Alicia dreamt the vague and placid dreams of the truly tired that night. Well, she had no good reason to call it either day or night, but it was still easier to call the time of sleep night and the time of being awake day. It all reminded her of how, in Michael’s neck of the woods, the night would stretch across the entire day during winter, and summer would be these neverending days. If you could live with that kind of sunlight variation, Alicia figured, she could live with the endless darkness of the Void, at least for a little while longer.

It was, however, a question of “a while longer” and definitely not anything more permanent than that. Alicia had spent more energy than she had in reserve yesterday, and it made itself known in the form of bone-deep weariness and a quite voracious hunger. Alicia had been meaning to bulk up now that she was back adventuring and using her strength with regularity, but the relative scarcity of calories in Thereafter had made her hesitate to start. There was cruel irony, Alicia figured, for years she had wanted to bulk up without people giving her shit for it, and now here she was with the prime opportunity to do so but getting a good caloric surplus was all of a sudden a challenge. Fate, it seemed, had a sense of humor about these things, but it was also bitchy in the way usually ascribed to Greek gods or fabeled fae. It couldn’t be helped though, Alicia figured, once she came back from all of this she’d give it a try, even if the thought of the amounts of oats she’d have to get through was daunting indeed.

Lia had, by the looks of things, been awake for a while. She was floating around in a sitting position, carefully sorting through a pile of scavenged containers, looking for edible content.
“Ah, you’re awake,” Lia said.
“Yeah,” Alicia answered, “I overslept, I think, sorry about that.”
“You slept as long as you needed, beside with your arm in the way that it is you’ll probably need more rest to recover properly. How’s the pain?”
Alicia looked down on her hand, trying not to grimace. “Pain’s alright, I think that Deep Song trick still works pretty good. I’m mostly just… ugh, it kind of gets to me that I can’t move it you know?”
“I know,” Lia said. “I’ve shattered my hands a couple of times, once you’re past the pain the part of you that would REALLY prefer to have two hands available is the worst part.”
“I’m guessing it’s best to not listen to that part?”
“Oh yes,” Lia nodded, holding up her left hand. “I still have residual stiffness in this one from the time I decided to cut down on recuperation time. Don’t think it’ll ever go all the way back to normal. Very annoying.”

“Have you found anything?” Alicia asked. She didn’t want to say it, but the hunger was getting to her.
“Not much,” Lia conceded. “Some scraps of dried meat, and I managed to melt some water for us” She nodded toward a bucket floating next to the charred remains of what was probably barrel planks of some kind.
“Oh wow, how’d you pull that off?”
“It wasn’t so hard,” Lia scoffed. “You can increase the radius of atmosphere around you with your pearl a little bit, which does allow you to get some fire going as long as you don’t mind getting toasty yourself.”
“That does sounds like a pain in the ass.”
“It was more a pain in the front,” Lia continued, her tone made it somewhat ambiguous whether she was taking Alicia’s idiom literally or was just messing with her. “And it was slow and annoying, but water isn’t exactly an optional thing, so I endure.”

They ate and drank in silence. There was nothing that they could say that wouldn’t eventually bring attention back to the fact that the scavenge haul was bad and if it kept going like this they’d run out of energy before they reached Thereafter and it probably wouldn’t be close. Alicia figured that if worst came to worst, they probably should just use what strength they could muster to just launch Thereafterways, and hope that their aim was good enough to pass by close enough for someone to notice and intercept them. It wasn’t a good plan, hell, it wasn’t as much a plan as it was a prayer, but knowing that there was a plan B, however Hail-Mary it was, did help a little bit.

Once their food was eaten and their water was drunk, silence fell over the two. It was about time to get moving, but they were both tired, both demoralized, both hesitant to get going again. Alicia felt it, and she was pretty sure it was a feeling she shared with Lia. She was working on finding a topic that could occupy them for a bit as their can-do recovered and the will to continue hopefully materialized when Lia spoke up.

“I don’t mean to alarm you Mountain Wind,” Lia said. “But I do think there is someone out there, following us. Keeping an eye on us. Planning an attack maybe? I don’t know.”
“Yeah, we’re definitely not alone out here,” Alicia agreed. “I thought it was just Void Paranoia at first, but seeing as you’ve noticed the same… it’s probably not a shared delusion right?”
“I suppose it is possible that we’re both imagining things,” Lia said with a shrug, “but I figure it’s better to assume we aren’t.”
“How so?”
“Both risk and reward is so much higher if we’re correct. If there’s people out here and they want us dead this journey basically went from difficult to impossible, and if there’s people out here and they don’t want us dead… hell, even if they’re just curious and planning not to intervene that is huge.”
“It does challenge what we think we know,” Alicia said. “… even if these void dwellers aren’t interested in us, their existence would mean that there could be other void-dwellers out there that could be hostile or friendly. That it?”
“Yes,” Lia confirmed. “It’s also a question of logistics. If there’s people living out here we have to rethink how we plan scavenging missions, and there could arise strife over the most bountiful scavenging spots.”
“That is assuming they scavenge like we do,” Alicia observed. It was the most logical assumption, without even the fake sunlight, atmosphere and gravity of Thereafter, farming would surely be impossible.
“That it is,” Lia agreed. “But considering we’re already operating on the outer edge of what we believe to be possible here, I suppose it is plausible that they’ve found some other way to feed themselves.”
“But, to be clear, the zero hypothesis is still that we’re going batty out here, right?”
“Zero Hypothesis?”
“Like… uh…” Alicia searched her mind for a definition, she had picked up the term from Lex, and while it was very useful, she could not claim full mastery over it and its subtleties. “If we find no evidence to the contrary, that’s what we’ll have to assume? I think? It’s a rather specific science term.”
“Ah, yes, I suppose it’d have to be the case. We do know that Void Paranoia is a thing that exists, and so it is possible that it’s a shared case of that going on.”
“It’s a scary thought,” Alicia said. “That we might be imagining things that aren’t there.”
“It’s also scary to imagine we’ve been entirely incorrect about life being impossible out here, I think, even if that life is entirely benign.”
“Not to speak of if it’s not benign,” Alicia grimaced. “The last I need is being pursued by aliens or cannibals or whatever else.”

Lia chuckled in a way that Alicia could only describe as Maternal. It made her feel silly, but then again imagining boogeymen and monsters was kind of kids stuff, so perhaps it wasn’t entirely out of place. “Either way, we probably should get moving,” Lia said as she got up. There was a stiffness to her movement that let Alicia know that she wasn’t the only one struggle, and in a way that was a relief. “There’s supposed to be a denser field a bit ahead, we should be able to find more food there, maybe some alcohol if we’re lucky.
“I could do with a drink,” Alicia agreed. “Probably just the one though, don’t drink and fly right?”
“Huh?”
“Never mind. Earth joke.” Alicia did not have the energy to explain the automobile and the culture and legalities around it, especially to someone from a society that didn’t even use horses. In part because it was complex both technically and socially, and in part because she feared that it’d make earthlings seem weak and foolish to the Steppefolk. Sacrifices had been made for modern convenience, and the consequences of those sacrifices did paint a rather unflattering picture, Alicia had to admit. The Steppefolk, for their part, probably had their share of problems that similarly reflected less charitably on them, but that was a bigger discussion for a time when time and calories weren’t both at a premium.

Alicia was about to ask how far away this dense field was when she spotted it herself. To call it dense was, in fact, a bit of an understatement. Compared with the scattered asteroid field-style expanses they had crossed so far, the dense field was like a three-dimensional traffic jam, appearing as something between a sphere and a cloud, depending on how deep the caleidoscope of rock and other material let you see at the moment.
“Huh, yeah,” Alicia said to herself. “That’s a dense field alright.”
“It’s very dense,” Lia agreed, “too dense. Might be too dangerous to explore.”
“It does look pretty tight, but if worse comes to worst we could Deep Song ourselves some elbow room, right?”
“Yes…” Lia said. “But that could lead to some unfortunate chain reactions. We’d probably be safe but…”
“Our potential pursuers?” Alicia asked. There was a slight hum from her pearl, but not enough that it felt “real” to her.
“Aye, the last thing we want is to start a war by accident.”
“That does seem like it’d make everything harder yes. I have an idea, though.” Alicia turned from the field and faced the big open void around her. She held her arms out palms clearly displayed and facing outwards. She had no idea what kind of people called this place their home, but it was hard to imagine any society that would view her current posture as a threat.

“I am speaking to any individuals in this area, and any tribe or governing body they may represent or belong to.” Logically, Alicia knew it probably wouldn’t matter that she spoke loudly and clearly, either the void dwellers had communication facilities that could interface with the pearls, or they wouldn’t hear a damn word she said even if she screamed. Still, it felt calming to speak in a considered, calm tone. “We are citizens of the city of Thereafter. You can see it in the distance, that glowing point over there.” She pointed at the star that wasn’t a star. “We are here due to an accident, and we bear you no ill will. Thereafter is a city that has much to trade, but we carry very little of value with us.”
So far, this message had been pretty easy to come up with on the spot. Alicia tried to be as unambiguous as possible, as to offer the least challenge to a foreign culture and language. This next part was a bit trickier, and that complain-y voice in Alicia’s head was already winding up on the void war she was about to trigger. Alicia was, however, pretty sure this was the approach with the least likelihood to trigger a transabyssal political incident, and so she told that complaining voice to shut it. “I address you to inform you that this area might become dangerous shortly. We have no desire to hurt you, but we are strong, and we have to enter this cloud” She motioned for the dense field. “To look for food and water, and if we encounter a problem that must be solved with our strength it could make rocks travel at high speeds, which I am sure I do not need to tell you can be very dangerous.”
Lia took a deep breath, this next part had not been part of the plan, but she felt moved in the moment, and said it all the same. “We are a curious people, and would very much like to meet you. If you desire to meet us, please seek us out after we have exited this cloud. We will not stay in this area long. Returning home is important to us.”
Alicia stood with her palms out and arms up until she was starting to feel self-conscious about it, and then a bit longer. Alicia wasn’t sure if she was imagining it, but it did sound like the buzzing faded out somewhat.

“That seemed like it was a thing you’ve practiced,” Lia said as Alicia returned to her.
“A little bit, I guess. Back on Earth, we do tend to think about meeting the unknown a fair bit. The idea of Aliens is both attractive and scary to us.”
“I’m sorry, but Aliens?”
“Oh, yeah,” Alicia figured that people who didn’t have a concept of Space probably also wouldn’t know what an alien was. “It’s… like a living thinking animal like a human, but not from Earth, but from other planets in… uh… Space is basically our version of The Void.”
“Right,” Lia said. “So if we ignore the “Space” thing, am I an alien?”
“The space thing is pretty important,” Alicia said. “And Aliens… we tend to imagine them looking less human. I’m pretty sure that you’d be considered a human that just dresses a bit unusually and also has superpowers if you showed up on earth.”
“Odd idea,” Lia opined. “But I guess our stories of The Subterranean Ones are kind of the same thing. They’re very much like us, but different, born from the Moons rather than the Sun, so they can’t stand daylight and lives in caves and burrows.”
“I guess the idea of something that is almost but not quite like us is just one of those ideas, huh?” Alicia thought aloud. “Like it helps us tell stories about who we are by introducing something that is like us but not us?”
“Also it’s good for scaring children. The Subterranean Ones love the taste of human children, but will only devour the weak or unruly ones, due to an ancient agreement between the Sun and the Moons.”
Alicia couldn’t help but chuckle at that. “Seems like some things are just human nature like that…” She took a deep breath. “Well, I suppose we should go in and see what we’re working with, huh?”
Lia nodded. “We’ve given the void dwellers, if they do exist, ample time to seek shelter or leave. We should probably go in together. Sticking close will mean we create less of a mess for each other.”
“Makes sense. What are we looking for? Food and water mostly?”
“Aye,” Lia confirmed. “If we find more than we can carry conveniently we’ll make a meal out of it before we continue.”
“Big ‘If,’ but I suppose the time of miracles isn’t over.”
Lia laughed at that, making Alicia think that there either was some kind of cultural reference in that she had missed, or some sort of translator oddity going on. Either way, it didn’t matter much, but she still couldn’t shake the concern from her mind as she and Lia started

Author’s Note: We’re now officially past the chapters I outlined before I started this book. Ironically, since I ended up diverging from the outline a fair bit in Act 2, I now feel like I am “back on track,” despite provably being off them in a manner similar to that of a crazy train. Anyway, this is perhaps my most Sci Fi chapter in this Fantasy series so far, considering how concerned it is with idea about Nonhuman Others and Aliens and whatnot.