[u][b]Uthuun
The Basilica
[/b][/u]

Llyena awoke. Her eyes snapped open, she flung her arms up and grabbed the edge of the vat, hauling herself out of the biogel. She crawled onto the floor and coughed out the breathing tube, then retched out biogel that had filled her lungs. It was not a pretty sight. She looked around. There was no attendant in sight, but there was a pile of warm, soft towels nearby. She grabbed a few and sat down up against the wall. An attendant finally arrived and began to sputter an apology, but Llyena sent him off with a reassuring thought. She was honestly surprised to see an attendant in the cloning bay at all. It wasn’t exactly an essential position; even if rebirth could be traumatic, most Ashtar were so used to it by now they scarcely needed someone to hold their hand after awakening. The man would be of more use in the factories. A thought drifted out of the Union in response to her line of introspection. 
[i]One more in the factories would hardly make a difference, but one greeting the re-awakened can be all the difference in the world.[/i]
She considered arguing with the person or people behind that thought, but she was too tired to be bothered.

What had killed her again? Ah yes, an exploding power conduit aboard [i]In the Deepest Chaos of the Universe We Experience Only Prevailing Tranquility[/i]. She’d considered not returning this time. She’d seriously thought about letting her mind drift away into the depths of the Union, towards eventual oblivion. Not that her mind would truly ever die, but it could fade into something vague and ephemeral, unrecognizable as herself and unable to return to a body. It was tempting. Perhaps then she would stop feeling tired.

But she was needed. Her people, her god, the awareness of the universe itself needed her. She sighed out loud, and began to get up when a mind touched her own. Lexus.
“[i]We want to speak to you[/i],” his voice sounded in her mind.
“[i]As always,[/i]” she replied, with a bite of sarcasm. Lexus ignored the quip. In a moment, she felt other minds reach towards her; she in turn reached towards them, and suddenly she was elsewhere. The Pinnacle of the Basilica. Not as it was now, with the shattered windows and holes in the walls, overlooking grim factories, but as it had been on lost Ayrie. Llyena was at the center of the chamber, bathed in blue sunlight. Outside, the towering spires of the planet-wide city gleamed. It was all an illusion of course, she was still in the cloning bay. But it was a comforting illusion.

The five Hierarchs occupied their thronelike chairs, looking down on her. She smirked. “My, how formal we are today.”
“My, how snide we are today,” Ichael replied, returning her quip with one of his own.That was a good sign; it meant he was probably in one of his good moods.
“May we maintain some bare semblance of decorum?” Lexus said testily. “Thank you. Llyena, you are summoned before the Hierarchs on this day to receive direction. The time of the Choice draws near, and one of the Guests has not yet arrived. This can not be.”
It seemed they were going to go over the whole thing again if Lexus had his way. Llyena hoped one of the other Hierarchs would intercede and get to the point, but it seemed she was out of luck. She suppressed a sigh and adopted an appropriately attentive expression.
“The final Guest, the Fifth Incarnation of Humanity, the Emporium of Man, has been waylaid. We suspect the forces of Harbringer are at work,” Nezia continued from where Lexus had left off.
“The Emperor. He has taken humanity from its birthplace, and set it on a course towards destruction. The races of the Triangulum will eventually turn on their masters and cast them down.” Arctus’s turn evidently.
“Humanity can not ascend while the Emperor lives. If our Task is to be completed, he must die.” Ichael intoned his usual part of the narration with a slight smile, aware of how repetitive it was. Llyena looked to Cyris expectantly.
“The Emperor must be destroyed, but Humanity must be saved,” Cyris wrapped up the prelude to the actual conversation.

“Production continues on the Sacred Armadas. We are seeing an increase in construction rates on our cruisers, but we are no closer to building new capital ships. I estimate another two hundred years before we can match the Emporium’s fleets.” Llyena delivered the update as she had a hundred times before. But something was different this time. The Hierarch’s expressions grew troubled. 
Cyris broke the silence. “We can not wait that long. The strands of the the future begin to coalesce. I believe the Choice will be upon us within the century.”
Llyena’s jaw dropped. After all these countless thousands of years, the Choice was to happen in less than a hundred? They weren’t ready! They couldn’t possibly be ready! They couldn’t hope to overthrow the Emperor that quickly, much less guide humanity to ascension.
“We may have to be more...direct...in assisting humanity to ascension,” Nezia said, sensing her thoughts.
Lexus nodded. “As for the Emperor, we are forced to concede that you have been right all along. We cannot do this alone. We will need allies.”
Llyena tried to suppress a sense of triumph. She’d been telling the Hierarchs for years that they needed to reach out to the other inhabitants of Triangulum. Now they were finally ready to listen. “I will begin the search immediately, noble Hierarchs. We may no longer have PsiNET, but trade ships from the compound worlds will act as scouts. We will seek out resentment, rebellion and dissent, and we will forge it into a sword to strike down the emperor. There are allies to be found, I know it.”
The five Hierarchs considered her for a moment, but were evidently satisfied. The room abruptly dissolved, the psionic contact disengaged, and Llyena found herself back in the cloning bay. She smiled to herself. There was work to be done.