Justine went and put her armour suit on.
Ingrav efficiency was twenty per cent down, and becoming erratic. Justine had already abandoned any idea of breaking into orbit. They were going to have to head for a direct landing. Hopefully the regrav drives would kick in once they were inside the planet's gravity field. Judging by the way the rest of the systems were behaving she wasn't placing any bets.
A thousand kilometres above the ionosphere and the smart-core began shutting down peripheral routines in order to concentrate on core functions. The ship curved round the bulk of the planet. Regrav was becoming active — just. They would make it down okay. Probably.
That was when the three gigantic rocky cones sticking up through the atmosphere slipped into view. Silverbird was heading straight for them, trajectory projections giving their landing site just beyond.
Shock set in as she focused the cameras on the astonishingly familiar profile of the three volcanoes. 'You have got to be fucking kidding me, she said out loud.
The Silverbird was approaching near-perfect replicas of Far Away's Grand Triad at mach thirty. She fought to quash her surprise. It can happen. Here in the Void, it can happen.
Terminating a voyage three lightyears long at the exact point corresponding to her hyperglider landing twelve hundred years ago was not random chance. It was purpose.
The dream. Oh my God, the dream.
Which left a possibility that was almost too much to contemplate.
No. That cannot happen.
The Silverbird hit the atmosphere. Tenuous air molecules screamed as it hurtled downwards, soaring round the side of the tallest volcano with its flat summit and dead twin calderas. Churning superheated air blazed in the starship's wake. Regrav units applied what force they could muster.
Acceleration pushed Justine down into the couch. Her chest was compressed as her weight quadrupled. Biononics reinforced her body, enabling her to breathe normally. The regrav wouldn't alter the starship's vector. Her landing point was predetermined.
Ordained?
The Silverbird plunged down through a light cirrus layer, its speed dropping to subsonic. The volcano's mid-slopes were beneath her, rocky crags and cliffs strewn with patches of lichen and moss, streaked with snow. Then she was flying over the volcano's upper meadows, undulating grassland that formed a wide verdant belt just above the treeline. Icy waterfalls tumbled down rocky outcrops, birthing a lacework of silver streams.
Another mind impinged on the starship's gaiafield. The person's thoughts curious and enthusiastic.
'Oh no. No no no. He can't be here. You can't do this to me.
A long glade opened up in the forest below. Silverbird descended fast. Its landing struts bulged out of the fuselage. Justine gritted her teeth. The bump wasn't too bad. The cabin shook and a crunching sound tremored through the superstructure. Gravity fell below a standard one gee. Some of the ship status icons turned amber briefly, then flicked back to green. Whole sections faded to neutral as the drive units ceased to operate. The starship wasn't going to be flying anywhere soon.
But she was down, and intact. That was something.
The mind was still there; waiting with a hint of impatience. She was sensing its emotional state directly through farsight rather than via her gaiamotes. Presumably then, he could sense her thoughts.
Justine took her time removing her armour suit. After all, she didn't want to frighten him and it would look fearsome to anyone unfamiliar with Greater Commonwealth technology. She unwound an emergency rope ladder from the airlock, not trusting the gravity manipulation function to lower her down. When she started down she realized the beige one-piece she'd put on was remarkably similar to the leathery grey-blue flightsuit she'd worn in the hyperglider. Only the helmet was missing.
'Didn't get that right, did you? she mocked the Void.
The rope ladder swung about alarmingly as she neared the bottom, Its pendulum motion sending her swaying over the grassy ground. She jumped the last two rungs.
Gravity was low, just like Far Away. The scent of pine trees was strong in the humid air. Her farsight swept out, producing a mildly disorientating effect. Then she began to interpret the foggy shapes, correlating them to what her eyes could see. Besides, her biononic field scan function was working unimpaired, providing solid interpretations of the surrounding landscape.
He was standing ten yards away, waiting courteously for her to notice him. Justine turned round very slowly, still half believing she'd open her eyes to see the Silverbird's cabin around her as she rose from suspension. But no, it was real. He was real.
Justine smiled, too numb for any emotion to triumph. 'Hello, Kazimir, she said.
His face was perfect, healthy dark skin and shining white teeth in lips that could smile so wide; rich black hair tied back with a red band. As were the clothes, a leather waistcoat open to show off a nicely muscled torso, and his McFoster clan's emerald and copper check kilt. He even carried the correct small backpack.
'You know me? he asked.
The voice was right, too. But then it should be, he was her creation after all. Her smile shifted from welcome to sympathy. 'I'm aware of who you think you are. That's my fault.
He frowned. 'Are you all right? Your craft came down fast…
Finally, she laughed. That concern was so Kazimir. 'A little shaken up, that's all. My name is Justine, by the way.
'I'm pleased to meet you, Justine. Is that really a spaceship?
'It really is.
Justine couldn't be cruel, that was the hardest part. She couldn't just tell him to go away, or ignore him. That would have been so much easier for her. But he was a seventeen year old human being with feelings; just like everyone else he never asked to be born—no matter the strange nature of his birth. He deserved to be treated with consideration and respect.
Curiously, he had no clear recollections of where he came from.
They sat beside a stream that gurgled along the side of the clearing. Both weary of the other, yet he was powerfully attracted to her, and not just physically, she could sense that.
'I am on my groundwalk, he told her when she asked where he'd come from.
'To prove you can survive out here by yourself, she said, recalling this very same conversation from so long ago. 'Once you return to your clan you can become a fully fledged warrior and fight the Starflyer.
'You know of the Starflyer?
'Kazimir, I know this must be hard to believe, but the Commonwealth defeated the Starflyer a very long time ago. You're not who you think you are.
He grinned delightedly. 'Then who am I?
'You are a dream I had. This place makes you real.
His face produced a thrilled expression while his mind registered a brisk amusement. 'What are you saying, that I have died and this place is the Dreaming Heavens?
'Oh my God! Justine stared at him in complete astonishment. 'I'd forgotten that part of the Guardians' ideology. Well, consciously, anyway.
'So are you my spirit guide? You are what I imagine an angel would look like.
'You called me that before, she said quietly.
'I did what?
'You used to call me your angel.
'Back when we were alive? His mind was starting to show uncertainty — a joke wearing thin.
Justine cursed her stupid old biological body for its crippling emotional weakness. 'You are alive. Again. It's complicated.