Salvation

by voroshilov

A Missing Piece

The Rift was an odd place, that was how Penumbra best described it. It was beautiful in its strangeness, how all of its colours winked and dulled at random, how patterns would form also completely at random. There was always a sense of pareidolia if one looked long enough. It was alive, or, at least, it had once been.

There was no distance in the Rift, not in the sense as there was distance in the material realm anyways. Rather, there was time. Time had some effect on the Rift, though Penumbra did not know exactly what. To be fair, nobody did. Except, perhaps, Emperor Nicholas.

She had always found herself able to dream within the Rift, like seeing glimpses of other lives, other paths, snatched away in seconds as the vessel exited the realm. The dreams told her nothing, barely long enough for her to properly identify them. But, that didn’t make them any less interesting. There were surprisingly few scientific studies into the matter, so perhaps she could write her own.

Xayanth. Supposedly, it had once been her home, or the home of her soul at least. The specifics of the matter were somewhat confusing, even to her, and with no Emperor Nicholas around to explain them they would likely remain so forever - if he had even really known. She longed to see it, to see what the conditions that had birthed her originally were like - if they were maintained. She didn’t know what she was hoping for, whether some kind of spiritual awakening or rebirth, or simply to know what she didn’t before. Knowledge was its own reward, after all.

She wasn’t sure why Ablazed Glory had come along. Admittedly, she had partially roped the burning alicorn in, but there was always the option to return to New Horizons. Penumbra was aware that her companion had a sense of adventure, far more than her own; she also assumed that Ablazed Glory held at least a fraction of her curiosity. Other than that, she had little stake in their impromptu expedition.

In the best case scenario, there would be a whole new Equestria waiting for her. Although, more than a small part of her didn’t want that. As she was, she knew she didn’t fit into Equestria anymore. Where once the very idea of war and violence had been alien to her, now it was part of her, a part she could not erase. What would happen if she met all of her friends again, before the War in Heaven had dragged them from their home? Would they recognise her? Would she recognise them?

Her mind stopped the train of thought dead in its tracks. It had been forced to take a very active role in recent days, with all of Penumbra’s worst memories and traumas threatening to boil over. There was a reason she had pushed her time on Equestria and during the War in Heaven to the back of her mind. It was better not to think about the past, she had decided.

Ablazed Glory, casually slouching back in her chair, tapped a claw on the desk in front of her absentmindedly. Perhaps she did not see Rift travel as Penumbra did; or, perhaps, she had grown so used to it that it was nothing exciting to her.

“What was the cruiser like?” Penumbra asked, “when you were going to the Throne World?”

Ablazed Glory looked over her shoulder at her companion, still tapping her claw. She scrunched up her muzzle in thought for a moment, before answering, “nothing too exciting,” she said, before clarifying, “more just pressing the Rift engage and hoping for the best. Without shields and with so much damage to the hull, it was a bit like this, only shakier.”

Penumbra’s only rides through the Rift had been very smooth, to the point of being nigh-unnoticeable. She had read reports of dangerous turbulence in the Rift, around the time of the Empire, even reports of daemonic boarders attacking ships. Though, the reports she had read had been long before the War in Heaven, going back no later than twenty thousand years ago. She had seen the effects the Rift could have, in the form of the immense storm that had carried the Eater of Worlds, but never experienced any sort of danger within it.

Ahead of them, through the viewscreen, the perfect, black circle of a rift opened. The emptiness of it stood out easily against the ever-twisting and colourful backdrop of the Rift itself. Rarely was Penumbra given the chance to see a rift approaching, to be in the Rift long enough to think of much. There was an odd beauty to it, of the patch of darkness surrounded by colour.

They emerged from the Rift into space. Truly, empty space. They were still within the galaxy, evident by the Luminary’s constant on screen reports of their location, though they were within one of the gaps between stars. Interstellar space was incredible in its own way, it was hard to accurately describe what being so alone was like. There was nothing but a few atoms of hydrogen for light-years around the Retaliator. Penumbra herself was one of the largest objects within a parsec.

“Luminary,” Penumbra said, readying a stack of papers and pens to record any notes that came to her - she was on a mission of discovery after all - “show us the system, please.”

The Luminary did not reply for seven seconds. “Which system do you mean?”

“The system,” Penumbra said, “the one we entered.”

Was it being intentionally obtuse? Or, as Penumbra began to worry, had Exultation-001 tampered with it in some way?

“There is no system within one parsec of our current location.”

Had Exultation-001’s coordinates been wrong? If she knew how the Assembly worked - which, admittedly, she didn’t really - she would have expected the coordinates to update over time. Surely the coordinates for Xayanth would have accounted for its movement over the eons.

Perhaps, Xayanth had been destroyed in a supernova. Though, there was no nebula nearby, with the Luminary going so far as to suggest that no nova of any kind had occurred in the region since the records began. The Irenton Empire had been vast, so records of supernovae even four billion years ago would have been made - such was the sheer distance between Imperial holding. The chance the record had been lost was a possibility, but unlikely, as the majority of astro-navigational data had been retained into the Dominion.

Exultation-001 had been acting strangely, so perhaps it could have provided incorrect coordinates purposefully - or maybe even accidentally. Though, Penumbra had no idea how the AI was really supposed to act. She was also unsure as to whether or not she was reading too far into what it had said, which was entirely possible.

“That can’t be right,” she muttered, “that just can't be right.”

“Wasn’t there supposed to be a planet here?” Ablazed Glory asked, before turning to her clearly bewildered companion, “I think that robot scammed you.”

Penumbra shook her head. “That’s not possible. It’s just not possible. It wouldn’t have known, surely.” Her voice fell, causing her to just mutter the same few phrases repeatedly.

Ablazed Glory promptly attempted to regain control of the situation. Firstly, she scanned the surrounding area, searching for any clues as to where their missing system had ended up. Next, she angled the ship around, following the system’s predicted axis of rotation around the galactic centre. Finally, with a flick of a single switch in a submenu, she ordered a cup of tea for Penumbra.

“It’s not here,” Penumbra said, voice wavering, “it’s not here, because it doesn’t exist.”

“What do you mean?” Ablazed Glory asked, as she removed the freshly made cup of tea from a panel in the back wall - having an automatic teapot built into the bridge was a very Irenton design. She carried it over to Penumbra, handing it to her carefully.

Penumbra took a long sip of the tea. “It doesn’t exist,” she said again, “it’s a myth.”

“Well,” Ablazed Glory said, pouring confidence into her voice in an attempt to relax her comrade, “perhaps it’s just moved off its previous orbit. Systems do that, especially over the course of billions of years.”

Penumbra shook her head over her mug. “Not this one,” she said, “the coordinates would have accounted for it. There’s nothing here to find because there is nothing to find.”

She took another long sip of her mug, before sitting up straighter. A newfound direction burned in her eyes. “Take us back to Cradle,” she ordered, “we need to confront the AI.”

“Aye.” Ablazed Glory spun, cracking a lopsided grin and punching in coordinates back to Cradle. “Ready to engage Rift.”

“Engage Rift.”