Heishi gestured for him to hush, then pressed one finger to the Nucleus of the Astrolabe. Suddenly, the light from the nuclear core disappeared, and an electronic voice sounded.
“Unable to activate. Carrier required.”
A-Ka was confused.
Heishi thought silently for a moment before walking up and standing in the center of the circular disk. The particles of light, however, didn’t gather around his body—they rejected him.
“Carrier does not fulfill the requirements. Please provide the requisite sacrificial offering.”
Heishi was silent while A-Ka stood, stunned.
Then, his voice trembling, he said, “I-I understand. Let me go, Heishi.”
“No!” Heishi blocked his way forward.
“You can’t do this on your own. You need another consciousness. I get it…”
He lifted his head, looking around at his surroundings. All of those symbols seemed to have taken on a special meaning, and the floating water droplets gave off a muted glow.
“I will cooperate with you to restart the Nucleus Protocol of the Astrolabe,” A-Ka said, though not without fear. “I’ll become the main program.”
“What?” Heishi couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “That’s impossible! What about your life?!”
A-Ka indicated that he was ready, and he smiled while patting Heishi’s shoulder. Heishi was about to pull him back when A-Ka said, “Just let me try it! It might not work. Don’t be so hasty.”
Heishi mumbled, “No, A-Ka, you can’t… Let’s leave this place.”
Abruptly, the world of the Nucleus began to tremble like a foreshock. The space above their heads collapsed as Father forced its steel frame into the depths of the Astrolabe. Countless glowing tentacles shot out before they could blink, tangling together as they covered the ground. The heavens collapsed and the ground split open as the white world began to buckle, layer by layer. Slowly but surely, the white light was being sucked away by the blue. Water droplets scattered everywhere.
As the world shook around them, A-Ka and Heishi were still standing, facing each other as they had before, hovering in the air.
“Listen, Heishi, once the rebirth process begins,” A-Ka said, “I will follow your instructions. Don’t worry, everything will be all right. Don’t cry, Heishi. Oh, really, what’re you crying for? I’ll be okay. Being able to journey with you to this point has been the best thing in my life…”
“No!” Heishi rushed forward, but A-Ka’s movements were even faster—he had already stepped into the Nucleus of the Astrolabe. The points of light swept toward him, turning him into a glowing silhouette, and they forcefully expelled Heishi.
“A-Ka!” Heishi roared.
A-Ka gave a small smile. “If we do nothing, Father will regain control over the Nucleus. Isn’t this for the best? Come on. Let’s begin.”
Heishi, his eyes watering, lifted a hand.
The world above their heads seemed to be crumpling in on itself in its destruction. Amid the falling stones and the light, Heishi’s body flashed, and countless motes flew toward A-Ka. The Nucleus of the Astrolabe expanded gently, encircling A-Ka’s body. He let his limbs fall loose.
A gentle breeze began to blow. When A-Ka raised his head to look into the distance, a single tear trickled down from the corner of his eye.
That single teardrop turned into one of the millions of worlds within the galaxy, assimilating itself into the vast sea of information.
“The sacrificial offering’s life-form fulfills the requirements. Completion confirmed.” A-Ka’s voice had turned into an electronic one—the Nucleus of the Astrolabe’s boot program replacing what he once had. The new, impersonal voice continued, “The experiment is complete. Please connect with the consciousness of the Astrolabe.”
With a swoop, A-Ka’s consciousness expanded until it encompassed everything. He had been absorbed into the world of the Astrolabe itself. A strange transformation began to happen to his body as it was enveloped in the light of the Nucleus: His clothes turned into powder, which drifted away, and from his feet to his legs, his waist, and then his head, A-Ka’s soft skin slowly crystallized until it glimmered with light.
The power of the Nucleus was turning his body into a sacrificial vessel. All of the water droplets gathered toward his head.
In that instant, Heishi understood. A-Ka would never come back.
Heishi let out another hoarse howl. “A-Ka!”
“Connection established. Beginning data migration,” A-Ka intoned.
A-Ka opened his eyes to see that Heishi’s tears were flowing unchecked, and his face was twisted with agony. Shaking, he stood in front of A-Ka with the same kind of helplessness as a baby who had lost everything he ever had. A-Ka wanted to smile for him, but he could no longer move a single muscle in his face. Instead, his crystalline exterior flashed, and information and communication signals in a volume as great as the sea started to pour wildly into his consciousness.
“Operator privileges require confirmation,” A-Ka’s voice said. “Warning. If privileges are not sufficient, the operation will be forcefully terminated.”
Heishi pressed a trembling hand gently to A-Ka’s forehead.
“Access confirmed. Highest level of operator privileges. Emergency control operation, initiated by the high-level life-form Zoroaster,” A-Ka said calmly, watching Heishi. “Welcome to the Nucleus of the Astrolabe. Please begin operation.”
Heishi watched A-Ka, his tears still streaming down his face. He pressed his lips together, crying so hard he was unable to do anything at all for a moment, before he tightly hugged the crystallized A-Ka and buried his face in his shoulder.
“A-Astrolabe Rebirth,” Heishi said. “Reset all environmental variables to their default values…”
“Confirmed.” A-Ka spread his arms as he lifted his head, turning his hands so that his palms faced upward. Countless glowing points of light appeared from his palms, shooting toward the barrier separating them from the Astrolabe.
With a colossal noise, the world of the Astrolabe that had spun untouched for millennia trembled. The sunlight poured down.
In Dragonmaw City, Moran raised his head to look at the horizon as the ground shuddered and rocked. A congregation of tens of thousands of believers gathered before the Curia’s Hall of Faith. The instant that the earth split open, a golden glow erupted from under the Church of the Stars. A huge propeller began to spin, humming as it did so, lifting the inner city slowly into the air.
“A-Ka has succeeded,” Moran said.
“Will he ever come back?” Percy asked quietly.
“He has already become one with this world. His consciousness formed this new future, Percy.”
Percy stood on the top of the platform, unable to resist sobbing. He buried his face in Moran’s side. Reaching out with one hand, Moran patted his head.
On the eastern shoreline, the Black Sea rushed in with earth-
shattering force. A tsunami swept into the city, the land itself sinking and mountains collapsing before its power. As Father’s tall tower folded, the engines of the plummeting aircraft once again started up.
The blue light slowly disappeared, and the land grew dark.
“Board your ships now!” Karna shouted. “This place is going to flood!”