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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ankh-Morpork Guard" data-source="post: 3151445" data-attributes="member: 10079">Chapter 408: The BlackFrom the black, they came.    Four identical objects jutting into reality from seemingly nothing.    Their metallic sheen caught the light of distant stars, causing an odd contrast against the black that surrounded them. And for a long time, the objects simply sat there in the nothingness, doing nothing.    But then other objects, smaller ones, appeared from the four, turning and moving as one to what would, in the gravity of a planet where orientation mattered, have been behind the four objects. And then, in a matter of short moments, they were gone...gone into the nothing that these four things had appeared out of.    And, again, the objects sat in the nothing.    After another lnog period of time, a series of smaller objects approached cautiously. These did not shine. Instead, the distant lights simply bathed the new objects and highlighted the dulled colours as they approached the shining metal.    When the new objects disappeared within the original four, there was yet another long period where nothing seemed to happen. But then, some time later, the four objects began to move again.    It was slow at first, but they seemed to stay even with one another the entire time. And then, all of a sudden, they disappeared.    Into the black.    They left.* * * *    “Four, my lady,” the Knight said quietly. She was standing at attention but staring at the Empress’ back, which made it difficult to decipher any reaction...well, more difficult, at least.    Marix stood there without moving for a long minute, simply looking out the viewport and to the space beyond the Gate. Eventually, though, she turned and nodded to the Knight, “I trust they have been carefully looked over?”    “Yes, my lady,” she nodded, ignoring the loose strand of hair that fell in front of her eyes in the process, “They have not been altered in any way as far as we can tell. There are no...traps, either.”    Marix returned the nod, “When will they be operational?”    This was not such an easy question to answer. The Knight tried to figure out the best way to put it, but eventually gave up, and simple spoke in the best tone she could manage considering the tension of the previous few hours, “It is...hard to say. Everyone is wearing gloves and focusing on the task at hand but it is...difficult.”    Sadly, that had been expected. All of the Knights aboard those four ships were wearing a light armour usually reserved for the rare battles they got involved in, but with the extra addition of a pair of simple gloves so that they did not have to actually touch the metal. Apparently, being surrounded by the metal was bad enough.    “The ships must be operational and ready to fight within a day,” Marix said sternly, and the Knight could read nothing of her expression, “This is all we have, and it is enough, but you will have to push them past their natural instincts.”    At that, the Knight bit back a comment. But her expression showed it and the Empress had little trouble in reading it.    Aloud, Marix said, “Yes. Like Tam’day’U...” she trailed off for a moment, then nodded to the Knight, “You wear your gloves even here on the Gate, as do nearly all of the Knights. We...” she paused and changed the wording quickly, “The former Tam’Day’U that have joined you among the Knights do not. But there are not enough of them to operate these four ships alone.”    “Y-yes, my lady,” the Knight managed a slow nod, and noticed it was also her cue. She bowed simply, then turned and left the Empress alone in the small room.    When the door slid shut with a barely audible sound, Marix let out a long sigh and turned back to the view. She could almost see them from this angle...glints of light that weren’t quite stars. A decade ago she had been aboard one of those Mrrakesh ships with Jyren, trying to stop Halpak and all of those damned ships.    And now...    ...now there were four Mrrakesh ships sitting there outside the Gate, and with Alraxian Knights aboard them. She had expected less. One, maybe. But, apparently, the Mrrakesh leader understood the danger of the situation. It was even more unnerving that there were no traps or explosives or anything wrong with the ships at all. They were in perfect fighting condition. The Knights simply had to learn to fly them.    And that was the tricky part. Ignoring the fact that the ships were metal and the Knights had enough difficulty even being inside them. The problem was a thing of time. Marix quite literally had no idea how much time they had. The Vong were out there. Scouts confirmed a small flotilla exploring nearby systems. They were out there, and they would find the Gate again.    But this time they would hopefully find a fight.    Marix ran a hand through her hair and let out another sigh, shaking off the sudden reach she made for the painfully distant link. She understood that change was necessary and would come one way or another but this all felt so...wrong to her. Her people weren’t fighters but they were being forced into a fight. The problem was figuring out who was doing the forcing. The obvious candidate was the Vong, of course, but Marix had a disturbing feeling that she was the one driving them to something they could avoid.    You are the fire.    That voice was just an echo now. A phantom she had seen in her reflection a decade ago. It had terrified her then, and for some reason, it had come back to her memory in the recent days. She had once thought she had figured out the meaning of those words that had come from seemingly no where...but now she was rethinking that. Marix looked at the thousands of years of her people’s history since the Darking Wars.    She looked at the thousands of years of peace. The fact that there had been galactic conflict throughout it, and yet the Alraxians had remained separate. But now...    Now she brought the fire. She could not help but feel it was her fault this war was coming to the Alraxians. She had, along with Jyren, simply sought it out. The flames of change had been burning in the Empire since her mother had died...but Marix worried suddenly about all of it.    And she worried because of the lingering darkness that she could almost see with her eyes. It was there, in front of all of them, slowly coming down like a curtain of black over everything she knew. The worst part of it all was that she could do nothing to stop its slow falling...    No.    No, that was a lie.    The worst part of it all was that she could see no one through the blackness. As it was falling, Marix found that she was utterly alone in the galaxy. Perhaps she was raised differently than most Alraxians because she was Tam’day’U...but she still felt her people’s strong connection to the Force. Her people’s strong connection to one another.    And when she closed her eyes to see the black and find a way around it, she felt none of that.</blockquote>

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