It can't be said, precisely, that it is done to pass the time, but Envoy is introduced to the wonders of "virtual universes" by Cascade. It is a heady, surreal experience, the nature of their "interface" granting them nearly god-like powers to ignore a great many hazards of space and hostile environments, and to seek out interesting worlds to visit as mere observers, detached from reality. They zip down to the surface of a habitable planet, and then enter into the physical "reality" of the environment, like passing through a curtain that held back a full appreciation of the sight, the sound, the smell, the feel of a tropical paradise, a vine-tangled rocky outcropping overlooking a turbulent raging river of water tumbling down a yawning fissure into some unseen river far below.

From their rocky perch, Envoy can see a full panorama about her, of clouds of turquoise and cobalt hanging low to the horizon, with shadows far to the … south? … punctuated by flashes of light, echoed by distant thunder. The air above, however, is open to a blue sky and the warm sun, the air hazy and the ground still dewy from recently passed rain, while a fragmented rainbow shines in the mists of the fissure.

Cascade floats above the ground, not touching it – an observer, not a participant in the world around him. "This is my world," he says, even though by now it has been made quite clear to Envoy that – in the outside reckoning of time – this world will only be around for a few seconds at most. "What is your world like, Envoy?"

"My world?" Envoy asks, soaking the breathtaking scenery. "It was young, and… unfinished. There were lots of interesting people though, all from different worlds. I wanted to be a world myself someday, and I suppose my original body probably is one now."

Cascade blinks slowly, looking to the horizon, then says, "I was not precise in my question. I have not before spoken with one from outside of our station. I did not ask you what your world was like. What is your world like? Where is your home? What is the place you live in? What is the private place you call your own, that, if you cannot return to it in body, you do so in your mind? My world is the rain, the great waterfalls, the feeling of anticipation in the air of a new storm, or the dew and mist from one that has just passed. My world is the wetness, the dampness of vibrant, colorful life, the temporal beauty of the clouds that come and go. That is my world."

The Aeolun pauses in thought. Nobody has ever asked her quite so deep a question before, after all. "I don't have anyplace like that yet. But if I did, it would probably be the heart of a forest, where I could feel all of the life around me. Connect to it. Be a part of something vast and… alive," she finally answers.

Cascade nods solemnly at this. "Do you think you could show me this place? I find my way by listening to the song. You have that gift as well, or you would not have found your way to us."

Closing her eyes, Envoy attempts to shut out the momentary reality around her and focus on the song of the engine. It isn't easy to sort through all of the fleeting worlds represented in it, and eventually she stops trying to be overly analytical and just waits for one that strikes an internal resonance with her.

When her eyes open again, the sunlight and rainbows have vanished, if not the mists. The high canopy of an ancient rainforest blocks much of the light, but there is enough yet to view the panoply of colors surrounding her. Envoy finds herself sitting on a root as big around as any ordinary tree, her back to one of the forest giants. Birds, insects and animals call and cry out from every direction, and even the plants clinging and flowering on every surface seem to creak with the effort of growing. She even fancies she can hear the worms moving through the loamy ground, and the flow of water and nutrients through the vast fungal network tying the roots of the trees together.

Once her surprise fades, Envoy thinks to look around for Cascade.

With a whisper of wings, Cascade fades into solidity, following Envoy back into physical reality – or what passes for it here. He looks about the forest with an expression that would seem unreadable to most, but Envoy senses a little of Probe's hunger in him, as he takes in what he sees. He, like any Svartifin, should be just as capable as Envoy to find such a place as this, but he still takes it all in as if it were new in more than once sense. "Is this your world?" he asks, at last.

"I think so," Envoy says, digging her toes into the loam. "It feels right, deep down. Although this probably isn't the world I'd spend most of time in. Just the one the makes me comfortable. I used to be part of forest."

Cascade nods slowly. "I like your world," he says, still looking about, gliding slowly on slow and ponderous wingbeats that push him, while some unseen force lets his vestigial legs hover high above the fertile soil without touching it.

Envoy asks, "When you shut down most of the engine for Behemoth, were you closing off specific functions that you didn't think were needed anymore?"

"Yes," Cascade says. "The Lesser Interface, many of the outer environmental controls, most of the conveyance nodes, and the inner habitats, among other systems." Just then, there is a whisper of wings, as another Svartifin slowly passes from ghost-like existence into physical reality: Voidstar. She pauses in whatever business brought her here, to gaze at her surroundings with a curiosity like that of Cascade's.

Standing up, Envoy nods her head to the explorer of black holes. "Greetings, Voidstar."

Voidstar snaps out of her reverie. "Ah. You have made your first Finding, I see. I had to chase you and Cascade through over a million worlds before you solidified in this one, and you must have gone through far more than that before I even started looking for you."

Cascade nods, knowingly. "The first Finding always takes the longest."

"I'm sorry, if I'd known you were looking for us I would have waited," Envoy says.

"It is not a complaint," Voidstar says. "I have procured and tested sufficient samples, I estimate, to attempt bringing the Abed Engine up to full output. I thought I would wait a few seconds for you to return, but when a few days had passed, I thought it best to seek you out at last."

Envoy blinks. "Days? I suppose we had better return then, before this universe ends!"

Cascade says, "She meant days in the context of the outer reality. In the outer reality, we have been on this one world for such a small fraction of a second that those outside would not even notice. It is the passage of time of Finding that is most significant – the sifting through worlds."

"Oh," Envoy says, sounding a bit chagrined. "I suppose we should go back anyway, to see if the timestone can be used with the engines."

"Let us go, then," Voidstar says, and with that, the sound of her wings falls silent, and she fades from substantiality into a mere ghost, then blinks out of existence.

"I don't know how to follow her," Envoy tells Cascade.

Cascade says, "It is the same as how you came. Listen to the song. It will show you the way out."

Once more, Envoy tries to dismiss the apparent reality around her, and listens to the song of the engine. This time, she focuses on the harmony that represents the engine itself.

The world fades away, to be replaced by the almost antiseptic reality of the world of the Svartifin. Envoy can sense that Cascade has come behind her, though at a slight delay – perhaps he was a little reluctant to wrench himself free of Envoy's "Finding" so quickly.

It must be unusual for them to find something new, Envoy thinks. After all, to Find something they must already know what they want to find.

"I took a liberty," Cascade says, "to bring back a memento of your first Finding." It is so hard to tell with their limited inflections, but he sounds apologetic, as he holds out a hand, unfolding his frail fingers to reveal a single seed pod, with a little bit of moist soil clinging to it.

Smiling in delight, Envoy takes the offered seed. "Thank you, Cascade! I know that removing things takes a lot of energy."

Cascade nods. "Yes, but I have high expectations for our experiment. I find it a small price to pay for what we stand to gain."

After securing the seed into of her pockets, the Aeolun nods to Cascade. "I'm hopeful too, but we'll need to be cautious. It will probably be best to activate one function of the Abed engine at a time if possible, so that we can try to monitor the feedback as we go."

Cascade and Voidstar both nod to this, but Voidstar is the one to speak next. "Let us go to the Engine, then. The others will meet us there."

Envoy takes a deep breath, then says, "Lead the way."

The two Svartifin lead Envoy through the passages connecting the engine chambers, until they reach the one – which looks much like any other – that contains the orbiting crystal spheres and the central crystal cluster that comprise the Engine of Abed. Several Svartifin are gathered here, some of them looking upside down or horizontal by Envoy's perspective, thanks to the peculiarities of gravity here.

"Does anyone remember what Abed was like before the engine was shut down?" Envoy quietly asks Cascade. She doesn't want to make the environment worse than it already is, after all.

"No, I do not think so," Cascade says. "We do not see much of the outside reality." Meanwhile, several Svartifin gather around Voidstar, bearing small crystalline bundles that hover within their hands. They converge upon the central engine, deftly dodging the spheres that orbit it, and deposit their bundles at different, more or less evenly spaced points in the system. Flows of crystal dust pour through the "tubing" of the central mechanism, glittering brightly.

"It might be best to delay powering the Lesser Interface," Envoy suggests. "On Sanah, machinery tends to fail where the Interface is strongest, and the inhabitants of Abed depend on their machines."

Cascade nods. "I agree. After all, the Lesser Interface is of little use if there is no one there who can use it."

Meanwhile, the light continues to build in the center engine, and the spheres start to move more energetically. One fades out of existence, while several more pop into view. The spheres' orbits start to spread out, no longer gathering so tightly around the heart of the chamber.

Envoy watches and 'listens' to the engine, looking for dissonance that could indicate a problem or imbalance.

There are a few shudders to the system, each prompting a new shift in the song woven by the attending Svartifin, but each time it returns to a more regular pattern. The Engine is not so graceful in its waking … but neither is there the sense of impending disaster. Cascade reports, "The atmospheric regulators are all reactivated. The air should be noticeably more breathable in a few years."

There is a sigh of relief from the Exile. "That is good to know. Are there other effects the inhabitants should be told to expect, especially regarding the flora and fauna?"

"I do not think there will be anything immediately noticeable in the physical environment," Cascade admits. "It will take a long time for the regulators to make a significant change." He pauses, as if listening to something new, and Envoy can sense a new harmony being added as well. "Voidstar must be confident. She is starting the Lesser Interface."

Envoy blinks. "Uhh… that will also take time to build up to a noticeable level, I assume?" she asks. "Or else will not have the same adverse effects on mechanical systems that it seems to have on Sanah?"

"That will remain to be seen," Cascade says, "but with less strain on the Sanah Engine, the quantum irregularities on Sanah may decrease to a more tolerable level. The changes will not be immediate, in any case."

"The irregularities are spread across the entire system then?" Envoy asks, both eyebrows raised. "I had thought it may be a result of physical wear on the engine, or feedback from some source on Sanah itself."

"In actuality," Cascade says, "I am not entirely certain why, but the quantum irregularities are indeed found – to varying degrees – throughout the system."

"After a … system crash event," Envoy says, "do the irregularities stop for a time, or simply begin to accumulate immediately?"

"They never go away entirely," Cascade says. "It is not a simple progression, but rather a culmination of many different factors. For a time after a 'system crash,' certain levels of quantum irregularities prevent the functioning of certain mechanisms, such as electronics-based technologies, almost entirely. The same phenomenon is also lethal to many life-forms."

"Could it simply be due to the quantum essence that was used?" Envoy muses. "Power usage does not fluctuate, does it?"

Cascade ponders this a moment, then says, "I am not certain that we have any way of measuring that."

"There are no records of when the irregularities began then, are there?" Envoy asks.

"No, there are not," Cascade says. "We assume that they began with gradual wear on the system."

After observing the Abed engine for a short while longer, Envoy asks, "Has any maintenance ever been done on the engines?"

"Not recently. The stores of spare components were exhausted long ago," Cascade says. "Why do you ask?"

"Well, if the system is failing due to wear, then perhaps the existing components and energy flows can be re-tuned to compensate," Envoy posits. "There may be someone who can create fresh components given time enough to perfect his skills."

"Do you speak hypothetically, or do you know of such a person?" Cascade asks, turning to look directly to Envoy this time.

"A former Silfrim environmental regulator was recently integrated into the crystal matrix for the planet Morpheus," Envoy explains. "It achieved sapience, and has the ability to produce crystal artifacts. Such as my own crown."

"Fascinating," Cascade says. "We must find a way to make contact, then. Could you facilitate that?"

Envoy nods. "I can let him know about your interest and predicament," she agrees. "He's a bit shy though, and is as tied to his own environment as you are to yours."

"Although, he can be reached via dreams if they are enhanced through the Lesser Interface," the Aeolun notes. "If you could reactivate the interface for Behemoth, Dream Magic could be used to let you contact him."

Cascade nods. "An excellent idea." He looks at the newly activated Engine of Abed, as the Svartifin fly away from it, allowing the spheres to spin, merge, divide, grow and shrink on their own. "With the success in reactivating this Engine, I believe the time has come to restart this one as well, once Voidstar has procured more of the stabilizing agent. The Makers are wise indeed to send you to us."

The compliment causes Envoy to blush slightly. "It's a start. I still have much to do. If I am successful on Abed, I will try to stabilize or shut down the Greater Interface on Fortunatis. Hopefully that will help to reduce some of the irregularities as well," she says, and thinks to herself, "Assuming of course that the deities of Ariel don't have something else in mind."