Hegira: Rising Omega

by Guardian_Gryphon

Chapter 6

Earth Calendar: 2117
Equestrian Calendar: 15 AC (After Contact)
Twelfth Month, Seventh Day, Celestial Calendar

Varan

The chitin spur fell with a metaphorical impact that matched the physical sound as it hit the surface of the oaken table. The vaulted space of the guest chamber echoed with the impact, in spite of the many tapestries, draperies, and other bits of ornate cloth that helped to cut the echoes, and the chill.

All eyes rested on the offending object, from we two Gryphons, and the two Alicorns, to the four guards at the door, as well as IJ and Shining Armor themselves.

Silence lasted nearly ten full seconds, during which IJ fixed Shining Armor with a completely unreadable, unflinching gaze, one eyebrow raised ever so slightly.

The Changeling Queen was the first to speak, maintaining the appearance of complete dispassion, in spite of the information she had been given moments before. She bore much of that controlled demeanor in common with me, or so I was told. Moreso after her transformation into a repaired Changeling.

"I see."

The Unicorn blinked twice, then stiffened abruptly, a note of distinct anger flaring up in his voice as well as his expression.

"'I see'? That's your first response?! One of our decorated officers is *dead!* An officer who volunteered to protect you, and yours, in spite of the, apparently deserved, reputation your kind carries."

Kephic winced at the visible shift in IJ's stance, and expression. Her response carried an unmistakable edge of steel that had been absent moments prior. I kept my beak blank, but mentally began preparing several options, both verbal and physical, to stem the rising emotional tide of the conversation.

It was already going quite poorly.

"How would you have me respond? With childishly emotional, and provocative behavior, like you? With false apologies for an alleged trespass that hasn't been proven, to assuage your wounded sensibilities? I am a diplomatic guest here, and I suspect less under 'protection,' and more under 'observation,' besides."

The warning note evaporated from the Changeling's voice, replaced immediately with a timbre of surety, and finality.

"I think avoiding an emotional state is likely the best thing I can do to aid objectivity. So the best I can do right now is acknowledge that I understand the information given, and that I understand the delicacy of the matter. Hence 'I see.' "

Shining paused to glower at the marble floor tiles beneath his hooves, pacing and suppressing his anger, yet bracing himself for further confrontation. When he next spoke, it was with a laudable attempt at a flat, diplomatic tone, but the wording itself left little room for pleasantry.

"Every one of your party will be interviewed, and examined by myself. We will also be searching their chambers."

IJ nodded, and exhaled slowly.

"Necessary steps, to be sure. I have no objection."

Shining, Celestia, and the guards all froze in shock, having fully expected a far more confrontational response. Kephic blinked, and tried to reconcile the behavior to his mental image of IJ, while Luna and I exchanged thoughtful glances. We were the only two in the room who had foreseen, and hoped, for such a diffusing answer.

The confusion of the others was put to rest almost immediately, as IJ raised a hoof, and added a qualifying statement in a perfectly calm tone that conveyed such surety, that even I was duly impressed.

"I will, of course, be present for all of this, and have an equal and active role in the investigation, to ensure there is no bias. The same provisions will be extended to my Gryphon... Friends."

IJ's last word came out with a surprising warmth, relative to her usually chilled, distant attitude. There was, however, little time for Kephic, or I, to take special note of it. Our attention was instead riveted to the Prince, whose nostrils were flared wide in a blatant and uniquely Equine show of barely contained rage.

Shining's ears pinned back against his skull, and he leaned across the table, sticking his muzzle directly into IJ's face, his eyes wide and his voice occupying a register normally reserved for geological events.

"Absolutely *not.* Your Gryphon 'friends' are already privy to this investigation. Because they have earned our trust. *You* on the other hoof, I have no reason to trust, and many many reasons to hold in suspicion. As you said, you are a guest. You don't get to make demands."

"Now just one bloody minute!"

There he went again. Always the first into the fray, though increasingly Fyrenn was vying with him for the title of most impatient. To most Gryphons that was natural. I knew I was more of an anomaly. We are not a patient species on average.

Kephic's brow knit, and he took several menacing strides forward, matching the irritation in his tone with action, as he so often did. The guards by the door reflexively tensed, and in turn my brother and I laid claws gently, but visibly against the hilts of our swords, as if by autonomic response.

"*Peace.* We will have *peace* in these proceedings. To do otherwise is to admit defeat already."

Luna's voice carried so much force, that all motion in the room came to a halt. Even breathing, though that resumed swiftly, but cautiously.

Celestia allowed herself a half smile as she stepped to the middle of the room, to the shock of all, though her words soon gave reason to her seemingly unreasonable amusement.

"Truly we live in strange times. A Changeling, for whom Gryphons would draw their swords in defense? Has such a thing ever been seen in history?"

The thought struck every being in the room with a great deal of force, and even we Gryphons were forced to pause for a long moment of introspection.

At last, the tension was shattered by a long, low rumble of a chuckle. With a jolt, Kephic realized the sound was coming from me, and he swiveled his head sharply to fix me with a cocked ear, and a raised eyebrow.

A slight rustling noise struck up to accompany the deep thrum of my usually suppressed merriment, and Kephic realized that IJ was doing her best to contain a silent bout of laughter. The sight proved too much for the speckled Gryphon, and my brother too found himself chuckling quietly, joined by Celestia and her guards alike, after only a moment more.

The amusement faded as quickly as it had arisen, replaced again by a deep gravitas, but the tension that had existed before was gone, as if a cloud of noxious gas had been forcibly expelled from the chamber.

Even Shining Armor, who had not so much as smiled, seemed to be quit of his rage at the very least, instead possessed of a genuine calm that seemed more suited to his station, and which seemed to me to be a better reflection of the Prince's usual level of maturity by reputation.

That idea lodged in the forefront of my mind, spinning outward into a series of new and concerning questions.

The same train of thought seemed to occupy Kephic, Luna, and IJ, though the latter had already traced it much further along than any of us.

The Changeling's face hardened, and she shared a deeply concerned glance with first me, then the Lunar Monarch, then Kephic.

Celestia and Shining both took note of the Hive Queen's altered demeanor, and their ears flicked back in a sign of worry, and confusion.

That worry blossomed into a momentary burst of outright fear, as IJ's horn flared to life with a soft glow, accompanied by a beak-jarring vibrational thrumming. Teal thaumatic energy washed gently over the room, spreading outwards until it coalesced into a mist hanging on the walls, and ceiling, and settling on the floor.

Shining's tension seemed to fully evaporate as the energies came to rest, replaced by a dazed look, not dissimilar to the expression of one suddenly released from the influence of a drug.

By the time the spell was woven, myself, Kephic, Celestia, and Luna had finished following the Changeling's same train of thought through to its conclusion; But it was IJ who lent voice to our fears, and explanation to Shining's confusion.

"We do not merely subsist on emotions, we Changelings... Some of us can also sense them with an empathic degree of discrimination, and then manipulate them by reflecting specific feelings back onto those experiencing them, in order to magnify them to an unusual degree."

IJ raised her head, and looked briefly back and forth between Kephic and I.

"You've both experienced me doing this, point of fact, in that I took any positive feelings you had towards me during the time I was infiltrating your group, and reflected them back at you in order to help suppress any suspicions, and negative feelings you would otherwise have had to a greater degree."

In response to Kephic's confused stare, IJ appended her explanation.

"It works, even on your kind, because it is merely a mirroring of thoughts and emotions you already possess. We cannot add to, nor subtract from, what already exists in content, only in quantity. Neither can we read thoughts, or influence them directly... But sometimes subtlety is enough. It is an art most commonly seen in career infiltrators, of the highest skill levels."

Shining at last regained enough of his faculties to interject, raising a hoof to bring a pause to the conversation as his usual mental acuity, and emotional maturity, began to reassert themselves properly.

"So... You're saying someone in the castle is doing this to us? Right now? And that's why I've felt so... So angry, and hateful, and paranoid, towards you?"

IJ nodded slowly, and spoke with a carefully measured tone that trod a line between soft diplomacy, and the clinical relay of facts, surprising even myself with her nearly-tender expression, by Changeling standards.

"Doubtless. It is also why you had little to no suspicions when Chrysalis replaced your mate. She was almost certainly reflecting your already stratospheric positivity back onto you with so much force, that it overwhelmed all other emotion."

The Unicorn Prince seemed momentarily stunned by the Changeling's knowledge of his past, before realizing that the flow of information in the Hive meant that she was likely more knowledgeable about the events than he was, despite having personally survived them.

IJ rose, and moved from behind the table to stand directly in front of Shining, sitting back onto her haunches to bring her head level with his as she continued.

"Though it is most difficult, even a Gryphon can be deceived this way. You don't know Neyla, but I can testify that she is of exceedingly strong will, and sharp mind. And she was deceived unto love. Your situation is the same as that of most who have run afoul of an infiltrator. No blame is due you, in either case."

Abruptly, the Changeling's usual, frostier air returned, though I thought I noted the tiniest hint of buried amusement in the undercurrent of IJ's tone, even as she rose, and turned to move back to her desk.

"I will not hold your behavior against you."

Shining raised an eyebrow, and suppressed a mirthless chuckle, as if to wordlessly assert that his feelings were at least ever so slightly justified, while at the same time admitting that their previous magnitude was not a true representation of his usual self.

Kephic exhaled, and gestured expansively at the teal mist surrounding the boundaries of the room, airing the questions that still remained.

"You're shielding us, then?"

IJ nodded, and her horn glowed softly once more, the mist dissipating as she proffered further explanation.

"That should no longer be necessary, and would be fruitless regardless. Such a shield is impossible to conjure for multiple beings as they move in disparate directions. It requires static boundaries, and making those boundaries too large is both intensive, and risks encompassing the source you're trying to block out, rendering it pointless."

The Changeling Queen seated herself at her desk, and folded her front hooves on the surface, continuing with her customary mild aloofness.

"Now that you are aware you were being manipulated, you are more or less immune to this specific infiltrator. Our capacity to reflect emotions is not nearly so strong as a Wisp's, and it is effectively useless if you're already predisposed to look for the specific emotions being reflected, in a specific situation."

I added my own thoughts to the ensuing contemplative silence, answering my own most pressing question in the process, and bringing the analysis to a satisfying close. The situation had certainly improved by leaps and bounds.

"Kephic and I were unaffected in this instance, because whomever is responsible for this is reflecting emotions borne of prejudice and suspicion. Since you have earned our trust fully, we do not feel these emotions towards you in any measure, and thus there is nothing useful to be reflected in our case. One could similarly say that their Highnesses, being of open mind and heart, were also less affected as a result."

IJ nodded curtly.

"A logical assessment."

Luna's face hardened, and concern colored her voice strongly, though the words came out evenly, almost flatly.

"Unfortunately, many others in the castle, of high political standing in our Kingdom, are doubtless still being affected. Varan and Kephic are correct; All of this is a ploy to irreparably damage the non-aggression pact negotiations."

Celestia expounded on her sister's line of reasoning, ruffling her wings in disquiet as a grim note quickly drowned out the Alicorn's normally optimistic cadence and manner.

"Regardless of the outcome at the discussion table, this would preclude real and lasting peace between your kind, and ours, IJ. Though my sister and I hold absolute authority in our Kingdom in the legal sense, in this instance the hearts and minds of the public are the real issue. We can legislate as we desire, but real peace is based on mutual cultural bonding. That requires trust."

Shining's ears twitched, and he exhaled in frustration, before finishing out the conclusion of the syllogism.

"I doubt further trust would be gained by having IJ gather the court of nobles into this study, and douse them in her magic, even if that would solve the immediate issue of the reflected emotions."

Celestia let out a deep sigh, and her ears drooped, while the darkness in her tone deepened.

"No indeed. Unfortunately, while many in Pony-kind are quite open, overall our culture is dangerously stagnant, especially amongst the nobility. Many of them are unhealthily prejudiced to begin with, even against different tribes of their own kind. How much more against what seems, at first glance, to be an old enemy?"

After another thoughtful pause, my brother reseated his wings with a loud rustle, and clapped his claws together.

"Right then. There's only one thing for it. We carry this investigation through, properly, and thoroughly, but in secret. When the infiltrator is caught and caged, the effect of their machinations will dissipate, and as long as the nobility never has concrete reasons to give foundation to their suspicions, they can be reasoned with. Outside those in this room, and those involved in handling the scene of the act, only Stan will ever know exactly what happened."

Shining inhaled as if to object to Carradan's inclusion, but IJ raised a hoof, and injected her own viewpoint before he had a chance.

"He is keenly honed in the art of investigative questioning, and his intuition is strong. I have even admitted such, as early as the first days when I once despised him... How much more now? He will also provide another Equine perspective."

For a long moment IJ, Celestia, and Shining traded inscrutable glances. At last, however, the Unicorn exhaled slowly, and nodded.

"Alright then. I don't like holding all of this in secret, but I agree with the reasoning. And I can't... *Won't* argue with the trust given by Gryphons, nor my Sovereigns. I take either as enough, on faith. Let alone both. To say nothing of the fact that the enemy's desire for me to be one thing is more than enough reason to be the opposite on principle alone."

IJ blinked slowly, and inclined her head, voicing very similar thoughts to my own.

"Let us hope, for the sake of my kind, that the majority of your nobles are even half as reasonable, once freed from the effects of the reflections. My species' long-term survival depends on it."

Earth Calendar: 2117
Equestrian Calendar: 15 AC (After Contact)
December 6th, Gregorian Calendar

Fyrenn

"Absolutely incredible..."

I stared through the window as the clouds parted around the descending Javelin. I wasn't alone in my wonderment; Every one of the craft's passengers were plastered to a porthole, giving rapt attention to the spectacle beneath.

From above, the Genesist facility looked as if it were too big to possibly be an artificial construct. Neyla wondered aloud if the complex was readily visible from orbit, swiftly concluding that it must be, given a few rudimentary calculations.

Vast pits marched almost to the horizon in staggered rows, each holding either a ship, or the skeleton of one yet-to-be, equally divided, thirty in all.

Gryphon and Unicorn eyes instantly grasped the true scale of the vessels; We found we could make out individual technicians scrambling over the hulls.

Abruptly, the idea of a quarter million people being launched into space seemed far more concrete than it once had. The weighty concept came to rest on my thoughts with considerable gravitas, and I suspected I wasn't alone in that.

I made a few basic calculations of my own, and concluded that the project would have been impossible in a pre-singularity world.

Machines building other machines, maintaining them, designing them, and intelligently solving problems without external intervention. It was the only way for so many resources to be so efficiently distributed and assembled in such short order.

In spite of that, I could see hundreds of thousands of technicians, loaders, inspectors, drivers, medics, and other various support persons, just from the limited viewport of the Javelin. The cumulative efforts of Human, machine, and Equestrian boggled the mind.

Alyra voiced a similar thought to mine in breathless anticipation. Her own dark experience with technology had never seemed to temper her enthusiasm for the good it could do, though it certainly underscored the bad. I wondered how much of that had to do with growing up in such a technologically infused world, and how much was simply her own mature resilience.

"So many interconnected parts... There must be twenty trillion bolts alone... How do they make sure it all functions smoothly?"

Hutch tapped idly at the window with one finger as he answered. Even though he had been to the site before, it visibly still shocked him on some level, when the scale began to sink in.

"Self-managed learning AI diagnostic systems. Sapient technicians only have to be involved if the computer detects certain special failure cases, or can't reach its own solution for more run-of-the-mill issues."

Aston nodded, and gave Alyra an affectionate pat between her wings, returning my daughter's brilliant smile as she expounded further.

"They've adapted the systems from the infrastructural AI that run city services, so they have a strong basis of proven technology. But still... No one has ever trusted them to maintain such a complex vessel before. Even Naval Ships do half of their troubleshooting the old-fashioned way, at the very least."

Neyla raised an eyebrow, and cocked one ear back. The slight wry upturn at the corner of her beak, and her tone, indicated admiration, mixed with clear relief that she herself wouldn't be forced to trust those same systems as a test subject.

"These are as much cities as vessels, so I suppose the technology applies more here than one might initially think."

I nodded in agreement, suppressing a grin in the process. Neyla was one of only a clawfull of Gryphons I had a close relationship with, who also appreciated Human technology on the same obsessive level I did.

Most of our species took to the concepts with enthusiasm, but her capacity for deeply thoughtful analysis and creativity surpassed even that of an above-average leo-avinid. The word that sprang most readily to my mind was 'genius.'

Neyla, in my estimation, understood more of the things Skye said than anyone else in the group could ever hope to grasp.

The Unicorn shook her head slowly, a manic grin spreading across her muzzle, and dripping into her words like syrup.

"There must be so much processing power in just *one* of those things... Probably the most advanced chip architecture ever devised. Anywhere. And I get to poke and prod."

Exhaling sharply, I tapped the glass as the Javelin swung into a tight turn, setting up final approach, and revealing a new sight in the process.

"Let's not forget the main reason we're here."

The damage cut right through the side of the Shenzhou's loading bay. Carbon scoring arced out across the vessel's starboard nameplate, as if the detonation had picked that particular blast pattern out of sheer spite.

We Gryphons, with our sharper eyes, could see the full extent of the jagged scarring. I immediately realized that it could have been much worse.

The scale of the mess was still shocking nonetheless. The floor of the loading bay had deformed for hundreds of yards in every direction. Multi-thousand-ton pieces hung, half-melted, half-vaporized from the sides of gantries that would have dwarfed skyscrapers. One of the structures was missing entirely above its base.

Nevertheless, the scene of the detonation had been left undisturbed for investigation; The toppled, deformed, charred morass of cargo containers within the bay testified to that.

Skye winced reflexively, and Hutch looked away entirely, as the realization dawned on them that dozens of the smallest items they had thought to be 'containers' were in fact corpses, burned beyond initial recognition as Human.

I clenched one claw around the side of my seat, leaving four divots in the aluminum body of the armrest, and expelling my thoughts through a clenched beak.

"When we're finished with whoever orchestrated this... They'll wish *they'd* died in that explosion too."

Earth Calendar: 2117
Equestrian Calendar: 15 AC (After Contact)
Twelfth Month, Seventh Day, Celestial Calendar

IJ

"I find it very unsettling to think that one of them may be the culprit. I used to do this kind of work, and I don't like to think that one of them might have actually beaten me at my own game."

I shifted uncomfortably on my haunches, giving a rare physical display of the turbidity of my inner thoughts. Even still, the habits of growing up in the Hive clung to me. The reflexive need to keep my emotions hidden. Safe.

Stan glared through the hazy image projected onto the stone wall of the chamber, and shook his head slowly, offering Luna a grim sideways glance in the process, as if to share his thoughts without speaking.

The Lunar Alicorn was the one responsible for the image floating on the wall. Equestria's nearest analogue to a one-way mirror; A spell that could show the inside of a room, from the next space over. Stan had remarked that it was akin to a foggy window suspended within the marble.

When he did open his muzzle, he spoke slowly, and deliberately, in an uncharacteristically grim tone, as Luna, myself, Kephic, Varan, and Shining looked on in silence.

"You can't take any assumptions, or emotions into that room. I spent a *lotta* time around professional liars in my last line of work. Magic aside, or even biological 'hoodoo-voodoo'... This is the sort of person who can get inside *anyone's* head, and play with it. Like putty. The nifty powers are just icing on the cake. You fooled me, in spite of all my know-how, so is it really such a stretch that you yourself could be fooled too?"

My left eyebrow rose slowly, and icy sarcasm bubbled up in my words, tinged ever-so-slightly with the tiniest possible drop of good humor that I could add without becoming overly sentimental.

I wasn't about to admit in front of others how much I enjoyed Stan's surprisingly sharp intellect, or our flirtations based on cunningly chosen words.

"Any more deep and indispensable insights? Smart-flank."

The Pegasus nodded, and jerked his muzzle towards the image on the wall.

"Two of 'em are a similar shade of yellow to our 'material evidence.' And any of them of course have the ability to change color just as quickly as a chameleon. And it might be none of them at all. It might well be anyone, short of their Highnesses, and our fine feathered friends. If they can get around the Princess' protection and detection spells on the city, I imagine they're very clever indeed."

He yelped, and backpedalled reflexively as my teeth deftly nipped into his left shoulder, seemingly from out of nowhere, drawing a tiny rivulet of blood in the process.

With a smirk, I smacked my lips, verifying for myself definitively that Stan's blood carried none of the tell-tale pheromonal traces of a Changeling. Traces only another Changeling would ever be able to detect, without Human technological aid.

It was more or less an unnecessary precaution, and he knew it. An excuse to get in a humorous little dig. I knew him well enough, and knew my kind well enough, to be almost impossible to fool in that way for very long.

"You did say *anyone.*"

Stan stuck his tongue out and glowered, merriment nonetheless seeping through from around the edges of his eyes, and words alike.

"Smart-flank."

I loved his sarcasm. Almost as much as I loved the way that he loved my own harder edges for what they were.

Earth Calendar: 2117
Equestrian Calendar: 11 AC (After Contact)
December 6th, Gregorian Calendar

Neyla

"You came. And I see you brought some familiar faces... And some less familiar ones. Do me the honor of introductions."

Martins' words bore an air of surety, as if she had never expected, or even feared, any other outcome.

Fyrenn nodded, and took the Councilor's proffered hand, shaking it warmly, with a matched tone of friendly familiarity in his voice.

"Councilor this is my daughter Alyra, one of my closest friends Skye, who is an exceedingly adept information theorist, and all around technical genius, and my..."

The red Gryphon found himself uncharacteristically hung up on his words. Wheels spun within his brain as I fixed him with a mischievous stare, one eyebrow raised. Daring him to finish the thought the way he had started it.

"...This is Neyla."

It was a weak way to finish the thought, and Fyrenn's quietly embarrassed tone betrayed his uncertainty further still, but Martins covered for it with the swift grace, and smooth, inviting tone of a career politician.

I wished she hadn't. I wanted him to feel embarrassed. Not for the act of referring to me as his mate, but rather for the act of cutting himself off instead of following through.

It was a tantalizing crack in the walls though. Encouraging.

"Welcome. It is nice to meet more of the family, as it were. Aston has told me much about you, and always spoken of you in the highest regard. I'm just sorry we had to meet under such dire circumstances."

Skye dipped her head, and grinned slyly.

"Well ma'am, that's why we're here isn't it? Never fear. Tech support is here."

Martins chuckled, and quietly exchanged a handshake with me, before moving on to Aston with a full-fledged embrace. The two women were practically siblings themselves, and their family ties ran back a generation, as Fyrenn and I understood it.

Aston had originally introduced Martins to him, and the Councilor in turn had been instrumental in making his Conversion possible, from a political standpoint. For that, I think I might have loved the woman like an aunt, or cousin. I would have done almost anything for anyone who had a hand in making Fyrenn what he was. Putting him on a path to intersect my life.

I owed that woman much, though she didn't know it.

Fyrenn smirked internally as Hutch graced the Councilor with a gentlemanly kiss on her right hand.

I guessed he was remembering the General's initial assessment of Martins as a 'snake in the grass.' That's what he told me Hutch's exact words had been. It certainly made for a stark contrast to the moment.

If Human politicians and generals could overcome their differences without threats, or bribes, I reflected, perhaps anything really was possible. It seemed to be turning into a day for hope, if only ever so subtly.

Introductions were truncated as a cutting, frigid gust of wind swept across the tarmac. Martins shivered, and hiked up the collar of her coat, teeth chattering slightly as she gestured to a pair of wheeled vehicles at the landing pad's entryway.

Not for the first time, I was reminded to be grateful for my feathers and fur. I knew Fyrenn, and other converts, felt that gratitude even more often and keenly. I did my best every single day to try and let some of that gratitude for what, and who I was, rub off on me. It was contagious, healthy, and very very attractive.

"Come along then. It'll be warmer in the transports, and I'll have a chance to brief you on what we know so far."

As the group made our way to the vehicles, Fyrenn took a moment to appreciate the complex for the first time from ground level, and I found myself similarly slowing to take it all in.

In spite of the gathering dusk, it was effectively mid-day for anyone within the facility's borders.

The distinct, deeply familiar to anyone who had spent time Earth-side, but still slightly unsettling fluorescent-like hue of the industrial-sized illumibars, cast everything about the trusses, cranes, storage tanks, and buildings into sharp relief. Together with the constant sounds of machinery, and workers, acting in such a vast scale, it left the impression of standing within a massive, mechanical, living forest.

Fyrenn's eyes tracked downwards, falling on the transports, mine followed, and once again we both found ourselves impressed. The vehicles were each large enough inside to seat the entire group, Humans and nonhumans alike, with gull-wing doors on either side that swung away to proffer an entryway that could accommodate two Gryphons abreast.

The first transport was full of security guards; Two Humans, two Gryphons, and two Pegasi, all clad in sleek armor plating with a fascia resembling brushed aluminum.

The second vehicle was empty, and Martins beckoned everyone inside, away from the falling night-time temperatures.

Resembling Earthgov heavy APCs, but with orange strobe light bars instead of armament, the vehicles were effectively one-story tall, two-lane wide matte gray SUVs, with all four wheels attached via crab-claw-like prongs, mounted on blast-resistant suspension devices.

They had clearly been designed from scratch to be utilized by a multispecies workforce, specifically within the Genesist complex and it's specialized roads.

Fyrenn bounded the last four meters to catch up with the rest of us, smoothly truncating the final leaping motion to end up seated by the door, which snapped shut moments later.

With the distinctive throaty whirr of a hydrogen-powered engine, the transport jerked forward, accelerating out onto the central causeway.

Fyrenn stared out through the blast-proofed slit of a passenger window, and shook his head slowly.

"You've accomplished something genuinely spectacular here, Councilor. I don't think it'd be an exaggeration to call it the greatest engineering achievement in history, now that I've seen it from above."

Martins exhaled slowly, her shoulders momentarily drooping, as if the exhaustion buried and put off from decades of sleepless nights had somehow all at once caught up with her. Though her body seemed to cry out for relief, her voice was strong and energetic.

It firmly cemented my opinion of her as admirably strong-willed.

"Bounties and fruits of the singularity. Even with the whole of the Earth's population turned into a workforce, we would have needed a century to bring the project to fruition. Artificial intelligence, and fully machine driven maintenance, manufacturing, and assembly systems, have cut that to less than a quarter of what it could have been in an impossible, idealized scenario."

Hutch exchanged a raised eyebrow with Aston, before directing a carefully worded question towards the Councilor.

"But even so... You would have had to start the design and construction processes before you had functioning examples of the drive cores, and half of the other subsystems... Isn't that a fairly extreme risk to take?"

Martins offered her friend a wry smirk, and directed her gaze to follow Fyrenn's, fixating on the first of the ships as the transport passed into the inner complex. I allowed my eyes to follow as well as she spoke.

"No more extreme a risk than NASA took with Redstone, Mercury, Gemini, or Apollo. It worked for them, it will work for us. It just takes passion, expertise, a deep sense of engineering conscientiousness, and yes... More than a little irrational bravery. No one ever gained anything substantive, in any species' history, without taking some extreme, albeit manageable, risks."

Skye nudged Fyrenn's left wing, and grinned, dropping into a stage whisper, and flicking one ear back coyly.

"I *like* her. She's a go-getter."

I smiled broadly, and nodded my own assent, to both the explicit compliment to Martins, and the implicit idea that Fyrenn could learn something from that bravery, and willingness to take risks.

Earth Calendar: 2117
Equestrian Calendar: 15 AC (After Contact)
Twelfth Month, Seventh Day, Celestial Calendar

Kephic

"How long has *this* been going on?"

Sildinar closed the door behind him with care, lowering his voice to match the soft, secretive volume of the action.

I jerked my head towards the conjured one-way window, and matched my prince's conspiratorial tone.

"About four hours, give or take. Everything's been explained to you?"

The elder Gryphon nodded, and took up a seated position between myself and Luna, exchanging glances with the monarch, myself, my brother, and Shining Armor each in turn.

Shining lifted one hoof, and gestured towards Stan. The salmon Pegasus was seated beside IJ, watching her work. The Changeling Queen, for her part, had not moved, and had barely spoken, since the beginning of the session.

She remained locked in a mental conversation with the line of guards before her, only occasionally breaking the tense silence for Stan's benefit; Relaying part of a conversation, or a snippet of data.

"No progress thus far, but I'm forced to admit that I'm swiftly finding new respect for your Pegasus friend. You wouldn't find such patience in many of my own soldiers. I certainly had no expectation of finding it in one who seems so... Impulsive."

Varan inclined his head, and glanced sideways at the equine Prince, speaking with the usual deadpan that underpinned his typical understatements.

"Reporter's instinct. Apparently we still have much to learn of Humanity's hidden talents."

Several moments of appreciative silence passed. Then, as if acting by silent agreement, IJ and Stan wordlessly rose, and exited the makeshift interrogation room. Seconds later, the door to the observation chamber opened, and the pair entered.

Stan spoke first, frustration mixed in equal measure with determination.

"This is one tough nut to crack. I think we've narrowed it down by about half, but by golly the innocent sure ain't helping us at all. Seems like they're all lying about something."

IJ blinked, and exhaled slowly, her own frustrations making themselves known in a different, almost disappointed note, tinged with more than a small hint of empathy.

"When you've lived your whole life desiring independence from a forced collective, you can't easily break the habit of being secretive. Closed off. It's what kept you alive for so long; It starts to feel just as essential as breath, or heartbeat. When you try to step outside of it, at first it feels like drowning. The desperation, the need to lie, is reflexive. Even if the only thing you're guilty of is natural emotion."

Shining nodded slowly, and rose. I was incredibly relieved to see him taking IJ at her word. I liked the Unicorn Prince, and I had hated the idea that he might find himself intractably at odds with a dear friend.

"Much as I dislike this sort of thing... You've convinced me that it's the best chance we've got, for now. We're in a hurry, but not so much so that we should explore alternatives just yet."

IJ nodded, and fixed her gaze on the one way window as she responded with her characteristic pragmatism. She had a brain for tactics. Varan and I knew that from experience. It had saved our lives before.

"If we have made no further progress by this time tomorrow, we will be facing diminishing returns, and should begin exploring, as you put it, 'alternatives.' "

Shining inclined his head, then stretched to work out the kinks from sitting on the stone floor for an extended period.

"A reasonable time-frame."

The Unicorn turned to face Sildinar, a much more amenable note entering into his words.

"Good to see you again. When we sent for diplomatic representation, I had no idea they'd be sending royalty."

Sildinar smiled slightly, and ruffled his wings to reseat the primaries, speaking with a similarly familiar, warm manner. His implied trust and friendship did a great deal to immediately bolster my own respect for Shining Armor.

"Good to see you as well. It seems married life suits you..."

After a brief pause, punctuated by a deep inhalation, the roan Gryphon finished his thought.

"Yes, I was selected for this task. It seems that it warrants special attention. My parents, and their advisors, feel that this is an exceedingly important juncture in our history. Not just as Gryphon-kind, but our history as inhabitants of this world. I agree wholeheartedly."

Luna spoke without moving her gaze from the one-way observation spell, her voice holding itself to a low, reverent, slightly ominous register.

"The alliance between our world's strongest economic culture, and its strongest martial one has already risen to be the defining force shaping our route through history. Imagine adding to that a newcomer with the talents and abilities of Changelings, but the free thoughts of free beings."

The concept landed with the weight of a pallet of bricks, bringing an uneasy quiet to the room once again. It gave me pause, in spite of our kinship with IJ. A friend was one thing, in some ways she was closer to family even... But amongst a whole species, there certainly could be bad actors nonetheless.

In the case of reformed Changelings, any potential malfeasance would be paired with terrifying abilities.

On the cusp of the moment's end, a sharp rap on the door startled everyone, drawing all eyes to the entryway.

Luna's eyes narrowed, and she rose, her muscles tensing with all the kinetic potential of a coiled spring, mirroring the warrior readiness posture of the room's other occupants. Her voice was as fraught as a high-tension electrical wire.

"Strict orders were left that we were to remain undisturbed..."

Varan, Sildinar, and I drew our swords, and moved to flank the door in complete silence, with almost telepathic co-ordination, and faultless surety of step. At the same time Shining moved to take up a guard position beside Luna, while Stan did the same for IJ.

A half-second later, Sildinar pulled the door open.

Confusion and relief washed over the room in a peculiar mix, followed almost immediately by indignation on Luna's part.

"Pray tell; What is the meaning of thy presence here? These chambers are presently off limits."

The Alicorn slipped reflexively into formal high speech, staring down her muzzle with no small amount of authoritative irritation at the offending Unicorn. Based on the latter's manner of dress, I guessed that the uninvited visitor was a high ranking lord of the court.

Two Day Guards stood behind the lord, to either side of the doorframe, maintaining respectful silence. The Unicorn himself looked flustered, and more deeply confused than anyone else in the room.

"Mmm... M'lady I beg your pardon... But I was told you had *sent* for me?"

Sildinar's eyes narrowed. He, of all the room's occupants, had the most in the way of real-world tactical experience, and the most practice using it in the clutch. It was natural for him to arrive at the correct conclusion first.

His head whipped around, shoulders swiveling in turn, so he could fix his gaze on the one-way window. All eyes followed his within a moment. The sight was so startling, that I felt the feathers on the back of my neck rise of their own accord.

Perched directly by the wall, staring right into the room, as if she could see through stone, sat one of IJ's Changelings; One of the few in the group with a yellow hue, her eyes were unmistakably filled with triumphant malevolence.

A foul green glow emanated from the spaces between the Changeling's ribs, pulsing, and growing with each heartbeat.

IJ and we Gryphons knew the danger instantaneously, from sheer depth of experience fighting the Hive. In an instant, the tense pause and silence of the preceding moment was shattered.

"DOWN!"

The thundering of Sildinar's voice was followed immediately by a sharp impact from his wings, shoving the lord and his guards into the hall, and forcing all three Ponies to the floor. Even as the Gryphon Prince dove to protect those closest to him, Varan and I moved to do the same for Luna and Shining.

Summoning from pure reflex, honed by training, the Unicorn Prince erected a thaumatic shield, placing himself, Varan and I, and the lunar monarch, inside a nearly impenetrable bubble of energy.

IJ conjured a similar form of defensive magic, forcing Stan behind her, and raising both wings. Glittering blue-green walls of force followed the leading edges of the limbs, expanding out into twin overlapping shields that stretched nearly from floor to ceiling.

Most of the interrogation room's other occupants managed to raise small defense shields for themselves as well, but three were not so lucky. Whether due to slower reflex, or lack of thaumatic will, they were caught unprotected.

The yellow Changeling went up in a vibrant green flash, which was followed in a microsecond by a tremendous overpressure wave. Stone, liquefied steel, and wood shivers flew in every direction, propelled outwards on a blast equal parts sickly green, and fiery orange.

The entire disaster was over in less than two seconds, though it felt like an eternity to those of us with a dialatable sense of time. We Gryphons, and IJ, had to watch helplessly as three innocent Changelings were incinerated. Their chitin, normally able to stave off all but direct sword blows, and even small detonations, dissolved into dust under the sheer force of the blast.

Sildinar and his charges had been protected by distance, combined with their prone positions.

Though the blast had pushed IJ to the opposite side of the room, the Queen remained in a half-standing position, down on one knee, with Stan pinned below and behind. Scraped and bruised by his voyage, but otherwise unharmed.

Shining's bubble had collapsed almost immediately after the blast, and the Unicorn lay on the floor wincing, his horn still glowing slightly from the strain.

Dust rained down from above. The connecting wall between the rooms had been atomized, and in the process had absorbed no small part of the explosion. Had it not been there, I guessed that most of us would have perished, regardless of defensive spells.

Structural beams, charred chitin fragments, and bits of stone lay everywhere. Most of the remaining walls were carbon scored to a shade of coal black. The main chamber door in both rooms was mostly gone, and any remains still burned with small greenish colored fires.

Stan spoke first, spitting blood from a busted lip, and dust, from his muzzle in the process.

"Buck."

I preferred the similar, and more forceful Human term.

Fuck, indeed.

Earth Calendar: 2117
Equestrian Calendar: 15 AC (After Contact)
December 6th, Gregorian Calendar

Skye

Fyrenn let out a long, low whistle through his gritted beak, a carryover Human habit if ever I saw one, running one claw along a carbon score mark as he stepped slowly into the remains of the loading bay.

Alyra pressed into his side instinctively, reacting with visceral emotion to the number of body bags strewn across the cavernous metallic space. I didn't blame her one bit. Gryphon or no, the sight had to hold some familiar bad memories.

I didn't want to have to think about it any more than she did. But it was the reason we were there, and I knew I'd have to get close to do my job. Make sure it didn't happen to anyone else.

Neyla, myself, and the others moved further into the bay, picking our way through debris and corpses as we began an initial visual assessment. The near lack of shadows, resulting from the arc lights set up to replace the destroyed recessed illumibars, gave the whole scene an eerie, clinical aspect.

Fyrenn nodded towards me, speaking as he reflexively placed one wing over Alyra. He knew his daughter well enough to know that she wasn't scared, but rather struggling to choke back sadness, and anger.

A natural, even desirable response to that kind of senseless destruction of innocent life; The young Gryphoness was just not quite yet old enough to know how to fully control the physiological reactions to her deepened emotional states.

"Two kilotons, or thereabouts?"

I nodded, my gaze sweeping the compartment as a whole. As ever with military matters, his instincts were spot on. I knew for more engineering and mathematically driven reasons that his guess was right. He knew because he'd seen more than enough craters and bodies in his time.

"Give or take a ton. Centered on the bay doors. That implies the scanning equipment set it off, in turn implying an electronic sensor-based detonator. Idiots miscalibrated, or improperly installed the EMF shielding."

More than a little anger crept into my response. I was not, and never had been, anybody's stereotypical happy-go-lucky little Pony. Consequence of a rough upbringing. Combine that with all the things I'd picked up from spending so many years around Humans and Gryphons?

Whoever had set that bomb didn't know it yet, but they needed to be more afraid of me than of Fyrenn.

Neyla spied a small fragment of plastic alloy out of the corner of her eye, and bent to retrieve it, putting considerable force behind her claws to extricate the small orange shard from the floor. Her evaluation was also spot-on, as expected.

"Piece of the crate. Probably from the corner. Something dense was packed near the explosive to hide it from imaging scanners, and combined with the rigid shape of the edges here, it helped preserve this fragment."

The Gryphoness tossed the object across the bay to Fyrenn as she spoke. He caught the slice of material deftly, and turned it to and fro in the light, airing his own thoughts in the process, which more or less mirrored mine.

"Orange. An engineering components designator color. This was intended for the drive section of the ship, which would have placed the fully armed explosive very close to the power core."

I winced, shaking my head slowly as I did 'napkin math' internals. My voice echoed slightly from exposed ceiling girders as I finished Fyrenn's train of thought to its logical conclusion.

"If it had gone off further inside the ship, it might have severed critical structural members, or much, much worse... Depending on the volatility of the power generation system."

Hutch grunted, and took the small piece of plastic as Fyrenn proffered it to him, adding his own grim assessment as he glanced at the evidence. He was a good officer; His thoughts immediately went to the risks to life and limb of the crew.

"Regardless, the shockwave would have absolutely killed every single person, in every compartment, if it had originated from a central point and expanded inside a sealed pressure vessel. That's for sure. We got very, very lucky."

Martins raised an eyebrow, crossing her arms and exhaling slowly.

"We concluded the same. It took us about six hours of analysis and scanning, but yes... Exactly that. Clearly you all spend quite a lot of time dealing with this sort of thing. I don't envy you."

She was right. I wished so badly that I could leave some of the more tragic stuff I'd seen to the bird-lions. But Fyrenn's engineering know-how stopped if you went beyond the bounds of weapon and defense technologies. Neyla might have been smarter than me, she was at least equally gifted, but her education just wasn't the same as mine.

I had the equivalent of multiple Human and Equine STEM degrees, so I had to tag along on little field-trips like that one. Who else was going to make sure the science got done right?

I gestured with a hoof towards one of the internal access doors, a small amount of excitement rising in my voice, and expression, in spite of my best efforts at professionalism. My best coping mechanisms had always been rooted in curiosity.

And it would be a good excuse to get away from the bodies.

"May we see the ship's power core?"

Martins inclined her head, and stretched out an inviting arm.

"I had a notion that would be your next question."