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The voice was deep, calm, rasped.

Familiar. Achingly so.

A thunderbolt crashed to his core, and Riv gasped as he forced himself upright.

That’s when he looked up into a pair of silver, sightless, ghost like eyes. Set deep in a face. One he knew with profound intimacy.

His.

8

A Midsummer Vigil

ZANE

Zane Sable stood on the edge of the Eden Maria.

He commanded his HUD helmet to flick away the sweat forming on his brow from the intense mid-summer rays shining down on him.

Eden II was caught in solstice with the moonscape’s tilt toward Alphetraz at maximum.

Above him, the twin stars were at their highest elevation.

They burned down on the vast, tumultuous plane, which was filled with ghost craters, channels of flowing lava, and winding rilles surrounded by an odd collection of teardrop-shaped hills and lava formations.

Beyond the craters were large mountain ranges characterized by wrinkled ridges due to billions of years of low-viscosity lava floods, meteor impacts, and distant placement.

It was a breathtaking and moving sight.

Its incredible kinetic pull was an energy that Zane always sensed as he gazed out towards the wild lunar landscape, psionically tapping into its power and mystery.

‘How’s it looking up close,khali?’

The husky voice spoke into his HUD’s speakers, and his heart warmed at the sound. ‘It’s impressive, my love. Your work, as always, is superb.’

Before him, rising out of the remains of Paladian temples, ancient towers, and spires hidden under the gleaming sands, were a series of solid pillars that held up two solid rings encircling the entire planetoid.

Each of the six massive columns had a circumference of half a million klicks, stretching from the lunar deserts of the rock toward both rings. Powerful gravity fields held them in place, which, in turn, drew their power from Alphetraz.

Both rings took the crown as the most significant structures created across Pegasi in terms of mass, size, and livable surface area.

The pillars also controlled the radiation from the skies and directed it through the poles to fuel a powerful shield around the construct.

The project was his brainchild and the boon that had brought his beloved to his side. Illanna was the engineer who’d led most of the build’s phased development.

‘What’s left to finalize?’

Illanna sounded wistful. Since giving birth to their daughter a year ago, she’d chosen to remain home of her own volition, even though Mirage was always at hand to offer babysitting help.

She was a hands-on mother who wanted to be present with their child until she was at least two years old.

Something had to give, so she’d handed the leadership of the build to Rafe, Zane’s 2IC. However, she insisted on Zane inspecting the project’s progress every so often and reporting it to her.

‘The terrascaping engineers are now finalizing the ring’s mountains, plains, oceans, vast deserts, steppes, and arctic regions. And in two days, the habitat sections will begin.’

‘Wish I was there,khali.’

As she spoke, he caught the cry of a child in the background.