Book 1 - Episode 3 - The Signal

THE SIGNAL

The Asteria left Cove Island without using a Gate.

That decision cost them nearly eleven hours.

Tokyo complained about eight of them.

"There are nine enormous shortcuts across the galaxy," the orange tabby said from the pilot's station, "and somehow we are taking the scenic route."

Briar did not look up from the tactical display.

"They aren't shortcuts."

"They are circular objects that connect distant locations."

"We don't know that."

"That's the definition of a shortcut."

"We don't know where they lead."

Tokyo considered that.

"Unreliable shortcuts."

Kepi, working beside the engineering station, flicked one ear.

"Would you like me to explain what happens when a spacecraft enters an unstable spatial aperture?"

"No."

"I prepared diagrams."

"Definitely no."

"Several are extremely graphic."

Tokyo looked over his shoulder.

"Why would you make them graphic?"

"To discourage you."

Margarito laughed quietly.

It was the first time Yuki had heard him laugh since they left Cove.

She looked toward him.

For a moment, the strange name from beneath the island disappeared.

Aren.

The glowing pendant.

The ancient system identifying him as E-11.

He was simply Margarito again.

Yuki wanted to keep it that way.

But the universe seemed to have other plans.

Nihara appeared on the forward display as a dark sphere surrounded by violet storms.

Its star was pale and distant, barely strong enough to illuminate the planet's surface. Lightning moved through enormous atmospheric systems stretching thousands of kilometers across its northern hemisphere.

Above the world floated the Gate.

Even from orbit, it was enormous.

Nine arcs of violet light surrounded an empty center.

Nothing supported them.

Nothing connected them.

Yet they remained perfectly aligned.

Tokyo stopped joking.

"That's bigger than it looked in the transmission."

Kepi checked the measurements.

"Forty-three kilometers across."

Briar turned toward him.

"The Cove structure is nowhere near that size."

"The physical chamber isn't."

Kepi enlarged the energy readings.

"The field around it might be."

Yuki stood behind Tokyo's seat.

"Any vessels?"

"Seven in orbit. Civilian configuration. Two research platforms. No obvious military response."

"Communications?"

"Open."

Briar looked toward Yuki.

"Contact?"

She nodded.

"Identify us. Ask permission to approach."

Tokyo glanced back.

"Ask?"

"Yes."

"It's a planet."

"Exactly."

Tokyo smiled faintly.

"Just checking."

Briar transmitted.

The response arrived seventeen seconds later.

ASTERIA, YOUR IDENTITY IS CONFIRMED.

Then:

YOU MAY ENTER NIHARA ORBIT.

A pause.

Another message appeared.

DO NOT APPROACH THE GATE.

Tokyo slowly looked at Briar.

Briar stared back.

"Don't."

"I didn't say anything."

"You were going to."

"I was thinking it."

"Think quieter."

They expected soldiers.

They found gardeners.

The coordinates supplied by Nihara led the team away from the major cities and into a mountain valley covered by silver-leaf forests.

Yuki took only the core group.

Margarito.

Kepi.

Briar.

Tokyo.

Pip.

The Asteria remained in orbit under local automation and a small PLA crew.

Their shuttle landed beside an old stone platform.

No military escort waited for them.

No officials.

Only an elderly gray cat wearing a weathered green coat.

She carried a wooden staff.

Yuki descended first.

The old cat studied her for several seconds.

Then Margarito.

Then Pip.

Finally she looked back at Yuki.

"You came physically."

Yuki stopped.

"Was there another way?"

"Several."

The old cat turned.

"You chose the slow one."

Tokyo descended behind them.

"Thank you."

The old cat glanced at him.

"That was not criticism."

"I know. I just wanted someone to appreciate it."

Yuki stepped closer.

"I'm Yuki."

"I know."

"And you are?"

"Asha."

No title.

No rank.

Yuki waited.

Asha did not add one.

Good.

"We received your transmission," Yuki said.

Asha's ears shifted.

"I sent no transmission."

Kepi immediately looked toward Pip.

The mouse opened his notebook.

Yuki kept her attention on Asha.

"A female voice warned us that the Tenth isn't a world."

Asha's expression changed.

Only slightly.

But Yuki saw it.

"Come."

"Where?"

"To the Gate."

Briar moved forward.

"Your orbital control specifically told us not to approach it."

"They told your ship."

Tokyo's ears lifted.

"I like her."

Briar did not.

Asha began walking.

Yuki remained still.

The old cat looked back.

"You asked permission to enter our orbit."

"Yes."

"Now you're waiting for permission to follow me."

"Yes."

Asha studied her.

Then something almost like approval appeared in her eyes.

"Good."

She continued toward the forest.

"You have permission."

The path descended for nearly three kilometers.

Nihara's silver trees grew taller as they approached the valley floor. Their leaves reflected violet light from the storms above, making the entire forest shimmer as though submerged beneath an invisible ocean.

Pip stopped repeatedly to examine carvings in the stones.

Most were circles.

Some contained nine marks.

A few had been deliberately scratched out.

"How old?" Yuki asked.

Pip shook his head.

"Different ages."

"Meaning?"

"People kept coming back."

Asha heard him.

"Yes."

She did not turn.

"Every generation thinks it will understand the Gate better than the last."

Kepi stepped over a root.

"Did they?"

"No."

Tokyo nodded solemnly.

"Comforting."

"They became better at describing their mistakes."

"Less comforting."

Asha smiled.

The path opened.

The forest ended.

Everyone stopped.

The Gate stood before them.

The orbital structure had been only part of it.

A ring of violet energy filled the sky, stretching from the valley into the upper atmosphere.

But beneath it stood something older.

A stone doorway.

Small enough for a cat to walk through.

Nine symbols surrounded the frame.

Its center contained nothing but darkness.

Yuki felt the fur along her spine rise.

It was almost identical to the chamber beneath Cove.

Almost.

The tenth symbol was missing.

Margarito approached two steps.

His pendant began glowing.

Asha saw it.

Her wooden staff struck the ground.

"Stop."

Margarito froze.

Yuki moved between them instinctively.

Asha pointed at the pendant.

"Where did you get that?"

Margarito touched it.

"I don't know."

"That is not an answer."

"It's the only one I have."

Asha stared at him.

Then she whispered:

"Aren."

Yuki's eyes narrowed.

Margarito went completely still.

"Why did you call me that?"

Asha's expression changed.

Fear.

Not of Margarito.

For him.

"I didn't."

"Yes, you did."

Asha looked at Yuki.

"Get him away from the doorway."

Margarito stepped backward voluntarily.

The pendant dimmed.

Asha watched until its light disappeared.

Then she sat on the stone.

For the first time, she looked old.

Very old.

Yuki remained standing.

"Who is Aren?"

Asha looked at Margarito.

"I don't know."

Tokyo frowned.

"You just called him Aren."

"I repeated what the Gate called him."

Silence.

Margarito's voice was barely above a whisper.

"When?"

Asha looked toward the enormous violet structure above them.

"Thirty-one years ago."

Asha had once been a Keeper.

That was the word Nihara used.

Not guardian.

Not priest.

Not commander.

Keeper.

Her job had been to maintain the systems surrounding the Gate while preventing anyone from claiming authority over it.

It had worked badly.

"Everyone says they are protecting something when they begin controlling it," Asha told them.

They sat inside a small stone building overlooking the valley.

No networked equipment existed inside.

Paper maps covered the walls.

Mechanical clocks.

Handwritten records.

Physical switches.

Kepi looked happier than Yuki had seen him in weeks.

"You have manual backups."

Asha looked at him.

"We have manual everything."

Kepi nearly smiled.

Tokyo leaned toward Yuki.

"We're losing him."

"Let him be happy."

Asha placed an old book on the table.

The pages were brittle.

Pip approached as though she had placed treasure before him.

"What is this?"

"Departure records."

Yuki frowned.

"Departure?"

Asha opened the book.

Names.

Thousands of them.

Dates.

Times.

Some entries included only a single word.

LEFT.

Others:

RETURNED.

DECLINED.

WITHDREW.

DISCONNECTED.

Margarito looked at Asha.

"People used the Gate."

"Yes."

"Where did they go?"

Asha shook her head.

"Wrong question."

Yuki remembered the transmission.

Stop asking how to enter.

Ask how to leave.

She looked at the records again.

"These aren't travel logs."

"No."

"What are they?"

"Consent records."

The room became silent.

Asha turned several pages.

"Long before I was born, Nihara learned that the Gate could connect more than places."

"Minds," Margarito said.

"Experience," Asha corrected. "Memory. Perception. Sometimes emotion. Sometimes knowledge."

"Telepathy?" Tokyo asked.

"No."

Margarito answered before Asha could.

"Telepathy requires separate minds."

Asha looked at him.

"Exactly."

Margarito did not seem pleased that he understood.

Asha continued.

"At first, the connection was extraordinary. Doctors could understand pain directly. Teachers could share concepts without language. Families separated across worlds could experience one another's presence."

Pip wrote quickly.

"Warfare?"

Asha's face hardened.

"Reduced."

Briar spoke for the first time in several minutes.

"Reduced isn't eliminated."

"No."

"Crime?"

"Reduced."

"Also not eliminated."

"No."

"Political conflict?"

Asha smiled without humor.

"For a while."

Yuki understood where the story was going.

"The benefits were real."

Asha looked at her.

"Completely."

That was worse than a trap.

A trap could be exposed.

A benefit had to be weighed.

"Then what happened?" Yuki asked.

Asha closed the book.

"Leaving became difficult."

Kepi looked toward the Gate.

"Technically?"

"At first, no."

"Socially?"

Asha nodded.

"If everyone around you can feel one another, privacy begins to resemble secrecy. Solitude begins to resemble rejection. Disagreement begins to feel like injury."

Margarito's eyes lowered.

Asha continued.

"Eventually people stopped asking whether connection was voluntary."

Yuki looked at the departure book.

"So someone started recording exits."

"Someone started protecting them."

Asha placed one paw on the cover.

"The first rule of Nihara was not that anyone could enter."

She looked directly at Yuki.

"It was that anyone could leave."

They reached the lower archive before sunset.

Pip found the record.

Not Asha.

Not Kepi.

Pip.

He had been examining handwritten index cards stored in a cabinet whose drawers had not been opened in decades.

Then he stopped.

"Yuki."

She approached.

He held a card between both paws.

On it was a symbol.

Three.

Two.

Three.

Beneath it:

OBSERVATION SEQUENCE.

Kepi moved beside them.

"Observation?"

Pip handed him the card.

The reverse contained coordinates.

Cove Island.

Yuki felt something cold settle inside her.

"Date?"

Pip checked.

"Seventeen years ago."

The same age as the earliest impossible record aboard the Asteria.

Margarito stood at the doorway.

His pendant had begun glowing again.

Briar noticed.

"Margarito."

"I know."

He removed it and placed it on the stone floor.

The light continued.

Asha stared at the pendant.

Then at the card.

"There's another archive."

Yuki looked at her.

"You knew?"

"I knew it existed."

"Why didn't you tell us?"

"Because I didn't know whether you were who you said you were."

Briar's expression hardened.

"And now?"

Asha looked at Margarito's pendant.

"Now I'm afraid you are."

The second archive was not beneath the Gate.

It was beneath the forest.

There was no electronic lock.

Three mechanical keys opened the entrance.

Asha possessed one.

The second had been stored in the village.

The third was hidden inside the departure book.

Kepi appreciated that considerably less.

"Separating authorization across physical locations," he muttered.

Tokyo glanced at him.

"You're jealous."

"Professionally."

The final door opened.

Cold air escaped.

Pip's lantern illuminated rows of shelves.

Boxes.

Paper.

Metal plates.

Film.

Physical records.

No computers.

At the center stood a single table.

On it rested a black metal container.

One word had been engraved across its surface.

AURELIA

Yuki stared.

Selene's warning returned.

Project Aurelia wasn't destroyed.

She approached.

Margarito stayed near the entrance.

Yuki noticed.

"You don't have to come closer."

"I know."

He remained where he was.

Asha opened the container.

Inside were photographs.

Children.

Cats.

Some black.

Some white.

Some tuxedo.

Numbers appeared beneath each image.

A-03.

A-06.

A-11.

A-17.

Yuki stopped breathing.

The photograph beneath A-17 showed a small black kitten.

Golden eyes.

Her face.

Younger than any memory Yuki possessed.

Nobody spoke.

Yuki picked up the photograph.

On the back:

A-17

AUTONOMOUS INTERFACE SERIES

STATUS: COMPATIBLE

BRIDGE CANDIDATE

Yuki read it twice.

Then a third time.

The words did not change.

Tokyo stood behind her.

His voice was unusually soft.

"Yuki..."

"I'm fine."

Briar looked at her.

"No, you're not."

She turned toward him.

For once, Briar did not withdraw the statement.

Yuki looked back at the photograph.

"You're right."

She put it down carefully.

"I'm not."

That admission cost more than she expected.

Margarito had not moved.

Pip searched another stack.

Then stopped.

His ears lowered.

"Margarito."

"No."

The word came immediately.

Pip froze.

Margarito stared at the box.

"If there's a photograph, don't show me yet."

Pip lowered it.

Yuki looked at Margarito.

He swallowed.

"I want to decide when."

Yuki nodded.

"Then you decide."

Pip returned the photograph face down.

But he read the label silently.

Yuki saw his expression.

She did not ask.

The attack began without warning.

The first explosion came from above.

The archive shook.

Dust poured from the ceiling.

Briar drew his weapon.

"Contact!"

A second blast.

Then gunfire.

Not energy weapons.

Projectile fire.

Old.

Deliberately difficult to detect electronically.

Asha extinguished the lantern.

Darkness swallowed the room.

Kepi whispered, "How many entrances?"

"One."

"Bad architecture."

"It was an archive."

"Archives need exits."

Pip whispered from somewhere near the floor.

"I've been saying that for years."

Another explosion.

Tokyo activated his sidearm.

Yuki's voice cut through the darkness.

"No shooting until we identify them."

Briar looked toward the doorway.

"They're shooting at us."

"At the entrance."

"Difference?"

"They haven't entered."

Margarito closed his eyes.

Yuki heard his breathing change.

"Don't reach into them," she said.

"I won't."

A pause.

Then:

"Six."

Briar glanced at him.

"How do you know?"

"I can hear movement."

"That's not psychic."

"I have ears too."

Tokyo whispered, "Revolutionary."

A voice came from the corridor.

"ASTERIA TEAM!"

Female.

"LEAVE THE AURELIA RECORDS!"

Asha's expression changed.

She knew the voice.

Yuki noticed.

"Who?"

Asha answered quietly.

"Green Snakes."

Tokyo tightened his grip.

"The Green Snakes are real?"

Asha looked at him.

"Unfortunately."

"Why unfortunately?"

The voice outside answered for her.

"BECAUSE YOU HAVE THIRTY SECONDS BEFORE WE COLLAPSE THIS ARCHIVE!"

Tokyo nodded.

"That explains it."

Yuki stepped toward the doorway.

Briar blocked her.

"No."

"They're here for the records."

"Exactly."

"If they wanted us dead, they'd collapse it already."

"Or they're waiting for you to stand in the doorway."

Yuki looked at him.

"Also possible."

Briar moved instead.

Yuki caught his shoulder.

"Not you either."

He frowned.

"Then who?"

Tokyo raised a paw.

Everyone looked at him.

He lowered it.

"I suddenly reconsidered."

Asha stepped forward.

"They know me."

Yuki shook her head.

"That doesn't make you expendable."

Asha studied her.

Something in those words reached her.

Then she shouted into the corridor.

"This is Asha!"

Silence.

A different voice answered.

"Keeper?"

"Former."

"Are they connected?"

Asha looked at Yuki.

"No."

"Is the E-series subject connected?"

Margarito's eyes widened.

Yuki felt the room change.

Asha did not answer.

The voice outside became urgent.

"KEEPER, IF E-11 CONNECTS INSIDE THAT ARCHIVE, THE SIGNAL WILL FIND HIM."

Margarito stared at his pendant on the floor.

It was glowing brighter.

Yuki moved toward him.

"What signal?"

The Green Snake answered through the doorway.

"The one Project Aurelia spent twenty years trying to answer."

Kepi looked at the observation card.

Three.

Two.

Three.

Pip whispered:

"It's not a call."

Yuki turned.

"What?"

Pip held the old card beneath his lantern.

OBSERVATION SEQUENCE.

His eyes moved toward Margarito.

"Three-two-three isn't calling us."

The room trembled.

The pendant flared blue.

Pip finished:

"It's checking whether we're still here."

Yuki made the decision.

"Open the door."

Briar stared at her.

"Yuki."

"We're trapped underground with people who know more than we do."

"They're armed."

"So are we."

"They threatened to bury us."

"Then we'll have something to discuss."

Tokyo smiled.

"There she is."

Briar did not smile.

But he lowered his weapon slightly.

Asha unlocked the archive.

The door opened.

Six cats waited outside.

Dark green armor.

No insignia except an emerald serpent wrapped around a broken circle.

Their weapons remained raised.

At the center stood a tall emerald-eyed female cat.

She looked first at Yuki.

Then Margarito.

Then the box.

Her expression hardened.

"You opened it."

Yuki stepped into the corridor.

"Yes."

"You shouldn't have."

"Then tell me why."

The Green Snake commander stared at her.

"We didn't come to steal those records."

"Then why are you here?"

"To destroy them."

Pip clutched his notebook.

"No."

Everyone looked down at him.

The tiny mouse stepped forward.

"No."

The commander almost seemed confused.

Pip continued.

"You don't get to destroy history because you're afraid of what someone will do with it."

"That history is a map."

"Then guard the map."

"It has been guarded."

"Poorly."

Tokyo whispered to Kepi, "He's angry."

Kepi nodded.

"I noticed."

The commander lowered her weapon.

"What is your name?"

"Pip."

She looked at the mouse for another second.

Then at Yuki.

"The records can lead to the Heart."

Yuki's eyes narrowed.

"The Heart of Nine?"

The commander did not answer.

That was answer enough.

Margarito stepped from the archive.

The Green Snakes immediately raised their weapons again.

Yuki moved between them.

"No."

The commander pointed toward his pendant.

"Do you know what he is?"

Yuki's voice became cold.

"His name is Margarito."

"That wasn't my question."

"It was my answer."

Margarito looked at Yuki.

The commander slowly lowered her rifle.

"The project called him E-11."

Margarito said nothing.

"They called him Aren before that."

His breathing stopped.

The commander continued.

"And they called her A-17."

She looked at Yuki.

"Project Aurelia wasn't trying to open the Gates."

Yuki waited.

The commander looked upward, toward the impossible violet structure beyond the forest.

"They were trying to create living replacements for the people who once controlled them."

Asha closed her eyes.

Kepi's expression hardened.

Briar asked, "Controlled what?"

The Green Snake commander answered.

"The connection."

Then every light in the archive ignited.

Margarito's pendant rose from the floor.

No one touched it.

Blue energy spread across its surface.

The nine-point symbol appeared in the air.

Then a tenth.

And finally a line of ancient text.

A-17 PRESENT.

Yuki stared.

A second line.

E-11 PRESENT.

Margarito stepped backward.

A third line formed.

BRIDGE CONDITIONS PARTIALLY SATISFIED.

Yuki's claws extended.

"No."

The light flickered.

Then:

REFUSAL RECORDED.

Margarito looked at her.

The system had listened again.

But this time something else happened.

A final line appeared.

REFUSAL DOES NOT TERMINATE OBSERVATION.

The three-two-three pulse returned.

Not through the walls.

Not through the Gate.

Through Margarito's pendant.

Three.

Two.

Three.

Margarito grabbed it.

His eyes went wide.

Yuki caught him as his legs failed.

"Margarito!"

His pupils disappeared beneath blue light.

For one instant he saw somewhere else.

A white laboratory.

Children behind glass.

A black kitten labeled A-17.

A white kitten screaming behind another door.

A female scientist arguing with armed guards.

And beyond them all—

something enormous watching through a circle of nine stars.

Then Margarito heard a woman's voice.

Not Selene.

Not Asha.

A voice buried beneath memories that someone had tried to remove.

"Aren, listen to me."

His body trembled.

"If they make you the Witness, you must remember one thing."

The vision began collapsing.

Margarito tried to hold onto the voice.

"Who are you?"

The woman answered.

"Your mother."

Darkness.

Margarito opened his eyes.

Yuki was holding him.

The Green Snakes surrounded them.

Asha stood frozen.

Kepi had stopped looking at his instruments.

Margarito whispered:

"I remember her."

Yuki said nothing.

She simply remained beside him.

Outside, the Gate above Nihara changed.

For the first time since it had opened, the empty center filled completely.

Not with another planet.

Not with another star.

With a doorway.

And on the other side stood a white cat with turquoise eyes.

Selene.

She looked directly toward Nihara.

Toward Yuki.

Toward Margarito.

But when she spoke, her warning was different.

"Get away from the Gate."

Yuki rose.

"Selene?"

The white cat looked behind herself.

Fear crossed her face.

"Now."

The enormous structure above Nihara began turning.

One ring.

Then another.

Then all nine.

Kepi's scanner screamed.

"What is happening?" Briar demanded.

Kepi stared at the readings.

"The Gate isn't opening."

Yuki looked toward the sky.

"Then what is it doing?"

Kepi's pink nose went pale.

"It's aligning."

"With what?"

Margarito already knew.

He could feel the answer somewhere behind the memories returning to him.

He looked at Yuki.

"The other eight."

High above Nihara, nine distant points of light appeared around the violet Gate.

And at their center, darkness began taking shape.

The Tenth was not waiting for them to find it.

The Nine Gates were building it.

And for the first time, the Star Warriors understood that opening a road and creating a destination might be the same act.