Chapter 6

Ishaan had never been more excited in his life. The scientist in him was singing at the prospect of an entirely new species of whatever they were. He'd half expected to hear back, had kept his eye out for a speeding gold-silver ball. But no word had come. On the third say before they were to leave though, a massive structure appeared in the sky. It was far off, but it was enormous, huge spiraling towers jutting off a central structure, like a fairy tale castle or the one at that theme park.

There were also nerves. This was an entirely unknown species, was he even going to be able to understand them? Her hologram had been in his language, but he remembered that every member of the council had been able to understand that and that under the words he could understand had been a soft rolling language that had been utterly alien. So maybe there would be some sort of translator? There had to be a way for all of them to understand each other.

A shuttle had been prepared for them and Damien was going to fly so it would only be the three of them. That was starting to feel a little bit unwise, what if they were hostile? How many of them were there? That ship-castle thing was enormous, it could house thousands, maybe tens of thousands, and what advanced weaponry could it house? But they'd asked. Asked for clemency, asked for safety, practically begged for a meeting.

Ishaan was good at reading people and for all the woman in the hologram had been steady and confident, for all she'd been articulate and well put together, he'd been able to see the nerves and worry under the confidence. They were in trouble; he just knew it. Something was wrong maybe with the ship, maybe with the people themselves. It was his job to find out.

On the final day, they boarded the shuttle and as the doors hissed shut behind them, he wondered if he was making the biggest mistake of his life. Lauren went by and slugged him in the arm. "No chance to back out now, lover boy." She snickered at her own joke and buckled herself into the harness. "You got us into this, remember."

"Hey," Ishaan rubbed his arm briefly before buckling himself into his own harness. "You didn't have to come along you know."

"What and miss out on meeting the aliens?" Lauren shook her head vigorously as the shuttle slowly warmed up. "No way. What if they have cute girls, how am I gonna pass up a cute alien girlfriend?"

Lauren couldn't ever be serious, that's why she and Damien and him were such good friends. Lauren couldn't be serious; Ishaan was sometimes too serious, and Damien kept them both balanced.

"Here we go." Damien said and Ishaan shoved his head back against the head rest on his chair. He still felt like his eyeballs were going to slither out the back of his skull as the shuttle shot away.

Then the pressure eased, and they flew through space towards the huge castle-house which was getting larger with every moment. Then it was the size of the largest castle he'd ever seen and the knot in Ishaan's belly was getting tighter and tighter until he thought he was going to throw up. But he didn't, instead he watched a glimmering net of light descend around the shuttle and pull it close like the embrace of a lover. Whatever it was, it turned the shuttle until the door of the transport was pressed up against the door of the house-castle and then it stopped moving.

The three occupants of the shuttle had been frozen while the sparkling mosquito net had been manipulating their shuttle but as soon as it stopped all three of them were fighting their harnesses off and standing to watch the enormous door slide open. Standing on the steps of the castle-house was the silver figure from the hologram and she was backed by two of the largest men he'd ever seen. They were both holding what looked like pikes and were glaring at the transport like they wanted to set it on fire with their eyes.

The transport door whooshed open, flooding the tiny shuttle with air that smelled like a blueberry bush in springtime and the silver woman stepped forward. She gestured at them, face glass smooth and spoke in that rolling accented language that none of them could understand. Ishaan was first, walking to the door of the shuttle and out onto the steps, leaving the other two to scramble in his wake.

"Hello," he said, clenching his hands at his sides, suddenly uncertain of what to do. "My name is Ishaan, it's nice to finally see you in person."

The silver woman raised a hand and more of that shimmering gold light surrounded them both. She smiled serenely and opened her mouth. "My joy in you, Ishaan. I am the Soul of the Flight and I welcome you home."