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The first warning that Nie Mingjue received that everything was about to change was the sound of a spluttering engine.
The Nie spaceport wasn’t a stranger to the sound, but it had been far rarer in recent years, with their main ship down two pilots. Without that, they flew smaller vessels in smaller groups, and the engine never sounded quite like that. In short, something was terribly wrong.
Nie Mingjue cast a look out at the port; coming in to land next to the now mostly defunct Nie family pride and joy was, in fact, the ship Nie Huaisang had left in months ago now. Nie Mingjue whispered a thanks to the air that his brother would never hear behind the absolute chewing out he was going to get.
And he’d deserve it. Nie Mingjue didn’t know what he’d been thinking, not coming back and not even sending contact when there were rumblings to the west. Something was happening out by the Wen sector, and Nie Mingjue hadn’t had a clue where his wayward little brother had been. At that point, he felt like he was probably justified in being a little angry.
Thinking of nothing but wrapping his brother up in a short, tight hug and then lecturing him on the proper care of spacecraft for the next week, Nie Mingjue rose from his seat and went to the port, arriving just in time to see the craft’s doors open. Unsurprisingly, he did not like what he saw.
First came Nie Huaisang, actually looking a little ruffled after his rough landing (and, Nie Mingjue noted with satisfaction, a little bit apprehensive. He should be, after that vanishing act). The problems started when the other passengers started to alight.
The little craft was designed for one person — two if one was light, and three at a real push. Beyond Nie Huaisang stood a woman, perhaps a little older than Nie Huaisang. Beyond her was a slow moving figure that quickly revealed itself to be three figures: another woman Nie Mingjue didn’t recognise, a man about Nie Huaisang’s age, and finally someone he did recognise.
Jiang Cheng. Heir to the Jiang family, the kind of man who never knew when to sit down, and last known as directly in the line of fire from the Wen. He looked exhausted, mostly carried by both his unfamiliar companions, and the only thing running through Nie Mingjue’s mind was what the fuck did you get yourself into this time, Huaisang?
“Dage!” Nie Huaisang’s sunny disposition was already enough to let Nie Mingjue know that he wasn’t going to like what he heard next. “This is Jiang Cheng, I think you know him. Then that’s Jiang Yanli, his older sister. That’s Wei Wuxian, they’re all a package family deal but it’s complicated. And that’s Qin Su!”
The final individual offered up a shaky wave. Nie Mingjue tried to direct his scowl entirely towards his nuisance little brother; he didn’t want her to think he was angry with her. Or the other three. It was just Nie Huaisang.
“Why are they here?” he asked, his tone a warning.
True to form, Nie Huaisang grinned again. “Their home was struck by the Wen and destroyed, they’re the only survivors. We thought they might be pursued, so I brought them here so we could transfer to a bigger ship?”
Nie Mingjue inhaled, then exhaled. He should not and would not shout at Nie Huaisang for putting himself in danger for near-strangers when the near-strangers were right there, but it was a close run thing. Instead, he turned to Jiang Yanli. “Where’s your ship?”
“Seized by the Wen,” she answered, her expression an apology in itself. “I’m very sorry for bringing the conflict here to you, Nie-zongzhu. We had nowhere else to go and no one else to aid us.”
Nie Mingjue nodded. It wasn’t these people’s fault. They were putting him and Nie Huaisang at risk, but it was the Wen who really did it. He couldn’t turn them away; especially not now they were already here. “What about you?” he asked, looking at Qin Su. She’d clearly been trying very hard to be quiet and unobtrusive, but it wasn’t going to work. She was here, and one extra person made it more difficult again to get this number of people safely off the ground in a ship.
“It’s a family issue,” she explained, which explained nothing. “I don’t wish to speak ill of them — there was no real choice in the matter. I had to leave, and I ended up here.” And then she stopped speaking, and Nie Mingjue got the feeling that he wasn’t going to get any more out of her.
Well, it was time to stop stalling. If this was all he had to work with, Nie Mingjue knew what he had to do next. He just wished it didn’t have to be like this.
“You know that the only way to leave that quickly and still be safe is to take the big ship,” Nie Mingjue said, levelling Nie Huaisang with a Look. Nie Huaisang responded with a Look of his own.
“Of course I know that,” he said. “I mean, I’m not asking you to pilot it on your own or anything, I’m not stupid enough to suggest that, but-”
“I would need two co-pilots,” he said. “You can’t do it.”
Nie Huaisang pouted. “Aww, dage, you have so little faith in me. I know that already, though.”
“So who are you suggesting?”
“Jiang Yanli, Jiang Cheng, and Wei Wuxian are all skilled pilots,” Nie Huaisang pointed out. Nie Mingjue just looked at Jiang Cheng, who had been transferred to a chair and hadn’t made a move since, let alone said anything. Nie Mingjue knew Jiang Cheng, and he knew that if that man wasn’t talking, something was seriously wrong.
“A-Cheng can’t pilot right now, unfortunately,” Jiang Yanli said. She shot her brother a concerned look. “I might be able to, and A-Xian would as well, but…”
Wei Wuxian just laughed. “Piloting with me is an acquired taste for the worst of reasons, shijie is just too nice to say it,” he said. “I can pilot, but only with people who know my mind. And Jiang Cheng can’t right now.”
“So we have two capable pilots,” Nie Mingjue said. “We need three. Our ship is too complex for fewer pilots. I’ve flown before, but not for a while.” Not since Lan Xichen and Jin Guangyao had to return to their own families, and Nie Mingjue had practically given up on being able to fly comfortably ever again.
“And we need to get going as soon as possible!” Nie Huaisang chipped in helpfully. “So if anyone has any ideas, speak up!”
Jiang Cheng just groaned. There were probably some rude words in there too, because Jiang Yanli had the courtesy of looking apologetic again, but Nie Mingjue didn’t hear what they actually were.
“I’ve only really piloted smaller vessels,” Qin Su said. She’d been very quiet, but not in the way Jiang Cheng had. Like she was trying to be as inconspicuous as possible. Nie Huaisang had glossed over her presence, too; there was something going on there, hidden in the vague words she’d spoken, and Nie Mingjue got the feeling that he didn’t want to know the full extent of it. “But I could take on some of the neural load and let you two do the heavy lifting? That might work, right?”
“It could work!” Wei Wuxian said. “Shijie is a really strong pilot, and Nie Mingjue used to fly with Lan Zhan’s older brother. With a bit of help, a majority-duo pilotship should be workable.”
Nie Mingjue nodded, short and sharp. He didn’t want to do this. He didn’t want to share his mind with people other than those two, even after all this time. It wasn’t anything against either of them, just…
They were strangers. Lan Xichen and Jin Guangyao had been anything but. He hated that something so intimate could be corrupted by this, the necessity of flight in the face of almost certain death.
But that was it, wasn’t it? Nie Huaisang had taken them all in and brought them here because he knew what his older brother would do. He took a gamble on Nie Mingjue’s goodwill and would always win, because this was the Wen and these were people fleeing their massacre. Without his help, they would die — and Nie Mingjue and Nie Huaisang may well too, had they been pursued.
It was a choice that was no choice at all, forcing him to take up a position he’d thought would lie dormant for years to come, and Nie Mingjue would accept it gladly because it was right.
“Well, let’s get ready then,” he said, and Nie Huaisang and Wei Wuxian shared a meaningful fist pump. Nie Mingjue ignored them and turned to his imminent co-pilots. “You will listen to all of my instructions. This is my ship and I am the captain, even though I expect you to pull your weight — or we won’t get out of this alive.”
They both nodded, gazes determined, and their little party turned to the large, dormant (but fortunately regularly serviced, because Nie Mingjue had no co-pilots but he wasn’t a monster) ship that held their only hope for survival. They would make this; they had to.
Being back on the ship felt like coming home. The lights came on, low but illuminating everything in front of the pilot seats. Nie Mingjue took the point of the triangle of seats, just as he always used to; Jiang Yanli took Lan Xichen’s, and Qin Su took Jin Guangyao’s. It felt wrong. He hoped, when they started the link, it would feel right.
“You three, get seated,” Nie Mingjue said. “Sit where you like. Just know you can’t bother us in flight, so if anything goes wrong you’re on your own.”
“He doesn’t mean it,” Nie Huaisang said cheerily, to disguise the fact that Nie Mingjue very much did mean it. “We’ll be fine anyway.”
Jiang Yanli shot a concerned glance over at Wei Wuxian, then nodded to Jiang Cheng. Wei Wuxian guided Jiang Cheng to a pair of seats close to where her pilot seat was, and Nie Mingjue pretended not to see him flagrantly preparing to interrupt them during flight if needed. Ah well, some foolishness couldn’t be helped. The boy was in a bad way.
With everyone seated and the doors sealed, there was no putting it off any longer. “This will be a very different experience for you,” Nie Mingjue warned Qin Su. “Our minds will come together so we can work in tandem, but it can have side effects. We might see things you don’t want us to.”
Qin Su nodded, her expression barely faltering. Still an enigma of a woman — but she’d be less of one soon enough. Nie Mingjue didn’t want it to be under these circumstances, but beggars couldn’t be choosers. “I understand.” She didn’t, but she would.
“Everyone ready?” Nie Mingjue asked. Jiang Yanli nodded, and Nie Huaisang and Wei Wuxian did a thumb’s up at the same time despite not looking at each other. Had Wei Wuxian helped Nie Huaisang pilot the ship into port? “I’ll activate the apparatus. Get ready in three, two, one-”
They came together in a rush. One moment there was nothing, and then there was everything. For a second, it was overwhelming; every part of themselves exposed to the others in a way that demanded an automatic rejection that, once the machinery was engaged, was no longer possible. But once the initial feeling dissipated, when the overwhelming presence of three minds in one-three beings vanished, it was intimate.
It was like holding hands, like embracing, but within another. Within two others, but they were also within you. And beyond that was the ship, and the necessity to harness the three-and-one mind to travel across space, quietly and quickly and also while staying aware of conditions within the ship but beyond the self-selves.
In a mind that was both his own and others’, Nie Mingjue was known, and knew. He saw and heard and felt the hopes and dreams of women he had shared but a single terse conversation with. He knew how they felt about him (a lingering attraction that filtered through their shared mind, real and undeniable and hopefully something to act on, in future), and they knew how he felt about them. They saw every soft moment, every hard moment. They knew his bond with his previous co-pilots and what he might one day share with them, when the link went from new to familiar.
It was difficult-easy-overwhelming-incredible. It was everything, it was the void around them. It was breathing and drowning and sinking deeper and coming up to the surface. It was the deepest form of intimacy in what might soon be the loneliest depths of space.
And just like that, it worked. They shifted into the correct positions. The controls were instantly operable, even when only one of them had flown in the ship before. Within moments, they were taking off, approaching the exit to the port. They were going to make it, the ship accelerating, moving, and Nie Mingjue had missed this so much.
This was the beginning, for all of them. A new beginning, with new people and new hope. The fears and faults of the past vanished behind them more with every passing moment, and they’d live this chapter for as long as they could.
They would protect the people they cared about. They would carve out a better life for themselves and others. They would be safe and free and there would be people by their sides every step of the way.
The ship continued forwards into the darkness of space, and they had never been readier for the future than in that moment.