Baron Helmont closed himself inside his shuttle’s communication chamber, a small ovoid room at the center of the ship, situated beside his mobile study and the passenger rooms for his knights and operatives.

Once sealed, the dark walls of the chamber activated. Lined with transmission screens, they created a perfect 360-degree view of another location.

Helmont now apparently stood between the Lost Park Office – a columned, two-story Greek revival house – and a three hundred-foot transparent biodome. The dome teemed with light and motion. Helmont saw the swaying of branches and long, trailing vines, whipped about by some unheard wind, visible against the light. The glow revealed nothing but foliage. The source of the light could not be seen.

“Excellency,” Helmont bowed his head. He knew that the corresponding device, thousands of miles away in the former Radio Quiet Zone, would project his own likeness outside the Czar’s sanctuary. His message would be recorded as a full-color 3D hologram, preserved until the Czar had finished his seclusion.

“I have news to report,” Helmont said. “I have recovered the traitor, Kolben Maros, and I would like your permission to perform a documented plummet. I believe an example must be set. Until then, I am en route to The Pinnacle. The Shaping Initiative will study Mr. Maros’s unusual capabilities, as well as his brother, as per your ongoing mobility study. Their accomplice, Agent Racz, should he survive his current injuries, will be sent to the long-term Shaping Influence Study. Kolben Maros resisted Racz’s sentencing. He stopped the plummet, and made Mr. Racz a useful test subject. If they are recognizable after the relevant studies are complete, they shall then face proper executions.”

Helmont knew it was impossible – or almost impossible – for the Czar to hear him inside the dome, surrounded by his work and his exertions, but at the mention of Kolben Maros, the lights faded. The trees slowed their undulating dance. The dome looked almost as dark as it had when they had claimed it after destabilization.

“I have also come to believe that it is time we formally evolve your operation. Militia growth was essential and a true stroke of brilliance, but the local chapters are too disjointed to perform as a singular fighting force. Captain Orson Gregory and his crew trounced the militia War Force outside Littlefield.

“I have a report on that topic, but it can wait. I’m letting you know that I’m about to launch my own campaign to take Knightschurch Island and the Dreamside Road key hidden there. I am now certain that the heir of Sucora Cloud is attempting to reach the island. Sucora Cloud contacted Archie Grant to help young Enoa. To my knowledge he was the only former Dreamthought Project member who knew the location of Knightschurch Island.

“This is also the explanation for Gregory’s erratic behavior. Why would he take Enoa Cloud on a journey with no clear destination? He has taken no crew since the Enigma Guard disbanded. I believe he inherited Grant’s quest of delivering Cloud to Knightschurch. Gregory knew several former Dreamthought Project members. He may have known Grant, as well. Perhaps Gregory intended to deliver both Cloud and Grant to Knightschurch, but it was no coincidence that he intertwined his business with Grant’s mission.

“And another point: why has Gregory chosen to visit an old crewmember – Eloise Corwin – rather than proceed immediately to the island? He would not if he had the island’s location. He went to Corwin for her connections to the League of Nations Scientific Advisory. As far as we know, she is his last contact from the Advisory framework. She worked with them for six years, from Kappa’s death to destabilization, and met her fiancé, while both consulted with the operation. Corwin has deep connections to the Advisory. Again, she is Captain Gregory’s only link to experts with the oceanographic telemetry and knowledge to locate an uncharted island. The Aesir crew knows Knightschurch Island exists, but needs assistance in locating it.

“I believe, due to the timing of Governor Sloan’s attack, that we may have caught Gregory before he received the necessary information. I have dispatched forces to each of the remaining Advisory labs, excluding the San Francisco site, which the Pacific Alliance holds. I’ll destroy any means for Gregory to find Knightschurch. If Gregory already has the island’s location, and we have a true competitor, perhaps openly attacking the Advisory may draw him in. We can take advantage of Gregory’s quixotic sense of honor.”

The dome lit again, but without the forest motion, just light. Unearthly shadows moved inside the biosphere. Fuzzy shapes swung between the trees on long, feathered tentacles. Mammoth beasts walked through the forest, their heads breaking through the canopy of towering trees. The trees too were otherworldly, their trunks diverging and reconverging, like they’d been coaxed into mimicking the shape of the genetic double-helix. Something flew at the top of the dome, circling, its wingspan greater that the height of the trees below.

“When I kill Gregory,” Helmont said. “I will document his destruction. Then I will retrieve the heir of Sucora Cloud for our own study. Soon, Your Excellency, both of their keys will be in our hands, and it will be only a matter of time before we gather all of them.”

* * *

Orson removed his spare coats from their storage tote and laid them on his bed. He worked with quiet deliberation, as he did lately, when his insomnia and racing thoughts and old burdens forced him to be productive while the rest of the crew slept.

The new coats Pops had sent with him were made from a heavy synthetic material. They were identical, but Orson wanted to look through them again, before he selected a new home for his armor.

He’d cleaned and lubricated the moving parts of his wire framework, working dirt and grime from the ligatures and springs with a flexible wire brush. He’d tightened the mechanisms that moved his blaster from his sleeve, and the interfaces that connected to his HUD, rebreather, and repulsor boot. The whole conglomeration of metal and wires and the solar cell was spread out in the narrow space beside Orson’s bed. He picked a coat and slid the others into their tote.

Orson was lifting the framework onto the bed when the knocking started. The first knock on the Aesir’s door was loud enough that he thought a tree branch had fallen and struck the side of the ship. But then the second strike came and the third and then the shouting.

“Orson!” Eloise yelled. “Orson! Orson! Orson! Orson!” She yelled his name in rhythm with her strikes against the door.

Orson grabbed his sheathed sword, as a precaution, and ran to the front of the ship.

“What’s happening?” Enoa was already squinting out of her open door, hair askew. Wesley flew from the opening, chattering. He glided to the couch.

“I’m gonna find out.” Orson ran to the front of the cabin and the door release. When he hit the switch, Eloise jumped inside before the door had fully opened. She wore a coat over a pair of flannel pajamas. She ran to the ship’s table and pulled a laptop from a bag over her shoulder.

“Orson!” She yelled again. “The Liberty Corps is looking for Doctor Stan! They know we asked a League of Nations scientist for help!”

“What?” Orson hit the switch to cycle the door shut. “That’s not possible. Were you hacked? Do they know who we talked to, specifically?”

Jaleel stumbled from his bunk, pulling on his archer gear as he ran, quiver of arrows under his arm. Enoa followed after him, still wearing pajamas. “Are we under attack?” Jaleel asked.

“Not yet,” Orson said.

“I don’t think I was hacked.” Eloise opened her computer. “Just… Just listen to this, okay? After Pops gave you the last message, we’ve been listening to the local number stations, too. Just listen.” They gathered around the table, as Eloise hit ‘play’, and Baron Helmont’s voice spoke into the cabin, his voice tinny and distorted, as it had been on his other broadcast through the old network.

“I have received information that an IHSA traitor going by the name Archie Grant was set to take the heir of Sucora Cloud to a secret refuge where many traitors once hid and may still hide. I believe Captain Gregory and his Aesir crew now plan to take Cloud’s heir to this place. Intelligence suggests that Hierarchia traitor scientists from the League of Nations Scientific Advisory are being recruited to help locate this illicit sanctuary.

“I am sending three squads and teams of my knights to each of the Advisory laboratories that still operate. All forces stay on high alert. If the Aesir and its crew attempt to interfere in apprehending these scientists, all traitors to the cause of the true League of Nations and the IHSA, we will take that opportunity to terminate them.” The recording came to a stop with a harsh crackle.

“This is some kind of trap,” Orson said. “Helmont has to know we can listen to those stations.”

“So what if it’s a trap?” Eloise was still shouting. “What would a trap mean? It would lead you there, to that Crystal Dune lab. If the trap is there, Dr. Stan is still in danger because we asked her for help!”

“Not if they’re just trying to lure us out of town,” Orson said.

“What’s your security like?” Jaleel asked. “I know a little bit about hiding communications, from all that time I spent sneaking around in the Solar Saver crawler.”

“We don’t have time for that!” Eloise said. “We need to go there and get Dr. Stan out, and all those scientists out, before they’re killed. We have to assume that our regular communication methods are not spy-proof.”

“You should stay here, Eloise,” Orson said. “This could be some ploy so the Liberty Corps can attack Littlefield again. You’re needed in town, and we’d have a hard enough time fitting a whole team of scientists on this boat? How many people work there, twenty?”

“I don’t know,” Eloise said. “Fine, I can stay and try to get formal protection for the lab team. If the Alliance would offer asylum to that Maros, I’m sure they’ll be willing to help members of the

Advisory. And while you’re gone you can stay in touch with the typewriter.”

“I don’t know where that thing is,” Orson groaned. “I can’t type, even when I can see what I’m typing.”

“I’m a great typist,” Jaleel said. “What are you talking about?”

“Years ago, we made long-range communication devices out of old typewriters,” Orson said.

“Did you lose yours?” Eloise asked. "Orson, tell me you didn't lose your one of a kind typewriter!"

“He’s never mentioned a typewriter, has he?” Jaleel asked.

“No,” Enoa said.

“I didn’t lose it!” Orson shouted. “It’s buried somewhere. I’ll find it before we leave. It’s not like we’re ready to fly off now.”

“Well, I’ve been all packed since you said the Alliance might want my Aunt’s things,” Enoa said. “I can leave really soon.”

“I’m always ready!” Jaleel nodded. “I’d just need to get Wesley safe and belted into his cage.” The aeropine flew from the couch at the sound of his name. He landed between them and patted Jaleel’s legs with his forepaws. “That’s right! We’re going on a trip. Wesley’s first adventure in the Aesir crew!”

“I guess we’re agreed then,” Orson said. “Eloise, please pass this recording on to Colonel Musgrove, just in case he doesn’t have it yet. Maybe the P.A. can evacuate those other teams, while we head to the Crystal Dune laboratory. We’ll leave as soon as we can and hopefully we’ll get everybody out before the Liberty Corps arrives.”

“If it is a trap,” Enoa said. “Do you think the Baron has ships to chase us, like the Sun Talons Maros had in Pennsylvania?”

“They might,” Orson said. “The lab complex is only a few hundred miles away from here. We might be safer going by land. Our solar cells aren’t finished recharging yet. Hey Eloise, do you still have the snake-mobile disguise sitting around? I’ve got an idea.”