“These symbols,” Sun murmured, drawing closer to the projection and gesturing to notations on the map, “indicated where you could find jumpgates. Before the fragmentation, I mean.” 

They ran their fingers through the layers of the map’s hologram, one of the only things they could touch and pass through without raising suspicion. “See how these pierce through the center of the construct and connect to the symbols on the other side? Going through a jumpgate was a near-instantaneous trip to another point in space that our current ships couldn’t crawl to in a hundred and fifty years.” 

Sun flicked a hand, ordered the projection to spin its nested shape around. “Trying to capture that distance on a typical star map would render all standard distances meaningless. So this ancient mapmaker folded the world into layers, marked the places where you could burrow through space and bend time. That was the old empire at its peak. That’s what it was like, before fragmentation.”

That’s what it was like when I was made. And somewhere in there, I can be remade. Sun glanced back toward Indrani. “Or so I’ve been told.”

The curate clapped his hands together once, his smile turning into a slightly manic grin. “Of course you’re familiar with pre-fragment cartography! Our Paths are aligned! You were meant to find me,” he said, rising to his feet and stepping up to Sun giddily, “and I to find you.”

Behind Sun, the map rotated, the tiered star chart a glittering spiderweb of possibilities; Indrani could feel the pull of his Path deep in his marrow, his Purpose no longer a microscopic speck of light in his mind’s eyes but a brighter guiding torch, waiting, drawing him onwards. “So,” he said, “where is our first gate?” 

Sun, alarmed at the possibility that Indrani might try touching them, took a step back but held him in their stare. “Nowhere. There aren’t jumpgates anymore.” Was he that sheltered? Or just stupid? “Story goes that one gate was targeted by some rebel faction, and in retaliation, the gates to any systems sympathetic to the faction were attacked. They all fell within a few years. The distances became too great, and the empire split into fragments. That’s what fragmentation means.“

That was the simple version one might tell to a child, but it would never measure up to Sun’s memories, the ones they didn’t care to relive, but found themself drawn to now. Threading through a debris-scattered expanse, searching for small figures tumbling through space, answering distress calls, all against the backdrop of the enormous ring that had shattered into thousands of pieces. Metal scraping across their hull matched by wails rising from the people in their airlocks as they realized that their only path to the system beyond — to their families, friends, or homes — had been severed forever.

Sun returned their focus to the present, to the star map, and looked for their current location. There was the pulsar, there’s where they changed course — all right. They expanded outward from that point, and found the area Indrani might have been referring to. It appeared the mapmaker had tried to superimpose data from a more specialized map with stricter permissions, and a few details were fuzzy or unclear. But certain phrases screamed at them.

“Orgcore testing grounds,” Sun read aloud, and pointed to another. “Cultivation labs.” They glanced back at their passenger. “This looks like the place you want. You’re in luck, Indy. It’s a ways, but we can reach it well within an average human lifespan. You can’t say that for a lot of fragments.”

“Oh no no, the Path is surely guiding us to a gate! The Paragons don’t have that long and the fact that you knew these glyphs, this gate symbol,” he said, stabbing his finger into the chilled blue light of the holomap, “means that we are meant to go there! And you, Sun, are meant to be my guide, my beacon to my Purpose!”

Sun said nothing for several seconds, smiling blandly as they spent every available mental faculty cussing out this self-centered, oblivious, idiotic —

“I’ll see what I can do. Let me convert this map’s data and plot a course. I believe there’s a gate in this part of the fragment we can…investigate on the way.” Sun turned on their heel, walking away from the game table. “While I prepare for our journey, Indy, it might be a good idea for a man of the cloth like yourself to perform a few rites.”

They glanced back at Indrani, their cheerful expression eclipsed by an almost ferocious gleam in their eyes, like a thick veil of fog pierced by harsh sunlight. “You know. For the dead.”

The curate blinked, cleared his throat. “Of course, of course, you’re right.”

He hurriedly knelt on the ground, thumb and forefinger together, eyes pinched shut. Their names. He hadn’t even learned them all. A cough as he shifted slightly. “So died Captain Orlo and his crew as becomes starfarers, in the vastness of the dark. Paragons willing, their Purpose was fulfilled. Now, in their Fulfilling, they lay down a new Path for others to walk. Great will be our struggle to follow it and yet we shall, without question, without fail.” Indrani drew the sign of the Path over his chest once more, bowing his head in silence, brows furrowed as he tried to focus on their sacrifice, manifest the appropriate grief, and not the elation he felt at getting closer to his Purpose.

Sun paused to watch, hands clasped respectfully, as Indrani carried out the rite. Their attention was divided, as usual, monitoring external conditions, plotting a viable course on the antiquated map, but they tried to focus on the man in front of them. Pulse elevated, expression almost comically intense, but quiet for once. 

As he rose, they once again turned to leave the room. 

“I’ll get us going in the right direction. You can use the fabber and everything else available in the common room or your quarters, but please stay on the passenger level. This is a big ship, and it’s easy to get lost.” They willed the door to open before their hologram body. “Call me if you need anything, Indy.”

The door shut behind them with a sigh, and the figure walked to the first curve of the corridor before they dissipated in a shimmer of light. As The Sun Clouded Over adjusted their heading and increased speed, they thought about the possibilities awaiting them at the end of this journey — even if their new companion was shaping up to be a real handful. It will be worth it.