I assure you, Tolly,” he said, “as plain as my will to be, I had nothing to do with what befell you and your world. The disaster you describe for me is unthinkable– unforgivable. An everlasting stain on my people.”

  “Why would your people inflict this kind of destruction?” asked Nora, “What could anyone possibly gain from sacking an entire world?”

  “I do not pretend to understand this madness. I was locked away under the heel of The Director during the tragedy you describe, though I dare not dodge blame. I am as much to blame as any of my kind.”

  Tolly seemed to shift with this, and Nora could sense her uneasiness.

  “No, Oscar. You said it yourself; you had nothing to do with it. You were being tortured during it all,” said Tolly.

  “Then we are victims, each of us.”

  Maybe it was his restful demeanour or his sympathetic words, but the weeping in the room began to fade. Nora still wasn’t sure if he was sincere or just a charlatan, but so far, he had given her no reason to distrust him. And yet, the sceptical scientist in her urged her to remain on guard.

  It wasn’t until the cabin returned to equilibrium that Nora noticed a teary-eyed Bruin standing in the cockpit doorway.

  “We’re nearly there,” Bruin said with a wave. “Ganon system is just a few minutes out, then transit to the planet will take another thirty.”

  “Did you hear all that, Bruin?” asked Nora.

  “First bit I heard over the intercom,” he admitted, “I had to witness the rest for my own eyes. You say Oscar’s folk killed your people, Tolly?”

  Tolly nodded.

  “And you're as pissed about it as I am, Oscar?” asked Bruin.

  “It is unconscionable,” Oscar said.

  “Good,” he said, satisfied. “Well, I’ll go ready your luggage.”

  Bruin disappeared into the back, still noticeably disturbed. Nora couldn’t help but notice the lack of luggage and instead realised he had used it as an excuse.

  “So here we are then, headed for Ganon,” said Oscar, “what brings us here?”

  “My people fled here after Bordeaux; what was left of us. A friend that came here with me is very sick,” Tolly explained.

  “Sick with whatever runs through your own body, Oscar,” said Nora. “His tissue samples closely resembled your own.”

  “That– that should not be,” he said, taken aback.

  “And yet–” Nora said, casting closeups of Soren’s tissue sample on the shuttle’s wallscreen.

  “Interesting,” he said, standing, “whoever this is–”

  “Soren,” Tolly interrupted, “his name is Soren.”

  “Apologies. It pains me to say that your friend Soren… he does not have much time left.”

  Tolly stood, her mood shifting to panic, and about to object to Oscar’s prognosis when her terminal chimed.

  She picked up the device from its spot on the seat beside her and thumbed across the screen.

  “It’s Miran,” she said, as her eyes grew wide. She clutched her blouse and said, “Nora– Nora, we have to hurry.”