Meanwhile, back at the Pyramid…

Astoria was baking under a heatwave, unusual on the north Oregon coast even in late August. It had lasted five days so far and showed no sign of abating, not for another week at least, if KRCA Channel 5’s Action Weatherman Roy Grafiano was to be believed. And unfortunately, JJ did believe him – as Scion he had access to the Overwatch satellite data, which was considerably more robust than NOAA’s, and it agreed all too closely with the annoyingly cheerful TV weatherman’s prediction. The Atlantean half of his genetic heritage really didn’t do well in the heat, so he was particularly grateful for the restful air conditioned environment of his lab in the Pyramid.

He was just closing down his computer for the day, and considering whether or not it would be excessive to ask Kyle to open one of his quantum tunnels between Vanguard HQ and JJ’s penthouse condo, when the special blue light flashed on the comms panel. Blue meant an incoming transmission from Nimrod and the Bastion, an unusual enough event to pique JJ’s interest, and concern, as he opened the channel.

“Good afternoon, Captain,” the holographic head of the silver-haired, strong-featured man said, popping into existence over the hero’s workbench. As usual, his expression betrayed nothing of what he was thinking. “I’ve had a bit a of an issue come up, and I’d really like to discuss it with the team. Would it be possible to have everyone in the Ready Room in 15 minutes?”

“Of course, Nimrod,” JJ replied without hesitation. The ancient, immortal Hunter rarely made requests of the team directly, and when he did they had so far proven to be significant. Things had been relatively quiet in the month since the conclusion of the Dark World War, at least here on the West Coast. In New Atlantis things were still getting back to normal, with Urbana making relatively short work of the physical rebuilding of the damage to the city… although he supposed the emotional toll of several thousand dead or injured would take longer to heal. “We look forward to hearing wha’s up.”

Fifteen minutes later the entire team was gathered at the Round Table, watching with a mixture of curiosity and apprehension as the full-body holograph of Nimrod the Hunter appeared between Artemis and Scion. If he was “here” himself, rather than speaking through his symbiotic connection with his avatar Álvaro de la Vega, the matter must be serious. Indeed, it might well involve news of Nemesis… which was never a good thing.

“I’ll set your mind to rest at once,” Nimrod began, always good at reading the room. “This matter doesn’t involve Nemesis, at least not directly, so far as I can see. It may involve his ally, Ebony Night, but even that is uncertain at this juncture.

“What I do know is that I have lost contact with my own agent in the wider galaxy, and that is very troubling. As most of you know, Silverstar has been acting as my eyes and ears out there for the past three years; this is the first time he has been out of touch for such an extended period. Ten days ago I had my last report from him, as he was entering the Erigayn star system. I had dispatched him on a potentially serious, but I didn’t think critical, investigation.

“Rumors have reached me, through other channels, that Ebony Night has been seen in that sector in recent weeks, which is always a concern. I have also learned that the star Erigayn has recently had a strange decrease in its energy output… it is an F-3 yellow-white dwarf star, similar to our own sun, if somewhat larger and hotter, but in recent months it has cooled measurably. So much so that its spectral classification has actually dropped to F-2.

“This is unusual enough to warrant an investigation by itself, but then Manga-Tor, the Union ambassador to Earth, contacted me two weeks ago, specifically asking for my help in the matter. The Erigayn system is a member of the Union, although a relatively isolationist one. Unfortunately, since the fall of Helicon and the ongoing conflicts with both the Stellar Imperium and the Dramorg Consensus, the system now finds itself on the edge of Union space, rather than safely within it.

“The Erigayn System is home to four habitable planets, an astrographical rarity that you would think might have made it an early candidate for colonization. But it lies at the heart of an interstellar desert, known as the Nykluni Expanse, a bubble of space more than 60 light years across without any other stars. The nearest other system is 30.7 light years away, and the closest system with a stargate is 32.2 LY distant.”

“The Erigayn system doesn’t have a stargate of their own?” Quanta asked. “I thought that was pretty standard for Union worlds… one of the big perks to membership, actually.”

“Indeed,” Nimrod agreed. “But the system has only been settled for a little over a century, and the four groups that opted to make the trip by stutter-warp ships were all isolationist minorities from their native worlds, to one degree or another. They chose Erigayn precisely because it was remote and difficult to get to. They never wanted a stargate, and that hasn’t changed. But there are nearly a billion sentient beings now between those four planets, and the system is a Union member, so the interstellar government needs to know what is happening there. Reports suggest rising tensions between the various inhabitants of the four worlds, blaming one another for the problem with their sun… as well as pirated ships, apparently, and missing or stolen resources…

“Because the Union fleets are stretched so thin these days, I agreed to send Silverstar to investigate. I asked him to look for the cause of the stellar shift, of course, but also for any indication that Ebony Knight and his Nightwraiths are involved. Or the Dramorg, for that matter, given their relative proximity. On entering the system, ten days ago, he made an initial report, mainly telemetry data concerning the star itself, and said he was going to investigate some interesting energy readings in one of the two asteroid belts before heading to the first of the inhabited worlds to start asking questions. That was the last I’ve heard from him, and my intuition is telling me the boy needs help.”

“I agree, it does sound worrying,” Scion said. “But what exactly can we do about it? The Interceptor might get us to the moon, in a pinch, but it certainly can’t do interstellar distances.”

“True, which is why the Union ambassador has agreed to loan the Vanguard his personal yacht. It is well-shielded, if only lightly armed, but its best feature is its speed. Both its reaction and stutter-warp drives are cutting edge Union technology. It can get you there and back again faster than almost any ship in the known galaxy – we estimate six days from Sol to Erigayn.”

“So basically a two week mission, assuming we can wrap it all up in two or three days,” Artemis said, frowning. “Probably longer, realistically. We can hardly leave our responsibilities here for that long.”

“Well, the ship can only carry six, comfortably,” Nimrod replied. “So you couldn’t take the whole team even if you wanted to. Which means leaving two people here, and you know Paragon is always ready to step up. I was also thinking that perhaps Dr. Froth might be convinced to finally activate his reserve status. That’s four. I’m pretty sure Stormfront will be available and, given the number of times you’ve covered for the Alliance, I believe one or two of them can be persuaded go make a West Coast trip – most of the team is on-planet just now, fortunately.”

After some further discussion, the Vanguard agreed to undertake the mission for Nimrod. Prometheus was more than happy to remain Earth-bound, Phantom Ace lost the drawing of the straws, Paragon was at the Pyramid practically before the call was over, and Ted agreed that he could take Dr. Froth out of mothballs for a few weeks. JJ called Kevin in Portland, and Stormfront was more than willing to be on-call during the team’s absence, wishing them all good luck and God-speed.

Dawn was lighting the sky the next morning when the six Vanguard members arrived at an isolated landing strip at McCall International, where Ambassador Manga-Tor’s sleek starship awaited them. Its lines were beautiful, making it seem as if it was already straining to break the bonds of gravity, and JJ couldn’t wait to pilot it… and let it take them away from this damn heat!