It was long journey from the ship's bridge to the old woman's home. The fastest route took Evain only so far by elevator and railcar, but the treacherous mountain passes through snow and wind would have to be hiked by foot. In normal circumstances, weather control would warm this segment of ship up enough to make the journey trivial. Less than an hour before he'd set out, carrying a large metal box strapped to his back, pilots conducting the starsweep had reported contact with a hostile and unknown non-human entity. Weather control wouldn't have time to thaw the worst of the ice even if the crew had the resources or attention to spare, but Evain had prepared for just such an emergency, and he had ice climbing gear and spare suspensors that would help him overcome any unforeseen obstacles.

He listened in over the mesh as he traveled, keeping up with the progress of the starsweep and the skirmishes with the alien entity, so he at least had warning before the helmsman ordered a series of manuevers that would briefly and barely overcome the dampers, but in these mountains with this much snow and ice, the resulting forces could easily cause avalanches. Evain hastily pulled the spherical suspensors out of their case, fastened them to the control points on the wrists and ankles of his uniform's overcoat and boots, and activated the device, floating himself and his burden up towards the center of the segment of green corridor that he was in. He arrived just in time as the artificial gravity temporarily failed and the mountains below him in all directions started vibrating with the ship's acceleration, before the worst passed and everything stopped for just a moment.

As he had anticipated, the disturbances kicked off avalanches throughout the mountains, and the moment of peace was shattered by hundreds of thousands of tons of snow and ice crashing down into the valleys, forests and streams below. It took a few minutes for everything to settle, then the ship accelerated again, changing direction, and the world shook again, but the loose layers of snow had already been shed and would not fall again. Evain floated back down to the ground. The pleasant walking trail he had been standing on only moments ago had been swept away and buried in the crush of powder, so he set down on top of it, turned suspensors off or down until he could walk lightly on the top of the snow without sinking or slipping, and continued the hike.

It took a day and a half to complete the journey through the debris and snowfields, up the three-toothed mountain to the door hidden behind the spring. The battle had just ended as he arrived at the spring. Evain had gasped in shock when the helmsman had ordered the activation of mass drivers at full power. The moment they were fired, everything went dark, he could feel the grav-generators fail. Evain and all the other objects in the ship floated weightlessly. Evain waited calmly, counting his breaths. He only made it to five before power was restored and artificial gravity pulled him back down again. He moved quickly to open and walk through the door. He had finally entered the antechamber of the home and office of Mirai Elphabias lin Morfrey. She was the oldest woman on the ship, famously reclusive, and the helmsman desperately needed her counsel. He unstrapped the large metal box from his back and set it down in its place in the large stone entryway.

"Evain?" he heard Mirai's voice amplified by speakers hidden somewhere above the arched stone ceiling. "I wasn't expecting you. I'm in the middle of something, I'll be out in a bit." Evain took in a deep breath of the warm air, which was starting to melt the ice in his reddish-brown beard and long hair. He started undressing, removing first his overcoat and boots, then jacket and pants, and the underclothing. He collected all his wet and cold clothing, and took them through a door on the left, into the dry closet to be laundered and dried. He then crossed to the opposite side of the hall to the guest bathroom to shower. Once cleansed, dried, and groomed, he garbed himself in a comfortable pair of loose pants, a sleeveless undershirt, and house coat with oversized sleeves, tied with a sash. He returned to the stone hall and entered through bronze double doors into a pentagonal sitting room with doors on each of its five walls. A circular section in the middle of the room was recessed into the ground, filled with an array of cushions, blankets, and side tables holding half-empty mugs and books folded open and face down.

Evain walked around the perimeter of the room and through the second door from the left, into a kitchen where he found a pot of tea simmering on the stove. He found a clean mug and poured some of the red-brown liquid out, and took a sip. The tea was infused with keffia, the miracle molecule, whose psychoactive effects were never the same twice. It was said to be give the user whatever they needed - a stimulant for the weary, a soporific for the wakeful, a social lubricant for the withdrawn, or a psychedelic for the worldworn. Evain felt the drug calming his nerves. He was always anxious when he came to visit Lady Mirai.

...