The Gate was huge, as Lukai had said.

  Luna silently admired the construction. She always liked thinking about how things were built—why this design, materials, or color. This one, despite its size, was beautiful. Whoever created the shape wanted it to look nice, even if it was meant to be the first logistics Gate.

  Lukai had mentioned that Planet Three had only this one.

  It complicated their task; they had to wait until late at night to come here. Lukai asked Domini to clear the space and, in case of any problems with Gates, to also stop the traffic and send out information. Lukai arranged it and said it was for the future data unification.

  Si commented on it, noting that they had finally communicated. The father and son. Lukai sighed. But wasn’t that the truth? That they finally communicated?

  They didn’t need great preparation. Moreover, they decided not to make a fuss about it. Taj would succeed, or he wouldn’t. When the four of them were there, they exchanged looks, and that was it.

  “Taj…” she started but stopped.

  What more was there to say than they already discussed? Regardless of the politics, Luna knew that for Taj both results were desired. Or he would be free from Crystal, more independent. Though, he said he was assuming he would feel all emotions and would need to handle them. Or… or he would be free.

  Both desired from Taj’s perspective. She knew.

  “Luna, give me my Crystal,” he said.

  Nothing less, nothing more.

  She took it out of her embedding. For a second, she hesitated. He then patted her on the head, calming her down.

  “Right, Taj, because I am five,” Luna said, just to say it.

  A minute later, he approached the Gate. No one said a word.

  Taj started loading himself with the Gate’s energy. It didn’t take long for him to reach the state when his projection was complete, super sharp, all details, everything visible, very much like a biological body.

  She had an urge to approach and touch him to check.

  Luna snorted, and it made everyone look at her.

  “Because look, he is like real now, Taj? How are you?” she asked and noticed her voice had high-pitched tones.

  Si was close; he took her hand.

  Luna felt surprised for a second but accepted it. That was it.

  “Good, Luna, I am all right,” Taj answered.

  He looked at her, then at them, and nodded.

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  She was certain; he thought the same. Something had to end, and something had to begin.

  Taj took Crystal and aimed at it. Then he launched his energy and stroked the Gate back through his Crystal.

  They watched in silence.

  First to flow back was the artificial energy, the amount they just saw Taj take out from the Gate. He said it was to ignite the connection. His projection was dropping its quality; the energy flew the other way around than minutes before.

  Then, his Crystal started to release its energy—Taj’s energy.

  The first one to flow to the Gate was his Ability, easy to sense neutral energy. The amount… Luna heard that Lukai took a breath. Taj was powerful as Elder. She knew Lukai would like to have this kind of level of Ability. Who wouldn’t? Four minutes it lasted. Lukai later admitted he was measuring the time to be able to assess the power. Giant Ability.

  As the next was artificial energy again. Taj was Crystaler; he said he still had remains of it in him. He even presented it a few days ago. This lasted for one minute. It flowed to the Gate.

  Taj’s projection was almost invisible; still, he was there.

  Luna could see he was in pain. It broke her heart.

  She wanted to go to him and say something, but then… there was something more.

  An astonishing amount of something.

  This time, they were surprised. Except for Taj, he was silently observing it; he looked… annoyed?

  Luna couldn’t pin his facial expression to anything; he was also barely visible.

  It flew to the Gate, making Taj’s projection blurrier. The amount was so vast, larger than the previous flows combined, it lasted seven minutes.

  Then it ended.

  Taj disappeared; his Crystal fell on the ground with a silent thud.

  Still, no one moved.

  “Was it his soul? His consciousness?” Luna whispered.

  Probably? But no one answered.

  Si was looking startled. Lukai, he looked disturbed.

  The Gate, it briefly flashed, changed its lighting to more glowing, emanating power. Then, as if it swallowed it all, it came back to its normal look.

  They stared at each other, as if they had the same thought.

  Natural energy was something completely on a different level than artificial. Was it the first time when natural energy was added to Gates? No, it was created from natural energy, but later? It was always artificial…

  Something to think about. Luna could tell that Si was fascinated by this thought. She slowly approached the Gate, bent down to take the empty Crystal…

  Taj’s Crystal was like a dead star now.

  Luna was supposed to destroy it to leave no traces. Taj had asked her to do it quickly. Her dual powers should be enough, so she cut her wrists and created a stream of both her energies.

  She saw that Taj was right; Lukai made a move as he wanted to stop her.

  It was too late.

  There was a silent explosion when she crushed Crystal.

  Si helped her heal her wrists and eased her state. He, as if understanding, didn’t comment on her action.

  “Thank you,” she said slowly… because vomiting in a situation like that was what? Very profound? Then she added, “I think we need to wait?”

  “Did Taj say how he would notify us of his progress?” Lukai sounded nervous.

  “So, no, how would he know?” Si commented calmly.

  “We need to wait. Taj will for sure need some time there; it is always better to wait for him to talk, rather than—” Luna wanted to say something more, but Lukai interrupted.

  “Reckless!”

  He was visibly anxious.

  “Lukai, in one way or another, Taj has to manage by himself. If he doesn’t succeed, there is nothing that we can do about it. Taj would be free, and that’s all; at least I understood his wish this way. If he does succeed, he will contact us. I assume it is difficult to grasp how it works in Gates; with all the energy and data, I cannot even imagine how he would handle it. Time will solve it; be patient,” Si said it in one go.

  While he was talking, Lukai slowly calmed down.

  Very slowly, Luna noticed.

  Then, Si surprised them both with what he said next.

  “So, now, what are we eating?” He sounded cheerful! “Do not kill me, though; isn’t it normal to leave and mind our business? Do you plan to stand here and wait? I don’t.”

  Luna laughed; her stomach rumbled.

  “Right, Silly,” she started to speak when they heard a beep.

  Three beeps.

  The ID unknown; no reply possible.

  …

  [170-12-24 00.48 a.m. PF, ‘It worked’]