“Uuh, Mr. Magnasen, I would highly advise against such a course of action,” the lead analyst piped up, immediately concerned. “Not only would it be terribly reckless to jump through a fracture to a world so close to the Chasm even with all the pertinent information beforehand, but to do it blindly and with no preparation whatsoever would be… I mean, it would be…” he trailed off.

  “Foolish? Idiotic? Dumber than ten meters of gravel road?” Gul suggested on the scientist’s behalf. “Each description fit this young man very well.”

  “To put it mildly, yes,” came the agreement, ignoring the jab at Eik’s intelligence. “No matter how you twist and turn this idea, it carries far more unnecessary risk than we should allow our strongest warrior to walk into. We have no idea what kind of environment you could be spit out into.”

  “What do you mean we have no idea?” Eik asked.

  “I mean that under normal circumstances we would, of course, ideally have confirmed what kind of environment we’re sending someone through a fracture to, but even if we don’t, the standard similarities between world environments within the Unified Mass nearly always fall within a rather narrow margin which makes it likely that the traveler is safe,” he clarified. “However, in this particular case, we really can’t afford to make any assumptions like that. If the darkened worlds have been influenced to the point where the whole world is so heavily affected, then anything could have happened.”

  Eik was listening with his hands on his hips. “You know, it’s not even that I don’t agree with you. There is no doubt that it’s… less than ideal, but let me ask you then. What’s the alternative?”

  At this, the lead analyst seemed at a loss for words. “Well… As you know, this anomaly was only detected by our team a few minutes ago—as a matter of fact, most of the time since then has been spent having this conversation—and we’re still working like crazy to figure out how to counter this breakdown of observation. Once we’ve had a chance to reestablish a proper connection, we might be able to come up with a better plan of action.”

  “I agree wholeheartedly with that suggestion,” P?lse commented, properly joining the conversation for the first time since it began. “There are far too many variables right now to simply walk in blindly. We need more information before we proceed.”

  “And while we collect this information, which, by the way, we can’t be sure we’ll be able to get because we don’t know how powerful and resilient the effect of the blackout is, whatever process has caused the blackout in the first place will continue to churn on, likely worsening whatever is happening by the second,” Eik argued. “Not to mention the possibility that any information we would uncover might not even be useful in our current situation.”

  The lead analyst threw his hands in the air in frustration. “One of the fundamental pillars of conflict is access to information and the quality of it! Of course we can’t know what we’ll find before we find it! That’s a risk we must always be willing to run!”

  “Every second we delay action is time for this effect to solidify its hold!” Eik shot back, feeling some frustration himself. “It is exactly because it has only been a few minutes that immediate action might be the key to resolving something that could turn permanent with time! Right now we have a golden opportunity to take those fucking bastards with their ugly, skin-tight, white lycra pants down!”

  Except the lead analyst and Eik, everybody else in the room looked conflicted. And even Eik could see that there was obvious wisdom in the classic approach to wait and see.

  “I can’t possibly condone this!” the scientist huffed. “It is far too hasty!”

  Eik caught the eye of the fracture specialist who had spoken up to clarify the still viable option of opening a portal, but the man quickly lowered his gaze to the ground in surprise. There was definitely a chance to seize in those eyes.

  “You said you could open a fracture right now, if you had to?” Eik asked the fracture specialist to confirm his understanding of the previous statement. The man’s eyes flickered from Eik to his superior. Naturally, given both his power and his position as one of the de facto generals of the conflict against the forces of the Lord of the Moon, Eik was much higher up in the hierarchy, but he must have been answering directly to the lead analyst for years.

  “Mr. Magnasen!” the lead analyst complained. “Please rethink this carefully! Acting blindly now could ruin our chances of dealing with this in the future when we have a better foundation upon which to plan our steps of actions!”

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  “You know what? It’s not even like I don’t agree with you on that point,” Eik conceded, looking at the lead analyst with a steady gaze. “As a matter of fact, I couldn’t agree more that there is a chance that going now would make the situation worse or even impossible to remedy in the future.”

  “Then why are you mak—”

  “But even still…” Eik continued, interrupting the scientist before he could ask what was going to be answered anyway. “Since, as you have said multiple times yourself, what little information we do have is of no use in the decision-making, the way I see it is that while hasty action now might well land us in a disadvantageous situation, waiting is just as likely to be harmful.”

  His eyes passed over everybody in the room, firm and full of resolve. “I don’t know about the rest of you, but if either choice could spell disaster and it’s impossible to tell which is made of gold and which is made of shit, I would rather not sit around and wait for answer that might never come. To say nothing of the fact that acting now is by far the fastest way to acquire the information that could let us make better decision later.”

  Judging by facial expression alone, General P?lse, one of the other S-rankers, the lead analyst, and about half of the science team didn’t appear to agree with Eik’s line of thought.

  Most others seemed conflicted, like Andihar and Mn’Toakh. Chop the Blade, who had come along to see what was going on, Clan Leader Gul, and the other S-ranker were clearly on Eik’s side in the matter.

  “What Eik says is right, in my opinion,” Andihar piped up, surprising Eik. So he wasn’t as conflicted as he had looked. “Under ordinary circumstances I might well have agreed with you,” he said to the lead analyst. “but we are in the very unique position of having two X-rankers on our side, one of whom is a Worldbreaker in addition, and theref—”

  “Nah, I’m not going, just so you know,” the old geezer broke in with a raised hand. “My deal with Eik is to help against the Lord of the Moon himself, not his minions. Plus, I’m not going anywhere near that damned miasma unless I absolutely have to. That shit stank, son,” he said, finishing it off with a phrase he had heard Heath use a couple of times. “Anyway, go on with whatever you were going to say.” A wave dismissed the topic.

  Without missing a beat, Andihar resumed his argument, now amended. “So as I said, under normal circumstances I might well have agreed with you, but we are in the very unique position of having one X-ranker on our side who is also a Worldbreaker. That fact alone makes taking the initiative out of the enemy’s hands much more attractive. If there ever was a time to introduce the overwhelming power of such a toxic cocktail, it is right as they are setting up.”

  With another prominent figure joining the push for quick action, the lead analyst seemed to lose a lot of his steam. P?lse stepped in instead.

  “This goes against any logic!” he insisted. “It goes against protocol! Procedure dictates that information gathering comes first!”

  “And as I said, an immediate expedition will allow us to do exactly that—gather information,” Eik countered.

  “That’s the point of any reconnaissance! But even such an operation without even the most fundamental information is the height of foolishness!”

  “But we have to start somewhere,” Andihar said.

  “Yes, we do have to start somewhere,” P?lse acknowledged. “Right here! In an environment where we can make calm and rational decisions! I mean, what’s the point of you going to gather information if you end up unable to return due to something we could have figured out before you go?”

  “But the thing is that we don’t know if that will happen or not!”

  “I’m against this course of action.”

  “Show of hands then,” Gul concluded and raised his own. “Those for an immediate expedition to one or both worlds affected by the blackout led by Eik Magnasen, please raise your hands now.”

  Andihar, Eik, Chop, one of the other S-rankers, and a few of the scientists all raised their hands.

  After a few seconds, Gul dropped his own and spoke again. Mn’Toakh looked ready to raise her hand. “And now, those against, ple—”

  “Hey, I’m getting something over here!” one of the scientists deeper within the really rather large communication room shouted.

  Eik was an instant quicker that the S-rankers, the lead analyst and the rest of the scientists running over after them. “Has connection been reestablished?”

  “I’m not— No, it’s all… We’re losing it!”

  “Speak sense!” the lead scientist shouted.

  “We’re losing another world! A third world is going dark!” the woman hissed frantically as desperate hands deployed some kind of skill into the equipment she was working with. After ten stressful seconds, fatigue seemed to overcome her as she fell backward, caught by a soft blob of blue. “I couldn’t… It’s gone.”

  Silence reigned for a long moment before Eik finally spoke. “It’s now or never, guys. If it’s moving this quickly, it could be ten worlds in an hour. A hundred in a day. We need to know what’s going on. And it needs to be right now.” He purposefully forced his voice into a calm flatness that he wasn’t feeling.

  “All those for an immediate operation to a dark world, please raise your hands now,” Gul repeated. This time all hands went up with the exception of General P?lse, the lead analyst, who looked half ready to change sides at this point, and two or three scientists.

  “I believe it’s been decided then,” the patriarch of the Ougi clan stated.

  Eik marched over to the same guy who had said he could open a fracture and nearly sent him to the floor with a hand on his shoulder.

  “Open it.”

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