The Ascent

Chapter 50

Though I've seemed to have spent a lot of time around transit stations, I've rarely been inside one. Zipping past from one system to the next, it's easy to forget just how large the things are. Mere hours after capturing the Cack ship, I stood at the edge of a concourse wide enough to drive a division of tanks down, waiting for transport to the transit station director's office. I finally grasped what it meant when they said the Sol gate had more living space and a greater population than all the colonies on Mars combined.

The rest of our fleet had caught up to us and surrounded the station in case the Cacks attempted a desperate last attack. Except for Bright Fortune and Most Noble and the other Cack leaders who had fled, our fleet had destroyed the entire Cack advance force. Though we feared the Cacks were still gathering their main force back in the Moiarchy.

My ship Argippus had been recovered and at that moment sat in a private hanger while local TLS personnel began undoing the modifications Chief Droemer had inflicted upon it.

Harlow, standing next to me, chatted to his netpiece. I relied on him to organize my schedule and the meeting requests pouring in. Next to him stood Chief Director Ellsworth, our top lawyer, carrying a copy of the surrender agreement. She'd come along to oversee the station's transfer and to make certain no last minute changes were made. Behind her, gaping at the storefronts and walkways and the vast space they filled, two troopers in open-air combat armor ensured everything else went according to plan.

"Thank you." Harlow turned to me. "There was a mix-up with the hanger number; they're sending transport here now."

"It must be nice to have so many hangers one could get them confused," I said.

Harlow gave me an ironic smile.

"Commander Phon?"

I looked behind me, not recognizing what turned out to be a voice synthesizer. It came from a Crawdad leaning on one of their chairs near an outdoor café.

"Seeing you amuses my delighted mind."

"Excuse me. Do I know you?" I asked.

The crawdad's tentacles bunched together and drew themselves upwards, dropped and repeated the process while one eye looked at me and the other drifted over my companions. "It seems He Who Looks Up does not look back. Stepping out into the world, he has already forgotten his home pasture. I remember you, upon whom He Who Looks Up treads."

"Dr. Swiftly?"

"Yes."

"What brings you here?"

"Guiding the sojourners is my vocation. Have you begun a new journey?"

I let slip a short laugh. "I'm afraid I'm more lost now than ever."

"Fear not. Nothing slips The Maker's thoughts."

An electric cart approached and the driver stopped before us. "Commander Phon?"

"Here."

"I'm to take you to the director's office."

I gestured to the others and we all climbed into the cart. I waved goodbye to Dr. Swiftly as we were taken to something that looked like an executive office building rising up inside the station. I had no idea if he understood the gesture, but then I had begun to suspect that he knew a lot more about us than he let on.

We were escorted down wide tiled halls and through equally wide doors. The transit stations were all Cack property and usually run by Cacks, but being stationed this far out from the Moiarchy was considered something of a punishment and a Cack director would do anything they could to turn the assignment over to another. So I wasn't surprised to find the station directed by another Crawdad.