The Mother of the Abyss

Hunt 99: The Long Way Out

PeopleNoetic

LensSpy

LeadVesk

RegionThe Goom

RunLoose Ends

Hunt 99 · Spy

The Long Way Out

The Mother of the Abyss · Noetic

The last name on the board is the Mother of the Abyss, an agate dome on spider legs whose every lock was cast from the folds of her own brain, and she sold the rubbing to the Ghost. Vesk walks the Term, where an hour inside takes half a day from everyone outside.

On the boardDesigned the Abyss and every lock in it, and sold the blueprints to the Ghost. The last name on the board.

WhereThe Abyss (street name: the Term), The Goom. A prison at the edge of a black hole.

How it feelsSilence, dripping cells, a pipe.

House ruleAn hour served inside costs the outside half a day, so every rescue arrives late.

Leads the huntVesk Mirat

PeopleNoetic, from Kaenor

Abigail's notebookThe Abyss. Every door open.

Friday, or possibly Monday. The Abyss. And on the way back from it.

I'm gonna go slow so I get this right. What does the Goom look like? Nothing. That's the honest answer. You'd think it'd look like something, after the training films. It's a spot in the window where the stars get pulled out long and thin and then just stop, and when the ship got close I felt something way down in my back teeth that I never actually heard.

The prison hangs off the edge of all that on a platform, and every door was open. Yeah, I know, that's in all the reports, and I've read the reports, but it's different when they're open at you. Wheels of cells, turning, nobody in them, every guard already bagged and gone, something dripping, and then from a long way down, this little tune. A pipe. Somebody was playing it nicely.

The Abyss, development art — The Abyss. Development art. Find it in the galaxy ▸

The people

Noetic

Huge brains and small bodies. They think in diagrams and forget faces.

Brilliant, trusting, and easy to use.

ALSO ON THE BOARD: The Cipher (3)

MORE ABOUT THE NOETIC ▸