Relda made big gestures to rush the crew along. They swarmed the hallway. She touched Aks on the shoulder and said, "Thank you."
He enfolded her in a friendly hug.
"You fought the war," he said, and gave a joyful grin.
"You let us use the port. You hacked the airwaves."
He shrugged, pursed his lips, and gave an overconfident nod.
"No lies detected," he said. "I'll see you back to your ship."
Memories of the beginning of training flooded Relda's mind as they passed the training space.
The war for Quadrant 3 had ended, but light years away, the deity that had long controlled Dialorian minds still inhabited the Temple.
While Relda shuddered, recalling that she had stolen the medallion from the Temple, her daughters descended onto the home front.
"How hard is this going to be?" Anthem ranted.
"You're starting to sound like Ozla," Annika scolded. "At least, how she was in training."
Daly occupied the pilot's seat. Typical firstborn. She locked the target at the stone temple adorned with red banners and gold sculptures.
She stroked the touch control: arrows pointing up, down, left, and right. The laser cannon shifted at the command Daly gave it.
"Just fire already!" Anthem ordered.
"Relax," Darrion said from the copilot's seat. "No one's in danger."
The sight fixated squarely on the door. With confident authority, Daly pressed the shooting control. A colorful laser lit the doorway. The Temple crumpled under it.
Darrion maximized the transmission program.
"It's done," she told them. "Bring everyone home."
And then she sent it.
"We need to find cottages," Anniston pointed out. "A lot of them. We've got Uncle Raylay, Ty, Maurian, Orz, and all the kids now."
As they prepared to settle home, an event occurred throughout Quadrant 3. Dialorian civilians gazed into the sky above their home worlds. A blue light shone into the atmosphere. It morphed into the shape of a person.
"I am The Wind," he said. "The third member of the Triune. Believe in your hearts that the Son is Lord, and the Father raised the Son from the dead, and you will be spared the Father's wrath."
Blue fog coursed through the Dialorians' mind implants. Some scattered. Others knelt to The Wind, and he vanished into space.