The Final Voyage of the Ouranos
In this month’s fourth, free, story, Marie Brennan takes us on a poetically eerie voyage.
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The Final Voyage of the Ouranos
by Marie Brennan
Welcome aboard Zephyr Dromoline, your chariot through the Empyrean! We are honored to serve you during your journey to Kos Hydrin. If there is anything we can do to make your stay with us more comfortable, please do not hesitate to notify a member of the crew.
This ship, the Ouranos, is our newest and most luxurious vessel. You could have chosen any number of ways to traverse the serene aether of the Empyrean, but you chose us: the leader in elegance and style. A journey aboard one of our dromonds is not just a way to reach your destination; it is an experience never to be forgotten.
***
Your ship will be found drifting near one of the rocks that make up the uninhabited Phakoedes Cluster, far from any sphere.
It might go longer without discovery, but a dromond carrying memory crystals from Kos Kuknin to Kos Ailin suffers a drive malfunction that puts it off course. By then the disappearance of the Ouranos has been widely reported. Once the crew of the cargo ship repairs their drive, recognizing the drifting vessel as the missing luxury dromond, they bring themselves alongside for boarding. Their expectation is that the Ouranos has likewise experienced a drive malfunction, paired with some misfortune befalling their engineers, such that no one on board has the tekhne to fix it.
They soon discover they are wrong.
***
Please be advised that during flight, shipboard catoptra can only be used for reference and internal communication. It is not possible to make contact with the spheres while we are in the depths of the Empyrean. If you would like to use a catoptron to place a call immediately upon our arrival, please make an appointment with our communications director. For those of you eager to discover what you missed during your journey, our on-board stentor will broadcast a news update as soon as we dock.
But here at Zephyr Dromoline, it is our deepest wish to make your stay with us so pleasant, you’ll forget all about the spheres drifting through the distant aether! We offer a wide range of activities, from dramatic performances of theater and music to evening dances, from games of skill or chance to an obstacle course that will help you stay fit in transit. The Ouranos will be hosting a poetry competition at the midpoint of our voyage; the winner will have their entry read by stentors on all the ships of Zephyr Dromoline.
Use of aether aboard the Ouranos during our flight is not regulated by the laws of any individual sphere. Please be aware, though, that the laws of the Aetharch still apply, and any interference with or alteration of the vessel itself is strictly prohibited. Furthermore, any passenger who causes a public nuisance through their application of tekhne is subject to having their creations unmade, at the discretion of the crew.
***
The Ouranos does not respond to the hails of its would-be rescuers.
Ship-to-sphere calls are impossible during transit because no ship can carry both the necessary synchronization equipment and a meaningful quantity of either goods or passengers, but vessels passing in the Empyrean have ways of communicating with each other. The cargo ship—too humble to be graced with a proper name; it is simply Cargo Vessel KA-824—stabilizes itself alongside the drifting liner and opens its semaphore array, signaling a query to the Ouranos about the nature of its trouble and offering aid.
No one answers.
***
For your reference, this is the layout of the Ouranos.
The lowest deck is off-limits to passengers, as it holds the personal quarters of the crew and the Engineering sector. Our drive is specially tuned to waft us through the Empyrean as quietly as possible—you should not hear any humming or buzzing while we are in transit.
The next deck hosts the various tekhne services. In the first and second quadrants you’ll find our Meal Services, which are famed throughout the Empyrean! Your head chef on this voyage is Temion Omisteo—yes, the very same emaha whose skill is so famed, they received a sacred decree from the Aetharch raising them to the ranks of the dexioi. Once you taste their food, you’ll think you’ve risen in caste to the hieroi! The other provisioners under their command can create a dizzying range of foods upon request, but we recommend you allow Temion Omisteo to work their art upon your palate.
The third quadrant contains Garment Services. If your clothing suffers an unfortunate mishap during your journey, or if you simply wish to indulge in something new, our fabricators can outfit you in any way you desire! Please note that if you are not satisfied with their creation, there is a 10 percent labor charge on the aether used for any garment subsequently unmade.
Our physicians in Somatic Services were trained in the academies of Kos Rakhin, and they stand ready to heal any injuries you may suffer while enjoying the obstacle course. But we hope you will have only recreational need to visit them in the fourth quadrant! If you would like to make cosmetic modifications, such as changing your eye color or growing out your hair, we can arrange that, too, and the eumenoi of our Spa Chambers are eager to pamper you from head to foot.
Your sleeping quarters are on the middle deck, and if you wish to spend your entire journey relaxing there in a lounging robe, you can! Just use the bell, and a steward will come to take whatever order you may have for food or services. But we hope you’ll venture at least once to the upper decks.
The fourth deck is where you’ll find the entertainments mentioned previously: our theaters, gymnasium, gaming parlors, and more. And then the top deck, outfitted with state-of-the-art atmospheric generators, offers an unobstructed view of the coruscating aether of the Empyrean—along with our swimming pool! The pool is closed during departure and arrival, but we encourage you to join your fellow passengers on the top deck for our approach to Kos Hydrin. It is a glorious sight!
***
The engineer of Cargo Vessel KA-824 is highly specialized in the tekhne of dromond drives, but it is a point of caste pride for her to be able to craft most basic things. She cobbles aether into some crude wings that allow a boarding party to soar across to the observation deck of your ship, trailing a line behind them. She is already calculating whether she can increase the efficiency of her drive enough to tow the Ouranos, if necessary.
When the boarding party touches down, their first thought is that you, or one of your fellow passengers, disobeyed company guidelines regarding alterations to the ship. The surface of the observation deck is a patchwork mosaic of different materials: smooth marble, flexible fabric, a mat of twisted vegetation, skin. They proceed with caution toward the nearest hatch but, finding it sealed from within, have no alternative but to resort to brute-force tekhne, unmaking it enough to allow passage below.
***
We regret to announce that the open-air observation deck is closed until further notice. We hope to reopen it before our arrival in Kos Hydrin. Until then, our engineering staff is working on transforming one of the theaters into a replacement swimming pool.
Cosmetic alterations are currently unavailable. Somatic Services remains open for any passenger suffering from injury or ill health.
As a token of our apology for these inconveniences, Temion Omisteo will be preparing a special meal for all guests. If you wish to enjoy this in your cabin instead of the grand hall of Meal Services, please signal one of our stewards with your bell.
***
The interior of the ship is chaos.
No mere disobedient passenger can explain what the boarding party finds within the Ouranos. There is no rhyme or reason to the changes there—and they go far beyond odd alterations to the materials used.
Corridors end in thickets of furniture, chairs growing haphazardly out of chests of drawers and interlacing with folding screens. The lower half of a staircase remains in place, but the upper half is now a cascade of sleeves, shoe soles, elaborate hats that went out of fashion two years ago. Initially the members of the boarding party spread out, calling for someone to respond . . . but as more and more anomalies intrude, their voices falter, and they contract the radius of their search. Clustering together, as if for defense against some unseen threat.
Then they find the hair, streaming out of the ceiling.
Then they begin finding body parts.
***
We are receiving reports from some passengers regarding anomalous difficulties with tekhne. If you see anything on board the Ouranos that you believe to have previously been unmade, please notify your cabin steward. They will put you in touch with our first mate, who is investigating the matter.
***
The body parts do not seem to have come from living flesh. Despite this, half the boarding party, too unnerved by the situation, advocates for turning back. The other half insists they press on, in the hopes of finding someone still alive, though no one has answered their calls. That hope dims further still when the floor becomes a maze of broken weapons, shattered shields.
Officially, the decision lies in the hands of the first mate of Cargo Vessel KA-824. He is good at the tedious logistics of long Empyreal journeys; nothing has prepared him for threading the labyrinth of an ominous mystery. While he stands frozen, fearing both options, an emaha finds a cryotox that still functions despite the vines growing from its barrel, which they rip away as best they can. Violating the hierarchy of their own vessel, they raise the weapon and forge ahead. The relief that someone has made a decision breaks the paralysis: the rest of the searchers follow, with the first mate bringing up the rear.
***
All passengers are requested to temporarily refrain from unmaking anything, whether crafted by your own tekhne or otherwise. We apologize for the inconvenience.
***
The discovery of the weapons has raised the specter of some kind of battle: an attack by Empyreal pirates, perhaps, or psychosis overtaking the passengers and crew, turning them against each other. Appalling, but comprehensible.
What the searchers find is worse.
The dead are every bit as twisted as the interior of what was once a top-of-the-line luxury dromond. Legs replaced by lamps. Flower bushes in bellies. Teacups jutting from cheeks. If this is tekhne, wielded by some madman to reshape the bodies of his victims, it is cruel beyond comprehension.
But the scale is too vast. The chaos runs through the whole ship, and everyone on it. As if aether itself, the substance of which all things are made, has turned against its shapers.
***
Passengers are hereby confined to their cabins. No passenger may employ tekhne for any reason. Crew may draw aether only in the course of their assigned duties.
***
The emaha drops the cryotox. The first mate retches. Without any further debate, the boarding party flees.
Do not blame them for abandoning their search. You are dead. You and everyone with you are beyond rescue.
***
DO NOT USE TEKHNE. MAY THE EIRENE HAVE MERCY ON US. DO NOT TRUST THE AETHER.
***
The fate of the Ouranos remains ghoulish lore for a generation. Zephyr Dromoline goes bankrupt; no one will book passage on their ships anymore. A few people swear they no longer feel safe traveling the Empyrean at all, on any ship. The rest scoff at their paranoia.
Until a diplomatic ship out of Kos Aedin jettisons a crisis pod while traveling to Kos Karin. The survivor on board babbles in terror of chaos like that which struck the Ouranos, and the Aetharch dispatches sophoi researchers to investigate.
Their conclusions are more horrifying than the worst of what happened on board those two vessels.
Ever since humanity learned the secrets of shaping aether through tekhne, it has supplied all your needs. You craft it into clothing, food, the buildings you live in—even reshape the aether of your bodies, for healing or for fashion. And then, when your use for a thing ends, you unmake it, trusting in the endless bounty of the Empyrean.
The sophoi discover mutations in that bounty. The aether you know and employ is tamed, safe. But in the depths of the Empyrean, pockets have appeared that they term wild: aether that cannot be controlled through tekhne, which is destructive to all it touches.
Wild aether remakes everything around it into echoes of what you have cast aside.
Wild aether remembers.
***
Welcome aboard the Ouranos
your stay with us so pleasant
you are beyond rescue
the distant aether
remembers
the nature of its trouble
the Empyrean
cannot be controlled
Use of aether
never to be forgotten
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Thank you for joining our journey this week.
Marie Brennan is a former anthropologist and folklorist who shamelessly leans on her academic fields for inspiration. She is the author of more than twenty novels, ninety short stories, and several poems; her work has won the Hugo Award and been nominated for the Nebula and World Fantasy Awards. As half of M. A. Carrick, she has also written the Rook and Rose epic fantasy trilogy. For more information and social media, visit linktr.ee/swan_tower.
“The Final Voyage of the Ouranos” © Marie Brennan, 2026.
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