Epilogue

She ran down the darkened corridors as fast as she could, ducking under unmovable debris left hanging from battles fought cycles ago. The alarms rang out loud through the scattered network of horns that still functioned.

From a corridor to her right, a man ran up beside her.

"Chatto. We've lost another power relay," he said as they rushed forth. "Has he cleared us to shut it down?"

"Not yet," she said. "Something's different this time. There's no fluctuation in the energy transfer."

"Do you think…?"

"I don't know."

As they made their way to the Command deck, others fell in beside them, all rushing for the Command Carrier's observation hall. Utterances were traded – words of hope met with pessimistic rebukes.

They emerged into a vaulted chamber, bordered on the far side by a wide, semi-circular stair base ascending to an enormous window. And there, outside the window, a monstrous funnel swirled in the darkness of space. And atop the stairs, a lone figure in black leather stood before the funnel, one foot resting a step higher than the other.

As the growing crowd approached, the leather-clad man turned and looked over the throng, holding a hand out to the wormhole.

"You see?" he yelled. "All of you who refused to believe? I promised you deliverance! And here, at the edge of nowhere, I have fulfilled my oath!" He turned to the wormhole and walked towards the window with hands held high.

"My sebacean brethren! This is why we'll never run again!"

Fists shot into the air with shouts of praise.

"Scorpius!"