And from across the veil that separate universes something sees. and something reaches. and pulls.

There is a small flash of light and a small bit of quartz falls from the air and lands on skin.

And someone else blinks and finds himself somewhere new.

It is nighttime. He is in a glass-roofed atrium hundreds of meters across, with paths, streams of water small hills within it. Far past the wall of the garden, an enormous building- perhaps the same one as surrounds the atrium- rises up into a band across the sky. Half that band, illuminated by the sun shining from below the horizon, is the source of what light there is. Overhead, seen as though from above, the vast roof is broken by numerous atria and greenhouses.

(A guard robot registers an unexpected change in the contents of the atrium. In a control room aboard the Ravaia, Corporal Sayaveo glances at the footage of a mysteriously appearing winged man, commands the robot to tranquilize the intruder, and forwards the signal to his superior.)

Felix finds himself suddenly asleep.

Given the information they had, this was a sensible response. Given the powers that Felix had, this is probably not going to be the safest possible result.

As always, he starts dreamshaping as soon as he falls asleep. He immediately becomes aware of several things. Like the local gravity, which is much lighter than it should be and the absence of pocket dimensions around the world. There is just one small pocket dimension.

This can't be. This can't be happening.

But he can feel through the dreamshaping magic that wherever he is, it must be somewhere far away. Might even be a somewhen? He has no idea. The place looked high-tech enough and... Felix reaches out with the dreamshaping magic and there is new technology available for him to create.

Maybe he is in the future. Maybe he is just far away among aliens?

He reaches out with his dreamshaping are there new alien species available for him to create?

(Maybe he will never see anyone he loves ever again.)

There are no aliens. There are badly uplifted dolphins and elephants.

(officers check over the footage, confirming that it really does seem to show a winged man suddenly appearing out of nowhere.)

Felix puts his own pain aside and stares (or does the magical dreamshaping equivalent) at the uplifted creatures.

Then he turns his mind to the pocket dimension, still growing, fairly new. Likely started when he arrived. Dreamshaping is contagious? He doesn't know.

He tries to wake up. No luck.

(Either someone managed to hack the Army Robot Network or someone has much better cloaking than they knew existed in the galaxy. Either way they are dealing with an unknown actor with terrifying capabilities and entirely mysterious intentions. Either way, the winged man himself seems to be neutralised, although who knows what might be hidden on or in him.

They send a fully human unit (in case the bots are compromised) with orders to strip-search him, scan him, put him on vitanal and compliance, and take him to a biohazard facility to be interrogated)

There are no apparent weapons on his person. They will find a smartphone, some documents and a pamphlet written in English that talks about the "The Shattered Skies" off the coast of Florida.

At some point the winged mean starts coughing violently.

The documents- which none of the soldiers present can read- are scanned and sent to a signals intelligence team on the Yatzaidna. The smartphone is disassembled and thoroughly scanned.

When Felix starts coughing there is a change of plan- the atrium is sealed off and the interrogation will be done there. They are now operating under the assumption that the vitanal system is compromised and the winged man is carrying a biowarfare agent. Once the atrium is sealed two soldiers put Felix on his side and try to clear his airway.

As the compliance takes effect, Felix will develop a headache, a good mood, a lack of self-control and a difficulty thinking clearly.

The winged man eventually coughs up blood and then... a pebble, that starts dripping water and floating midair.

Felix's mind is not entirely in his brain at the moment, combined with the fact that he is definitely not in a good mood means that he is feeling a lot of extremes right now. He starts manifesting his pocket dimension, the lay-out similar to the space colony, but wildly different aesthetics.

He places portals around, both to the regular world and to the smaller pocket dimension, but he keeps them closed.

Scanning the pebble shows it to be a normal rock. Since it is clearly levitating, the physical scanning equipment must be also compromised. Somehow. Or maybe it's just levitating by totally unknown means that the scanner doesn't detect. The cyberwarfare team are confused and scared now. The atrium doors are sealed manually in case the biosecurity system is also compromised. The soldiers try blasting the pebble with concentrated plasma, then with armor-piercing bullets. When those fail to work the officers order for a warp shredder to be sent in. Since they aren't willing to break the biohazard protocols for this, it will take some time.

Eventually the tranquilizer will start to wear off and Felix will come to among a group of people wearing high-tech airtight armor. They are wonderful and he should help and trust and obey them. His arms have been tied behind his back, his wings have been tied shut, his legs have been tied together, and he is attached to two different machines via seven different cannulas.

The pebble does behave like a normal pebble under stress (that is, it gets destroyed). But it reconstructs itself very fast. It appears to be growing.

Felix wakes up and it's like crash-landing on an entirely different mental state. He blinks confusedly, before smiling.

Gosh, those restraints are annoying and clearly no one here means him harm. There is no problem if he tries to melt htem off with fire, right? He is not sure if it will work, but there is no problem with trying.

This does not melt the restraints. It does, however, prompt one of the soldiers to tranquilize him again in order to check where the fire is coming from.

And Felix is out again. His mind rearranges itself into something more sensible as he starts dreamshaping.

He panics, briefly, but he sure panics. His mind can't be allowed to break.

Okay, okay, this is not permanent enough to resist dreamshaping, this means that Felix just needs to get rid of his current meat brain.

But there is the other dreamshaper.

Damn it. He can't let the other dreamshaper die, but if he finds a way to kill himself instantly- oh, wait.

He creates a robot with a slow-acting poison (among other interesting chemicals), puts it in a convenient position in front of a portal and...

The guards see a tiny portal open above Felix and then there is a bright red dart sticking from one of his wings. The portal closes immediately.

...okay, he has at most a day to wrap things up.

The station will also receive a signal informing them to let the winged-man go and to not brainwash him further.

Three soldiers spray the area the dart came from with bullets. One sprays it with dyed mist.

"Tii-Kho to Command. There's nothing fucking cloaked there, it just came out of fucking nowhere. Over."

"Deathir to Command confirming there's nothing cloaked there.

   "Vitanal says it's Leostoxin if we can believe that."

   "Ravaia 8 to Commodore. Enemy seems able to dart people out of nowhere, also to infiltrate anything, plasma the fucking traitor juice."

      "Commodore to all ships, wipe all autocon specs."

   "If they can dart people out of nowhere do we *need* to assume shit's compromised? They could have just teleported the rock into his mouth for all we know."

   "Could be the soldiers are compromised."

   "If that's true they straight up control our whole fucking fleet and we're fucked."

   "This makes no bloody sense."

   "City just got a signal demanding we let winged guy go."

   "Ask them what the hiss is going on."

They send a signal is sent to the origin point of the message. Meanwhile the soldiers nervously get back to checking if they can figure out where the fire came from.

Who are you and what is going on?

There is absolutely no sign of anything that could've produced the fire, there are not even signs of fuel residues.

It occurs to Felix that he has little to no means to actually get any messages from these people. At least not unless he is a bit clever.

Okay, he can do something creative with portals. He informs whoever may be concerned that his ability to receive message has been... altered. And as a result they are going to hear a lot of repeats of their own messages. Keep future messages short.

And then Felix starts the task of manually deciphering broadcasts through portals.

Autocon specs are wiped. Soldiers continue to stand guard around Felix and do not disconnect the compliance drip. Army robots continue sweeping the station, finding and destroying several caches of cunningly disguised robots programmed to infiltrate and reprogram redemption facilities.

And eventually Felix will wake up again. The soldiers are still here and still wonderful.

"Hi-" Felix says to the wonderful soldiers.

Then he shot and gassed from multiple directions with all manner of tranquilizing darts and devices coming from portals.

Actually too many tranquilizing darts.

Fuck. Felix thinks to himself, he wanted to stay asleep, but that's going to kill him very fast.

That wasn't very wise. You do not want to make an enemy out of me.

Who is the winged man and why should we defer to you?

A few minutes later he sends a reply.

He was me.

He sends and quickly follows by a correction.

He is me.

Felix realizes this is probably confusing. And they are probably spooked.

The thing is.... he is not sure the truth is more believable or less spooky.

Well, he can say that.

You wouldn't believe if I told you.

I don't actually mean you any harm.

I am just lost.

He wishes he had a way to facepalm in this state. Gosh, ominous much? He thinks to himself. He needs to think before he acts.

Is there a way to disable the various security measures and possibly lock down doors and elevators through some password that Felix can broadcast to the station?

Most of the security systems in the city-sized space-station are electronic and remote-controlled. Among the exceptions, however, are the seals on the doors to the atrium containing his body, and the armored and armed men standing guard around them.

We are willing to consider seemingly implausible claims. What are you? What would you need in order to return home? This is the space city Kyatji Mote in Star System JY-318751. It is currently undergoing chemical redemption.

Considering their capabilities, he does not like the term "chemical redemption".

Keep your messages short and to the point.

What I am is one of implausible claims. Call me Dalkaila.

What's chemical redemption? It sounds like something in serious need of being prevented.

We will not provide intelligence while you conceal your own nature and allegiances. Interfering with redemption will be considered hostile.

I am aware. I am entirely aware that I am invading what you must consider your lawful jurisdiction.

I just really don't like mind tampering.

Also, you don't need to send signals. If you write something down on a piece of paper with the words "To Dalkaila" I will know it is meant to me.

Felix shuts everything down. But if possible, he will let them receive signals so there is communication.

("Infantry Robots are down."

   "Starfighters aren't responding."

"Commodore, our Army Robots aren't responding do you copy?"

      "Outgoing signals are compromised."

   "Bright Lords of the Stars protect us your servants. Wise Lords of the Singularity protect us your children...."

"Give me the infiltration loci, I'll try to disable them manually long enough to send a distress signal out?"

      "Long shot."

Having received the infiltration loci, an officer departs for the armory in a hurry

   "...Grant us courage and honor to serve you in this time of darkness. Guard us against evil and our souls against corruption...."

      "We need to tell the clergy to prepare the Rites of Loss."

         "On it"

An officer heads off to find a priest.

         "Can we kill the converters before Dalkaila takes those too?"

            "Didn't sound like he wanted them."

         "Let's not risk him changing his mind. Looks like internal comms are down too."

            "I'll tell them in person."

Another officer departs.

               "What does Dalkaila even want with us?")

Felix will not hear from them for some time.

You're too quiet. I am sorry if I came too strong at displaying part of my array of skills.

I am ultimately benevolent. And I am not vengeful. I am here ultimately to fix things and with sufficient time I will fix everything.

But please, stop the brainwashing.

How do they feel about finding their ways barred by robots?

The officers who find their ways barred by robots turn back and look for other routes. When all routes are blocked they return to the command centre.

To Dalkaila

From Ravaia command

The people undergoing Conversion on this ship are heathens. If they remain untreated they will continue to offend against the Law and against the Holy Gods, to endanger their own souls, to pervert the spiritual balance of the cosmos, to spread heresies and superstition, and to sacrifice their children to demons.

Sigh¹

I would like to negotiate the terms of your peaceful surrender then. At very least until we can figure out a better and friendlier way of to coexist.

I hope I don't need to tell you that any drastic actions that you perceive to be nonreversible shouldn't really be taken at this moment. If there is any reassurances that I can offer you, please request them now.

¹Felix has decided that he will need to fuck shit up in a potentially galactic scale.

To Dalkaila

From Ravaia Command

We will not betray Kina for any price. We will not commit uvolerimu.

"Uvolerimu", from roots meaning "despairful-killing", is a single word referring to a category of sinful act- the act of non-strategically killing someone to keep them out of enemy hands. It can encompass anything from suicide to killing captured soldiers. It can encompass killings motivated by spite or killings motivated by a desire to spare people from torture. It specifically does not cover killing someone to prevent them from being an asset to the enemy, so long as that is truly the soldier's only reason for killing.

I am not aiming to buy anything. I want a mutual coexistence that does not involve the atrocity you're causing

Are Felix's robots finding resistance?

Soldiers attempt to get to the armory and chapel from various other parts of the ship, but most turn back on encountering robots and those who don't are quickly tranquilized or restrained; they're not adequately prepared for a fight where the enemy has robots and they don't.

Is everyone accounted for eventually?

Yes; with enough robots and watching everything through portals, he will be able to have robots trap soldiers in quarters and now-useless control-rooms. The entire rest of the population of the station are apparently being kept in an enormous prison, occupying most of the volume of an enormous spacecraft currently attached to the station. The prisoners are attached to numerous cannulas and electronic devices.

We do not practice surrender negotiation. We have told you our terms.

I admit to not know your track record, but I strongly recommend reconsidering that policy.

Alternatively you could try make an argument for your side.

Felix does not expect a convincing argument.

He needs to focus on the other dreamshaper. He sends robots to search gray quartz around sleeping people around this location (he figures the dreamshaper must be there).

The argument for our side is item 1 in this warship's non-encrypted library.

The robots do not have a "search for grey quartz near sleeping person" function, but eventually he can figure out how to get them to search for grey quartz and for sleeping people and then compare the two maps.

The robots locate a grey quartz crystal near a sleeping teenaged girl. One of her cellmates is trying unsuccessfully to wake her up.

...And item 1 is what? Their religious book?

A robot retrieves the the quartz crystal. The dreamshard. Felix does not sigh in relief, because he does not have lungs. Also, how the dreamshard got here?

Another set of robots surround the girl (though her cellmates can still approach). They quietly announce "due to external influences, this individual is currently unable to awake. Please, take care of them. Providences are being taken for this individual recovery."

Item 1 is indeed a religious scripture, entitled "The First Revelation of Kina".

"What's going on? What's happening to Losse?"

Felix should wait until he has eyes before reading that. Does it look like Felix has control over the station?

The robot does not provide an answer. It only repeats it's message.

It looks very much like Felix has control over the situation.

Now he only needs to keep hold of it for a week or convince someone to help him out.

While without a body.

And far away from home.

He can't feel like there is something pressed against his chest leaving him out of air. But the underline emotion is sure there.

Unless...

He can create things, why not a new body? If it's sufficiently similar then his immortality ought to recognize it as such.

He tries. Starting small, he creates an embryo. He can actually feel his immortality latching on the thing, briefly, it dies shortly after. But that's promising.

He creates a new body, his age, but identical.

Something goes horribly wrong, it's like he is being split into-

...Two.

Fuck.

He is not Felix, he remembers Felix's live but he knows he is not Felix. The process must have created him instead of a new Felix body, fuck, fuck.

He looks around his surroundings. Felix created himself a nicely equipped suite for when he woke up. He tries his hand at figuring out the computers.

He sends Felix a message explaining what's going on.

He also opens the feed for the robot that's monitoring the sleeping dreamshaper. It transmits a message.

"Hello?"

"Is there an actual person there this time?!"

"Yes, sorry... I couldn't answer before," true enough. He didn't exist a few minutes ago. "Who is talking?"

"Mokete NiJonte. My sister isn't waking up."

"Okay, Mokete, we are going to solve this. What's your sister's name? Is she immediately safe?"

"Losse NiNoke. I don't know what's wrong with her."

"I do... but it's very hard to explain."

He figures out how to get a videocall through the hacked computers. It's mostly showing his face and shoulders, the wings might not be immediately recognizable as such.

"She is stable. There is something that I might need to do to wake her up, which is also hard to explain."

He searches through the database for the best route to where the dreamshaper and starts moving.

The entrance to the prison- an elevator shaft which appears to have been forced up through the floor of a factory, breaking some of the machinery in the process- is fairly nearby. Felix's robots, however, don't currently have control over the elevator beyond being able to turn it on or off, so Thunder will need to go through the pocket dimension for most of the way.

At least it's better suited for flight. He keeps up the call. "I am on my way. Is everyone else in there alright?"

"We're all three days into conversion, but other than that yes."

"Yes. We will figure out a way to stop that and maybe reverse it."

So he's not Ekina and he doesn't actually know how conversion works. She has options. She doesn't have options which aren't terrible. It's still a relief.

"Reversal's thermodynamically impossible. Stopping partway through could be dangerous if you don't know what you're doing."

He decides not to do say something like "I laugh at the face of thermodynamics!" but he wants to.

"Do you think there is someone in the station that knows how to stop safely?"

"I. Think the safest way is to disconnect the canulas, then cut off all the control signals with programmed cloth, and then inject lamotricyte to the cartoid as quickly as possible after that. So you want to position the syringe before you start. The Kyatji Mote army robots had a protocol for it but I don't know if there are any still intact."

"Lack of material objects is not a constraint."

How long until he reaches them? He would rather be implausible in person.

Only a few more minutes.

He... he really needs a name... he will messaage Felix about this.

"How many of you are in there? Do you have people elsewhere in the station you want to contact?"

"You heard what he asked?"

faint voices from offscreen

"Yeah, Lidje and Solitse want to talk to their brothers and Tadje and Netatne want to talk to their parents."

another voice

"Also Tadje wants to tell to whoever's in charge of the Ekina forces here she hopes he knows how much conversion sucks.

And here he is.

"six of us here, over five million in the ship."

"Who are you and what is going on?"

"Just a second."

He opens the portal and walks through it.

There is no way to disguise his wings, so he doesn't. They are mostly red-orange, but there are streaks of blue and purple through them. "Hi, I don't have a first name yet, but my surname is Dalkaila."

"Solitse Teshe. What is going on?"

"Man, long story short: an artifact somehow ended here alongside another individual. Said artifact caused her to fall asleep like that. Her consciousness is currently being projected into another place, a real place, which the artifact created. Said place is based on her personality and to rescue her I would need to take the avatar hosting her consciousness out. At that point she will wake up normally."

"Can you put us in contact with her?"

"Maybe? I am going to open a portal there to rescue her. The problem here is that the place might be dangerous."

"You don't think your robots can pull off the rescue on their own, then?"

"Oh, that's a great idea. Would she follow them?"

Mokete pauses to consider this.

"If they're leading her out of immediate danger I think she will. Otherwise it might depend how obedient conversion's gotten her so far."

He flinches. "Would help if you talked through the robots?"

"If I can talk to her live definitely. Even a recording will help."

He nods. He request that from Felix. "It should take a few minutes to set it up. Do you have any questions?"

"I'm not sure where to start. Where did you come from and what do you want?"

"We... there are two of us - originated from another universe. Currently, we don't have a better plan than stop the brainwashing. Everywhere."

"That would be a good start."

"So. You're magic, right?"

"Very. Do you guys have any magic around?"

"If we do it's either really subtle or really hidden."

"Not that hidden. But we've talked about this. People disagree about it."

And Solitse might be more persuadable on the subject now but she doesn't really want to find out.

"What do you mean?" He asks. 

But then some robots come in. 

"Ah, here they are."

Mokete, Solitse, and some of the other girls stand up.

"We're sending them from here?"

He nods. "We just need to give you the controls, or at least hook you up to the videofeed."

"Cool. I've only trained with KYT control systems though, so if we'll need complicated stuff done fast it should just be videofeed. Or if we need a controller who knows what to expect from magic at all."

"Primarily, we only need to find her and lead her out. The robots are entirely disposable. ...We can make more to keep them in reserve. What other specifications would be useful?"

"Okay, I should be able to manage that even with a foreign system. What sort of area will we be searching?"

"Well, at this point her pocket dimension should be a couple of miles across, but we can't know how mobile she is. We are going to start from the center and expand from there."

The controls finish assembling themselves.

"Well, then lets get going."

The controls consist of a curved panel about a meter and a half across, and a headset.

A portal opens to the new pocket dimension letting the robots inside.

The portal opens into darkness. The robots' lights reveal a long, rectangular room lined with mostly-empty metal bookshelves and containing piles of big plastic boxes, a desk with a pile of books on it, and a wooden pallet on the floor. Behind the bookshelves, paint in abstract patterns Felix will recognize from the station's corridors has mostly chipped away to reveal underlying mosaics in an entirely different style.

He instructs the robots to get in and look around.

Near the pallet there is a bucket which appears to have recently been full of white paint.

The doors out of the room are metal. Two are bolted on this side, one bolted on the other side. A hatch in the ceiling is also bolted closed on this side.

The robots won't cut through the locked door until instructed to. Through one of the unlockable doors is a room full of drawers, one of which is open. Through another is a gallery of artworks, some on pedastals and others in plastic boxes. A miniature person with no heat signature, or perhaps a moving statue, finishes crouching down into one of the boxes as the robots enter. Above the hatch is some sort of elaborate orrery-like mechanism connected to the locks of two other doors, parts of which have been disassembled and put into plastic boxes.

"Try to talk to the... moving humanoid-shaped thing?" Thunder instructs.

"Hi? We're not going to do anything to you. We're looking for Losse NiNoke. She might be in danger"

The figure does not respond. It is no longer moving, even to breathe.

"It looks like our aunt."

"Any reason to think that Losse would take your aunt's shape?"

"Not that comes to mind."

As robots continue to spread out, they find more rooms with complicated clockwork, glass cases which contain or contained what look like museum exhibits of various sorts, bookshelves, draws, and cupboards, all apparently in the process of being put into plastic boxes. Much of it is connected; shelves, glass cases, and pedastals forming parts of the clockwork. More figures attempt to flee or hide as the robots enter their rooms. Some appear to be moving statues in non-realist styles.

Nothing that responds when called? Nothing with a heat signature or signs of biological life?

Nothing of either.

Some doors, once opened, turn out to be hidden on the other side.

"She might be in one of the locked areas. Or have found a hidden door the robots haven't yet."

"Well, that complicates things, but Felix can make us a map."

He pokes Felix about doing that.

Felix can't make a map showing the hidden doors on a whim, but he can produce a general sketch of the area which takes more and more form as data is sent to their terminal. They can at least figure out untraveled areas.

There are quite a few untraveled areas, including the room immediately anticlockwise of the entrance.

The robots also find computers of various sizes, all switched off and often integrated into the clockwork.

They won't touch the computers for now.

How about opening a portal to that room?

A naked girl painted head-to-toe in white sees the portal open and immediately runs to the door leading to the original entrance, which she unbolts and opens. Seeing the robot on the other side, she freezes for a moment.

"Losse? We're not here to convert you."

Losse runs to one of the plastic boxes and crouches inside, then begins frantically drawing patterns on the white paint in charcoal.

"You're dreaming. We need to take you through the portal to wake you up."

Mokete switches the microphone off.

"It looks like she's preparing herself for cremation."

Meanwhile, the station receives a message.

"This city is now under blockade. All spacecrafts attempting to leave will be vaporized."

Goddamnit.

"Okay, we can deal with that in a minute. I will message Felix to open portals around her. We just need her to go through."

Mokete switches the microphone on again.

"This is Mokete. I swear we're not here to convert you. We just need to wake you up. Is there any reason we shouldn't do that?"

"I just need to finish the funeral painting. Please just give me a few more minutes to get ready."

"What will happen if you don't finish the funeral painting?"

"The funeral won't be right. I think some of my soul might get stuck here? There will be bad karma."

"You're not dead, Losse."

Losse continues marking herself with charcoal.

And once Felix has had enough time...

There is a portal in front of her.

Also, behind her.

And at her left and her right.

More portals appear, occupy every free space in the room.

He takes this as a cue to apply some strategic strong winds. Enough to knock her through a portal.

Losse wakes up.

Losse looks around.

Losse sees Thunder and the robots.

"Are you okay?"

"No."

Mokete returns to the cell and hugs Losse.

Losse looks at Thunder.

"Why were you in my dream?"

"It wasn't a normal dream. The place in there is real."

"Where is it? Why was I dreaming about it?"

"Pocket dimensions like that one sort of... overlap with regular space but are one step removed. You acquired the ability - dreamshaping - because its source crossed universes and landed on you. I don't know why it did that."

Bullshit. But possibly bullshit it's useful to learn more about.

"Dreamshaping?"

"Do you want me to disconnect your redemption machine while he explains?"

"yes."

She sets about doing that.

"Dreamshaping is how we call the power to create pocket dimensions, you lost the ability to have regular sleep and dreams, now when you would normally be unconscious you will be able to expand your pocket dimension."

This raises more questions, but first.

"Who are you, anyway?"

"Man, going straight to the hard questions, aren't you? When the source of dreamshaping came to this universe, it dragged an immortal dreamshaper called Felix. The religious zealots attacked him and his body died. Then he tried to speed up getting a new body and created me, I am kinda like his clone."

"And- Why were you in my dream realm?"

"Fun thing about dreamshaping. If your dream-self doesn't leave the place the first time around you never wake up. Which isn't a fun thing as more of a tragic thing."

"How do you go into someone else's dream realm? How do you get someone out of their dream realm?"

"Dreamshapers can place portals to and from them."

"How do I do that?"

"You need to sleep to access your dreamshaping. Then you will be able to place portals between two overlapping places in two dimensions. It's mostly intuitive? Like making a tunnel. Except the entire thing is four-dimensional."

"Huh. Can I see one of these tunnels?"

"While awake? Not really. While asleep, you can. Well, the sense is not sight. But you can perceive them."

"So they're only dream to dream, not dream to reality?"

"No... the dreaming is an interface. The pocket dimensions are real and can be connected to standard reality."

"What sort of things do the connections to reality do? Is this part of how the [Cosmic Balance]* and [Salvation]* work?"

*said in the language the soldiers were speaking

"The connections don't really do anything besides creating portals. And I am not familiar with the relevant theology."

"But the portals aren't detectable by people who are awake? Or are the portals a different thing from the tunnels?"

"The portals are the visible part of the tunnel. People exist and perceive in three dimensions so they can't perceive the forth."

"Can you show me a portal, then?"

"Sure." He goes over the nearest portal and opens it.

It's like watching a translucent projection, there is a large room on the other side.

She sticks her head inside and looks around. She pokes one hand in and waves the other through where it ought to be.

"Huh.

This is someone's dream?"

Her hand goes through and she can feel the difference in temperature.

The room is lavishly decorated, with two fireplaces, several other fires for light and decorations that sparkle under the flame.

"I know I used the word dream, but it's a real thing. But, yes, that's Felix dimension."

"This isn't an Ekina thing, is it, if... they could do this, they'd have used it for the invasion."

"Lucky for us, it isn't."

"I suppose so."

So he probably really isn't Ekina. Some of the other people here might be now, 'though, at least relevantly. But this guy seems to think his people have things under control.

"So if you're not Ekina, what is your allegiance?"

"My allegiance can be best described as 'here because of accidental inter-dimensional movement' plus 'brainwashing is sure horrifying'."

"It is. How good are dream realms for transport, can you use them to shortcut the hyperspace passages?"

"Back home we are not aware of hyperspace, but the pocket dimensions relate to regular space, sort of coexisting with it. This means that if you walk through a portal, walk a distance and exit through another portal you will find yourself in the same distance and direction."

"So you don't know if you can shortcut them or not? Do you know if pocket dimensions can bridge interstellar distances, it's an interesting question either way but if-

But more importantly, what's the situation with the Kina? I guess you're not here with their permission, but do they know you're here?"

"Pocket dimensions don't grow that fast, but we can test things. The situation with Kina is that we took over this place from them. Presumably, we will figure out how to keep the people here safe and then... deal with the Kina."

"Good. Should we be moving everyone into a pocket dimension in case they decide to nuke us?"

"Yup. But explanations were due."

Lidje is already running for the portal. Losse steps through and out of her way.

"Well, come on!"

And the other occupants of the room follow.

He waves his hand theatrically. "Welcome to our humble abode."

Their humble abode is, or at least this room is, the most overwrought place, with red-brown marble, fire scounses and everything is intricately decorated.

"Is everyone else being evacuated here too? Is there anything we can do to help?"

"That's the plan. Or will be the plan. There is only me, so I am going to need help."

"So- you need portals to evacuate people through, robots to direct the evacuation, and operators for the robots? And space to evacuate into. And you have unlimited robots. And Losse can help you make more space, and Mokete and Tadje can help operate robots. Should we prioritize evacuating more army robot operators?"

"Assuming they are functional, that sounds reasonable. "

"They won't all be, but some of them will. Maybe start with the Kina ones since they won't have just been in conversion."

"Sure. Who we should contact to get things going?"

"The Captain should be trained to command evacuations, and will know who else you'll need and where to find them."

"Might not want to second-guess the Commodore's decision, 'though"

"If someone on top doesn't want to evacuate we can move down to the next person in the chain of command. Do you want to come along?"

Losse, Mokete, Solitse, and Lidje all want to come along.

Good. Do they think he should lead the group or that this will be easier if they come in first and warn about the guy with wings?

Dalkaila should probably lead.

Okay, he will do that.

The bridge is a room of elaborately decorated consoles. The officers are wearing elaborately decorated headsets and baggy white uniforms with iridescent blue embroidery. They look stressed and tired and are sitting against the wall opposite the door. When Thunder appears they variously flinch, edge away, or glare at him.

Thunder raises his hands and makes peace signs.

"Fear me not. I come in piece and bearing the gift of not wanting people being brainwashed."

This doesn't appear to satisfy the officers but does calm them significantly.

Solitse addresses the officer in the fancyest uniform, in a heavily accented form of his language.

"Dalkaila can open door to a pocket dimension outside the city. A- (she mimes and explosion) bang!-  will not kill him. But it will kill everyone in the ship if we do not leave. Will you help us* leave?"

* inclusive "us"

(the captain pauses to think)

"...yes. I will."

"Great. I like authorities that prefer not to be nuked. Now, what do you need to know to evacuate everyone? The portals can be placed anywhere you give me a direction to, and they will lead to another space station which is... lets say a step away of regular reality."

"Which parts of this ship does you station overlap with?"

He provides a schematic. "And we can add so there is overlap in the parts that don't."

"If possible I'd want a portal in every cellblock. If you give us back control of our robots for the evacuation I give you my word as a Kiana soldier that we will only use them to help evacuate the prisoners and will not use them to try to regain control of the ship."

"Sure. Do you want some extras? We can just make more for ourselves."

Thunder will grant that request and ask for a portal in every cellblock from Felix. 

They do want extras.

The officers take control of the robots. The cell doors open. Robots cut the conversion machines out of the cell walls and shepherd prisoners through the portals.

Thunder will offer any help he can and get out of the way otherwise.

What's the next step once everyone is secured?

That appears to be it as far as the officers are concerned; once all the prisoners are in the pocket dimension they sit back and let the robots idle.

Do people want to ask him questions? Maybe the new dreamshaper?

"It doesn't look like they're evacuating their own people. Do you have any idea why not?"

Shrug. "Should we ask them to put themselves in cells or what?"

One of the officers decides to speak up.

"I think we'd all prefer not to go to your station unless we can carry out the Rite of Loss first, Dalkaila."

"And what's that meant to do?"

"It is a rite to preserve the state of our souls against chemical conversion so that they will not be darkened by the sinful actions we take and thoughts we have afterwards."

"And it involves?"

He explains in detail. The rite is modeled on older funeral rites and serves to establish a record with the cosmos and with the Bright and Dark Gods. It involves blessings by a priest (who can also be the person undertaking the rite), a ceremonial shower, changing into special ceremonial outfits, and several minutes of seclusion and prayer in a dark cell followed by momentary vacuum exposure and symbolic burning of the forehead, chest, and abdomen with holy plasma.

He turns to his companions. "Okay... I would like to think myself as religious tolerant, but this sounds like a major security risk."

"You can have robots watch the whole thing and make sure no-one moves out of line without anyone but the Kiana being there in person? They're faster than humans and I think there are even specific 'make sure people only carry out the Rites of Loss' modules for them."

"Is that acceptable?"

"Is what acceptable?"

          (in a tone suggesting can-you-belive-this-stupidity) "She suggested he have robots watch the Rites of Loss"

(to both Felix and the translator) "That's how it's usually done."

"So sorry for not knowing," his tone might be a bit acerbic. "I haven't figured out how to give my self omniscience, no worries. I will work on it at some point, but I am currently busy using my other capabilities. Anyway, sure, lets do the Rite of Loss. Is there a protocol if you try any shit? Like... I don't know if you are going to expect to be mind-controlled or something."

"Advising you on how best to keep us under control seems like a bad idea. But even assuming you have some way to get around our brain-defenses in a reasonable time frame, mind controlling us before at least the first stage of the rites is complete would most likely invalidate them entirely."

"I am not going to mind control you. I just want to get through this with minimum loss of life and sanity."

"Good. If you want to keep us in line that's still your problem."

"Some of the other Great Empires probably have manual entries about it."

"Dude, just because I don't want to mind control or kill you it doesn't means that I can't make you trouble. But whatever." To Solitse he says. "Okay. Let's check those then."

All of the other Great Empires have sections on this in their soldiers' manuals besides Vitzaia, which doesn't have a manual. The Agaman manual advises to not allow the rite because it is a heathen ritual and will thus result in damnation. Other than that the manuals all say to have the captives watched by robots set to stun them and take them away for conversion or interrogation if they do anything unexpected. The K'bont manual also explains that captives who completed the rites should be given the option of rebaptism into their choice of either the Reconciled or the Fallen Kiani choir as quickly as possible after conversion is complete and advised to consider the choice during conversion. The Ree Black Fleet manual specifies that during conquest operations the rite is normally only required for soulless captives, not free-willed ones, but otherwise seems to say the same thing once you account for its referring to the officers overseeing the operation in third person and for its referring to both them and the captives using the inanimate gender.

So, they follow the same logic as religion back home. Great. Aside the complications are those Rites possible to implement. 

Yes. The ship contains facilities for them, although they're currently collapsed and will take around a quarter of an hour to assemble themselves.

Alright, they can wait fifteen minutes. Or at least he hopes no one gets funny ideas.

No one gets any funny ideas. The ritual facilities assemble themselves.

"If you keep not wanting to reprogram them they'll probably want to get rebaptized eventually".

"I am not gonna want to reprogam them," Thunder says horrified. "Is there anything special to baptism besides more religious rituals?"

"I don't think so."

"Okay. Anything else to address?"

"We should make sure everyone knows how to get food and water, and where to sleep, and so on."

Nod. "Should be easy enough, well, we probably will have to figure out sleep arragements."

They can assign people bedrooms, and get dinner from an automated kitchenette (Solitse will have something like a cross between a very big dumpling and a pizza, with bacon, soft cheese, and a mix of familiar and unfamiliar vegetables).

At some point, when there is a quieter moment, Thunder will want to ask the new dreamshaper if they can have a conversation before she falls asleep.

Yeah.

"So... I don't know how to ask this in a less blunt way, but do you have anything in the way of goals or desires that relate with your ability to dreamshape?"

"I want to understand what it lets me do. At the moment I do not understand that."

"Okay. I figure that even if you get very basic dreamshaping you still are going to have quite a power. What I am interested in is if you are inclined to use that power to fight or would rather hide with your family."

"To fight. There are empires out there much worse than the Kina."

He makes a disquieted face. "Ugh, good to know we will be busy for a while." He might sound less than thrilled. "Felix might know this or not, but I think he will need to conquer some. At least on behalf of someone else, but I don't know if we can do that. There might be no good candidates to offer new annexed territories to. He also will try to be as pacifist as possible. Which, is more feasible than it sounds, but might not be entirely feasible."

"There aren't any empires that don't use chemical conversion. There are states that don't, but if you want to hold an empire-sized territory you'll need an empire-sized army."

He makes a face. "I don't suppose there are some conveniently hirable mercenaries around?"

"No."

"I didn't expect to." Sigh. "We have to wait until Felix comes back before any strong planning, and for we to figure out what you can do. So there is that."

"What sorts of thing might I be able to do?"

Well... Thunder pulls out the recordings they got from inside her dimension.

"More of this? Rooms with clockwork and exhibitions. I think the disassembling and plastic boxes represent the brainwashing? The general... darkness of recent circumstances is being made literal. So I expect changes that will let you create brighter and more vivid places. At least less ominous. I am not sure about the tiny statues. They might be people. But it should be easy not to make them if they are people or if they are dangerous. You should have control over the dimension's layout and where to place portals. If you are unsure or think it's unsafe, you should direct your dimension to make empty space."