The wind on the surface of the healed world no longer carried the sharp, metallic sting of radioactive dust. It smelled profoundly of damp earth, crushed ironwood pine, and the sweet, heavy fragrance of night-blooming orchids.
Above the sprawling canopy, the multi-layered prismatic shield of the Lightweavers had parted like a curtain, leaving a wide, circular window of pristine blue sky directly over the central clearing.
The Ascendant did not land with the violent, ground-shaking crash of its first arrival. Supported by the deep, resonant hum of its newly integrated Singularity Keel, the three-hundred-foot dreadnought descended through the atmosphere with the silent, weightless grace of a falling leaf. It hovered six feet above the lush meadow, its dark wood gleaming under the warm golden light of the healthy sun.
Orion, Elara, and Zenith walked down the lowered Ironwood ramp onto the soft soil.
