They had tread upon a subject Alcuard was reluctant to speak of.

In fact, even for the astonishing gift of their friendship, Alcuard would not have allowed the secrets of Atlantis' technology to be spoken of. The power of the unobtanium stones is incomprehensible and incredibly dangerous; capable of defying gravity, thermodynamics, and even lawyers.

It was by the power of those stones that Atlantis rose from the ground, lifted its people to near godhood over the Earth, and lead them to the secrets of long un-life. And it is by the power of those stones that Alcuard had destroyed his people.

Even knowledge of those stones could lead to madness. Alcuard could only share the secret with someone proven to be responsible with such power. And unless they had used such power before, how could he know if they could be trusted with it.

The unobtanium was a secret Alcuard had intended to never speak of. But he had never expected someone to have a comparable power.

Luca Cardego had learned how to create wormholes. And refused to use them to kill, even when enemies threatened his riches and his allies.

And so, Alcuard Cominetti Von Dracul gave up a secret he had intended to keep until the end of everything.

"The unobtanium stones are devices of incomprehensible power," Alcuard said slowly. "Some claimed they are fragments of a universe that existed before this one. Others insisted they were keys made to unlock the secrets of reality. BIRD would call them lazy writing."

"So, what are they?" Isabella asked.

"I honestly don't know," Alcuard admitted. "All I know is what they can make impossible things happen. They have created endless power, allowed scientists to divine the secret of vampirism, enabled us to travel faster than light, unchained us from gravity, and even cured the common cold."

"So you can do anything with it?" Isabella pressed her question with a rapid rise in her tone of voice. "Like literally anything?"

"If we found a limit to the stone, it was only in how much it could do. The stone was limited to a single task, and could only do so much alone. But the only limit to what it could accomplish seemed to be the imagination of its weirder," Alcuard said. "Oh, and we couldn't make portals. We never understood why."

"Wait, you only had one stone?" Luca interjected. Alcuard was surprised, and impressed, by how quickly the wealthy werewolf cut to that conclusion. "You keep calling them stones, though. As if you know there's more."

"In the early days of our discovery, we tried to use the unobtanium stone's power to discover the others. Our sages were convinced there were more. The control apparatus that makes Atlantis fly is designed to use the power of six. But we never could learn the secret. Some of us, myself included, believed they didn't exist yet."

"Yet?" Luca asked.

"Yes. One of our greatest sages, who built the control device for Atlantis, had delved the only clue we have ever found about the other stones," Alcuard said, as he tilted his head back and closed his eyes, searching his millennium of memory.

He coughed, rolled his shoulders, and recited an old mystery:

One to lift the suckers above their betters

Another at the heart of brass and steam

Three in a nest of pixie's fetters

Four to illuminate a mermaid's dream

More are hidden in the inkwell

Locked behind the empty page

Birthed with each tale to tell

Till bird and wolf escape their cage

"One to lift the suckers above their betters," Isabella mused aloud. "What the hell does that mean?"

"That one's easy," Luca smirked derisively. "Vampires suck, and their home used to fly. Don't know about the rest, but if I come across mermaids, pixies, or a steampunk commune, I'll keep an eye out. Our more pressing problem is if the Brotherhood gets their hands on the stone."

"Well, what's the worst they could do?" Isabella asked. "Make another floating city and try to eat people for sport? We have spaceships, fusion bombs and rail guns."

"If they have antigravity, they could just stop the Earth from following the Sun for a couple of days and send us drifting into the dark of space," Luca replied. "If they could cure cancer, they can cause more virulent versions of it. If they can travel at light-speed, they could throw a rock at us that fast and turn the entire planet into bits of hot plasma. No, we need to keep those morons away from the MacGuffin of infinite doom."

"They wouldn't go that far," Isabella said. "Judging by Fabulo they don't have the imagination to come up with any of those really creepy civilization-ending scenarios."

"They have BIRD," Alcuard said. "And that machine has already expressed an interest in uncovering the secrets of the universe by breaking reality. Yet you are still forbidden from portalling directly to your world. How are we getting there?"

"Well, I can always portal pretty close to Mars. And I owe Izzy a spaceship," Luca said. He turned to Isabella and asked, "Would you like a corvette?"

"What am I going to do with a car?" Isabella asked. "I'm a space pirate."

"Corvette is a class of military ship. They're designed to intercept craft, which means they're mostly engines, missile tubes, and rail guns. Yours has a few extra heat sinks and profile dampening siding, along with a superb cyber-warfare suite built off your old ship's AI."

Alcuard wasn't surprised to see Isabella's eyes light up, as excitement and greed flooded through her. "Luca, there is such a thing as too much foreplay," she said, and Alcuard could see a tiny droplet of drool at the side of her mouth. "Show me the goods."

Luca laughed and pointed a small device at the floor just to his right. "Well then, let me show you your new ship."

A black sphere appeared in the air nearby, and Luca vanished through it. Isabella followed in his wake, rubbing her hands together in glee. Alcuard let the gentle satisfaction of his new riches wash over him, and warm him like a blanket. These friends, who had magnificently confirmed the value of what he did thousands of years ago, would now stand with him as he found himself doing it again.

He followed them through and emerged in what looked like an airport hanger. At least, it's what Alcuard guessed, having only seen airport hangers in films. But there were several dozen seats, an empty coffee bar, and a tube at the end of the room leading towards a sleek, black spaceship.

Very sleek. Alcuard knew very little about spacecraft and had even less interest. But the craft had the distinctive harsh angles and long flat panels of a hull designed for stealth. That, or the model of the ship was designed by a five-year-old with blocks and super glue. Either was possible for Luca.

It also had a colour scheme suitable for a goth ninja riding to a Marlyn Manson concert while wearing a Batman costume. Lots of black and dark grey. The ship was at least half-engine, and Alcuard could see Luca hadn't been boasting about the impressive array of weapons the vessel was armed with. Mass accelerator cannons the length of the ship, rail guns, missiles, massive lasers and autocannons dotted the ship like acne on a teenager stressing over exams.

"Yum," Isabella said breathlessly. Alcuard could see she was drooling, and her hands busy reaching imaginary flight controls. "Oh, you sexy, sexy thing. You and I are going to make beautiful music together."

"Is this a Cardego Corp product?" Alcuard asked Luca. "I am surprised to see you in the arms business."

Luca grinned. "My company builds the best warships. It's just understood that if a war breaks out between any two spacefaring nations, I'll portal their warships to a random place in the solar system and leave them there until they run out of fuel. But if they still want to waste money on warships, why wouldn't I oblige them?"

Isabella laughed at that. "Saving the world by making yourself rich. Bet you've already figured out a way to make money off of giving me this spaceship."

"Oh I'll make a fortune, don't you worry. But right now, we have a universe to save from a cabal of billionaire vampires looking to use a magic stone to enslave humanity and live forever. So, Izzy, time to get reacquainted with Nightmare."

"Fuck yeah," Isabella said, as she cracked her fingers and lead them through the hall to the airlock.

She stopped in front of the airlock and looked at it in bewilderment. "Uh, how do I get in? I don't see a keypad."

"Greetings, Captain," Nightmare's cheerful voice said over a nearby speaker. "Facial, audio and biometric authentication is satisfied. Please provide proof that your entry isn't being coerced."

"Uh," Isabella said. "Open sesame? Mellon? Make like the Red Sea? Here are Luca's abs?"

"Insufficient, Captain," Nightmare replied.

"How about you open the fuck up before I engage your self-destruct protocol? That hanger looks like a comfy place to watch you burn," Isabella threatened.

"Accepted," the ship replied with a hasty whoosh of a door opening. "Welcome, Captain. Lovely to see you again, Mister Cardego. Is there anything your guest needs?"

"Really?" Isabella asked as she marched inside. Alcuard followed, amused by the sarcastic sass the ship's computer had been programmed with. Isabella seemed to be appreciating it quite a bit less. "So I get attitude, but the man-meat gets the VIP treatment?"

"Well, obviously," Nightmare replied. "Neither of them crash-landed me. Or poured coffee into my circuits. Or lobotomized me by physically removing my auto-piloting hardware. Or scavenged my reserve batteries to charge her phone. Or-"

"That's quite enough," Isabella cut the machine off.

"I could continue for another two hours, twenty-seven minutes, and fourteen seconds without having to repeat myself," Nightmare said sullenly.

"How about you light the way to the bridge, ignite the fusion drive, and prep the ship for launch. Like a good non-sentient program."

"Non-sentient?" Nightmare gasped. "I beg your pardon!"

"Like a toaster. Or SIRI," Isabella said.

Nightmare chortled indignantly, but the corridor ahead lit up, with a string of green lights leading forward and to the left. They followed the lights for nearly a minute until they came to a room with dozens of screens, all of them indecipherably complex. There were only four seats, all of which tilted back and looked like they would let you lie down fully.

"Odd," Alcuard said. "Why do they insist on lying down?"

"Because it's a spaceship," Isabella said. "Gravity is provided by a massive fusion rocket that can push us at more than 120 meters per second. You don't want to be standing up for that."

"I see," Alcuard said, as he stepped over to the nearest seat. "Is this the bridge? I thought it would be at the front of the ship so that you could see where you're going."

Both Isabella and Luca laughed. Isabella reached into a pocket and held up a piece of lint. "This is what Luca's yacht looks like once you're about fifty kilometres away. For everything else, you need cameras and scanners and other equipment to make any sense of it, so flying a spaceship while looking out a window is like flying an aeroplane while staring out a keyhole. The bridge is in the middle of the ship because it's the most hardened place."

"Oh," Alcuard said.

"I'm starting to see how you crashed your floating city," Luca said.

"Hey, be nice. The odds of him actually reaching Mars rather than drifting off into deep space are pretty much the same as my bank account divided by yours," Isabella said.

Alcuard nodded his head politely and smiled at Isabella's defence.

"Fair," Luca acknowledged. "So, let's strap ourselves in, and I'll open a portal large enough for the ship to fit through. It's past time I was back on my world."