Aaron shrugged. “I don’t even remember that. There’s … nothing,” he lied as the vision of a vast crystalline ceiling shimmered like flame somewhere in his mind.

“You were never caught,” Tomansio said. “Never stood trial. Nobody knew what happened to you.”

“Including me, it appears,” Aaron said. It actually appealed to his sense of irony.

“Somebody did this to you,” Beckia said tightly. A great deal of anger was leaking out of her gaiamotes. “Somebody gave you the galaxy’s biggest mindfuck.”

“Could it have been her?” Tomansio mused.

“No,” Aaron said, not knowing where certainty came from but knowing it anyway. “It is my choice to be as I am. And I will retain this personality despite what you believe me to be.”

“But you’re not working too good, are you?” Corrie-Lyn said. “Your conditioning is breaking down.”

“I’ll survive,” he said grimly. “I have a mission to complete.”

“Which is?” Oscar asked.

Aaron pointed at Inigo. “The Dreamer must be taken to Makkathran inside the Void. Or at least establish contact with the Heart.”

As one, Oscar and the three Knights Guardian looked at the Natural man. He stepped forward and put his hand out to Inigo. “Dreamer,” he said. “I’m Araminta-two.” His gaiamotes released a flood of thoughts and emotions, including the gifting from the observation deck on the Lady’s Light.

“Great Lady,” Inigo grunted.

“Oh, yeah.” Ozzie grinned. “That is so cool, man.”

“I’m here to help,” Araminta-two said. “The Pilgrimage has to be stopped.”

“Now tell them who suggested you team up with Ozzie,” Oscar said smugly.

At least it got them all talking, Aaron admitted, even though it was little more than “gosh” and “wow” as various stories unfolded. But they sat around Ozzie’s kitchen table, testing snacks and drinks from the culinary unit. All except Troblum, who stood at the head of the table, refusing to come out of his armor suit.

“I met the Cat” was all he’d say on the subject. Everyone accepted that that was a pretty good excuse for extreme paranoia.

The only other thing Troblum said was: “Ozzie, it’s a great honor to meet you; I am a descendant of Mark Vernon.”

“Yeah? That’s nice, dude,” Ozzie said, and turned back to Araminta-two. “We’ve been trying to figure out if the Void can bring people inside like some kind of teleport effect,” he said. “Can you ask the Skylord that?”

“I can ask,” Araminta-two said.

Aaron kept watching Troblum. The big man had rocked back a fraction as Ozzie had dismissed him. There was no hint of a gaiafield emission. In fact, there was no way of telling exactly what was in that suit.

According to Oscar, Troblum had helped build the Swarm-again something both Ozzie and Inigo seemed completely disinterested in. Aaron was interested but only in that such information might break Earth out of its prison. But right now that was a long way down any list of possible actions to take to get Inigo into the Void. Besides, given that the Raiel couldn’t break through the Sol barrier, he suspected that it might take even longer than accomplishing his primary mission.

“Is there any way you or the Heart can reach out and bring me into your universe?” Araminta-two asked the Skylord.

Aaron glimpsed an amazing golden web of nebula dust fluorescing from dozens of dim glimmer points within as stars contracted to their ignition points. Skylords shone against the drifting eddies, their vacuum wings fully extended.

“You approach,” the Skylord said. “I feel you growing. Soon you will be here. Soon you will reach fulfillment.”

“I will be with you sooner if you could reach for me.”

“The Heart reaches for all. The Heart welcomes all.”

“I am still outside your universe. I fear I cannot reach you. Can you reach out for me as you once did for others of my race?”

“Those of your kind grew here upon the solid worlds. My kindred will take you there.”

“But first we have to get to you. Can you make that happen?”

“I feel you growing. It will not be long now.”

“How did those of the first of my kind arrive in your universe?”

“They emerged, as do all.”

“Did the Heart help them emerge?”

“The Heart welcomes all who emerge here.”

“I can no longer reach you. My voyage to your universe is over unless the Heart helps me. Ask it to reach for me, please. I wish to visit the world where my kind dwelled before.”

“You will come.”

Araminta-two’s thoughts hardened. “I will not.”

“You continue to grow closer. Your voyage is unbroken. We will welcome you. We will guide you.”

Araminta-two growled and shook his head as the Skylord’s presence dwindled to a background murmur at the very brink of perception. “Ozziedamnit.”

“I will if you want me to, man, but I doubt it’ll do much good,” Ozzie said.

Araminta-two gave him an abashed look. “Sorry. Force of habit.”

“It hardly matters,” said Inigo. “Ever since you started talking to the Skylords, it’s been obvious they simply don’t comprehend the concept of ‘outside.’ Their thoughts aren’t configured for that.”

“But the Heart or nucleus or whatever’s running the place does,” said Oscar. “It listened to you when you asked it to take Justine inside. That was quite a night.”

“It was still relayed through the Skylord,” Ozzie said. “And that request was a lot easier to comprehend.”

“So we have to work out how to make the message simpler,” Inigo said. “All we have to do is establish some kind of conduit to the Heart. It will understand exactly what we want.”

“Dude, you can’t get a message more simple,” Ozzie protested. “It’s convincing the Skylord to talk for us, which is difficult.”

“Suspiciously so,” Inigo said. “I find it hard to believe something that can manipulate the Void fabric as the Skylords can do is genuinely unable to grasp new concepts.”

“The control processes seem instinctive,” Inigo countered. “Direct willpower is the driving force for any modification within the Void itself.”

“Yes, but-”

Aaron felt a sigh building in his chest as they started to argue again. Her smile became mocking.

“I can get you there in time,” Troblum said.

Everyone turned to the giant dull gray figure looming over them. Myraian let out the faintest giggle.

Ozzie pushed a big frond of floppy hair back from his forehead. “Dude, how are you going to do that?”

“I have the Anomine planetary FTL engine in my starship.”

Silence again.

“The what?” Oscar asked.

“The Anomine didn’t build the Dyson Pair force field generators; they acquired them from the Raiel. To get them into position, they used an FTL system big enough to move a planet. I have it. Or a copy of it. Actually, it’s a copy of what I believe they built.”

Aaron didn’t care how uncertain the others were. “Is it faster than an ultradrive?” he asked.

“Yes. It’s effectively instantaneous. It’s a wormhole.”

“A wormhole big enough to shove a planet through?” Ozzie’s voice had risen a notch with incredulity.

“Yes.”

“Not possible.”

“Actually, it’s perfectly possible,” the house smartcores announced.

Ozzie growled and shot the ceiling a furious look.

“Wormhole structure is dependent on the power source,” the smartcores said. “The greater the available power, the bigger the size you can achieve-theoretically.”

“That’s right,” Troblum said.

“Okay,” Ozzie said. “So what do you use to power the mother of all wormholes?”

“A nova. Nothing else approaches the required output peak.”

“Well, that’s handy, dude. We’ll just hang around and see if one happens.”

“You don’t need to,” the smartcores said in the same voice, but with a gloating edge.

“Ah.” Aaron smiled. “Novabomb.”

“Yes,” Troblum said. “With a diverted energy function.”

“Clever,” Inigo said.

“You’ve gotta be fucking kidding me,” Ozzie yelled.