A haze enveloped the fortress, distorting the space around it like a heat mirage. After they leapt from the breach, Doctus had maneuvered to avoid the debris that escaped with them, and now the Astraea drifted out toward the vanguard of the Immigrant Fleet. The Ormus vessels gathered closer now, a congregation the size of a planetary system, oriented toward the object of their worship like iron filings around a magnet.

MOMO checked the radar; the AMN-linked instruments had begun to respond again now that they were clear of the spatial shift. "Doctus, I'm going to try to get in contact with the ship." Her voice trembled, and she swallowed and reached for the controls. "Mommy, are you there? Miyuki?"

She waited, holding her breath--for hours, it seemed, although her observational system had a time-keeping function that counted off less than a minute before a window flickered open in front of her, the figures of her mother and Miyuki superimposed in miniature over the main display.

"MOMO!" Juli looked the way MOMO felt, her expression a mask of relief pulled taut over a chasm of worry. "Are you all right? What happened?"

"We couldn't make it to the rendezvous point," said MOMO, trying to keep her voice level. "We shut down the second defense system, but we had to escape before we met up with Captain Roman. And Ziggy is still--" Something jagged and sharp surfaced in her throat and she turned away, unable to continue.

"--On his way," Doctus finished for her, intervening before Juli had a chance to ask what had happened. "He just has to take care of a few things first."

"I understand," said Juli, in a tone that suggested she hadn't bought Doctus' reassurance. "I'm glad the two of you got out safely. We're trying to stay clear of the distortion field so we can maintain AMN contact with the Dämmerung, but we're still waiting for Captain Roman outside Sector 180. Can you get there from where you are?"

MOMO looked past the smaller screen to the view outside; it might have been a still-frame picture, the dark-violet whorl of the Apocryphos and the waiting ranks of the Immigrant Fleet poised motionless above the curve of Second Miltia's horizon. "It looks like we won't have any trouble," she said. "So I guess we'll see you soon."

"All right, MOMO. I'll ... see you soon." With a strained smile, Juli closed the transmission. It felt strange, trivial somehow, as if they were parting ways before heading off to work in the morning, back at home on Fifth Jerusalem. But they were a long way from home now. MOMO blinked and wiped her eyes, hoping Doctus hadn't noticed the catch in her voice.

But Doctus was busy piloting the Astraea back toward the fortress, and suddenly she jerked back on the controls, biting off a curse. "We've got trouble."

"What?" MOMO's sensors detected the approaching signals a moment before a flash lit up the Astraea's monitors, and the AMWS jolted as the impact slammed into its side. Warning lights flashed along the control panel, indicating multiple system failures. "What's happening?" she cried, struggling to sit upright as Doctus steered out of the way of a second round of missiles. A formation of auto-techs--the same Nov-OS models they had encountered inside the Apocryphos--spiraled free of the distortion field and closed in on the AMWS, firing when they came within range. MOMO recovered her bearings and fired back, but the weapons had been damaged in the last hit and were slow to respond.

"What's happening is we're getting the hell out of here before we're blown to bits," said Doctus through clenched teeth. She worked the controls, and the Astraea leapt back, dodging another blast.

MOMO kept firing and managed to take down one or two auto-techs while the rest continued their pursuit. She noticed the Apocryphos growing smaller on the main display, sinking like a shell in dark water, while the AMWS headed into the midst of the Immigrant Fleet. "Doctus, wait! We're going the wrong way! What about Mommy and the others? What about Ziggy?"

"I'm sorry, MOMO, but we can't do anything for them now. They might still be able to escape, but if we try to go back, we'll just get killed." Another wave of auto-techs had appeared behind the first, and the Astraea hastened its retreat. "We're not in any condition to fight. At least if we hide out among the enemy, we'll stand a better chance of surviving until the situation changes."

"But we can't just abandon them!" She gripped the side rails of the co-pilot's seat. "Take us back now, please. You've got to take us back! Doctus!"

"Listen to me!" said Doctus, with an unaccustomed fierceness that startled MOMO into silence. "You remember what he said before we left the ship, right? If anything happened, we were to protect each other. Do you know how terrible he would feel if he found out you had risked your life going back for him? Do you want him to suffer any more?"

"N-no, but--"

"You and your mother are the most important things in the world to him." Her voice had gone quiet again. "If I can only save one of you, well ... I'd rather that than have you all die at once. And from an objective standpoint, you happen to be the most useful. You're currently the single most valuable piece of technology in the star cluster. I hate to frame it in those terms, but we literally can't afford to lose you."

MOMO wanted to be angry with Doctus for talking about her as if she were just another piece of equipment, but she couldn't rouse herself to anger. Instead she stared out at the dwindling shape of the fortress, wishing she could reach down and pull Ziggy and the others out of the way of harm. Maybe Doctus wouldn't have risked MOMO's life to save them, but MOMO would have risked her own. At last she thought she knew how Ziggy had felt that day in the cathedral on the shadow network, when he'd let her go.

"I'm sorry," said Doctus, as if hearing in her silence what she had left unspoken. "I'm not doing this only for your sake. It may seem unkind to you, but I think he would understand my logic."

MOMO clenched her fists in her lap, crumpling her skirt. She understood it too, but she didn't think it was right. The lighted control panel jumped and wavered in front of her eyes, and she blinked away her tears until it steadied itself. Because she still couldn't bring herself to speak, she swallowed and nodded.

∞

"Attention, all crew and personnel. Intruders have been detected on the premises. All sectors are now on alert. Any unauthorized persons to be eliminated on sight. Repeat, intruders have been detected on the premises ...."

Lapis Roman made her way along the passage with the surviving members of her unit. The control stations for the orbital defense modules had been manned, and the operators had put up a fight. Roman had never seen a military band so expertly coordinated. The Ormus soldiers moved like separate limbs of the same body, like agents of the same will. She forced back a shudder at the memory of the first man she had killed after they came on board--the vacancy in his eyes as he stared through her, the faint uncomprehending smile as she brought him down in a spattering of bullets.

Just over half of Roman's twelve-member team--five Special Ops commandos and an observational Realian--had survived the assault on the outer defense system, and all but two of their AMWS units had been destroyed. The losses were unacceptable, but she had no time to mourn for them now, or to find fault with her own leadership; that would come later, after they escaped.

The two soldiers piloting AMWS units ahead of her stopped short. She came up behind them, about to reprimand them for stalling, when she saw what blocked their way--a flickering, translucent shadow taking up most of the passage ahead, the red and violet lighting panels blurring behind it.

She grabbed the Realian's shoulder and pointed at the thing. "What is that?"

"I don't know, ma'am," said the 100 series frantically. "Its behavior is Gnosis-like, but it's not a Gnosis, unless it's a new kind we haven't seen before."

Roman swore. The plans hadn't said anything about a new form of Gnosis. "It must be a result of the spatial shift. Will it respond to the Hilbert Effect?"

"I can try to find out," said the 100 series. She concentrated, emanating luminous waves, and Roman felt the familiar indescribable shift in local reality as the effect spread through the area. For a moment, while the shape in the corridor remained semi-transparent, she thought she saw figures trapped inside it, half-human faces smiling or screaming, hands grasping and clawing, but then the edges of the shadow grew opaque and she couldn't see them anymore.

The two AMWS pilots discharged their units' weapons into the mass, but it absorbed the blasts and surged back at them. Still gripping the 100 series by the arm, Roman jumped out of the way as the AMWS units went down in a purple-black display of fireworks. From behind her, the remaining three members of her team rushed forward into the fray.

"Stop it!" yelled Roman, but no one heard her over the noise of battle. "Cease fire! Retreat!"

Another violet flare erupted around them, erasing the soldiers where they stood. Swearing again, she turned and headed back down the corridor, hauling the Realian behind her. There must be another way to the escape hangar. She tried to recall the plans, the maze of side routes off the main passage.

Voices echoed farther down the corridor, a few sectors away. The guards here all had AMWS units and auto-techs; with the rest of her team gone, Roman would be no match for them. She ducked into the shallow overhang of a doorway and motioned for the Realian to join her.

A group of soldiers emerged around a turn in the passage, traveling on foot and looking nervous. They kept glancing around restlessly and gesturing at each other, aiming their weapons into niches and side passages as they advanced. One of them peered straight into the doorway where Roman had concealed herself, and Roman found herself staring back into his eyes through the dark visor of his helmet. He staggered backward, more startled than she was, but he recovered in the next instant and trained his gun at her. "Over here!"

The other soldiers stopped and rushed back to the doorway, weapons drawn. Roman winced and gritted her teeth; beside her, she felt the Realian inch closer.

"That's a Federation uniform she's wearing," said one of the soldiers. "And a 100 series with her. What the hell are the Feds doing here?"

"It's just as His Holiness believed," said a woman standing next to him. "Those blasphemers, they're in league with our enemies! No wonder they had the resources to build this abomination--they've been working with the Federation all along." She jabbed the barrel of her weapon under the Realian's chin, forcing her head back. "How disgusting."

"Wait a minute," said Roman, and she had to stop herself from adding, you idiots, do you have any idea what's up ahead? "Are you with--are you the followers of Patriarch Julius?"

"Where did you hear that name?" The woman swung her weapon over to Roman now, shoving the barrel into her ribs. "Answer me, you godless Federation trash! How dare you speak the name of our holy father!"

Roman took a deep breath, feeling the pressure of the gun against her chest, her heart hammering from the other side. "There's been a misunderstanding," she said. "We're not with the Executor. My unit was sent to infiltrate this facility and shut down its defenses. But listen, there's--" A muted crash sounded from the passage above. The Realian let out a strangled whimper and flinched against Roman's side.

"She's lying!" said another soldier. "Brother Keil and Brother Magni shut down the defense system, they got the access codes from an inside source--"

"Listen!" Roman shouted. "Do you know how to get out of here? Because if you don't, there's a good chance we'll all be killed."

One of the soldiers, who had gone to scout the way ahead, doubled back at a run. "Sir, there's some kind of--"

The walls and floor of the passageway shuddered. Roman clenched her eyes shut and braced herself against the door. "It's a Gnosis," she said through her teeth, "or something like it."

"Damn it." The woman who had pointed the gun at her grabbed Roman's arm and hauled her out of the doorway. "You're coming with us."

"Take the Realian too," said another soldier. "It can use the Hilbert Effect if we run into anything."

The woman jerked on Roman's arm again, and Roman staggered a few steps and caught her balance as the group started back down the passage.

∞

MOMO watched as the dark blur of the Apocryphos dropped away behind the ranks of battered Ormus vessels and discarded Federation ships and other craft she didn't recognize, except that they had all arrived here for the same reason. The Astraea drifted out among the Immigrant Fleet unnoticed, too small or insignificant to attract any attention.

Her eyes and mouth had gone dry, and the sharp feeling had lodged in her throat so that it hurt to swallow, even to breathe. She hadn't said goodbye to Ziggy before they escaped, and now, watching the haze of distortion expand around the fortress, she realized she might never see him again. Even if he could stop the last weapon on his own, he'd still have to escape and make his way back to the ship. And if he couldn't stop it, something even worse would happen, and--

She hadn't said goodbye to Juli the last time they spoke, either.

MOMO tried to swallow again, to force down the prickly feeling in her throat. "Have you been able to get in contact with them yet?"

"Not yet." Doctus had been trying since they retreated from the auto-techs, but the connection never went through. "The net's pretty backed up all of a sudden. All the government channels are jammed, so I can't get through to your mother's connection gear either."

MOMO felt something clench in her stomach, a spasm of discomfort like the first sign of nausea. "What about the radio?"

"Good call." Doctus reached for the backup radio transmitter. In the early stages of the AMN Project, before the communications infrastructure had been restored, conventional radio broadcasts had been the only viable means of relaying messages over long distances; with the renaissance of instantaneous communication across the AMN, the radio channels had fallen back into disuse. But as Doctus flipped through the channels, a garble of static filled the cockpit above a profusion of what sounded like human voices, their words distorted and unintelligible. She raised an eyebrow above the rim of her glasses. "Sounds like the tower of Babel out there."

"Are they all trying to use the emergency radio channels?" MOMO hunched down in her seat, feeling the twinge of unease sink deeper. She tried to make sense of the voices, but the volume of information overwhelmed her circuits and made her nausea even worse, so she gave up.

"So much for that idea," said Doctus, her voice tense with irritation as she turned off the radio. "It might've been a good one if everyone in Second Miltian space hadn't arrived at the same conclusion first."

MOMO stared back at the main screen, but the knot in her stomach twisted up tighter every time she saw the wavering mass around the Apocryphos. Instead she tried to focus on Second Miltia; the fraction of its surface she could see from here looked still and peaceful, and she wondered if the people down there had any idea what surrounded them. She thought about people like Helmer and Juli and Captain Roman, who had worked to prevent all this from happening, and how hopeless they must have felt when it happened anyway. MOMO thought she was beginning to understand that feeling. She hadn't told any of them about the plan, the one she had arranged before they left the Dämmerung, and it seemed silly and childish now, a desperate grab at a solution for a problem she still didn't entirely understand. Not that it made any difference now, but she wished she had told someone outside the AMN Development Committee's programming team. Then maybe it wouldn't keep weighing on her like a terrible secret. But she had made the rest of the programming team swear not to tell, and she had sworn with them; secrecy had been part of the plan too, and it wouldn't be fair if she told.

Doctus sat behind MOMO in the pilot's harness, studying the radar screen. She was the last person MOMO wanted to know about the plan, but at this rate she would be the first to find out.

"Well, guess who finally showed up to the party," said Doctus, after they had sat in silence for several minutes.

MOMO checked her own screen. At the edge of the Immigrant Fleet, a cluster of signals tagged as Federation vessels moved in formation. "Is that the reinforcements?"

"Sure looks like it. They're the first ones to arrive, and probably not the last."

Fear and dismay pulled the knot in her stomach even tighter as she studied the movements of blips on the radar, points of light assuming attack patterns like an army of militant fireflies. "It looks like they've started fighting already." She twisted around in her seat. "What are we going to do if the fighting reaches here?"

Doctus shrugged and sat back in her own seat, crossing her arms. "Hope they settle their differences before it escalates that far? Damned if I know." She was quiet for a while, and then MOMO heard her murmuring quietly under her breath; it sounded like a few verses from an old song, or a poem. Her voice trailed off, and she leaned forward again and checked the local AMN channels. "Still jammed. Looks like it's getting worse. I wonder if it's all the military activity in this area that's doing it." She sighed. "Since we're passing the time, you want to hear a story about the founder of Scientia?"

"You mean--" MOMO searched her database for the name, but Doctus cut her off before she could retrieve it

"Yeah, her. That poem was a favorite of hers. She said it reminded her of someone she used to admire. She was kind of sentimental that way."

MOMO calculated briefly. Scientia had been founded about a hundred years ago, and Doctus was at least old enough to have known Ziggy when he was a captain, so that meant .... "Did you know her? In person, I mean?"

"Something like that." She made a sound, a catch in her throat that might have been a laugh. "She's the one who drew up the original plans for the AMN. But no one's heard from her in years."

MOMO risked another glance at the Apocryphos; the distortion field had expanded to nearly twice its diameter since the last time she had looked. It reached halfway to the first line of Immigrant Fleet ships now, like dark water welling up from a spring, with the shell of the fortress submerged at the bottom of it. "I wonder," said MOMO cautiously, "what she would think if she saw all this."

Doctus was silent again, and MOMO knew better than to press the question.