The nexus tower.
It was massive. Easily three times the height of the weather tower where Torven and I had sheltered, and ten times the diameter. It rose from the tortured landscape like a monument to power and might. Its surface was covered in the same intricate patterns I’d seen in Torven’s marks. But these patterns were glowing, pulsing with energy that I could see, even through the poor visibility.
“Stars above,” I breathed.
The tower was still operational. Not just functional—actively running. Everyone in the vehicle could feel the power emanating from it, even through the crawler’s shielding. A deep thrumming that made my teeth ache and my bones vibrate.
The crawler pulled up to a reinforced entrance that looked like it had been designed to withstand exactly the kind of weather we were experiencing. The D’tran drivermaneuvered us into a sheltered bay, and suddenly the violence of the storm was muted.
We climbed out on shaking legs and hurried inside after four D’tran were able to haul open a door wide enough for us to slip through. I got my first clear look at the interior of the nexus. It was pristine. Unlike the abandoned weather tower or the Kythran refuge, this place looked eerily maintained. Clean surfaces, functioning lights, the hum of active systems. No signs that its inhabitants had hastily departed under bad circumstances.
“How is this possible?” I asked Thresk. “You said you couldn’t control the towers.”
“We can’t. But the nexus is semi-autonomous. It maintains itself.” His expression was complicated. “This is the heart of the system. The origin point. It has remained operational even as the rest of the network descended into chaos. Like I said, we are the descendants of those who cleaned and maintained the facilities, not the ones who designed and operated them. I don’t know when this place was abandoned, but it was left with care.”
We moved deeper into the tower, and I felt like we were entering something alive. The walls hummed with power, and the patterns covering every surface shifted and changed as we passed.
The main control room was on the fifth level. It was circular, with workstations arranged around a central platform that held what looked like the primary interface—a large, crystalline structure that glowed with internal light. Screens covered the walls, most of them dark, but two displayed data in scripts I couldn’t read.
“This is it,” I said, my voice echoing in the vast space. “This is where we make our stand.”
I started organizing immediately, because if I didn’t stay busy, I was going to panic. “Thresk, I need you and the other Kythrans at the interface. You understand the system architecture. You’ll be operating the controls.”
The Kythrans moved to their positions with evident relief. This was familiar territory for them, even if they’d never been successful before.
“Vikkat, I need your warriors positioned around the room. We’ll need to collect the codes from your marks, one at a time.” I looked at Dorek, who was glowering. “Including you. I know you don’t like it, but we need every unique pattern we can get.”
“And me?” Torven asked.
“You stay where I can see you and try not to reinjure yourself.” I softened my tone. “We’ll need your marks too, but let me figure out the input system first.”
I moved to one of the workstations with Thresk and he started explaining the interface. The language was foreign to me. My implant couldn’t translate what I saw, only what Iheard. Since my body wasn’t too fond of implants in general, I’d opted to not get the optical module. It would have been very helpful just then. Probably worth the extra headaches it would have caused me. But Thresk read to me what I couldn’t interpret, speaking out the mathematical formulas and explaining the linguistic symbols. Together, it created a hybrid code that I would have loved to dive into and study for weeks until I fully comprehended it.
But I didn’t have weeks.
“Thresk, can you walk me through the basic control structure?”
For the next thirty minutes, I got a crash course in ancient Kythran engineering from beings who’d spent their entire lives trying to understand it. It was brilliant and terrifying in equal measure. The system was designed with layers upon layers of redundancy, with autonomous decision-making processes that could override manual inputs if they detected what they perceived as errors.
Which meant if we got this wrong, the system would fight us.
“Okay,” I said finally. “We need to input the control codes in a specific sequence. Thresk, your people will operate the primary interface. I’ll coordinate the code input from this terminal. Vikkat, we’re going to need to document each unique mark pattern from your warriors.”
“How?” Vikkat asked.
I’d been thinking about that. “Physical contact. Just like when Thresk touched Torven’s marks, he activated and revealed the code. We’ll need each of your warriors to allow a Kythran to touch their marks so the Kythran can read them off and we can input them.” I indicated a panel that the Kythrans had identified as a biometric reader.
The D’tran exchanged uncomfortable looks. Letting Kythrans touch their sacred marks was not something any of them were happy with, even if it might be the key to saving the planet.
“I know it’s difficult,” I said. “I know these marks have deep cultural and personal significance. But without the codes they contain, we can’t shut down the system. And if wedon’t shut it down, there won’t be anyone left to care about the significance.”
Vikkat was the first to step forward. He shrugged off his cloak, then his shirt, and stretched out his arms. The marks covered much of them, and there were several on his chest and back. “Take them,” he said stoically. “My warriors will comply.”
I watched as a Kythran touched the marks, and held my breath as the patterns shifted and reorganized, revealing the codes beneath. The Kythran quietly read them, and Thresk and I entered them into the console.
One by one, the other D’tran followed. Even Dorek, though his face was thunderous as he submitted to the touch of a Kythran.
When it was Torven’s turn, I guided him to the scanner myself. “You okay?”
