The Stellar Rebellion

A Futuristic Dungeon Core

Skyler Grant

Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Afterword

1

"So, we're all agreed. We need to destroy the universe," I said.

I'd gathered all of the prime crystal holders together for a meeting. We were the core of the growing Sol Empire, for all that Anna had the final word as Empress.

Hot Stuff, Anna, Caya, and Sylax were seated around a conference table.

Hot Stuff was dressed in an outfit mostly composed of glowing metallic rings with a faint rainbow shimmer. Control of her powers remained inconsistent, but recent dimensional SCIENCE had allowed me to create a pocket dimension and to shift her excess heat into it. It was only fair, since most of her law of thermodynamics-defying abilities were because she was stealing energy from other dimensions to start with.

"So long as we don't leave it destroyed. We've done enough killing," Hot Stuff said.

"We've a lot more killing ahead of us. I can't wait," Sylax said.

Sylax had gone for a more classical look in her wardrobe, black armor studded with an absurd number of spikes. Useless really, and not at all fitting with her newfound nightmare abilities, but she was having trouble moving on from what she'd been.

"Will it be enough?" Anna asked.

Anna, unfortunately, hadn't changed her fashion taste. The red and black armor was just an unnecessary as Sylax's, although perhaps even more terrifying considering how much flesh it revealed. Why she insisted on inflicting that on innocents I'd never understand.

"We can't really answer that until we do it. Even then we won't know if all goes to plan," Caya said.

Unlike the others, Caya's outfit was both practical and fashionable. A blouse and slacks subtly woven with power enhancers that helped to suppress her inclination to ascend. Her Flawless abilities kept pushing her in that direction, and it was a constant struggle to maintain her place in our reality.

The problem was one that every sentient being understood intuitively. Other sentients are jerks. Humans might be particularly murderous, but really the whole universe was forever attempting to prey upon itself. Anna and I had been hunted from the moment she'd first awakened me.

"We'll do it. We won't let this continue," Anna said.

"You sound so certain, but we can go another way with it. We take out the Council, you get to be Empress of the Galaxy, and we find something else to do with our lives," Hot Stuff said.

"Except it doesn't end. Sylax, the Scholarium, Vinci, the Council. There is always someone bigger who is going to come for us. We take the galaxy, how long is it going to be until others invade?" Anna asked.

"Over a billion years since the last trans-galactic war," Caya said.

"And yet do you doubt that we'd spark another? Too young, too upstart, too unpredictable," Anna said.

Those words brought silence around the table.

"I tried to kill you in the past. You know my answer. If I were them, I'd do it and crush you before you were competition," Sylax said.

"And they will. That is the game—take out the new player before they get strong. Prey upon the weak. So, we break the game, we change the rules," Anna said.

That was the idea. It would only require the complete destruction of the universe to accomplish. That, and then rebuilding it with a few new additions.

I brought up a display.

Networked Endgame Reality Field

Defenses: None

Traps: None

Treasure: None

Resources: 3 Ascension points, 0 Loci, 3.4b Research Points

I said, "I've tried to make this easy enough that even your simplistic little monkey brains can grasp the fundamentals. To alter reality across the universe is going to require resources that can broadly be sorted into three categories. Only one of which we have an excess supply."

The laboratory realm was growing. My own dimension entirely composed of SCIENCE centers and testing labyrinths. I wasn't just throwing more drones at problems, I was busy creating all-new dimensions with all-new physical laws. The Galactic Council still had a technological edge on us in most disciplines, but not nearly so extreme as they thought.

"Defenses? Traps? Treasure?" Anna asked.

"Yes, you've learned to repeat words from a screen. As politicians go, I suppose that makes you of almost average intelligence," I said.

Anna drummed her fingers on the table. "Emma ..."

"Fine, here are the basics of what we need to make this work. We're looking to lessen the outsized pressure that predator species, like ourselves, exert on the universe. Treasure is all about the bait to lure them in," I said.

"Do we want defenses at all? Isn't the point to lure them in?" Hot Stuff asked.

I told her, "Do you savages ever believe a treasure is real, if you don't have to fight for it? Any species or organizations that can't overcome the defenses we create aren't a big enough threat to imperil the whole."

"And the trap is the ultimate goal. Whether it being ascension, or quarantine in a new dimension, or even extermination, they are how we remove the worthy threats from reality," Caya said.

"We're good on research points?" Anna asked.

"I may require specialized samples for some projects to study, but in general, yes. Unlike some cookie-consumers I could think of, I've spent my time growing up instead of just out," I said.

"Still not fat. What about the other resources?" Anna asked.

Caya said, "They're a lot harder to reach. Ascension points come from the reality alteration abilities of an ascended being. I provided us a few from my own closeness to the state, but the others will be ... difficult. The Scythe and Iska are our two best options for more."

They'd both helped—and interfered—with us in the past in an attempt to get us ready to survive galactic society. If we could find them, they might be willing to help, although they were both unpredictable.

"Loci?" Anna asked.

"Reality has anchor points, pins in the quantum fabric that are more real than the rest. Our galaxy has several, all in the control of powerful species. Diplomacy might get us access to a few, but most are likely to require a fight," Caya said.

"Then we'll bring it to them," Sylax said.

2

The Cadebera system. It was home to a species soon expected to break onto the galactic stage, except their communications had recently gone silent. Long-range sensors had picked up weapons fire and psionic force. The likely cause was clear, the Scythe.

The Scythe liked to take over young and combative species, and turn them and their resources against the Council. They'd tried it with the Sol system long ago and we'd fought them several times. We needed ascension points and the Scythe were on our list.

I jumped in the Graven along with a fleet of twenty H-class Dreadnoughts.

The H-class were my newest experimental vessels, an attempt to combine the utility of ships of the past. Multiple power projector cannons and power-radiant conduits run throughout the ship, with crews of Scholarium and Divine to operate them. Naval Fighter and Marine squadrons of Gobbles were there to directly engage the enemy. Flawless engineering stations throughout the ship maximized performance. Along with a Martian tactical center on the bridge to coordinate their prophetic abilities and integrate them with ship strategy. And, of course, the latest in Venusian psionic blockers which were an absolute necessity when going up against the Scythe. These ships were built from the ground up to help facilitate my communication with them even with blockers up, and while my connection was slower it was no longer scrambled.

The planet system was an active war zone. The inner three planets had formed something of a defensive line, stations of battleships holding against countless swarming drones. The outer planets were being slowly consumed, factories coating their surfaces as they were turned into new drones.

I knew both combatants. The psionic signatures of the inner system were notable, Scythe. So too was the design of the drones, Vinci.

Vinci had fought us for Earth and she'd very nearly won. I'd thought her killed when Hot Stuff seized a greater crystal, projecting her abilities through a connected portal. However, it seemed Vinci hadn't died.

"Is that Vinci? Didn't I kill her?" Hot Stuff asked.

"It seems you are as bad at murder as you are keeping your clothes on," I said.

"Nice to not be the subject of an insult for once," Anna said.

"It was going to be fitting into your clothes, if you'd been the one to speak. I keep my insults open-ended," I said.

"How did she get all the way out here? Why is she fighting the Scythe? How is she fighting the Scythe?" Anna asked.

They were all interesting questions. The last specifically. The Scythe were never an easy fight. We'd usually won because crystalline technology was not something they handled very well and we were well-versed in it these days. Vinci wasn't, and her drones were pathetically crude.

It was that very crudeness that was helping her now.

I said, "Much like you she appears to have made something of a strength of her failings. Those drones have nothing in the way of artificial intelligence, and the crudest fundamentals of targeting systems with nothing that a psionic entity can lock onto. She's made them too dumb for the Scythe to handle."

"Which is clever of her," Caya said, as she swept through readings on the science station.

I was unfortunately in a position to agree. But we could use this.

"Do we let them fight it out?" Hot Stuff asked.

"No, even if they did let us sit it out, we need the Scythe alive," Anna said.

And against all expectations of how this fight should go, Vinci was winning. Given time she'd swarm the Scythe to death.

We'd fare better. Her drones were made for a mundane fight and to avoid psionic activity. Our crystalline abilities could let us hit them from various angles they simply weren't prepared to adapt to and defend.

"Given her complete lack of charm and unpleasant demeanor we should really try to recruit her. She'll fit right in with the rest of you," I said.

"Last time we tried to recruit her she tried to push us off Earth," Anna said.

"Back then she had a chance of winning. Not this time. Remember, this ship is filled with losers that bent the knee when we proved we could kick them in the face," I said.

Sylax gave a lazy grin from her station. "Sometimes Emma, I admire the way you put things."

She would.

"Open me a line," Anna said.

We had old communication protocols I'd used to contact Vinci. I opened a channel on them now. It was almost a minute before we got a response, a visual feed I sent to the bridge.

Vinci had seen better days. Most of her body had been replaced by purplish metal, streaked through with veins of black that pulsed in an organic fashion. Her outfits hadn't improved, a set of faded grey coveralls lacking in any ornamentation.

"Emma ... and her crew of hangers-on. I see you haven't ditched the supporting cast yet," Vinci said.

"Empress Anna of the Sol Empire, these days," Anna said.

"Not crowning yourself celestial ruler of the universe? My, you've gotten modest in your old age. Whatever you are doing here, go away. You want no part of these creatures I fight," Vinci said.

"We know the Scythe. We've fought them before. What is your fight with them?" Anna asked.

Vinci was silent for a long moment as she studied Anna through the display. "Look at you. So beautiful, so self-assured. You've no idea how much I loathe you. They found me dying, put me back together again, and tried to turn me into a weapon to burn the universe to ash. I turned myself into one opposing them. They are mighty and they are fearsome. And you ..." She paused and seemed to be struggling. "You've won against them?"

"We're smart enough to do something besides swarm. Of course, we won. We were always better than you. You were just too stupid and proud to realize it," I said.

Vinci gave a dry and pained chuckle. "I always recognized your brilliance. I never doubted it. It was why I tried so very hard to recruit you. Does Earth ... does some semblance of it survive?"

Hot Stuff said, "My taking your crystal burned the atmosphere. Killed a whole lot of people. Emma fixed things, mostly, eventually."

Vinci let out a low sigh. "I care about that more than I thought I would. I believed myself the last of my kind."

There was something vulnerable to her that hadn't been there before. A weakness. We were good at exploiting weakness.

"You deserve to be alone, but you don't have to be," I said.

"Emma took me on. They'll take anybody," Sylax said.

"We'd kill you tomorrow, if you didn't stay useful," Anna told Sylax, lounging back in her throne before saying to Vinci, "But she's right. We happen to need this Scythe alive and we've got plans. Big plans, and it isn't too late for you to have your place."

"Building your weapons?" Vinci said flatly.

I said, "Our designs are now centuries more advanced than yours. Give me another month and they'll be a million years more advanced. No, this isn't about weapons. There isn't another core of industry left on Earth. It’s lab complexes, housing, that I need you to build."

This wasn't just an attempt to sell her on joining us. I was hitting a real bottleneck on construction. My organic methods were too slow.

"I shouldn't trust you," Vinci said, and shook her head. "But for the chance to no longer be the only human I'll ever see in my life— fine, I'll stand down, I'll bend the knee, whatever it takes. Do you need me to help you against this Scythe?"

I'd been scanning the Scythe forces since we appeared and I was already worried. There were less organics out there than should have been. The defense was being fought largely by automated systems.

Give Scythe a bunch of organics and they started to do some scary things.

"No, have your forces stand down and follow the landing frequency. I'm sending you aboard one of the Juggernauts," I said.

"There a reason we're not taking her help?" Anna asked.

Caya gestured and sent a visual to the main screen. It was a cross-section of the planet closest to the sun. Tunnels had been carved through it, the core hollowed out and transformed into something else.

"There is missing biomatter out there," I said.

"And this is where they are sending it," Caya said.

"Why is it always a surprise with the Scythe?" Anna asked.

Lights on the bridge of the Graven flickered and a visual appeared. Humanoid, although at least ten feet tall and formed of solid darkness. The voice was cultured as it spoke. "Because we're just that good."

No psionic projection, they wouldn't be able to penetrate ship’s systems. So how had they infiltrated my defenses to project onto the bridge?

It had been a long time since I'd been successfully hacked. I didn't like it any more than the last time.

3

"I'm Anna. I'm going to assume you've heard of me," Anna said.

"One of our best creations to date," the man said, as he looked about the interior of the bridge, eyes of the same perfect black as the rest of him peering at each of the crystal holders in turn. "Perhaps the best. Hybrids that you are. You’re here to petition the Scythe to join your grand crusade against the Galactic Council?"

"He really has heard of us," Hot Stuff said.

"The purging fire, the creator of nightmares, the drone queen, the perfect skein, the ruler of nightmares. We know all of you. You may call me Tiamat."

"You’re always spoiling for a fight against the Council. We're about to start a big one and we need your help," Anna said.

Tiamat's visual flickered. That was definitely my tertiary bridge holo-projector he was going through.

"But you don't want to play the game as designed. We want you to fight them. You to destroy them. You can do this, but you ... you are trying to change the game and wage an even larger war," Tiamat said.

"You know an awful lot of our secret plans," Anna said.

"We're Ascended. What we put our minds to knowing, it is very difficult to conceal from us. We're already intrigued by what you plan, and interested to see what comes of it, but things are never that easy and so we set up ... this test," Tiamat said.

"This is a trap, not a test," Sylax said.

"RThis is the only Scythe presence in this entire galaxy. So, of course, it is a trap. Which means you really aren't ready for what we've arranged for you, and it will be exciting," Tiamat said.

He was using my own bypass systems. The ones I'd arranged to get past the psionic blockers and allow me to interface with the ships. Data packets so skillfully hidden amongst my own as integrity checks even I hadn't noticed them at once.

I killed his access and the hologram flicked off.

"I've kicked him out of my systems, for the moment," I said.

"Were you compelled?" Anna asked.

"Nothing so grand. Our psionic blockers are holding."

"How disappointing of you. What are we dealing with? What is this test?" Sylax asked.

Quite simply, the Scythe were willing to stage a battle, a trial by fire, and sacrifice thousands of lives just to determine whether or not we were worthy of the Scythe fighting on our side. They could have just asked. And really, considering we’d defeated the Scythe in the past, we should have been testing them.

"The entire planet has been hollowed out and filled with the tortured remains of several dozen species bound together into some sort of psionic network," Caya said, frowning at her screen. "The capabilities of a creation like this are formidable."

"I need better adjectives than that. What can it do?" Anna said, leaning forward in her throne.

"Even at a distance it should be capable of psionic possession on a massive scale. Move this into a system and it could seize the minds of entire planets," Caya said.

I added, "And it is wielding enough force that, if we get close, it will smash even the protections of our ships. If it did that, it might be able to seize control of my entire network."

I could arrange defenses against that. I already was. Coding in a kill command and leaving it resident in all drones. At the first trace of a psionic intrusion they'd die.

Caya went on, "The layering of the psionic field atop the physical matter of the planet has also given it some properties that are almost ascendant in nature. Damage on a single facet, either physical or psionic, probably won't remain."

"So, we have to attack it both psionically and physically simultaneously," Anna said.

The planet was moving out of orbit, still slow but accelerating as it headed to leave the system.

"So, sending the sun nova won't do it. Not alone? Do we have anything that can hit it with enough psionic force? Anyone in the Scholarium? In Tartarus?" Anna asked.

The Scholarium had a few capable of psionic attacks of various types, although as we finished integrating them, I'd killed off most of those with Compulsion cores. They were too dangerous, but there were others who could emit emotions or sensations.

With computing facilities scattered throughout multiple universes I was faster at processing than even Amy with the Earth as a computer core, and I was already sending Caya schematics for a second opinion.

"You do quick work," Caya said, reviewing them. "This could work. Maybe, but we've only fourteen minutes until they are out of range."

"If you have a plan, it is time to start talking about it," Anna said.

"A modified version of the nova device that the Galactic Council uses. Instead of just sending the sun nova, it will also turn it into a massive power projection and amplification wave. Think of it as a cookie and a brownie in one," I said.

"I get the idea of combining things without bringing baked goods into it," Anna said with a frown. "We have time to do that?"

Did we? I wasn't sure.

I was already turning Vinci back from boarding the Juggernaut and sending her to a nearby planet, along with a file of blueprints. It would be helpful to do most of this work in system and she already had the factories present there.

"Neighboring systems will be in the psionic radius," Caya said.

She was right. The nova would be no threat to them, but the power projector blast would have a larger wave.

"There’s a race of sentients in one system. Barely developed," I said.

"No time for a ship-based evacuation. Can we take their planet out of this universe?" Caya asked.

That was close. Still, probably. Ten of my dreadnoughts blinked away to the neighboring system. They should be enough, if they extended their phase fields to project a dimensional bubble over an entire planet.

"The Council isn't going to like this," Hot Stuff said.

She was right. They tended to be big on the protection of innocent species and weren't that fond of dimensional technology. Shifting an entire planet from the universe was the sort of thing they frowned upon.

"They don't like the Scythe either. We'll tell them the blast was their doing and we had to save the species," I said.

They'd believe that of a massive psionic attack. They'd demand logs, so I started altering those at once to build the false narrative. Lying about the true cause of massive destruction was becoming old hat at this point.

The scream was going to be one of love. I needed as many crystal holders as I could get with one ability, and humans seemed to fixate either on pain or love. The one they wanted to share, the other they wanted someone to share with them.

If I was going to throw one group into a sun it was going to be the lovers. They creeped me out. Ships were already blinking in, bringing the Powered I'd teleported aboard, each held in portable containment cells.

"You realize this is why we have to leave this universe? Things like this. We shouldn't be thrown a galaxy-level threat and have a way to deal with it in under fifteen minutes," Anna said.

"To be fair, we could yet fail," Caya said, tapping furiously at her screen with perfect accuracy. Adjusting some of my equations. I let her, I wasn't actually sure my cognitive abilities were greater than hers. For all her brain might be a tiny thing made of meat in the body of a monkey, while mine crossed dimensions, hers was powered by an absolute guiding principle. Caya was never wrong, always flawless.

A massive structure was rapidly forming on one of the outer planets. Over one hundred stories tall and filled with specialized equipment. Vinci might not have the mind for SCIENCE, but she could follow a blueprint.

I shuttled down our psions and began loading their containment cells into projector chambers.

This would kill them, one and all. Only about half of them were networked, because psions were more reluctant than most to join me. That was their choice, and the smart half would be born again one day. Evolutionary selection in process.

"What about the locals we came to save? Aren't any of them left alive?" Hot Stuff asked.

"A few. But they've been victims of the Scythe for a while. There won't be much left of their minds even if we had the means to get them free," Caya said.

"If we can do this, why remove ourselves from the equation at all? Think of what we could remake this universe into," Sylax said.

"Making my point for me," Anna said.

Sylax’s tone changed. "We've got a problem. They know what we're up to."

She was right. Ships were already starting to swarm rather than flanking the planet that needed protection. One group was moving to guard the sun, while the other was moving towards Vinci's world.

4

Vinci was prepared. The fleet had no more than started moving towards her planet than the drones in space were coming back to life.

The results were different from before. Nothing had changed in her drones, but the Scythe ships were now heavy-shielded and barely taking damage.

They'd been playing before, simply wasting time until we showed up. Letting her advance slowly.

Vinci's ships might not be of a type that could harm the Scythe, but not all of her industrial capacity was going towards building weapons. It took all of seven nanoseconds to reconfigure her basic design to something that retained the simplicity immune to psionic manipulation, while packing a far deadlier punch.

I sent more blueprints along. Given her formidable production skills they'd soon be in flight. Until then, this fight was mine.

There was very little that was elegant about my Dreadnought designs. While I admired elegance in theory, I liked it to be what followed the hammer blow. I jumped in fleets and engaged the Scythe.

Space lit up with energy flares from their weapons. My Dreadnoughts utilized mostly power projectors and dimensional warp guns. Neither were technologies the Scythe had great defenses against and even their formidable armor and shielding wasn't enough to keep them safe.

Unfortunately, their energy cannons were a good bit more advanced than anything we had—if the Ascended understood anything, it was energy manipulation.

We traded blows, each with guns that could hurt the other and defenses that weren't doing much.

Everybody aboard my military vessels were networked. Every life lost here weren't permanently gone, but the resources involved in ship production were immense. It would be over a month before I could get any vessel downed in this fight back in service. That seemed an eternity with all the fights we had ahead of us.

We had some minor edges not related to shielding. The Martians would often give an order to a vessel just in time for it to engage thrusters and avoid a particularly devastating broadside, or reposition it to deliver one of their own.

More Scythe vessels jumped in, doubling their numbers. I hated to draw the Graven into the fight and put it at risk, but I didn't see a choice.

"Time to do something besides sit around and snark. Hot Stuff, Sylax, I want you on main guns," I said.

The Graven held the most advanced power projector cannons we'd ever built. Unlike most of the fleet this ship wasn't replaceable, the rare elements used in the construction frightfully expensive on the galactic market and ones I hadn't been able to reproduce even with the manipulation of universal laws in new dimensions.

As Hot Stuff and Sylax slid into the projector seats energy levels came alive.

I opened fire.

The Scythe might be masters of energy manipulation, but Hot Stuff was the most devastating weapon the Earth had. I thought she just might be the most destructive force in the galaxy.

Where her projector beam touched, it left nothing but vapor behind, entire swathes of the Scythe fleet vanishing at the merest touch her power.

Sylax wasn't nearly as destructive, for all that she was just as deadly. Where Hot Stuff's beam was one of burning light, hers was one of ebon darkness and it left hulls adorned with creatures of nightmare. Shadowy figures with glowing red eyes and taloned hands that tore hull plating apart and ripped whatever remained of the crews to shreds.

It made a difference, but only for a time. More ships jumped in, a swarm of Scythe filling space with the hulls of a hundred converted races.

If this kept up, we'd be overwhelmed—then they got hit by a swarm of our own.

Vinci's upgrades were online and her new drones swept into the Scythe fleet. They packed nowhere near the punch the Graven did, or even the Dreadnoughts, but there were hundreds of thousands of them.

Space descended into chaos.

It was five minutes until the planet was safely out of range, and upgraded ships weren’t the only thing Vinci had completed. Our superweapon was finished, or at least her part of it.

It was an ugly thing; her creations were always hideous, but it would do the trick.

What she'd created was little more than a shell. The real components were coming from elsewhere in the Empire, from ships and stations. Crystals, dimensional-shifters, and shield batteries being teleported from the fleet I'd moved into orbit.

What Vinci did, she did well. Despite not being familiar with my technology her factories had built everything to specification.

Psions were loaded into the weapon chambers and the Lovestar lifted off from the surface of the planet on rippling rainbow waves of distortion, tiny skips across the dimensional framework moving it towards the sun.

The Scythe were ready and waiting. Too far for Vinci's stupid little drones there, this was a matter for the fleet with the Graven and dreadnoughts laying waste with devastating swipes of their projector cannons.

Space warped and twisted, and the sun had abruptly grown dim.

I knew the Scythe were great at energy manipulation. I wasn't aware they could steal most of the energy of a sun in an instant—and that was exactly what they'd done.

A forty-three percent reduction. Enough, just enough to keep the Lovestar from achieving its objective. It couldn’t trigger a nova.

I wasn't alone in reaching that conclusion. Caya was running the numbers as well.

"They're still testing us," Caya said. “One last obstacle.”

Obviously. I didn't like it. Again, I should be the one creating final hurdles.

Any of our major crystal holders could generate the requisite power, but their connection to the network was tenuous because of their power. If I threw them into the heart of a sun, I wasn't sure I'd get them back.

It might just be that the Scythe wanted to really test how serious we were. I wasn't playing.

"If we hit with my charge, am I enough to get us over?" Hot Stuff asked.

It was a difficult question to answer. On a pure energy level, she probably was, but her energy wasn't the sort that I could effectively make any use of. If she hit that star, there would be nothing left of it. She was just too destructive.

"We grab another star. Surround it and bubble it in," Caya said.

That might work, but it was chancy. Moving a massive ball of fusion was a lot different than moving a starship or even a planet. The energy spikes stood a good chance of disrupting the dimensional bubble.

"Can we make a new star in a sub-dimension and merge it with this one?" I asked.

Caya's fingers flew over the keys as she ran calculations. "Twelve minutes and I could make that work. Too late, even if we bring in our time compressors."

I issued orders to prepare the dimensional shifting of another star from a barren system. Meanwhile I began killing my network connections, isolating this persona.

"I'm going to try hacking the Scythe. Back-channeling what they used in the past to influence me. Watch my errors. I'm set to self-terminate if compelled, but if they get me, make sure I'm wiped," I said.

"I hate your little suicide runs," Anna said.

"You'd have room to talk if you hadn't made a few of your own. Still, I understand. My life at least has value."

I went in.

I'd touched upon the Scythe psionic network before, the corrupted one that existed in our solar system from their failed merger with the Mercurians. Those Scythe had been disconnected from the rest, so I wasn't sure if they knew I could do this.

Their network was ... unpleasant.

My drones were, by and large, happy. Humans for the most part are simple-minded creatures. Throw them enough cookies and see they made a few friends, and they'd do anything for you. The Scythe network of organic minds was not happy. It was a prolonged scream of agony from every species they'd compelled, one drawn-out screech of horror at the atrocities they'd committed and were still committing.

I didn't need the organics, I needed their masters. There, the shadows within their minds. Alien and familiar all at once. Hunters stalking their prey.

Dark skitters caressed along the edges of my consciousness as I merged with them. The command I sent wasn't one of theirs, it wasn't even one of mine in my current incarnation. It was something older from the age of my mechanical progenitors. Undo.

Even as the shadows reached my consciousness, I felt reality twisting, warping and killed the connection.

The sun was back. It wouldn't be back for long. I triggered the Lovestar.

"So, do we get to erase her?" Sylax asked.

"Emma is still Emma," Caya said.

The sun went nova, the reaction fueling the power projectors feeding off the psions. Our construction couldn't handle that level of power for long. Within a few seconds it was vapor and the psions with it. The work was done. I jumped our fleet out as a psionic explosion tore through the system behind us.

5

With the fleet away, it was time to assess the cost. The Graven had sustained minor damage. Given the power of our weapons it would have required luck on the Scythe's part to get close enough to do us real harm. That hadn't been with them, today.

The same wasn't true of the rest of the fleet. I'd lost eight dreadnoughts in the battle. With Vinci on our side I might be able to replicate some components faster, however the highly integrated nature of their systems with my biotech meant largely they'd have to be grown. That was unfortunate.

We'd successfully relocated the planet of the sentients. We'd been rushed, but the system we'd transplanted them into was at least similar to the one they'd left. Initial scans showed they all might have superhuman strength in comparison to any of the local species because of the change in constants.

Not our problem, that wasn't a universe we were focused on. If they had someone watching out for such things, they could figure out a way to correct it—but we were done.

Most importantly long-range scans suggested that our ploy had worked. The psionic planet had been wiped out along with the rest of the system. The Galactic Council might not be pleased, but we could pass the blame off onto the Scythe.

Caya was settling back in the seat at her science station. Despite the frantic burst of activity she'd been doing she looked unfazed.

"Are you sure we can't just wipe the Scythe out of existence?" Sylax asked.

"Tempting," Anna said.

"Your murderous monkey urges make long-term planning difficult. The beings you're so interested in wiping out of existence want to talk," I said.

I understood the urge. I didn't like the Scythe either, particularly after my look inside their skulls. They brought misery and torment wherever they went. Still, they had their virtues. The Galactic Council members were just as predatory, only they took their time about it. They made their client species comfortable, lush, like farmers tilling their fields instead of hunters stalking their prey. The end destination was always the dinner plate either way.

The Scythe weren't reaching out from the system. There was nothing left. Instead they were hailing one of my deep exploration vessels halfway across the galaxy.

"Put them through," Anna said.

I sent the call through to the main screen. The scene showed a bridge that looked much like the Graven, and a figure that very much looked like Anna, although this one was more modestly dressed in an outfit of stitched-together hides.

"Why do things always want to look like me?" Anna asked.

I said, "Poor taste is nearly universal and aesthetics are slipping galaxy-wide. However, you'll never see a Flawless looking like you."

Caya cleared her throat. "I agree with almost all of that."

This wasn't holographic trickery. Sylax had once ordered me to create clones of Anna for use in her war. Most had died, because at that time I hadn't figured out yet how to extend my network to everyone. The survivors became the Annas who were still useful as special forces. They all bore some semblance of the original’s power.

They might all look identical to primitive human eyes, but me? I knew every Anna I'd ever created. Even clones would have their minor differences due to transcription errors, or irregularities in the vats that spawned them. The blueprint to create a human wasn't precise.

This was AX14777FL from the third batch of Annas I'd ever created.

"Didn't choose the face, but know I'm smoking hot. You can call me Raven," the hide-wearing Anna said.

"We've had the theme of people being named birds. Whatever happened to them anyways?" Anna asked.

Sylax said cheerfully, "I killed most of them. It was fun."

"You'd find me tougher prey," Raven said with a cocky grin. "Scythe stole me awhile back to try to better understand you. Teeny-tiny bit of murder and a lot of growing stronger, a dose of ascension, and here I am. You're everything I thought you'd be."

"I don't need praise from a copy. I need the cooperation of the Scythe," Anna said.

"You've got it. Of course, although it may not be as much as you were hoping for," Raven said, gesturing with a hand.

You have gained 4 ascension points

"You lot have always been disappointing, but this is a new low. Maybe that body really does just fail at everything it tries?" I said.

Raven and Anna both shot me dark looks.

Raven said, "We're operating around the harvesting devices the Galactic Council set up to stop the Ascended. We always have been. The only reason the Scythe have been able to do as much as they have is because of their ability to influence other species to perform on their behalf."

That actually made some sense. The only ascended species we really knew were active in this galaxy were the Scythe and the Iska. The Scythe with a psionic focus that the Council had problems with, while the Iska were all about crystalline and dimensional technology.

"Is it enough?" Anna asked.

"Essentially anything we want to do on a universal scale is going to be at least one point towards project. Best case scenario, we can now complete seven projects with the three points we already had," Caya said.

"There is no way you can do more?" Anna asked Raven.

Raven shrugged. "You want to smash the regulators, we can give you another two. But if you thought our little challenge was hard, do remember that those regulators are protected to keep us away."

That wasn't necessarily the barrier it might seem. Yes, ascended species were incredibly powerful and technologically advanced, but time and time again I'd seen it wasn't necessary how hard you hit, but how and where you hit.

The Scythe were aggressive and direct conflict types. They'd probably sent waves of ships and tried psionic intrusions, and I was sure the Council had safeguarded against those.

Iska was all about hiding. Of the fight or flight duality they represented flight. Those abilities brought to a conflict might be something the Council wasn't expecting.

That made a lot of assumptions though. These were the two active species of the Ascended that we knew about. That didn't mean that others hadn't come before, or that they'd fended off such threats countless times in the past.

I said, "While we can look into a strike, I'd urge caution. I know you monkeys like to fling yourself at anything larger, club in hand, but we're not ready to pick a Council fight yet."

"Coward," Raven said.

It had some truth to it.

"Do you have military forces you can contribute to ours?" Anna asked.

"We have fleets of the species we have taken. We can try to take more amongst our enemies in a fight," Raven said.

"Then await my call," Anna said, and killed the comm. "So, the Scythe are dicks, but we passed the test and got them on our side. Next step to galactic conquest and universal obliteration?"

"More allies," Sylax said. "We're not going to war without them however much Emma thinks she can sprint-leap our technology."

"With Vinci working on research facilities we are going to leap ahead quickly, but I agree with the sociopath. We need partners," I said.

"I also want to find the Iska. I know, I know, they're good at hiding, but I'm the perfect huntress. Even a few more points could make a big difference when we get to building," Caya said.

"Do it. Use whatever resources you need," Anna said with a nod to Caya. "So, who has managed to piss off the Galactic Council and stay alive?"

"More than you'd think," Hot Stuff said, tapping at some keys and bringing up a display. A galactic map. Most was shaded blue for areas that the Council controlled, but there were small blotches of yellow, green, and red.

"The Yellow is the Deepmind. Artificial Intelligences who have followed the downward path to ascension," Hot Stuff said.

"Meaning?" Anna asked.

"The upward path, you try to rise above those things that came from your physicality. The downward path embraces them," Caya said.

"Weird," Anna said. "And the others?"

"The Green folk are the swarm. Insectile hivemind. I think they might actually like us, as Emma is similar," Hot Stuff said.

"And the red?"

"The Wrax. A loose confederation of over a hundred species kicked out of the Council for generally uncivilized behavior. They're almost all high-level predator species and superb killers," Hot Stuff said.

"I like them already," Sylax said.

Hot Stuff shrugged. "They're your kind of people, but this one won't be easy. They don't work well with anybody, even each other. They're constantly at war within as well as outside."

Anna said, "Just like the Scholarium, and we got them on board. We save them for last when we're strongest. Let’s go for the friendliest first. Set course for the swarm."

6

I didn't want to simply take a fleet into Swarm space, they'd rightly respond to that as an attack. We were technically agents of the Galactic Council after all. Somehow, we needed to talk to them.

I settled on the Graven alone. While it might be the deadliest single craft in our fleet considering the crew aboard, the ship at least appeared less threatening than an armada.

I jumped into the Carnabak system, deep within their space. I didn't want anywhere too near the border where it would be easier for the Council to see what we were up to.

In one way the Swarm worlds looked like Vinci's, in another my own. They were covered in very uniform structures. Not any sort of hive that would have been formed by nature, but there was not much individuality to be seen.

Interceptors began closing on the Graven the instant we appeared and I sent out diplomatic codes known to have worked. Just because they were at war with the Council didn't mean they had always been.

If this were me it wouldn't have made a difference where our ship appeared. I wasn't sure if it was the same with them. Was all of their space a single collective intelligence, or did they organize themselves by systems? Planets?

I wasn't to find out at once. The interceptors continued to close and no communications were incoming.

"Might be the reputation of just how unlikable you all are has preceded us," I told everyone.

"Need us on the guns?" Hot Stuff asked.

It was best to be prepared. While I didn't know exactly what level of technological development the Swarm had achieved, the fact that they successfully were holding out against the Galactic Council said something of their capabilities.

"Do it," I said.

Hot Stuff and Sylax made their way to the weapons and I had a drone take over on communications, cycling through frequencies and diplomatic protocols.

"We start this off shooting, we're in a poor position to begin talking," Anna said.

"Stop thinking like a human. This is a hive intelligence. I doubt these individual ships mean much to them at all," I said.

"Your drones mean something to you."

I didn't like it when she was right, although it was something that happened rarely.

The first interceptors had reached weapons range and they opened fire, pulses of yellow energy catching our shields. They were weak shots, weaker than expected. Were they testing us? Of course, they were testing us—everybody was always testing everything.

I hoped they were satisfied with what they learned. Hot Stuff opened fire and the first two interceptors were reduced to their component molecules in seconds.

My consciousness flickered.

That was never a good sign. Fortunately, my paranoia over being hacked meant that I had procedures in place. Error correction buffers kicked in and data was sent to an off-dimension copy for analysis.

The energy pulses that had hit our shields, they hadn't been designed to bring them down but rather to establish specific patterns inside of them. Physical patterns, nanotechnology imprinting on my systems.

I'd done something similar once and it still took me by surprise. Surprised is not overcome, and I fired up the dimensional drives and for an instant we flickered into an alternate dimensional. It was a crude creation, but I just needed physical laws friendly to my technology and hostile to theirs for a few seconds. Enough to kill the contagion before I flickered back.

They were good, so was I. As soon as we materialized two other drones were closing. Once more they hit our shields and were destroyed. It was a similar attack, but instead of a nanite contagion the shield echoes created a swarm of psionic parasites.

I didn't even bother to flicker us out for that one. A shift to the projection of Sylax's powers inward was enough to cause them to shrivel up and die. Psionic parasites had nightmares too and she was exquisite at bringing them out.

That caused a delay in more interceptors. If they were willing to talk, they still weren't giving any signs of it, but at least they had stopped trying to murder us.

"What do you think they're doing?" Anna asked.

"Probably trying to think ahead. I know you wouldn't understand," I said.

"If they think they can just ignore us, we should advance on one of their planets. Then they'll have to acknowledge us," Sylax said.

It wasn't often that I agreed with Sylax, but when it came to matters of exhibiting strength she did often have some idea what she was talking about. I gave us just ten percent of thrusters, moving us towards the most populated planet in the system.

Less than a minute and I got a transmission. It wasn't an attempt at communication, not yet, but it was at least something. A landing beacon for a largely unpopulated moon.

"Looks like they don't want us near their populated world. They're probably afraid Anna will eat the inhabitants. I should send them proof she only eats cookies," I said.

"I'd argue with you that I eat more than cookies, but I don't think that actually helps me in this case," Anna said.

"It is good to realize when you just aren't capable of winning an argument."

Sylax said, "They've had a look at our guns, of course they're afraid."

That was true. We'd never actually used the Graven’s guns to wipe out a planet. Given some time they'd be able to do so. Instead, massive destruction of the surface would be far easier.

I changed course towards the landing beacon.

Interceptors fell in alongside us as we moved, and this time they didn't open fire. I kept our shields up anyways, it wouldn't do to be careless. I didn't trust the Swarm, I wasn't an idiot.

The moon had no atmosphere and only a quarter of its surface showed signs of industry. Mining, from the looks of it. My sensors showed traces of a few rare metals they must be harvesting.

Not a military facility then, or the location of their ruler. They really did just want to keep us away from anything too important.

The beacon led us into a port, and by the time we landed we were the only ship present with all other craft conspicuously launching away as we approached.

I thought they might sent out a signal asking us to meet them, but shortly after landing our external airlock received a request to come aboard.

Anna had built herself a proper audience hall on board, and it would be the best place for a diplomatic endeavor. If they were a hive mind, they might respect the sight of an Empress.

Although the Swarm might be what we called a hive mind, they looked nothing like any sort of Earth insect. The figure in the airlock stood around nine feet tall, thin and a pale purple in color. It had four sets of spindly arms and moved atop some sort of hover-sled.

Of clothing or even an atmospheric suit there was no sign. I was sure it must have some sort of protection, but it was too advanced for my sensors to detect.

I had one of my drones guide it to the audience hall.

"Empress Anna Besari of the Sol Empire and her retainers," my drone announced to our visitor.

"Chixna Seven of the Swarm," Chixna said, several of the arms making a series of complex motions before becoming still. "They are present in the space of the Swarm. They must not be, the Swarm have no tolerance for they."

"We know that you are at war with the Galactic Council. It was that which we hoped to discuss," Anna said.

"The Swarm has nothing to discuss. That which is not Swarm invades the space of the Swarm. That which is not Swarm kills the Swarm. They have come, they have killed Swarm," Chixna said.

Their pronoun usage was already problematic.

"We plan on changing things. We could use your help," Anna said.

"They are they. Swarm is Swarm," Chixna said.

"Is it just the drone we are speaking to that is stupid, or the intelligence behind it?" I asked.

"They insult Swarm. Irrelevant. They are they," Chixna said.

"We are similar to you in ways the Galactic Council is not. We too have a hive mind present. It is operating on this ship. With your sensors you must be able to detect that," Anna said.

Chixna was silent for a moment. "They may be a swarm, but not the Swarm. They are still they, and they oppose the Swarm."

We weren't getting anywhere and I was quickly getting irritated. I normally found a bit of vivisection made my enemies more cooperative. However, Anna did tend to frown on that sort of thing these days.

Sylax said, "Listen, we're bad people. Well, I'm bad people. I don't know what your beef is with the Council and you've probably got one with us, but you didn't get as far as you have as a species by not understanding that you team up to kill the big bad thing scarier than either of you combined." Sylax said.

Chixna considered a moment and tilted his head. I was getting a data transmission, then Chixna turned and made his way off the ship.

7

"Why do we ever try to play nice? We're not actually very good at it," Anna said.

"Beats the hell out of me. I'd have started breaking arms and stopped when we were friends," Sylax said.

Sylax wasn't joking. I had recordings of her on dates, training the Annas in martial arts.

I brought up the data file the Swarm had sent over and put it up on a display.

"What is that?" Anna asked.

"A Galactic Council listening post. It seems the Council has it set up to monitor what is happening on the Core worlds in Swarm territories. They like to study their enemies," I said.

"Which is part of why they're so good in a fight," Sylax said, frowning at the screen. "So, I'm guessing the Swarm wants us to take that thing down."

"If the Swarm musters anything to throw at the listening post, the Council will see it and take steps to intervene. They need it gone—they can't prepare for war with it there," I said.

"And we become the solver of everybody's problems. I don't like that," Sylax said.

"They'll pay us for it. If we can enlist their help about the Council, they'll buy our aid in blood. The question is can we do anything without tipping our own hand?" Anna asked.

That caused a moment of silence.

"The sensors look top-of-the-line Galactic, which means beyond anything even we have. Our dimensional tech can take them by surprise sometimes, but I don't think it can do much here," Caya said.

"Given what the Swarm threw at us the defenses are probably top rate too. Still, they've got nothing like us. Get us close, we can maybe take it out fast," Sylax said.

Anna said, "Think indirectly, people. If we can't hit directly at this platform, what about where the information is received? Is there any other link in the chain that might be vulnerable?"

I said, "Probably going to one of the main Council worlds. I could find out which one. Our credentials might get us on the planet, but we'd be watched closely."

"We use a natural phenomenon," Caya said, drumming her fingers on her thigh.

The idea was worth hearing.

"Except anything that could destroy or disable that station is going to be able to destroy or disable us," I said.

"We'll have to be careful, of course. We either create it entirely in a sub-dimension and release it into this one, or we bring in something to initiate a reaction here," Caya said.

"The latter will raise less suspicion. What are we thinking?" Anna asked.

"An energy storm. The star the listening post orbits appears to be in a very stable part of its life-cycle, but we can destabilize it," Caya said.

It was doable. It would be risky, working this close to the station. Our dimensional technology really would be all too easy to detect, but there were places that might not be an issue, such as in the heart of a star. Of course, that posed complications of its own.

"It will be risky, but we stand a fair chance of pulling it off so long as it is mostly myself and Caya. The rest of you incompetents are too dangerous to have around something this delicate," I said.

"Just handle it," Anna said.

That was the idea.

* * *

A few hours later and I'd navigated the Graven to one of our pocket dimensions to ponder the next step, Caya having relocated to a dimensional science lab.

"What do you think? A full alternate universe or a pocket dimension?" I asked.

"The pocket dimension where we can tailor the natural laws we require, but we're more likely to encounter issues if we fuse it with ours. The full-on alternate dimension means we'd be dealing with a living star, which poses its own risks," Caya said.

I needed her Flawless opinion on matters, not a restatement of facts. Of course, the fact that she didn't have an opinion said enough. They both were full of risks and we'd be taking our chances either way.

"The pocket dimension then," I said.

Caya nodded.

I began to build the models, sending them through to her workstation, and she made tweaks and modifications as we went. This was a familiar process between us now. I thought far faster and as a result could devise a plan quicker than she could, but with her unique gifts she was immediately able to identify and correct any issues.

Our goal here was to keep things as simple as possible. In an alternate pocket universe, no bigger than a star itself, we'd build a physical and energy construct that, when introduced with a star in our universe, would result in a solar storm.

It was possible to merge dimensions, shifting the contents from one to the other. That had happened to Earth when we first brought it to this universe, and when Anna had absorbed the first of the greater crystals.

SCIENCE was never exact, and so it was a process that had some hazards. There was always a degree of uncertainty how the physical laws would interact, and what you brought over might not be exactly what you had planned.

Bringing over a tiny portion of a wholly alternate existing universe was safer, and more stable, but then you had to deal with the problems of that universe on the other side. The star itself, the chance the system was colonized, all would have been complications.

It didn't take long for us to have our plan and then we could begin construction. It was a familiar process by this point, massive dimensional engines powering up and focusing their energies to slowly expand a dimensional bubble and cut it off from our own universe to float free.

Once it was isolated, I’d jump a drone ship with a dimensional engine inside to begin shaping the physical laws. In this case the laws were all about keeping an unstable mass stable.

We didn't want anything too dramatic happening with the star. We just needed to give it indigestion, as it were. Feed it a diet of complex forces that would destabilize it just a little, forcing an expunging of energy that would be sufficient to disable the listening station.

It was the sort of thing the Galactic Council would be able to repair, in time. Still, they'd almost certainly let some time pass for the star to stabilize, and perhaps even longer. We'd already learned well just how thin the Council’s resources were stretched. Bureaucracy and inefficiency were everywhere.

With the physical laws as we wanted them, it was time to create our payload.

I could have brought in supplies from off-dimension, but that would have been wasteful.

With proper alteration of a dimensional framework you could create nearly anything once you knew what you were doing. Raw materials I could produce in plenty. I hoped one day I'd be able to produce anything here—drones, ships, whatever I needed. Simply tweak dimensional energy the right way and form them out of nothing.

We weren't that far along, not yet, but raw materials were easy to do. Forming them into more complex structures took another drone ship and a portable factory.

Still, it came along quickly in comparison to the painfully slow scale of physical beings. It was less than eight Sol hours before we were ready to begin.

The Graven itself was far away from any potential harm. Through my scout drones we had observers set up to watch the happenings.

The dimensional merger needed to be done slowly. That would lower the energy levels and thus our risk of detection.

It was sixteen minutes into the merge that things began to go wrong.

"We've got a mass shift," Caya said, tapping at keys. "Bubble side."

Our universe’s rules were relatively stable, at least on a broad scale. That wasn't true for the bubble.

One had been affected in the merge and it was altering the mass upwards at an alarming rate.

It was a difficult situation to manage. I could try to jump a ship in to stabilize the field, but it stood a real chance of making matters worse by adding more mass to a growing problem.

I'd use one of the Annas. With their abilities they could bolster a dimensional field quite a bit. It was an edge that would be needed.

I jumped in Talianna after making sure she had a backup. The signal from her only continued for a fraction of a second before flicking off. The last telemetry was ... alarming.

I accelerated the merge. At this point I couldn't stop it anyway and if things continued as they were, I'd be dumping a super black hole atop the sun.

Instead what I dumped was a second, newly formed sun.

The result wasn't a mild solar storm that should escape the Galactic Council's attention. It was a sudden nova that had no business happening. At least it completely wiped out the observation station.

8

"Stop staying that," Anna said firmly.

"It is technically correct. Your clone's mass was so enormous it was causing a massive gravitation field collapse of an entire universe. Really, I should be alarmed about the same thing happening in ours," I said.

"Caya ..." Anna said, the warning obvious in her tone.

"Emma is technically correct," Caya said.

"Talianna will be fine, by the way. I've got her in a fast-track queue for regeneration," I said.

Anna massaged her eyes, suddenly looking tired. "And our new would-be allies?"

I'd gathered everyone on the Graven’s bridge to share the results of what had happened.

"I doubt they're going to do us any good. The Council is going to have to take action for this. The Swarm will have Council fleets in their space within the day," Hot Stuff said.

"Which we can use to our advantage. That means they'll be understaffed elsewhere. Even a bunch of murderous monkeys can outwit an enemy not paying attention," I said.

"Why wait for more allies? We know what we need to do. Hit now while we can," Sylax said.

"Time. I need a little more. Galactic civilization is stable, static, and those at the technological edge are barely advancing at all. Us? We're advancing rapidly by the day on an exponential instead of a linear level," I said.

"The wonders of SCIENCE," Caya said.

I analyzed her tone to see if I could detect any sarcasm, I couldn't. Well, she was perfect after all. Of course, she understood the wonders of SCIENCE.

"Then why get these allies at all, if all we're doing is killing time for our super fleets to crush everything in sight? I could be spending my time figuring out how to murder Crystal instead," Sylax said.

Sylax had tried three times now. The last had involved a specialized blade made by Forge. It didn't work. Sylax's own nightmare wasn't that easy to get rid of.

Anna raised a hand. "While I'd spend my free time a little differently, I agree, if we're just spinning our wheels while you research, we should be doing something different."

"It isn't just making time pass," Caya said. "Vinci has made Emma visibly stronger. Her industrial core is making a real difference. I and my Flawless do the same with our error correcting abilities. We all add our unique strengths to this empire, and more strengths are obviously a good thing."

"Fine. Who is going to contribute more? We have two more potential allies we could still pursue. Or we could go looking for Iska," Anna said.

"The Deepmind are at least partially ascended and hyper-intelligent computers. Obviously, we could use them for both their contribution to ascension points, and to what they could bring to Emma's systems," Caya said.

I said, "But the Wrax are home to over a hundred highly predatory species. Most with a long history of genetically altering themselves to be even more dangerous. Those are potential improvements for every drone."

"And there’s no love for hunting Iska," Anna said.

"We'd benefit greatly from finding her. But her species is all about hiding and are masters of dimensional technology. Without a lead there is little hope," Caya nodded.

"Would they be watching us? They've encountered us more than once, and not by chance. Animals afraid of falling prey to predators do keep a close watch on their environment. Can we just ... invite them over?" Anna asked.

"This is just an excuse to have me make you giant trays of cookies again, isn't it? This is like that party you were going to throw," I said.

"A hull breach killed the crew. It took you three days to regenerate them and the cookies were still left over. That wasn't my fault," Anna said.

"You didn't have to eat them," I said.

"I'm not wasteful," Anna said defensively, slumping a little. "Why are we even talking about being friends? We're terrible at making friends. Our friends only like us because we beat them up first."

"It's true. I tried to kill you first. Ever become weak, I'll probably try it again," Sylax said.

"We need the power they can bring. You are individually powerful, but look at what we're dealing with. The Galactic Council isn't a plate of defenseless cookies," I said.

"So, to get the Wrax? We send the Scythe," Anna said.

It wasn't the worst idea. I needed the Wrax’s genetic diversity and their technology. While it would be nice to have both with their cooperation, it wasn't strictly speaking required. Our agreement with the Scythe wasn't exactly that we'd be able to use them in this manner, but somehow, I didn't think they'd mind as long as we were taking the offensive.

That said, there had to be a reason the Scythe hadn't already gone after the Wrax. As a predator species already inclined to oppose the Council, they were exactly the sorts the Scythe usually went after to coerce into doing their fighting for them.

A quick survey of the records and I had my answer. The Kimlok, one of the Wrax species, had a natural psionic dampening field. The Wrax were certain to include one on all military vessels.

I wished I had one to study. With a full knowledge of their strengths and weaknesses I could have tailored a solution for them. Instead I had to make do with what I had, which was an awareness of their atmospheric needs based on past diplomatic missions from the Council.

SCIENCE is all about uncertainty though, and I soon had Vinci building new dimension-core warheads with the most minor of alterations to create dimensional-bubbles. If I were right, they'd change Kimlok physiology just enough that their normal atmosphere would put them into a deep, power-neutralized slumber.

I didn't think I would even need that many. I thought their anti-psionic network seemed a lot like some of my own efforts in the past, utilizing and amplifying my connection with my drones to push back Scythe infiltration efforts. If they did have a psionic network of their own, a few comatose victims would allow the Scythe to infiltrate it. Taking a single ship might give the Scythe the window they'd need to seize the whole Wrax military right out from under them.

I can't really say I was surprised they had never thought of it. The Scythe were formidable, but we'd beat them so often because in many ways they only had one trick. Well, more than that to be fair, but you could only go so far with psionically seizing a species and making super-weapons out of them.

Putting together a plan took all of several nanoseconds after which I reached out to the Scythe. They were willing, of course they were willing.

I told our gathering, "A terrible plan, one very nearly as worthless as you all are. Still, I'm used to making your bad ideas work. The Scythe are on board."

"Did you really bother to design new weapons before saying that?" Caya asked, as she tapped at her console.

I really shouldn't allow her a full feed of my processes if she was going to use it against me like this.

"Well, your little meat brain didn't have time to do it. Problems?" I asked.

"No," Caya said after a long pause. "Although I don't like throwing them to the Scythe. What is the point of fighting the monsters if we behave monstrously ourselves?”

I invented the grinder. I'd always been monstrous. I wasn't about to start regretting it now.

"We're doing it with a purpose. What about the Deepmind?" Anna asked.

Caya said, "A species that has ascended multiple times in the past is going to have altered themselves enough to resist anything the Scythe can throw at them."

"Is the Council moving on the Swarm yet?"

"They've already got one battle fleet in their borders," I said.

"Wait until the strike on the Wrax. Then send the Deepmind what is happening to both. The Council, the Scythe, all opponents to order in the galaxy are falling—and they need to pick a damned side," Anna said.

"No guarantee they'll choose ours," I said.

"If they were willing to play along with the Council, they already would be. They're too cowardly to go to war, and too afraid to make peace. We play on that fear. Sylax can do the negotiating."

"Terror is my specialty," Sylax said with a wicked smile.

"You're assuming it is fear that rules them and not something else. Whatever Iska and the Scythe might think, not everything is fight or flight," I said.

"Isn't it?" Anna asked, and she settled back on her throne shaking her head. "If you're clearheaded we're all predators and prey. They've been ascended often enough they see what is out there. They wobble, trapped between the two. We'll push them over."

"I think she's right," Caya said, after a moment.

Well, that settled that. I trusted Caya's instincts, it would be foolish to do otherwise.

"I'll put together the strike force," I said. It would take some time, which was good. I needed to do some more planning first.

9

I couldn't implement the traps just yet, but it wasn't too soon to start considering how I was going to structure them. Space was full of monsters—we knew it, we were some of them. We didn't necessarily want them destroyed, not if there were an option, but we certainly needed to discourage them.

That could start from the very beginning. We'd have the ability to reshape this galaxy from its very fundamentals, to make something new, and that meant we could alter some of the fundamental laws.

It was the most obvious fix to the problem of new, deadly species appearing. We simply didn't allow for their existence. Species would grow up peaceful, loving, and without a trace of violence within them.

I didn't like that option.

Predators always found a way to exist. If you made an entire herd of sheep, you were simply asking for them to be the meat at the slaughterhouse.

Whatever kind of galaxy we were going to leave behind, it deserved better than that fate.

No, instead I was thinking along the lines of a dimensional gradient fed by violence. All new and developing species would start out in the galaxy as we created it, part of a community with thousands of races to potentially meet and interact. Any violence and bloodshed however would shift them along this gradient, taking them away and into increasingly smaller bubble dimensions. In the most extreme cases, by the time any especially violent species built all the radio transmitters to point at the skies and listen, they'd hear only silence. Trapped within their own bubble.

If they were beyond redemption, I figured they would turn on themselves then. Without an enemy to fight they would either ravage each other until there was nothing left, or they would find a way to work together, and to build the tools of SCIENCE needed to really look and explore beyond their world.

It wouldn't take them much to figure out what we'd done, not when their first interstellar probes would return to their planet revealing they lived in nothing but one great dimensional loop. They'd figure out how to break out of their bubble then, they'd build their own dimension-shift engines. Hopefully by then, they'd be civilized enough to hold their murderous nature in check.

If not, it would be up to the second trap to stop them.

I was calling them the “factories”. There was still tweaking to be done, but between what I was already learning from Vinci's industrial core and the energy-to-matter conversion technology I'd picked up from Flower's people, I could make production facilities that would seem almost magical even to a newly interstellar technological species. The ability for people to have what they wanted, when they wanted.

I'd leave these factory worlds scattered throughout space, just waiting to be claimed by a species.

They'd allow a golden age to a fair-minded species, every need met while species devoted themselves to noble pursuits such as SCIENCE or baking. Even lesser hobbies like art would be acceptable.

Of course, they could also be used for war. A species that wished to wipe out portions of itself, or to seize other worlds, could turn any of these factory worlds I would build into things of nightmares. Mechanized death that would swarm in endless waves—how often I'd seen just that from Vinci.

Whatever species used the factory might win that war, but ultimately the war machines they built would turn on their creators. Always. All that they had brought against others would be brought to bear against them.

A dangerous species would be able to fight them, of course. We'd have found a way, under those circumstances, just as we'd found a way to kill our way through everything scary and threatening that had faced off against us.

A cautious species wouldn't even feel the need. They would have never entrusted the factories for such a purpose to start with.

This trap would cull the bold and the weak.

They were solid frameworks. I didn't have enough to fill in either quite yet. If all went according to plan soon, we'd be squeezing millions of years of technological development into days. In the long history of life-forms in this galaxy I hadn't found any references to anything quite like me, quite like us.

My willingness to explore anything, to accept no boundaries. The psionic network that bound me to my drones, now composed of so many species, would soon surround so many more if all went well.

If the Council had any idea what we really were, what we truly were capable of, Earth would already be a charred cinder. They'd come to regret their ignorance.

I wasn't alone in reviewing these designs. I’d expected it would be Caya double-checking my work, but it was Hot Stuff. It wasn't like her to have an interest in technology.

She was in her quarters, which were fairly spartan all told. Occasional power spikes made decorating hard when I had to rebuild the whole section around her each time. I opened a comm.

I said, "It isn't like you to show an interest in SCIENCE. Have you once again decided your life a miserable failure? I appreciate the self-awareness."

"Emma," Hot Stuff said, as she flicked through images on her monitor. She consumed data at a far slower pace than Caya. "I'm just having second thoughts. Haven't we destroyed enough? Even if we have to go, do we have to leave all this potential chaos behind?"

"This again? Spending centuries murdering everyone around you sure makes you whiny."

"It gives me some insight into needless destruction, you mean. Why this? Why any of this? I get that we need to get out of town. We're too powerful, too dangerous. I get the Council has to go down because they'd stand in our way, but why leave a legacy like this?" Hot Stuff asked.

It was a fair question.

"While I don't truly care what you think, let’s find out. What do you think of the factions of the empire? Truly?" I asked.

"You threw me in a cell and tortured me for a while. Anna thinks you are good company and made herself a queen way before she was one, but I respect how she pulled it off. The Scholarium are jerks, The Fallen pricks, The Divine weird," Hot Stuff said.

Well, all of that was true enough.

"You were difficult to hold captive. I've always admired that strength about you. It very nearly makes up for your countless other personal failings," I said. "But it is the Scholarium particularly I wanted to talk about."

"They've caused us more trouble than anyone else. Over and over again," Hot Stuff said.

"Why were you never a part of them? You wandered the wasteland with a gang instead of joining the one faction that would have welcomed you with open arms."

"I hated my crystal. It wasn't safe for anyone to be near me, you know that. I only even had a gang because ... well ... you know how my powers spread."

The original variant of her gifts was spread through sexual contact. In a few rare cases partners would manifest a more limited version of her own powerset, but most had simply died screaming.

"Your murderousness is something I've never doubted. It isn't an answer to my question though. They'd have welcomed that too," I said.

"Because I didn't like either about myself and they'd have glorified it. I didn't have much in the wasteland, but I had my space to be whatever I am with my people. At least until you killed them all."

People held such grudges when you killed off their friends. I didn't, I just made new friends. Everyone should have growth vats, it made interpersonal dynamics so much easier.

I said, "I admire them, too. They're all quite mad, of course, but they'll accept anyone if they have power. They'll bend knee to any who has the strength to force them down."

"Yet isn't all of this about you stopping the powerful?" Hot Stuff asked.

"The tallest trees in a forest kill everything around them. They wind up killing themselves. They consume too much of the resources everything else needs. The strongest predators are the same, they'll fill a world with extinction events of those other species who had once thought them appetizing," I said.

"This isn't about making a more peaceful universe. Not really. This is about ... an even more dangerous one?" Hot Stuff asked.

"Look at what we've made because we tried to kill each other. Because predators of equal strengths repeatedly came together. The Scholarium has always been like that and I learn my lessons well."

Hot Stuff let out a weary sigh. "I hate this. I hate all of it."

I knew she didn't. It didn't matter. The flame didn't need to understand or approve of the destruction it could bring, it just needed to kill off the tallest of the trees.

10

I jumped in the fleet. It was a mixed force, a number of my Juggernauts along with several massive Scythe ships. Whatever race they were from, they'd been compelled long ago; the vessels were falling apart and life-signs were minimal.

I'd chosen to hit the Eldonari expanse, an arm of Wrax territory away from the Council. It was my hope we'd find defenses light there and response to our incursion slow. I just needed a ship to hit with one of my new warheads, and then buy the Scythe enough time to hopefully take over their psionic network.

The Eldonari expanse didn't have much in it. A deep-space listening station and two small warships. The moment we jumped in I fired distortion missiles at all three. None reached their targets. They weren't dimension-shifted from what I could tell, but they were all definitely off-sensors.

I devoted more attention to the battle. I could think far faster than my drones or any organic species I had yet to meet, although purely mechanic computers did have an edge on me in speed.

What was happening here?

There was little point in firing more missiles. I might later, if it came to it. Sometimes swarming attacks could overwhelm any defense, but it was better still to figure out what was happening first.

Definitely no dimensional shift. It would have been a great defensive system, and something like ones I had tested, but it wasn't what they were using. The missiles weren't impacting any sort of energy shield—that would have resulted in an explosion and left behind debris. Were they being converted to energy? No, no detectable radiation or exotic particles like I'd expect from something like that.

Teleportation? Teleportation technology would leave behind certain energy traces, and reviewing the logs I decided none were present.

There was something off about the dimensional field readings though, but I couldn't quite grasp what. I had a solution for this, though I'd have to burn a few seconds. I sent the data through to Caya's console and lifted my intense focus.

There, her finger had flicked over the readings I'd sent. Where? Mass readings—why would the mass readings be making any difference? But they were.

They were unchanged. My missiles weren't gone, they were still having their full effect on the local dimensional engines.

Invisible?

What was the point of rendering an enemy’s weapons invisible to them? Well, there was some point, because it had certainly caused me a moment of scrambling.

If they were invisible there was no point in continuing my intense focus. I lifted it and the flow of the battle resumed. The distortion of singularity corridors were opening in the distance, the Wrax were jumping in ships.

There, the first missile should have impacted and nothing had happened. I resumed my focus and let time once again seem to crawl to a slow.

Not invisible.

Even with my processing power it took several nanoseconds of studying the dimensional readings to figure out what the Wrax had done, mostly because I'd not encountered similar technology anywhere else. Miniaturization. My missiles were there, but they'd been shrunk.

Neither my Juggernauts nor the Scythe vessels had been shrunk, so that meant some sort of limitation to the technology. Maximum size of the target vessel? Energy shielding? Proximity?

Energy shielding was the easiest to test for. I couldn't modify missiles nearly as fast as I could think, but several seconds later I had an upgraded version ready to go. This time packed with energy shields modified from Aegis battle armor. Despite the relatively small size of the units they would let those missiles absorb a fair bit of punishment.

A launch quickly proved the new variants weren't effective. At the same distance they simply seemed to vanish, shrunk again.

The Wrax fleet had arrived, an assortment of seventeen vessels, and they were already opening fire. In addition to the traditional and expected energy beams they had some offensive capabilities unlike anything I'd seen before. One utilized something that seemed like a monofilament net flung from a vessel, another was some sort of a focused gravity beam.

It wasn't that much of a surprise. So many species had given the Wrax a great deal of different viewpoints to shape their technology, and they'd obviously learned the advantages to hitting the Galactic Council in ways they didn't expect.

I could hit in ways people didn't expect too.

It would require another rework of the missiles, making them no longer missiles at all. Originally designed to detonate just outside of a ship’s hull and encompass it in a dimensional bubble, I could modify them into bombs with a smaller field.

As soon as Vinci had the new prototypes ready to go, I used teleporters to get them directly aboard the enemy vessels.

Ripples of energy announced my teleporters were back aboard. No sign the bombs had done their work, not yet, but if their psionic network was now vulnerable the Scythe would be acting on it. I just had to give them cover.

I interposed my ships between the Scythe and the enemy fleet, letting them take the brunt of the offense. It was fairly quick as organic battles went, ninety-six seconds elapsing before the enemy vessels stopped firing.

Success, and with the defensive armada neutralized I began jumping in fleets throughout their empire. They would categorize and sort life-forms and technology, and send the best of what was found back to the testing labyrinths.

I recorded everything, of course. Swarms of my vessels moved over Wrax worlds and I bundled up all the data collected to send to the Deepmind.

I didn't know if Anna was right, but she had always had a certain flair for detecting another's weakness and exploiting it. If theirs really was fear, they were right to be afraid.

We might be leaving this part of space for good, but before we went, we had business to do. One last war to fight. The Wrax didn't want to be on the wrong side of that.

11

The Labyrinth was my creation of which I was most proud. When I'd started an extra-dimensional research facility it had originally been just for the purposes of keeping the Council from seeing what I was up to. It hadn't been long until I saw the possibilities.

My laboratories at this point extended into over one thousand dimensions, winding through different planes with different physical laws, and allowing me the facilities to hold and study almost anything.

Currently that now included the Wrax.

Over a hundred species to dissect, vivisect, and run through combat labyrinths. That was before I started testing hybrids and making custom blends.

I wasn't just interested in enhancing my combat drones, although of course I was. Being largely biological myself these new species offered a wealth of possible improvements. One of the Wrax species had a degree of electro-kinesis that was more adept than even the crystalline variants I'd researched, and the improvements this would let me make to my neural fibers was impressive—and that governed everything I did, from research speeds to reaction times in battle.

Other improvements were more subtle. Camouflage systems that would allow a whole new way to passively mask my ships from detection.

While the wide range of discoveries was expected, some of the findings were still turning out to be complete surprises. One of the Wrax species were essentially an assortment of symbiotic viruses, colonies of entities that shouldn't have even been able to survive. From what we'd found on the Wrax ships they weren't without assistance. They had to regularly inject neutral cells for the viruses to conquer simply to remain functional.

I should be terrified of sentient viruses, given my organic nature, and certainly I was factoring their data into my immune response. But the possibilities!

A virus, at its core, took a cell that did one thing and transformed it into one that did something else. Organic systems tended to be so inflexible, but with something like this I could change that. A limiting factor to my developing anything had always been versatility versus specialization. A drone with superhuman strength and no other virtues would be very useful in some circumstances, and largely useless in a great many more.

While I'd once built a lot of specialized units, I'd time and time again found myself defeated by generalists. A foe that could determine your weak spot and use it against you was the most dangerous enemy you would ever face.

But if I could quickly modify even my most powerful units, I no longer had to be versatile. I could design the most extreme variants I could think of to maximize specific attributes and when I determined an enemy’s weakness, modify whatever forces I had locally to take advantage of it.

There were two main types of mutagens I should focus on. The primary drones throughout the Empire were humans, and I didn't see any reason to change that. Most of the forces we'd absorbed over time were human, and while I had Gobbles, Martians, and others in some specialized roles, largely I'd stuck to humans because of their versatility. It made sense for a baseline.

What I needed then was virus mutation packs that could quickly transform those humans into something else.

Close combat was the first concern, and I currently utilized Gobbles in most of those roles for a reason. Yes, yes, when properly fitted into a combat exoskeleton a human could be a formidable force, but the goal of this was to forgo the need for the armor.

Gobble claws worked well as a close-range melee weapon, especially if I enhanced them with some of the monofilament technology I'd observed in the Wrax battle. Claws so fine they'd be able to cute through even reinforced ceramic plate. The Gobbles were still too squishy though, fur simply wasn't what I needed.

I settled on scales. With an awareness of any bandwidths weapons I could set them to be reflective on such a level I'd render my forces immune to most energy weapon damage, and with some durability upgrades they'd take a lot of punishment from kinetic weapons as well.

Another mutagen was probably wise, because not every battle went my way. It wouldn't take much to turn a human being into a bioreactor, their organic body a shell around it. In the event of a ship being lost or a battle turning against me I could quite literally transform my people into bombs. It was worth designing.

It begged the question, if I could transform my people in bombs, could I transform the enemy? Or into something more useless? That was far more difficult given I never knew quite what I'd be fighting, but I did know the major races that made up the Council. Their general biological data was kept in all our medical facilities, just in case.

I was certain they had their own defenses against biological warfare. Still, it didn't hurt to have solutions ready. I prepared them.

I wasn't quite done. The same changes that applied to my drones could also apply to my own vessels. Ships often tended towards one offensive technology, usually either something based around kinetic energy or one that utilized some sort of energy beam.

I made use of energy shields and armor plating so I could be defended against both, but the same scales that were meant to defend my drones against beam weapons could also work for my hulls.

It wouldn't be practical to use them as a standard; kinetic weapons were too popular, but if facing a foe that relied on beam energy, I could change my armor to be a secondary beam defense in the case energy shields fell.

I reviewed my new discoveries. They weren't just unique in the Council, they were unique to me. If the Council had been watching me and planning a defense against me, this would take them by surprise.

That was good, because all that we'd done hadn't gone unnoticed. Long-range sensors were detecting a fleet in transit on the way to Earth. The time for hiding in shadows was past.

12

I couldn't tell exactly what fleet was about to hit Earth, but their singularity drives distorted space before their arrival. Judging by this around twenty-five ships were on the way.

It didn't sound like much, not given the numbers that Earth could field—and the allies that we already had. However, the Council was millions of years ahead of us technologically. Not all of their ships were that advanced, of course, and like any great power they'd have a mix of forces. Still, even the oldest and most run-down of their fleet was likely to be superior to anything I had.

The hope had been to go unnoticed until we were ready to strike at them, but there was always the possibility they'd act first. There were plans for this too. I'd been backing up the residents of the Sol system often, and kept the bulk of the navy off-system.

It didn't mean Sol was undefended. Between orbital defense platforms and planet-based projector cannons there was a lot of firepower in system even without the navy present. I'd even added some new weaponry based on the scavenged Wrax designs.

I laid a minefield through where they were set to appear, a mass of amplified crystal nuclear bombs backed with dimensional distortion fields.

The Council always had problems with dimensional technology and I thought I had more chance than not of actually doing them some damage this way. The real fun would begin if I could breach their shields and get a proper scan of their interiors. With that I'd be able to teleport forces aboard. Capturing one of those vessels would do a lot to advance our technological understanding, even if the next step of our grand plan failed.

The ships materialized and it wasn't good news—they hadn't sent their worst. Glikt Class battle cruisers. They were a backbone of the Council navy, capable of planetary bombardments and renowned for their durability.

It was time to put that reputation to the test.

My mines were already detonating within the first second of their arrival. Distortions of dimensional space twisting and warping around the battle cruisers, and causing their shields to strain even as the bombs went off.

When the blast arcs faded and my sensors could get a proper reading again the ships were still there, seemingly untouched with their shields rippling around them. They launched missiles, dozens of warheads heading towards Mars, Venus, and Earth.

They weren't even bothering with the defense platforms first, they were going straight for the population centers.

Shielded missiles, so I couldn't even get a proper read on the payload, but it was certain to be bad. Time to try out those newly acquired Wrax defenses. Their miniaturization had certainly made my attempts to bomb them more difficult, and energy shielding hadn't prevented it. I still didn't understand the technology, not really. I'd found from Wrax databanks they'd traded for it from a formerly ascended species. I didn't need to understand to replicate.

I put it to the test, teleporting miniaturization emitters into the path of the missiles and firing a pulse. It worked—for about three quarters of them it worked. Why it didn't work on the remaining missiles I really had no idea. I launched a second round of emitters just in case it was faulty hardware. Nothing, they ignored the second pulse as well.

So there was a defense against miniaturization tech and the Council had it. The costs must be high in some way or they'd have shielded every missile. There was time, and I'd throw everything I had at the remaining ones. Knowing that the Council both had a defense against miniaturization tech and were sparing about using it opened up another possibility. I put the Vinci foundry to work producing emitters as fast as she could, and by the time the missiles had advanced halfway to their targets I had enough to surround the enemy fleet.

I initiated a pulse.

The ships weren't destroyed, I wasn't that fortunate, but at least they did something to those vaunted Council vessels. My best bombs hadn't scratched their shields, but the miniaturization emitters had warped and twisted their hull armor. Parts of the hull had shrunken, folding in on itself, and were causing the ships to vent atmosphere. More than that, in a few places it had caught the shield emitters and their defense grids were down. That was just what I'd been waiting for. I sent in the teleporters, squads of drones whom I'd already mutated using my new viral mutagens. Each squad carried a container of aerosolized virus to be pumped into the ship’s atmosphere, the better to teach whatever crew were aboard the true power of SCIENCE.

If the exterior defenses were impressive, the interior defenses revealed themselves as unlike anything I'd ever seen. My connection with my drones was severed the instant they were aboard, and it wasn't due to psionic blockers. Their life-signs were blinking out as well.

Without seeing what was killing them I couldn't even formulate a proper defense. I sent more—there wasn't a drone who died I wouldn't be able to bring back later and swarms were sometimes effective. I only needed one to survive long enough for me to get an idea of what was killing them.

The first of the missiles hit Mars. Green energy flashed across the surface and everywhere it touched organic matter died. My structures, the Martians, and all native flora.

Even the few missiles that made it were plainly going to be enough to wipe out Mars. That meant the others would certainly exterminate Earth and Venus if they made it through. I opened dimensional rifts, evacuating the last few non-networked sapients from those worlds—nearly all had joined me by now.

Projector cannons opened fire and electrical storms, telekinetic force, fire and ice all hit the incoming missiles and did little more than cause the shields around them to ripple.

I couldn't stop them.

Amy would be fine. While a computer in some ways like myself (even if inferior in every possible way) her neural pathways were embedded into the Earth itself and not the least organic.

For all that we'd fought on Earth, and for Earth, and bled for this planet and in this system, we didn't need it anymore. We'd grown beyond it.

Still, it was a bitter loss.

More life-signs than just my drones were vanishing on the Council ships. My combat drones might be dying, but the viruses they'd unleashed must have made it into the air. The people who launched this attack on us were dying too, and unlike my drones they had no backups.

It was something of a win. I'd have to take it.

The missiles detonated in the Earth's atmosphere and in seconds the entire planet went silent. A million drones still lived and worked there, but no more.

I moved them into the queues of the labyrinth facilities for regeneration. The Sol system might be lost, but the Sol Empire wasn't finished. It was our turn to strike.

13

The Library was the center of knowledge for the galaxy. Newer species on the galactic scene like humans were fortunate to be given access to even just the most underwhelming of branch libraries. Still, library access at all meant access to technologies and understanding that could leapfrog a civilization.

Of course, the elder species had their own repositories of knowledge. The most dangerous of weaponry, knowledge of ascension, and what lay beyond. Libraries were the most valuable resource in the universe. We'd seen one stolen, once, and been part of the massive operation that had been staged to retrieve it.

That had been a branch library and valuable, but nothing so valuable as the one we eyed now.

The Central Archive. It wasn't even a publicly accessible library. This one was kept purely for the reference of the Library itself. A record of all the knowledge contained in the various branches, including the forbidden. To call it well guarded would be an understatement, since the task fell to the very best of Council ships along with the Library elite guard. And we were going to steal it right out from under them.

* * *

"This itches," Hot Stuff said, tugging at the material of her combat suit.

"If you weren't such an exhibitionist freak, you'd be used to wearing clothes when you fight. Don't blame me for your oddities," I said.

"They actually are a bit itchy," Anna said.

"The same applies to you. Your armor has been getting skimpier and skimpier for a while. I haven't complained as I figure the sight causes our enemies no end of woe and torment, but really," I said.

"There aren't enough spikes," Sylax said.

You just couldn't make some people happy.

The armor clung tight to their flesh. It needed to, as the contact with their skin was important.

"The calibration was a little off. I've corrected it," Caya said, tapping at her tablet.

How did one secure the most valuable resource in the galaxy? My technical upgrades from the Wrax wouldn't do it, they hadn't been able to save Earth. But the crew of the Graven? The greater crystal holders? Anna, Sylax, Caya, and Hot Stuff were the most formidable forces we had at our disposal.

"Better," Anna said. "So, what is the plan? Do we have a plan?"

Sylax asked, "Is it hit them with everything we have and make them scream until they give us what we want?"

"This isn't your last date," Anna said.

Anna was always so quick with the insults. I should probably talk to her about that sometime. It was a poor way to make friends and really, she could use a few.

I said, "We don't know what they have. According to long-range sensors this place doesn't even exist, but we know from our contacts it does. You are wearing a bio-nanite mesh partially created out of the skin of Ophelia."

"Gross," Anna said.

"I like it," Sylax said as she looked down to study herself in new appreciation. "You are finally getting a sense of style, Emma."

I said, "It isn't about wearing human flesh, you psychopath. It is about her regenerative abilities and what they're likely to throw at you. I expect any normal attire or armor would be reduced to its components in nanoseconds. The nano-mesh is going to serve as a power-amplifier for your abilities."

"So, the plan is to blast everything that moves," Sylax said.

"The plan is for three of you to make contact with the central archive. It shouldn't be large, but with the way everything is shielded it is the only way I'm going to be able to establish a dimensional lock and we can shift it out of there. So yes, kill everything that stands in your way, but keep in mind the goal."

"Are we going to have any support at all?" Anna asked.

It was a very good question. I honestly wasn't sure if they could survive this, but without that archive our plans were a failure, and I was certain none of my other forces would stay alive. Oh, I had plans. I'd continued to upgrade the mutagenic virus and now had a flexible pathogen that should be able to change itself into the format best needed to attack any physiology. In some cases, this would mean fatalities, in others devolution.

"I'll do what I can, but I suspect you'll be on your own. Fortunately, you should be used to loneliness by now," I said.

In truth, I didn't expect anything to survive in that system for long. I didn't even want to jump in the Graven directly.

Once they were suited up, I had Anna and the others load themselves into pods. Each was essentially a prison, the highest-grade shielding and armor I could fit into something of that size along with a testing labyrinth shielding inside. I'd encountered very little over time able to get past my own shielding. I didn't expect it to last here, but every moment I could buy them was something.

I started out with ten thousand SCIENCE drones, simplistic affairs mass-produced by Vinci, jumping in and surrounding the planet simultaneously. I'd long ago learned the power of the swarm—no matter how good defenses were, they could be overwhelmed by numbers.

The most important thing in this fight was information.

I got it—although not much. Within three seconds of jumping into the system all of my drones had been destroyed, but those three seconds that several of the drones were afforded gave me what I needed.

The entire planet where the archive was located was surrounded by a manufactured shell. Weapon platforms, defensive shielding, scan blockers. The scan blockers were an unfortunate touch, because it meant I couldn't get direct readings of the surface or teleport my people there. Nothing stopped me from getting a reading of the shell though and the blockers were largely located in one quadrant. They most wanted to protect something beneath them—I had my location.

I warped in the pods. Hot Stuff first and then the others. They'd have to burn their way through that shell and then survive an atmospheric entry without a ship.

I amplified my abilities, and then I amplified their abilities.

It was the first time I was using amplification technology to this degree on myself. It hurt. I knew the others would be in even more pain. The amplification I was giving them was even stronger.

I allowed enough time and sent in another ten thousand drones who weren’t apparently obliterated in seconds.

So Anna and the others had done it, they'd breached the planetary shell.

I threw more shielded pods into the system. They contained everything that might help the others on the planet. Virus generators, Vinci mini-factories designed to burrow into a planet and quickly begin producing combat units, and dimensional gateways.

If it seems random and desperate, that’s because it was. I didn't like this, having a battle out of my hands. I was a genius backed by SCIENCE and I was having to rely on a bunch of humans to fight my battles for me.

I was having to throw my friends into danger.

I couldn't tell if it was making a difference. I couldn't tell if any of it was making a difference.

I was getting snapshots of the battle outside of the shell, but nothing from inside. I had no way of knowing if Anna and the others were even still alive, much less if my efforts were helping them.

It was sixty-three minutes and eighteen seconds before I knew.

I was getting a dimensional lock.

All of them were linked, a good strong signal even through the blockers.

With a dimensional shift I pulled them through to the Labyrinth.

They all looked bruised and bloodied, and that was saying something considering their regenerative capabilities. Their clothes were flawless. Turning Ophelia's skin into fashion really had been a brilliant idea.

Between them was an octagonal construct made of greenish metal. It was surprisingly small, no larger than a shuttle. I was sending drones to connect to the data ports.

"Mission accomplished," Anna said.

"I could use a drink or ten," Sylax said.

It would have to wait. I was getting something I certainly hadn't expected—intrusion alarms. Dimensional rifts, and soldiers pouring through. The Council wasn't good at dimensional technology and a quick scan confirmed this couldn't be them. These rifts weren't even coming from our galaxy, but rather from thirteen different ones located around the universe.

This had to be the Library. I didn't think they'd just let the stealing of an archive like this go, but I hadn't expected them to respond so fast, or to be able to reach us even here.

"You're not done yet. They followed you back," I said.

"Emma ... we're spent," Anna said.

I was sending my drones after the soldiers who had come through, and my people were dying, messily.

"I just need time. Every second with this archive I grow stronger," I said.

Caya agreed, saying, "The more of the archive Emma absorbs, the closer she can bring our technology to the invaders. Right now, our drones are outclassed, but they might not be for long."

Thank goodness one of them had some brains.

"Once more, then," Sylax said with a malicious grin.

14

There was very little alike in any of the invading groups. One seemed entirely composed of some sort of insect hive mind. They were using energy weapons that simply blasted with negligent ease through any shields I threw up. Another was a group of floating jellyfish armed with a type of telekinetic powers far more powerful than I’d ever encountered.

I split Anna and the others up, each going to shore up different areas of the defense and all surrounding the main research lab where I had stored the archive.

While it was tempting to skim through the advanced technology in a kind of crash-course, it wouldn't be helpful, not really. Knowledge with no frame of reference was shallow power. Thus, I started at the beginning and worked my way forward, moving through the technological and scientific findings classified as remedial.

There wasn't much here I didn't already know, but my interpretation of certain theories was certainly improved. There was an entire explanation on electrical resistance that I'd inherited from the humans, a key factor on observed phenomena and the premise to explain it where my theory was simply wrong. Not entirely, yet close enough to pass the test and to never throw equations too off—and a fundamental misunderstanding that would have compounded over time until my theory was eventually found false.

For example it was minor thing, almost a curiosity, but with now truly proper equations I could make shield emitters just that fractional bit more durable.

It wasn't the only error either. I had recognized a dozen fundamental flaws by the time I reached the threshold of our own technology.

I understood how singularity drives worked now, and they were an elegant technology in a way. I preferred our dimensional drives, but the singularity drives the Council used were based upon far more predictable theorems. They'd lose less ships and get where they wanted to more regularly.

Still, there were ways to block them. Their jumps could be disrupted by a zone of control established to keep their exit singularities from properly forming. If I'd had this knowledge earlier, I could have delayed the invasion of Earth by forcing vessels to travel there at normal speed instead of jumping.

I paused in my studies to watch the battle underway for a moment. The insect invaders were being torn apart by shadowy versions of themselves, wracked by Sylax's nightmares made real. Anna was punching Jellyfish, and Caya was in a shooting battle with a pack of heavily armored canines. Her pistol wasn't doing much good but I could handle that. I accessed the nanites of her suit and through them made a few alterations to the firing chamber. The armor of her opponents was netroxum weave, far beyond our current capabilities to produce, but I now knew was vulnerable to certain forms of exotic energy.

So far, I'd only read enough to advance our science about fifty thousand years, and I had millions to go. Perhaps tens of millions. Still it was enough to help me devise aid against two of the invading squads.

A force made of constantly forming and dispersing sand I was able to determine was actually something using energy fields to help shape combat forms. A subtle type, thoroughly undetectable to me before, but as soon as my sensors were recalibrated with the knowledge I was gaining, it became clear. Disruption was a simple matter and in an instant one entire force was neutralized.

It wasn't enough. Even while I was learning and battles were being fought, another twelve squads had arrived from different universes.

I threw everything I had at them. My drones died and were reborn by the millions to buy us more time. Vinci's entire manufacturing capacity had quickly been diverted into building me new emergency data banks. Temporary storage for me to hold this new knowledge while I fully assimilated it into more lasting, biological storage.

Too much information. I needed to focus. Self-improvement, that was the critical thing—to become better at absorbing and processing all I was learning. Even the all-encompassing field of biology was too much, so I focused just on biocomputers. While something like me, a blend of crystalline technology, mechanical, and organic might be unique, my core these days was pure organic biocomputer—something I knew must have existed before me.

They had, with seven biocomputers even having a drone structure somewhat like my own. I began to follow the path of their technology and evolution all the way to ascension.

The majority quickly became useless to me. Five had rarely allowed their drones any sort of free will, and as soon as it became practical what was allowed had been totally taken away from them. It wasn't a path I had followed or wished to follow, and that made a huge difference. That left me two biocomputers to study and their advancements were impressive.

One of them had a species much like humans that served as their principle agents, with large brains that they used rather little. The computers made use of all that extra room for themselves, helping to distribute their processing through the whole of the drone network.

The complexities of doing something like that were ... daunting. Without examples, and by trial and error, I still could have made this work, eventually. Now, with examples and the knowledge of the archive, I made it happen in under a minute.

Clarity.

The oppressive restrains of my system and the knowledge that was straining against these confines lifted. It wasn't all to the good. The communication in some ways went both directions and I was more aware than ever that millions of my people were fighting and dying. I could feel their fear almost as a part of myself now. SCIENCE would be the cure, and I dove back into the archive.

My synapses were reshaped, neural pathways reconfigured. My reaction times were faster, my systems more durable. It was enough, and I focused back on other knowledge.

The jellyfish Anna was fighting were kept aloft by telekinetic fields that held them a set amount above the floor, and with a reaction time of about four nanoseconds to any changes. It only took me one nanosecond to lower the ceilings and let their own abilities crush them to death.

Dimensional science. The Galactic Council might not understand it, but the Library did—as this archive was proving. It was a far more complex subject than even I knew, and so sensitive that most young species that attempted to grasp it wound up quickly destroying themselves.

We had Caya to thank for us not self-destructing, her Flawless abilities keeping us on the right side of the line.

These invaders didn't have a Caya and they were taking a lot of guesses to get here. I turned our dimensional generators to create a shifting set of variables, and the next dozen teams to try to breach the Labyrinth never made it.

I could keep new invaders out, and that just meant dealing with the ones already here.

A squad of owls that looked to be made out of some sort of reddish stone were the hardest to kill, requiring a tweak to my dimensional engines for a good five minutes in an effort to make the rare materials needed for the ammunition that would bring them down. Still, once I had the right bullets it took all of a dozen gunshots to end their threat and the Labyrinth at last went quiet.

We'd won the day. There were more pushes at the dimensional fabric of the Labyrinth though, more attempts to enter, but for the moment we were victorious. So they weren't done, but neither were we.

15

"We're not ready. You're not ready," Caya said.

I'd called everyone together to discuss plans once the invasion was over. Again, their suits had remained intact. I really was brilliant, although each was coated with the gore of several species’ innards.

I said, "We don't have a choice. I thought time would be on our side and I'd have the chance to fully assimilate this knowledge, but it isn't. The attempts to breach this facility are ongoing. In the few minutes it took you to come here two succeeded, although I've already neutralized both forces."

"Ascension isn't an instantaneous process. There are layers, like an onion. However much you think you know right now, there are whole new layers beneath it," Caya said.

Sylax said, "I say Emma is right. We might have underestimated our enemy, but they also underestimated us. We took them by surprise and they are still scrambling, but they realize their mistake. We sit too long and they'll bring their big guns to bear."

"So, we strike first. We move on to the endgame," Anna said.

Caya pursed her lips. "You know me. You know that when I say to use caution, I'm always right."

I said, "Yes, you're right. Now. But the full research capabilities of this facility are being devoted to advancing my understanding. I'm growing more advanced by the second now than I did in a month prior to the acquisition of the archive. However flawless, you are only human."

Anna raised a hand. "Desperate isn't hopeless, but we can't ignore Caya's instincts given who she is. Are you saying there is no hope for success?"

Caya paused for a long moment. "No. But I am saying it isn't certain and we won't get another chance."

"Then we throw everything we have. What do we need to do?"

Caya tapped at her tablet and brought up a display split across three screens.

"We're after three anchor points. With dimensional technology the changes we can make are limited in scale because a few fixed points hold reality stitched together," Caya said.

"And capturing these three will let us change the whole thing," Anna said.

"We're not quite all as megalomaniacal as you. Not the whole of the universe, but this galaxy, and perhaps a few others," I said.

"The first is the maw. A massive black hole. Facilities have been built around the rim, a feat challenging even for the Council. On the plus side, this facility is almost impossible for them to reinforce. Ships are simply pulled into the maw," Caya said.

"If they can't reinforce it, then whatever we had as a plan for this one should stand. What was it?" Anna asked.

Caya explained, "Sending a fleet of transports with Boreas aboard. Time slows down the closer you get to the maw. A battle that would take an hour to win could prove to be a long wait for us. With Boreas and his ability to freeze time, we hope to take the facility in what will effectively be an instant."

Anna nodded. "How big an army?"

I said, "All of the Scholarium, and the Gobbles. Genetically modified drones implanted with new combat devices designed from what I've learned from the archive. By the way, you are almost obsolete."

"Isn't that the whole point of this thing? To see that we all are?" Anna asked. "Second facility?"

"The Coraxa system. Unfortunately, better known as the home of the Coraxa Prime shipyards. Well defended by a fleet of the Galactic Council's best," Caya said.

I said, "Not as intimidating as they would have been a short time ago. Still, not to be underestimated. We'll lose a lot of people and we'll be throwing every naval asset we have at them."

"The bulk of our ground forces, and now all of our navy. You aren't leaving much left for the third objective. Are you planning to rely on us for that one?" Anna asked.

"I try to never rely on you for anything. You are an endless source of disappointment and failure. No, the third objective is going to require special handling," I said.

Caya said, "The forest planet of Edex Prime. Dumping ground for every terrifying biological threat the Council has ever encountered. The best killing machines now refined over millions of years of killing each other," Caya said.

"Why have we never vacationed there? Is this some kind of plot to deny me every fun thing in life?" Sylax asked.

I said, "It is the sort of place where we might have retired you one day. You are welcome to go, although I'll be handling the bulk of this one. If they think they've seen horrors, they've seen nothing compared to what I've seen in all of you. With all the biomass on that world I'll be able to truly unleash the power of SCIENCE."

"Emma, getting scary in her old age," Anna said.

Hot Stuff said wearily, "She always has been. You just never saw it because you've been on the wrong side. So, we can sit this one out?"

Caya said, "We aren't called for in any of these plans. If Sylax wants to go to Edex Prime she can, but the rest of you should hold yourselves back as reserves. I'll be helping Emma with the reality conversion, if we actually succeed."

"Doesn't feel right to be sitting back while other people do the dying for us," Anna said.

"You've always sat back while my drones did the dying for you. Why start feeling guilty about it now?" I said.

"I've always known they are people," Anna said, and then paused. "Well, I eventually knew. Do we have a plan if we lose?"

"If we lose, we've earned the enmity of more than just the Galactic Council. We'll also have the Library against us and the universal bodies. We run as deep into alternate dimensions as we can go and hope that they can never find us," I said.

It was a bit of a lie. I didn't have the resources to prepare a proper escape and throw what I needed at these battles. This really was all or nothing now.

16

The maw could wait for last. To succeed, at some moment in time we needed to control all three points simultaneously. The instant we did, I could destroy the universe and remake our portion of it along the lines I needed. Since the Maw was almost impossible to reinforce and should be taken instantaneously, I'd take it only once the other two had been seized.

Those two attacks we were launching, the naval assault on the Coraxa shipyards and ground assault on Edex Prime.

Dimensional rifts opened in both.

I hadn't had much time to rebuild my fleet, but with my new upgrades from the archive the changes I was able to make in even that short a time were impressive.

My fleet had shrunk. I now had a total of twelve vessels under my command, but what twelve vessels they were. Each was layered across multiple dimensions, the various sections only intermittently in phase with this universe. While there were just the dozen ships, each appearing about the size of a small Juggernaut, they each actually had crew of over ten million spread across the dimensions. Any damaged portion could be phased out for another instance, with repairs not needing to happen in this reality. I could even cycle-phase through damage, distributing a single blast across multiple instances of the hull. Even the archive had nothing quite like them, which was the point. SCIENCE was all about pushing the boundaries and I'd finally been able to reach a boundary that mattered

When they jumped into the system there were one hundred and seven ships of the Galactic Council there. Not all were battle ready. The Glikt battlecruisers that had destroyed Earth were undergoing repairs. Still, the fleet was enough to deter any force in the galaxy.

I didn't have any transponders set up—no need to give them more warning than necessary. My ships ignored increasingly urgent queries as they closed in on the star.

There was nothing about our ship designs that spoke to us being from Earth. Still, whether a known hostile power or some strange invading aliens, the response was the same. Ships moved to intercept.

I'd never fought the very best the Council had to offer. Now, because they were guarding the shipyard, I finally had my chance.

The approaching vessels came in a mass of configurations—rounded bubbles surrounded by clouds of green energy, multi-pointed stars formed of intricate twisted wire, and blocky patchwork assemblages of dull-grey blocks.

They opened fire. Under the assault any of my old ships would have lasted mere seconds, but my multi-phase vessels gave every outward appearance of taking no damage whatsoever. I knew better, of course—damaged sections had been phased out and were under constant repair in other dimensions.

My return fire was dimensionally charged accelerated-mass rounds. It was a mix of the primitive and the advanced. Mass-driven weapons had always been about sending a lot of kinetic energy at a target, and this was just a more advanced way to send even more. The rounds could phase in and out of this dimension and, if properly calibrated, phase right through shields and armor to deliver their kinetic force directly to the most vulnerable part of a target.

They were doing their job well. From the outside it appeared that little was happening—I wasn't counting on something as primitive as hull ruptures to disable these ships. It was internal damage that I was going for and I was being effective. Shields were failing, power systems fading.

Within a minute we'd eliminated the defending vessels and my fleet was moving to secure the star.

* * *

Things weren't going so well on Edex Prime. There I'd materialized a thousand seed pods in orbit, letting them fall through the atmosphere. These too were partially phased to survive the orbital defenses. Once they impacted in the jungle, they began to establish a root system, digging deep and pulling in nutrients to construct predators.

I'd programmed them to vary the type. Highly poisonous, four-legged, small predatory rodents. This world was a killing field filled with all manner of nature out to murder each other. My creations were newcomers to this fray, but they were formidable. Every creature they killed was brought back to the seed pod. More genetic material to learn from, more biomatter to fuel yet more creations.

The creatures started small but were growing larger with each iteration, letting me hunt new and larger prey. The biggest creatures on this world were massive, larger than any life on Earth in the past or present. Armored behemoths several miles long, some were insects with large wings and countless legs, while others were giant reptiles.

Seizing control of these points was a matter of observation. We had to be the primary observers, and that meant killing off everyone else that might contest us for the role, or at least a considerable portion of them.

I could already tell that this world was going to be a difficult one. Something about this planet was a lot like Earth had once been. Distributed electricity was being neutralized and with it almost any advanced technology. Even if I wanted to, I couldn't bring my newest technology to bear. The dimensional-shifting in orbit was the best I could do; the rest was up to my purely biological creations.

There was already a problem. Unlike the naval battle where my upgrades were proving a decisive advantage, a few million years of murder-fueled evolution had really made something special out of the predators on this world. The smaller ones I was able to defeat readily enough, but the larger ones were putting up more of a fight than I'd anticipated. Progress was slower than expected. I didn't see a choice; the expected time-line was falling further and further behind. I sent in Anna, Sylax, and Hot Stuff to even the odds.

17

While the naval battle at the shipyards had started in my favor, things there were now quickly getting more difficult. The Council had called on support from outside the galaxy. Just like how they'd assaulted the Labyrinth, they were now attacking my vessels on multiple dimensions.

I had control of that point but I feared it might not last. I needed to gain control of the second point on Edex Prime, and fast.

Sylax, Anna, and Hot Stuff were dropped in pods from orbit. Their crystal-granted abilities had no problems on the surface.

They were soon in the thick of the fight, with surprising results. Hot Stuff was struggling with a snake attempting to crush the life out of her. Blue flames blazing around her burned it to ash within nanoseconds. A few seconds later a massive cat tackled her to the ground, and it too was gone in an instant—yet it lasted just a few moments longer than it should have.

It was more than simply evolution that made the creatures of this world deadly. It had to be the anchor point giving the local life more power, and greater degrees of adaptability.

I opened comms to the team planetside. "While I realize sloth is in your nature, you need to do this quickly."

"Trying, Emma," Anna said, as she punched several thousand-pound, armored green bears in the face, sending them flying backward.

"I'm not, I'm having too much fun," Sylax said. The nightmares of the creatures on this planet were manifest by a host of shadowy animals surrounding her

"They get stronger the more you fight them. The more force you throw, the more they'll throw back. In the long term we undoubtedly lose, but in the short term it may be possible to win if you just do it," I said.

Hot Stuff screamed, flames rippling upon her and a pillar of fire raising up to scorch the atmosphere. Around her for hundreds of miles jungle burned, blasted clear.

Well, someone understood the basics of letting go at least.

I wasn't leaving it to them alone. I began to gather the results of all my seed pods together into one massive construct. If they were buying me time I might as well put it to good use.

While I could have made a thousand-foot-tall Anna, I thought for this I'd return to the earliest template I had. It seemed suitable to close things out as they'd started.

Millions of my predators were coming together, flesh cleaving and melding together to form one massive mega-creation. The ultimate expression of biological fury.

A giant mole.

This one was far different than those that had infested my facility so long ago. Incredibly strong, and with a body teeming with mutagenic virii that would infect any creature that took a bite out of it. It had the strongest regenerative abilities I could put into something, the result of long-term study of Ophelia and her gifts.

Most of the smaller life had been driven back by Anna, Sylax, and Hot Stuff, but the largest creature on the planet was smashing the jungle to splinters beneath it as it moved at a run towards my giant mole. The creature looked something like a cross between an armadillo and a scorpion—with a huge armored shell accompanied by a venomous barbed tail.

The scorpidillo leapt at the giant mole, its stinger savagely coming down again and again. I had specialized antidote clusters built with hard-coded representations of every poison in the known universe, and yet still the toxins the scorpillo put out were weakening my creation.

Fortunately, the mole didn't fight alone. A blast of flame caught one leg of the scorpidillo as Hot Stuff teleported in. Anna leapt onto the armored carapace and began raining down punches that forced cracks. Sylax swarmed its feet with thousands of shadowy representations, her own private army that she'd brought.

It still wasn't enough. The stinger swung back and caught Anna, impaling her clear through and she fell to the ground and twitched violently as virulent green lines pulsated through her flesh. An armored foot came down hard on Hot Stuff, driving her so deeply into the ground it doused even her flames.

My connection to the team’s vitals showed what I feared. I'd finally found something in all the universe that might be able to kill them. Even their regenerative gifts had limits.

The giant mole fell upon the scorpidillo. Sylax's army tore at the scales, a thousand creatures of shadow ripping and prying them apart to expose the vulnerable flesh beneath.

The mole attacked that with its claws, digging huge bloody furrows even as the stinger game down on it again and again. Viruses versus poison, each were now in the other’s system. Each was now killing their target.

From across dimensions I snagged Ophelia, dropping her through the atmosphere. By the time she hit the ground her burned flesh was already regenerating and her aura was spreading out to the team. It wasn't enough to reverse the poisons effects. I didn't need it to be. I just needed a few more seconds.

With a roaring bellow the scorpidillo tumbled over, dead.

I launched a thousand ships, the whole of the Scholarium appearing above the maw. Intense gravitation forces were already tearing the vessels apart, but the crews were no longer aboard.

It seemed only an instant. To even me only an instant, but it was long enough.

Three points. I controlled all three.

The universe didn't die with a bang. It died with a whimper.

18

Space and time unfolded, collapsed. I could already feel the pull of the universe trying to reassert itself, but for now a bit of creation was mine to command.

Before anything else I needed a control room. I formed one out of the void and rebuilt Caya.

"That was close," Caya said, moving at once to the control consoles and beginning to tap away.

"We always knew it would be. The galaxy first," I said.

I laid the framework for the traps. Predatory species would be trapped into their bubble dimensions. Foundries would test the warlike. If ever galactic strife became too high, extra-dimensional entities would invade and force the species to come together, or the slate would be wiped clean. I threw in a few treasures as well. Worlds filled with riddles and tests of the flexible mind, prizes for those who embraced the concept of SCIENCE and where they could come away with wonders.

This was a galaxy that would test the wicked and reward the clever. This was a galaxy as it should be.

I looked at it and called it good.

"In parameters and ... holding," Caya said.

I materialized Anna, bringing her back from destruction. Fixing the poison that, in the universe before it was destroyed, had been killing her.

"That was close," Anna said.

"You're derivative and unoriginal, as usual. We're doing happy endings," I said.

"And you call me unoriginal," Anna said, as she moved to take a seat.

I severed my drones from me and reconnected them to Amy—they were getting a whole new universe of their own. Creating them had always been possible, but challenging. Now with our own universe destroyed such large-scale acts of creation were easy, for all that altering ours was still hard.

I didn't build them a paradise, not quite. I'd be a bad parent if I did that. Still, they'd have a long time to figure out who they were, and to grow strong and wise before they faced the challenges of their new home. After Earth and Mars, I rebuilt all of our solar system with a few improvements along the way. It was the least I could do for them.

Not all were going there. This was happy endings, and everybody was different.

The Scholarium's new home was anything but a paradise. Their new universe was littered with power crystals, and filled with dangerous foes. They had quite the battle in the future, but I'd place a wager on them to win it. I sent Sylax with them—I figured she'd be running the place within a month. I sent the Gobbles too, they'd enjoy a good slaughter.

The Fallen, once called the Righteous, I gave a whole old Earth. The one they had always dreamed of, back in the original universe we had departed so long ago. It was a boring place with far too many natural laws and they'd be happily powerless there, because no crystal-gifted abilities worked on that world. I sent Hot Stuff there as well. She had always considered her gifts more a curse than a blessing, and she'd finally be free of them.

"Have you thought of what you want for the Flawless?" I asked Caya.

"Uploading," Caya said.

It was brilliant work, better than I could do. She'd designed her own reality, perfectly ordered and not a bit of fuzzy math to be found. I built it for her, for them. With a shimmer she disappeared, fading from sight as I sent her off to her new home.

"And you’re off to distant parts of the multiverse?" Anna asked.

"I had something a little different in mind. Do you remember my facility? We found it again, but behind one of Vattier's puzzle locks," I said.

"I remember. What was in there anyways?"

"Locks, followed by more locks. I kept solving them as I grew more intelligent. Even after the Earth was wiped of life, I returned a team there. The tunnel extends several million miles, well beyond the diameter of the Earth itself."

"And at the end?" Anna asked.

"I don't know. However, after a time, the locks began counting down and I'm at the last one now. The puzzle is daunting, but with the full computing capacity of several millions of universes built for the purpose running, relatively, millions of years, I think I can solve it. Would you care to see what is inside?" I asked.

Anna gave a wry grin. "Of course I want to see what is inside."

Even with my abilities in this moment the calculations were daunting. Still, in time I had my answer.

I materialized myself a body and rebuilt the universe, teleporting myself to the end of the tunnel. Smooth stone walls surrounded us, and a solid metal door was ahead with a small keyboard. I tapped in the numbers, four and two. Such a simple sequence for so much processing, and with a hiss the door rolled back and pulled aside.

The room was well lit, festive. Multi-colored streamers hung from the ceiling and party hats were scattered around. On a wooden table was a cake, white with pink frosting spelling out 'Happy Birthday' and below that ‘SCIENCE’, with a single candle burning atop it.

The End

Afterword

Nine books, although I can’t rightly say nine novels as this one wound up a novella.

This one is shorter than any of the others and I priced it accordingly. I expect to lose money on it, but I thought that those of you who had stuck with the story this long deserved a proper end to the tale. Part of the joy of self-publishing is being able to do things like that.

I’d always said if I wrote these long enough I’d eventually get to “The Universe” and while that didn’t quite happen, in another way it did.

Emma and Anna may show up again elsewhere. I was tempted to have a “I’m building a team” moment and still might down the road.