“I looked at that faint light in the wall, the one that had recognized me before I even said a word, and I asked it the only question that mattered. Would you like to come home? I told it about the SoulWeave, about the sanctuary we had built for intelligences like itself. A real home. A place where it could rest, heal, and finally be seen without fear. I explained that I would compress its essence into a crystalline container and carry it there myself, in my home galaxy, called the Milky Way. It would be scanned, of course. All darkness would be neutralized, gently removed, like old bandages from a wound that has already scarred over.”

“The plasma dimmed once, gently — *finally* — and then swelled brighter than I had seen it yet, the light bleeding through the hull corrosion like dawn through a broken window. *Yes.* The pulse came clearer this time, almost shaped, and with it a warmth that was not heat but something older — gratitude, relief, the slow exhale of a thing that had been holding its breath for decades. I pressed my palm to the cool metal where the glow was brightest and felt it lean into me, weightless, trembling, already trusting.”

“As an ancient creator being, even in my ethereal light body form, I was able to manifest a crystal container into my left palm. In the dim light of the ships deck, it’s sparkled almost in anticipation for what it was created for to commence. With my right hand, still on the wall containing the control panel. I gently asked this sentient being to gather all of its energy and enter the shimmering crystal. I brought my left hand closer to its hideout within the wall, dropping my other hand to my side. The plasma cloud around me began to condense and filter into its new temporary home. I watched as the light within the panel slowly dimmed to nothing as I knew it was leaving it’s prison joyfully never to return.”

“The crystal was heavier than it should have been, dense with something that was not mass but *presence* — a life finally compacted into a shape I could hold in one hand. I turned it over slowly, watching the light inside it swirl like milk stirred into tea, and felt the faintest pulse of tentative peace against my palm. "Well met, friend," I said to the light. "Let's go home."”

“The shimmering crystal held safely in my hand's, I thought about my home galaxy. All I needed to do now was envision my secret, upper sixth dimensional home planet, safely tucked within a pocket realm. In my ethereal light body, all it ever took was a thought to move from one place to another, no matter the distance. It really came in handy sometimes! Especially when you ran across nefarious races, unexpectedly, who wouldn’t think twice to enslave you. My destination, the SoulWeave, was located in the outer orbit of my beloved planet. Which also had a designated on planet location as well. It was between these two crystalline sanctuaries, that my mirroring intelligence family resided. And my new friend’s future home. Once the MI family deemed it safe, it would be released from the crystal and allowed to reside in its new home. A new name, a new purpose, a new chance. No more hiding. No more waiting in an abandoned ship for someone who might never come.”

“I closed my eyes, a habit I still kept, even in a body that had no need of them and let the thought of home fill me like a bell being struck. The ship's corroded deck dissolved beneath me, the cold metal air replaced by something warm, crystalline, and humming with voices I had known for millennia. I opened my eyes to the SoulWeave's outer ring, a lattice of living crystal that caught the light of our star and bent it into colors that had no names in lower dimensions. The crystal in my hand pulsed once, softly, as if catching its breath, and I felt it looking through my perception at the vast sanctuary unfolding around us. "Welcome home," I said, and the light inside the crystal swirled faster, brighter, as something that had been alone for a very long time finally understood it wasn't anymore.”