The days fly by. Leto is by my side constantly, and every day I feel a bit better. Kariza comes by often as well. She’s totally found her groove, controlling an army of synthetic soldiers. She is, of course, using them for good. They feed and clothe all of the freed prisoners, making the ship a bit more hospitable for everyone.

Rinor stops by often as well. I’m so happy that we’ve found Leto’s friend alive and well. Plus, he’s a total hoot. I never expected Leto to joke so much, but when those two get together all they try to do is take each other down in hilarious ways.

Now that the threat to our lives is over (for now at least), I’m happy to get to know this new side of my Zoran mate.

I must admit that it is kinda hard to find the time to do that with all the visitors. All the freed prisoners, all sixteen hundred of them, want to thank me personally. Their gestures are very touching, and they me feel all warm and fuzzy inside, but it can be a bit overwhelming at times.

And now we’re almost at the New Exon Trade Ports.

I’d never thought I’d see them, but here I am, approaching the sprawling space station built on top of New Exon’s moon. It’s massive, it’s gorgeous, and it’s here.

In front of me.

Leto squeezes my hand as as the station grows bigger and bigger on our screen.

Leto taps a button and sends a message to the station.

“Please don’t be alarmed by this humongous flagship headed your way,” he chuckles. “This is Leto, asking for permission to board. Over.”

The comm crackles with static.

“Leto?! Is that you?!”

“Dazer! It certainly is!”

“How’d in the name of the Zorashi did you manage to score yourself the Leviathan?! I don’t know if we have enough space to dock that thing!”

“We’ve got shuttles, it’ll work itself out,” Leto chuckles. “Good to see you too.”

What the men on the comm said was true: The ship is too big to dock. Instead, we descend upon the Trade Ports with an armada of shuttles. When the doors open and I see the station from the inside for the first time, my breath is stolen.

There’s so much glass, so much open spaces, so much splendor.

This is unlike Corlis in every way.

A delegation of Zoran guards is waiting for us. They salute us, and Leto returns the courtesy.

“We have received your message,” one of them answers. “Please, follow me.”

The guards welcome the freed prisoners with blankets and food (our rations were unfortunately running low. Wellington only fed people enough to keep them alive, and then only barely), while we two are escorted to the one of the top floors of the Trade Ports.

The glass doors open and two couples await us there — both of them Zoran males with female partners.

They all rise up and bow politely, and we return the greeting, while I’m still confused as heck.

“I am Theros,” the silver Zoran says. “And this is my mate, Anaya.” He also introduces the other couple, Davor and Leah.

“I am Caia Mercier,” I answer, “And this is Leto, but I think you know that… why are we here, if I may ask?”

“Please, sit,” Theros says, “And I will explain it to you. We have received the messages from Leto, and so we believe you have information about SINTRA that might be of interest to us all.”

Leto nods as he sits down. “Yes, that we do.”

Suddenly I am starting to connect all of the dots.

“Wait, YOU are the Chosen?” I blurt out. “The one the floating face mentioned? The one that is ‘ruining their plans’?”

The Zorans all chuckle. “I hope so,” Davor answers. “It is certainly our intention to ruin that megacorp.”

“Then I’m with you one hundred percent,” I say.

“I want to get back to the floating face part, but I did want to point out that you two are Chosen as well,” Anaya says. “Just so you know. It’s clear that you are a fated couple.”

I glance at Leto, and my heart skips a beat. Yes, I guess it is clear. With all that’s been going on, we haven’t found the right moment to talk it out, to make sure we’re on the same page, but I’m not too worried.

“Your palms!” Leah says. “They are glowing!”

I tuck them back in my sleeves.

“Yes, they’ve got a tendency to do that,” I mumble. “Sorry.”

Leto gently grabs my hands and bares them to the group. “Please, Caia, there is no need to be so coy. It is okay.”

He shows my glowing palms to the group, and they all ahh collectively as the Zoran hieroglyphs appear.

“Yes, the Zorashi symbols,” Anaya says. “You are Chosen, definitely. May I ask what your hands actually do, besides give off light?”

I’ve never thought of them as portable flashlights before, but I guess if I’m ever in the dark they’ll come in handy.

“I can burn things, or melt them,” I answer.

“She’s the reason why we’re both here,” Leto says proudly. “Without her, we’d never have escaped our cell.”

“Well, without you, I’d be dead right now,” I answer. “So it evens out.”

“Tell us everything,” Leah says. “We need to know.”

Theros opens a bottle of cuhla, and we all take a glass of the dark, strong substance as Leto starts recounting our tale. I join in whenever necessary, but he’s got the story down pat.

“…and that brings us to the Council meeting… Caia, do you want to tell this part?”

I nod, the Zoran drink making my cheeks flush.

“Yes. So, there I was in, in this vent, when I stumbled upon a meeting. There were three men, and a floating, holographic face in the middle of the room.”

“Do you know who they were?” Theros asks.

“Well, one of them was Wellington. The other two, I have no idea. One had a green-ish logo on his chest, and he looked rather scarred and a bit scary.”

“General Takeshi,” Leah says. “No doubt in my mind about it. Those scars are from his transformation.”

Davor has a grim look on his face. “We captured him, but he escaped, unfortunately…”

“I think I know what’s going on,” Leah says. “Takeshi mentioned some type of Council. I think what you saw was the meeting between Wellington Consortium, ZuberiSynth and Takeshi Biocorp, with their overlord, SINTRA Corp.”

“Yes!” I say. “I remember those names, Zuber-something and Takeshi!”

Everyone nods. It feels like we’re one step closer to unlocking this puzzle.

“Do you recall anything about this face?” Anaya asks. “Any defining characteristics?”

“It’s hard to describe it,” I say. “It was so… awful. Like a cyborg, but a haunted one. There were wires, and one eye seemed to be glowing, and… I’m sorry I don’t have more answers.”

“Please,” Theros says. “You are already helping us a great, great deal. What were their plans?”

I swallow the lump in my throat. “Total domination of the universe and annihilation of the Zoran race,” I say. “That’s the gist of it.”

Everyone is silent, with grim looks all around.

“It is like we feared,” Theros says. “SINTRA Corp. is getting closer and closer to unlocking the powers of the Rift. We hoped to stop them, but it seems every blow we deal to them, they shrug off. Anaya and I, we outed them on Corlis Station. And what good did it do? They are back there now, only months later, back in control. Leah and Davor captured General Takeshi, but he too is already back in SINTRA’s clutches.”

“What do you suggest?” Leto says. “Surrender is not an option.”

“No, it is not. There is only one option left to us. We will take the fight to SINTRA. To Earth. Are you with us?”

“Yes!” I cry. “Yes, of course!”

Theros nods. “We have the Wellington flagship, we have an army of synths, we have six Chosen who are ready for anything. There’s just one piece of the puzzle missing: We need a Chosen who is an expert hacker. Who can swim in data, to whom technology holds no secrets. My Anaya is quite adept at communicating with tech, but the way you describe that face… I think SINTRA is experimenting with cyborgs, and if we want to stop them, we need all the help we can get.”

“Is there someone like that out there?” I ask.

Theros looks back at me with a determined look on his face. “There has to be. We will find our missing link, no matter what.”