Utopia of The Infinite [C]

The sky was surprisingly calm that morning.

No cracks, no storms. Only delicate clouds flowing like breath across the ridge. For once, the planet did not feel as if it were preparing for impact.

Auri stood barefoot in the dew-soaked grass, arms crossed and eyes fixated on the horizon. Behind her, the others were gradually waking up, stretching out under makeshift shelters, unrolling bags, and conversing quietly.

The weight of reality had not broken them. It'd opened them.

"You're not sleeping"

Rhei murmured quietly as he stepped beside her.

Auri shook her head, a slight smile forming in the corner of her mouth. 

"Did not wish to. I have never felt this... awake"

There was a long silence between them.  The kind only built by loss, survival, and all in between.

Rhei then gazed out into the clearing. 

"We need a new ship"

Auri gave her a sideways glance. 

"We recently awoke from generations of failure and systematic dread. Do you want to go construct something?"

Rhei's voice was gentle. 

"Yeah"

This time, Auri smiled completely. 

"Good"

Izzy was already arranging panels in a tidy arc at the base of the hill, grumbling to herself.

"Nothing is recycled. Nothing is half-patched. We build it from this world"

She explained, hitting a metal splinter with her boot. 

"There are no carryovers. No shadows in the frame"

Rhei followed her, squatting next to a pile of shimmering materials left behind from the Weatherborn's chamber.

"You're early"

Izzy replied without looking up.

Rhei placed down her toolbox next to her. 

"You're predictable"

Izzy snorted. 

"Please. I am innovative"

"Right. Predictably innovative"

They grinned, and for a little moment, the anguish of everything behind them subsided. The remainder of the girls arrived gradually.

Wen displayed holographic schematics over the world with a flick of her wrist.  Lines of live code shimmered above the earth, rotating at projected angles.

"This needs to be more than atmospheric" she told me. 

"We'll need a transdimensional warp function that behaves like a living system. No more static navigation"

Mira kneeled near an enchanted alloy panel and pressed her palm against it.  The metal warmed and glowed under her touch.

"This one sings when you put intention into it" she whispered. 

"Like it wants to carry something"

Lyra arrived last, with her starmap crystal hovering just over her hand. 

"I've planned a clear path through the debris field outside the Edge. There is no interference from loop coding. It will hold if we move quickly"

Auri stood behind them, her arms folded again. Her stance, however, had changed to one of relaxation and trust.

Not because she needed to lead, but because they didn't need her to keep them together. They were doing it themselves.

The construction began like a heartbeat, slow and steady, repeated and sacred.

Panels clicked into place, reinforced with skyglass, a flexible substance that shimmered in the moonlight and bent in response to emotional energy. 

Izzy created power cores from scratch using shards of starsong metal. Rhei formed the hull around a core pulse engine, her hands moving with precision and instinct.

Mira bound creatures to the ship's core.  They serve as companions rather than power suppliers. Creatures created of wind, flame, and tide, willingly uniting their essence with the ship's life thread.

Sera went around the perimeter while they worked, hands facing out, producing a protective aura that stabilized the flow of magic and matter.

Every decision mattered. This wasn't a machine, but rather an extension of who they were becoming by evening. Once the foundation construction was complete, three distinct forms developed, fashioned not by design, but by necessity.

Wen adjusted the light arc and nodded. 

"It will shift in three stages. Atmospheric maneuvering, orbital traversal, and deep-sea compression modes"

"A ship that remembers how to adapt" Lyra stated.

"A ship that trusts us" Mira added.

But then Rhei stopped.

She stepped back from the engine bay, her hands shaking. Her fingers trembled at her sides, her gaze fixed on a small scar on the hull where one of her bots had misaligned.

It wasn't serious, but it echoed. Izzy saw it first and walked over quietly.

Rhei did not meet her gaze. 

"What if this is just another version?  Another failure waiting to happen?"

Izzy did not talk right away. She placed her palm over Rhei's hand, gently supporting it.

"It will break" she admitted finally. 

"Not today. Perhaps not tomorrow. 
But, someday, it will. Because everything real does"

Rhei gazed at her.

"But it's not about being perfect" Izzy remarked. 

"It's about honesty. This ship was built on memory, not denial"

Rhei exhaled slowly and nodded. The last component was a round chamber, warm and brilliant, pulsing with possibility.

Each girls stepped forward one by one, inserting a piece of herself inside.

A snippet of Wen's code. A sealed bottle containing Sera's healing light. A fragment of Mira's link threads. Lyra's navigational lenses. Izzy's pulse coil.  Rhei's interface ring and Auri's hand were pressed flat on the panel.

"May this carry what we remember" she added quietly. 

"And what we're still becoming"

The spacecraft was lighted from within, and light ran along it's seams like veins.  Energy flowed through the decks. It did more than just activate. It also awakened.

Later, they gathered in a loose circle outside, gazing at the exquisite form hovering barely over the ground. A gentle hum vibrated beneath their feet, steady and alive.

"It needs a name"

Mira stated, arms folded and eyes gleaming.

No one spoke for a long time.

Then, Auri said.

"Requiem"

The term remained in the air.

"For what we've lost" Sera stated gently.

"And what we'll carry forward" Rhei said.

They boarded together as makers of the next chapter, not as soldiers or survivors, and as the Requiem soared through the sky and starlight, none of them glanced back, just ahead.