The Northern Crossing loomed ahead, like the sky touching down to Daihoon.

All the ocean was filled with ice except for right near the rainbow auroras that churned the ocean with their touch. There was no true solid land up here, unlike at the Southern Crossing, and it was late Summer, so the land was always in the sun. Most people trying to cross to Earth this time of year, or coming from Earth, would come up here, and so there were inhabited places, but it was nothing like down in Antarctica.

Mostly, there was just one place.

One giant glacier held mid-air, just outside of the Crossing, half of it uninhabited and the other half filled with buildings that glittered under a sun-filled night. It was dozens of kilometers tall and shaped like a twisted icicle. Mark didn't recall its name. Others did.

"Airships can dock at Exile Island, if they want," Eliot explained, as he sat on the throne at the helm of the ship. "We're not docking there."

There were two helms of the ship. One down below and surrounded by a bunch of protective stuff. Tartu and Derek were down there, putting up more protective stuff right now. Eliot's attention was half down there, right alongside Tartu and Derek. Mostly, Eliot was up here.

Most people were up here, including Andria, at the viewing helm, at the top of the tallest castle-part of the flying ship. Solid plastics acted like glass, arcing over in a wrought-metal dome above the space. The front of this control room dipped down, like an amphitheater. Isoko was down there at the main steering column and controls. Electronics and computers and viewing screens formed low organizations down at the bottom of the amphitheater, keeping the main view unimpeded.

"Of course we're not stopping," Mark said, and then he pointed to some dots pulling away from the flying glacier, hanging in the sky. "But why are those ships coming this way?"

Isoko spoke up, "I'm picking up communications from our Empire traveling buddies to those guys."

Mark glanced backward, and so did most people.

Those ships that Mark had spotted were escorts from the Empire, sent by Walaria to ensure no funny business. Or at least that was the story he was told. The Empire ships were much nicer looking hoverships than Eliot's thing. Highly mobile, too. They took off with a burst of power, angling to the side, to go around Eliot's ship.

Mark tensed, and he was not the only one.

Isoko pressed something down below, at the controls.

Static, and then, "— Escort One of the Aluatha, here. Attention, Arctic Pioneers. Do NOT engage the unidentified craft."

"Fuck you and fuck them! They can't enter our exile airspace without authority, and you can't either!"

"We gave you our authority an hour ago. We filed plans. Stand down."

The smaller airships arced away from the floating glacier and aimed at Eliot's ship, saying, "Identify yourselves, Barge!"

Mark asked, because he did not know, "Do they have any authority here at all?"

"Not one bit," Lola said. "It's courtesy-only. They're a bunch of opportunists and exiles and I suspect Escort One's requests to stand down will not be honored. Are the cannons ready, Eliot?"

Mark tensed a bit more because yeah, that's what he was seeing unfold. Lola, Eliot, and Isoko, all had at least some experience in this realm of action, with the two Inquisitors possessing a lot more experience at this shit than Eliot and Isoko with their general knowledge of air law. David was the most focused here, though, and Mark was suddenly reminded that David was actually a certified hovercraft driver, just like Isoko, but with a whole lot more experience at the wheel.

David said, "Prepare for evasive maneuvers, Isoko."

Eliot said, "Cannons aren't ready. Shields are ready, but they're weak as fuck. Don't fly the ship too fast yet, Isoko; it cannot handle it… Maybe they won't fight us?"

David turned toward Mark. "Someone will need to blast them out of the sky."

The ships coming this way were 15 kilometers out, flying at a dangerous angle.

The Empire escort was off to the right of the ship, and though it was hard to tell from a distance, they were both a match for the size of Eliot's barge. They moved a whole hell of a lot faster, though. Better. Wind curled into clouds on the tips of their trailing wings. The conversation between ships had not stopped, though the barge was not part of it.

Escort One's voice was strained as he repeated, "Arctic Pioneers! I repeat! Back the FUCK off!"

One of the AP's laughed, then said, "How about you drop the rhetoric and help us take down a trillion goldleaf payday."

Andria gasped. Sally grunted.

Mark was already telling Eliot, "Open the roof."

David said, "What follows now is their own fault, Mark."

Lola did a little bow and a prayer to Freyala.

The roof opened and Mark zoomed out of there. The last thing he heard was Escort One yelling into his mic, "You DUMB shits! You're gonna die."

"And maybe we'll get rich!"

Mark spun into the frozen air and then he blasted up and away from the ship, aiming right at the other ships. They were coming in hot, little flickers of light catching at the front of tubes next to their wings. Flickers became bullets—

The bullets exploded on hexagonal shields surrounding the barge, illuminating the sunset with fireball spells one right after the other, tracing a line of explosions up and past the ship.

Mark thought, as he flew at the enemies, that sometimes people were very, very stupid. He never used to think that other people were stupid. Certainly not as a whole. Maybe, in parts, some people were dumb, at the low points of their lives. But that simply wasn't true. Sometimes people were just…

Wastes of space.

Mark flew forward—

The Empire ships deployed tubes that flickered for brief, shining moments.

The enemy ships combusted, turning to fire.

There was no explosion. There was no bullet tracing through the air. There was just fiery death, and then the enemy ships disintegrated, becoming flaming shrapnel that scattered in the air, passing to the sides of the barge. The escort ships flew to the side, getting back into a more normal flight pattern. The fight had just begun but it was already over.

… Mark went back to the barge, entering from a hole in the back of the observation helm.

Isoko was saying, "— you for your assistance, Empire Escort One. We will be headed into the Northern Crossing, now."

"Glad to be of assistance, uh… Pardon our impudence, but you should file a name for your ship. We're calling you 'the barge' but we feel disrespectful about that."

Mark set back down on the solid stone of the amphitheater helm, next to Eliot, saying, "Glad I didn't have to get involved… I guess."

Eliot whispered, "They broke out the BIG guns. Like holy shit."

Isoko continued to speak into the mic, "Thank you for your recommendation. We'll be figuring out a name soon enough. I look forward to coming back to the Empire later."

Escort One took position next to the barge, about a kilometer off. Mark could feel them at that distance, and they were all really happy right now. Like they were seeing a star, or something. It was the exact same feeling Mark had felt in Memphi, after the Battle For Memphi, in a lot of people.

… Mark asked Eliot, "Can they hear me?"

Eliot picked up an extending mic from his throne and angled it up to Mark's face. He nodded.

Mark said, "This is Mark Careed—"

The star struck feeling doubled.

"— and I thank you for the escort. Be seeing you."

Escort One exclaimed, "Thanks for killing the goblins! Thank you so much, sir!"

Someone else onboard said, "I have your action figures!"

Another one said, "Death to all monsters!"

Mark grinned a bit. He said, "Death to all monsters."

He nodded.

Eliot put the mic back down into the throne of the ship, and then pointed forward, to the Northern Crossing. "Onward!"

The first time Mark had seen the Southern Crossing he had stared at it for a long while. A lot of people had done that. The Northern Crossing was just as magical. Auroras touching the ocean, churning and spitting and pulling. Stones fell out of the Crossing. Water fell in. Sky and sea and ice and rivers of mountains and lands of air lay just beyond those rainbows.

Behind Eliot's barge, Escort One and Two held back, though screens on the barge picked out and expanded a view of people rushing out onto a deck. The people waved and shouted words that were lost to the wind. Seemed like happy words. Well wishes.

Isoko flew the barge far to the side of the floating glacier, and Mark saw that some of the ice on that glacier was actually stone. Had they collected all the fallen stones everywhere? Maybe. Mark had never really researched the Northern Crossing. He never needed to—

"Viewing shields, Eliot," Lola said, organizing the mess of emotions in the room into something more coherent and stable, and with a direction. Her words did the rest. "Everyone sit down in a chair if you can. We're almost past the red line. Everyone's been through a Crossing before, yes?"

Everyone hunkered down, fitting into seats scattered around the amphitheater that was the upper command station, and most people said 'yes'.

Derek happily said, "Never been through one of these before!"

Another Derek said, "But I have!"

"Yes yes, thank you for the levity, Mister Kevins," Lola said, buckling herself in.

"I aim to please~" Derek said.

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Mark said to anyone, "Tartu is below. Does he know?"

Derek replied, "Tartu does now!"

Tartu was mad at being pulled from his work, and then he rapidly reoriented.

The auroras loomed, like a wall of rainbows crashing into the sky, a tidal wave of illumination, overwhelming the world. And then the plastic dome of the command center began to dim. Light turned on inside the ship as the dome colored over in black, and then faded to grey.

Screens still showed the rainbows ahead.

Mark breathed deep.

Isoko said, "Happy crossing~"

And then the screens were brilliant white—

Twisted light.

Brilliant transition.

The world flexed, the world settled.

And then the screens cleared and they were through the curtain, past the Veil that surrounded the Two Worlds and turned like a waterwheel, powering demonic lives, or whatever it was doing. The Crossings were merely the axle of the Veil, or something like that. Mark wasn't sure, and he wasn't about to go to Arakino to find out; not yet, anyway. Addavein, Malaqua, Reeni, and a few others had done that trip to end the Reveal, and maybe Mark would do that much, much later. But for now, they only needed to kill some kaiju and then go back the way they had come.

The screens regained some semblance of normalcy to them, but what was on those screens was anything but normal.

Rivers that were oceans. Skies that were so deep you couldn't see past the atmosphere. Lands that were green and tan with deserts, and black with volcanoes and otherwise.

And then there was the fear.

Fear filled the world.

Kaiju Called endlessly out there, and though the screams were inaudible for the distance, the effects on the mana were still present. Fear drove into the heart of every single living thing in this space.

Eliot shivered. Sally shuddered. Isoko sighed, pushing out the Bad of the fear from herself, and from everyone else near her, which was everyone. David and Lola both started that, too, and then Derek was filtering the fear away as well. Andria still whimpered in her seat, but she was doing well enough. She managed, and then her vector turned a little happy. A little giddy. Manic. She knew she had to control herself fast, though, and she tried to do that.

Tartu was solidly back at work, down below, moving fast to make more of whatever he was making.

Mark said, "Clear the windows, Eliot. Let's see what we're working with."

Eliot took a deep breath, and then he began to clear the windows, saying, "Ships cannot follow other ships that easily into Endless Daihoon. As long as we stay away from the ground, and we stay away from anything in particular, we shouldn't be bothered by any kaiju, either… Or at least most kaiju. We have time to actually make the ship what it has to be, and I aim to take it… damn," Eliot's voice failed him as he looked outside, through the clear plastic. "Just look at that out there. I forgot it was so… so crazy."

Lola said, "It's only truly crazy when you're in the air. Getting near land or water solves that, but we will move a whole lot slower once we do that, and getting back into the sky is hard. Staying in the sky is safer than getting near land, so we're staying in the sky."

Mark gazed upon land, sky, and oceans, like ribbons and valleys, flexing upward and around, though they weren't really flexing at all. That was just the mirage of it all.

It was so beautiful.

And then there were the kaiju, like moving bits of land, sky, and ocean. They were small silver things flickering between clouds half a world away. They were glowing things churning through the land, like tiny green threads in a brown suit. Serpentine shapes in the ocean. Rolling mountains in the rivers.

Nothing was nearby.

Everything was fine, for now.

Mark asked, "List of priorities: Ship stability, searching capability, and then everything else. If I have that wrong then speak up."

Lola merely bowed a little. "I'm on 'everything else'."

David joined her, saying, "Food stores. We're growing things for the voyage. Derek can help."

"Of course!" A Derek said, smiling. The other Dereks were more than happy to let that one go do work; they were doing Unions right now. All of them were.

Lola told Derek, "Keep up the Good/Bad, dispelling fear. That is perhaps the most important thing right now."

Eliot said, "I'll get the fear filtered from the ship soon, as well as the invisibility magics. There aren't many invisibility-searching kaiju, and far, far less than regular kaiju, but it'll take a few hours to make the whole thing actually ship-worthy." He remained where he was seated, but his vector went everywhere.

Mark asked, "We got a name, yet? I'm liking 'Ramshackle', unless anyone cares."

" 'Ramshackle'!" Eliot declared, with disgust, eyes mostly closed.

With a deep vector and full confidence, Isoko declared, " 'Black Yamato'."

"I have no idea why you like that so much, but I'm intrigued?" Mark said/asked.

" 'Paladin's Barge'," Sally said, face a little pale.

"How about 'Castle'?" Mark asked.

The conversation about normal shit calmed down a lot of people, which was Mark's intended effect. Isoko picked up on that, for sure.

"Castle Black!" Isoko added.

"What about that 'Yamato' you said earlier?" Mark asked.

"Too loaded," Isoko said, shaking her head.

Andria, who had been trying to work up the courage for something she felt was very important, spoke up, "I want to work on the adamant engine now? Before I get all… you know, terrified and pissing myself again."

Mark refocused. "I don't know what that is? I need to help?" Mark was already brushing a Union of Purity through Andria, causing her to jolt and then relax a lot, as Mark looked to Eliot. "Adamant engine?"

"It's a thing that should be able to link up with the warding stuff— It's a perfect sphere of adamantium. I need one. About this wide." Eliot held his hand up and then he extended his fingers outward… and then out a bit more. "Like this. Yes. Solid."

Mark handed him one, saying, "What's it do?"

"Same thing a mithril engine does, I imagine?" Isoko asked. "But for adamant?"

"Don't know what that is, either," Mark said.

"Mithril engines are on all of the largest ships in every nation. I have the schematics for it and a few spare generators," Eliot said, as he handed the sphere to Andria, "And we're going to put an adamant engine together to complement the mithril engine we have on the ship. The mithril engine makes the ship flexible enough to fly, but an adamantium engine imparts adamantium's strength to all of the warding of the ship, or whatever I set it to, and makes the ship closer to adamantium strong. I'm expecting 25% to 40% reinforcement. I was working on solutions for the house, for you walking around, and this is a theoretical solution. It should work. The engine is a magical resonance thing, and adamantium is just another type of mana… should work. Anyway! Working time! Sally. I need you helping Andria move stuff." Eliot opened his eyes and got off of his chair, adding, "I should go, too."

Sally hopped to, saying, "Yes."

Andria went down one of the large staircases, but she waited at the top for Eliot, and then Eliot went with her, followed by Sally—

"Wait!" Mark said. "What can I do?"

Eliot called back up, "If a kaiju shows up then you're all we have to defend ourselves, Mark. You're on lookout with Quark. Just break the dome if you have to. Leave from the backside, though."

And now Mark was alone with Isoko, down at the controls, and a few Dereks up at the top, looking around at everything. They were doing a lot with their anti-fear thing.

Mark asked, "Anything on the sensors, Quark? Are you hooked in?"

"I am hooking in now, sir— Ah. Eliot has provided a central server for me. I will remain with you but I will also broadcast from there, if that is acceptable?"

"Yes— Ah. Do you have an idea for a ship's name, Quark?"

"I do not."

Mark asked, "Derek! Got a name suggestion?"

"… How about 'No Fear'?" Derek offered.

Mark smirked a little. "A bit too literal— Ah. How about 'Dreadnought'?"

"The Black Dreadnought!" Isoko supplied. "Or maybe Dreadnought Black?"

"Dreaded Union?" Derek offered.

"The Fortress of No Assassinations," Isoko suggested, waggling her eyebrows.

Mark chuckled.

Derek said, "Black Union?" Another Derek suggested, "Or 'Union Black', if you wanna switch it around."

Mark was about to suggest something else, but he felt it before it appeared. He shot to his feet and looked to the left, and then he chuckled.

"Ahhh… Okay," Mark said.

Sky whales floated about 20 kilometers off the left side of the ship, like quiet, dark shapes among the fluffy white clouds. Two of them. They were harmless unless they were aggressive, and these ones were just… there. They were just watching, their eyes staring at the oddly shaped 'rock in the sky' that was Eliot's barge. Their tendrils trailed behind them and off of their front flippers, like streamers lined with soft green lights.

They sounded, and it was an echoing call.

But it wasn't a call to the ship.

Another giant skywhale was overhead, maybe a hundred kilometers up there. Maybe 200.

And then Mark looked to the right and saw another skywhale way up there, far, far into the sky.

The two whales at the ship's level gradually, softly, ascended through the sky, moving higher and higher, to join their family. Mark wondered about their lives, just a bit. They flew around in Endless Daihoon, in lands where they were 'normal sized', and where Mark and his people and their ship was little more than a particularly shiny crab, or snail. 400 meters long by 150 was nothing compared to a mature skywhale, which was a few kilometers from nose to tendril.

Gods, they were beautiful.

And then Eliot's voice echoed from the ship's speakers, "Invisibility magics going online in 3, 2, 1…"

A vector flickered across the ship and then out into the air beyond, catching on hexagonal warding magics. Castellan fire condensed. Some of the hexagons out there did not light up, like there wasn't enough electricity getting to them, but then Eliot muttered something, something banged, and the lights flickered. The hexagons all lit up with Castellan fire gold. And then… went away.

The skywhales had watched the whole thing, surprised and intrigued, but now the skywhales chirped in surprise. They echoed calls to each other. They moved nearer to the ship, but Isoko was at the controls and she moved the ship down, out of the way. The skywhales never got too close, and Mark was pretty sure they could 'see' that the ship was still there, but they were done being interested in the ship. The two nearby began playing with each other, instead. Soon, they began flying up and away, toward the others, but oh so very slowly.

Eliot's voice came over the intercom again. "Invisibility magics are active. We are now invisible to 95% of all kaiju. Working on the warding systems, now. Estimated creation/repair times are 4 to 5 hours, and then 12 hours for 50% ship stability. For reference point, for those who weren't present at the initial liftoff, we're at 15% capability right now. We were at 5%."

Mark nodded, and then he turned back to watching the skywhales. He watched the whole procession, from start to finish, until the whales got far, far out of sight, and then the ship was alone again in the sky. The whales had taken 40 minutes to depart. Mark was on high alert the whole time, but he relaxed, a little bit, with every passing minute.

Isoko stood beside him, watching with him. " 'Dreadnought' is a good name. I like the idea of 'dreading naught'."

Mark grinned. "Dreadnought it is."

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