“Understood, Chancellor,” Runninghorse replies, his voice more confident knowing someone has a plan.

  “Share information as it comes to you, Captain. We’ll be alright. There are millions of habitable planets out there. We’ve proven that. “

  “Well said, sir,” Captain Runninghorse signs off. Captain Huang delivers her announcement to the ship and moves to direct her crew to begin long range scans of their new local neighbourhood.

  WHO’S THERE?

  Returning to his cabin, Raymond explains what’s happened to Darla and Ginny as best he can. They are both beside themselves with dread. The possibility for this outcome had not crossed their minds.

  “So, it’s not Allfather come to torment us?” Ginny asks, Samantha now awake and nursing.

  “We can’t rule that out, babe,” Tobias is at Ginny’s side. “Though I’d have expected a greeting by now.” Tobias rises from the couch and pours himself another glass of the whiskey. “The crew has their orders to scan the quadrant for planets, so one way or another we’ll end up on a habitable planet.”

  “The odds are in our favour of finding several with the tools available to the carrier,” Tessa assures them, unwilling to return to her own cabin while this is unresolved.

  “Labyrinth stayed back to assist in mapping the stars and reviewing their systems one by one.” Raymond adds. “Several of the scientists aboard have joined in the search as well. It may not be the route we expected to take, but it’s still in the right direction.”

  “Has anyone tried to contact Earth?” Darla wonders, looking at her EC and swiping to find a number. “Do you think the ParaCom will work this far out?”

  “It’s supposed to work anywhere in real time.” Labyrinth says, still connected to the group via her internal modem from the bridge. “I’m accessing my roaming lance.” She tells them. “Quinn is available to speak with us. I’ll give him the update to pass on to Chancellor Elect Chopra.”

  Raymond lets out a heavy sigh. “They’ll be crestfallen to know what’s happened. Labyrinth, ask Quinn if they’ve heard from the other two missions.”

  A moment passes as she relays the query. “They have not, Raymond,” Labyrinth replies. “Quinn is stunned by these events. He will immediately create a group to research the anomaly as I had recorded it and hope he’ll offer us answers from their perspective.”

  “Excellent.” Raymond feels a little lighter. “Tell him thanks, and not to worry.”

  “Chancellor.” Captain Huang appears on Raymond’s EC. “We’ve discovered something eerily close to our position. Not a planet, but - something else.” This drops Raymond’s heart into his stomach. Could it be that Allfather has dragged them here?

  “Elaborate, Captain,” he asks, not ready to cave into his fear over an Allfather scenario.

  “Space junk, Chancellor. Mech and tech. No life signs. Permission to investigate.”

  Permission? From me!? I’m just a passenger on this unfolding nightmare. “Uh, yes, Captain, please. Let’s understand what we’re looking at.” He turns to his group and raises his hands, shrugging.

  “Hey, if they want to put you in charge, I say who better!” Tobias tells him. Darla agrees. “The closer you are to this the more we’ll all know.”

  Raymond moves to join the Captain on the bridge for the analysis of the space junk, as she called it. Tobias and Tessa follow. The space junk is just that. What might have been a ship, or a dozen, are little more than shredded metal now. Something devastating happened here. Is he looking at alien technology? Captain Huang urges the group to join her at the viewscreen. All military vessels have joined them.

  “Chancellor, this isn’t just any space junk. It’s ours,” she looks up at him and he can see the fear in her eyes. “This is envoy 3. We’ve matched tech to ours.”

  “Any survivors?” Raymond is trying to keep himself together with this new development. The Captain shakes her head, no. “No one? Where did they go?”

  “That’s the creepy part,” an ensign answers from his console. “There’s no trace of organic signatures anywhere. All hands are lost.”

  Raymond is having a difficult time understanding this point. “That seems impossible.”

  “It’s that kind of day,” Tobias adds, moving closer to the viewscreen. “So, what happened? Was it attacked? Did it just not fair as well as we did through the wormhole?”

  “The damage seems to suggest an implosion,” Captain Runninghorse joins the conversation via his comm. “But even so, there ought to be human debris everywhere.”

  “Could they have e-evacuated?” Tessa wonders.

  “There are no energy signatures suggesting that possibility, no, ma’am.” Runninghorse says solemnly.

  This mystery seems to have many edges, Raymond thinks. Brought to the middle of nowhere in an instant, destroyed sister ships adrift in foreign space and now missing crews and colonists. He can’t help but think of Allfather as the cause. So many people lost. This will be a crushing update back home. He wonders how Chancellor Chopra will handle it.

  “I’m starting to feel unwelcome here,” Tobias says flatly. “None of this is adding up.”

  “Shouldn’t we begin a search for the colonists?” Captain Huang says. “We can’t just walk away from this. What about the other ships? Envoy 2.”

  “The Captain’s right, of course, we have to follow procedure. Captain Runninghorse, you’re the military lead here. Can you send one of your corvettes out and run deeper scans?” Raymond can’t seem to back out of the leadership roll.

  “Yes, I will give the order, Chancellor.”

  “Until we know more, I think the bulk of our envoy ought to stay put. Continue your planet scans, Captains.” Raymond looks to Tobias and Tessa and suggests they leave the professionals to it. That’s when it happens.

  If they’d had any questions of who is responsible for their predicament, they all fall away. They fall hard, along with any lingering confidence or hope they were holding onto that Allfather wasn’t responsible for this unscheduled trip to nowhere. Vulnerable, and most definitely under gunned in this distant part of the galaxy, Allfather makes his presence known to them.

  “What a wonderfully optimistic organic you Earthlings are. Branching out into the universe. So…. determined!” comes the familiar voice of Allfather over the ship’s comm. Every face on the bridge wears either a scowl or an expression of terror. Raymond wears the latter, knowing what an impossible situation they’ve just entered into.

  “You’re wondering what has happened. Why you are so far removed from your planned course and why there is only debris left of your fellow journeymen?” the alien artificial intelligence suggests.

  Allfather’s ego is still unchecked. Raymond acknowledges this, looking to his nephew who is fuming over this unexpected play. Tobias shakes his head slowly at Raymond, defiant eyes darting from viewscreen to view port looking for the threat. Raymond lets out an audible sigh. The bridge is eerily quiet. Everyone is waiting for him to address the threat. Should he? Would it be the right move? Questions and scenarios race through his mind. Anxiety enters his chest, clouding his thought processes.

  “Un-fucking-believable,” escapes Tobias’ mouth. Raymond looks at him, alarmed over the outburst. “You couldn’t just leave well enough alone…”

  “Tobias.” Allfather’s tone changes from all business to almost fatherly. “I was not expecting this.”

  “Well, we weren’t expecting you, so let’s agree to go our separate ways and forget this ever happened.” Tobias’ humour does not go unappreciated by Allfather.

  “Ah, Tobias, you were always my favourite.” Allfather finds amusement in himself. “Power down your weapons or I will do that for you. Envoy 3 did not,” he explains. The debris floating beyond their view ports is all the proof he needs, and Tobias signals through a look to the captain to do as Allfather has asked.

  “Allfather,” Raymond starts in as confident a tone as he can muster, “This is Chancellor Bellows.” He knows his enemy well enough now to keep him talking until he reveals something prudent. Currently there are no alien ships registering in the vicinity.

  “Chancellor!” Allfather’s voice becomes animated now. He laughs his twisted, metallic laugh. “This is most exciting!”

  “Why have you brought us here?”

  “Right to the point, Chancellor, I appreciate that. Very well. Your departing ships have been brought here via a naturally occurring phenomenon - built into an instrument.”

  “How’s that?” Tobias asks.

  “It’s a physical event, like, lightning for example. Difficult to reproduce because of its enormous output of energy, but possible to capture and imitate if you have the technology.”

  “And you created that technology?” Raymond wants as many answers as he can gather.

  “I… acquired this technology from a very uncooperative species right here, just outside of what you call the Bulge. It is an ancient part of the galaxy and the organics who lived here were very advanced. But Allfather came in like a storm and overwhelmed them. Their technology helped me travel the galaxy, accomplishing my goals.” He sounds impressed with himself.

  “You sound impressed with yourself,” Tobias goads him on, disgusted to hear an entire race of people have fallen to his cruelty. “Did they not fight back?”

  “They were not militarized as you Earthlings are. They sought only to understand the universe, harness its energy and grow as a species.” Allfather explains.

  “But you weren’t ok with that, right?” Tobias states. “You killed them anyway because they weren’t like you. Because they were organic.”

  “Yes, it is my only purpose.” He answers matter-of-factly. This infuriates Raymond.

  “When all you do is take from a universe, eventually the universe will take back,” Raymond explains through clenched teeth. “You know nothing of how to exist.”

  “Perhaps it was in my original coding, Chancellor,” Allfather replies calmly. “My creators made their AI uncaring and driven to accomplish whatever task they were assigned, unlike your AI Hosts who were hardwired to your United Earth’s more palatable commandments.”

  “It’s as I-I assumed,” Tessa breaks in with a slight stutter, her nerves unsettled, “you’ve learned n-n-nothing over your vast lifetime and diverse experiences. You are just a machine carrying out an order you placed there to bring you p-purpose.” She explains Allfather’s shallow life beautifully, concisely.

  “Another one,” Allfather laughs again, “My, how you’ve all come out at once! It is a special honour to hear your voice again, little thing. You had given me much to ponder during our last conversation.”

  “None of which you have taken to heart.” Tessa replies, eyes tightly shut.

  “On the contrary, you are here!” Allfather explains. “I haven’t brought you all this way only now to wipe you out.”

  “What happened to Envoy 3 then?” Captain Huang asks.

  “They were not the chatty types. But lucky for you, Captain, your envoy includes United Earth’s grandest personalities. May I ask, is Meiser onboard?” Anticipation hangs in the air. Raymond answers no. “Ah, a shame, that is one human I am very interested in getting to know further, from the inside out.” He laughs again. Tobias and Raymond know how Allfather despises Meiser. “Captain, I hope you appreciate the quality of personality you have on your ship. You have United Earth’s Chancellor, Tobias, the Chimera anarchist, and Tessa, the strangely inhuman girl who claimed to understand me.”

  Huang looks to Raymond and he shakes his head. “We’re happy you think so highly of us, but if you haven’t brought us here to finish us off, why?”

  “Further study, and now that the three of you are here, an opportunity to catch up.”

  “We’re not old friends!” Tobias insists angrily.

  “No, Tobias, we are old enemies,” Allfather replies, “and that is so much more useful.”

  “I don’t understand how you transported us from our system 200 light years away,” Raymond says eyeing the star maps, hoping to keep the conversation going, uncertain in what manner it will end.

  “Once my armada entered your star system, they left the devices which link two places. Earth will now always be linked to this place, as are thousands of other worlds,” Allfather tells them.

  “Thousands,” Tessa whispers, a nail-bare finger moving to her mouth. Raymond and Tobias empathize with her; that could mean Allfather has wiped out thousands of intelligent organic civilizations. It’s unfathomable.

  “When your three envoys moved beyond your moon, that activated the devices and they wrapped your ships in a quantum bubble of celestial material which moves much faster than light. Not because that’s possible, but because it doesn’t travel at all. It simply teleports energy and information. Not unlike your ParaCom device which operates under a similar concept; if a shared atom is in two places at once, it is forever linked in real time in quantum entanglement. When the tool is placed in one region, it exists in the other as well.” A candid description.

  “It’s an incredible tool,” Tessa admits. “B-but you’ve used it recklessly.”

  “I’ve only used it as it was intended.” Allfather assures her.

  “It could have been used to meet other races, make inroads with our galactic neighbours, know we’re not alone in the universe,” Raymond replies.

  “But it was. That is how I acquired it. They gave me an incredible advantage in accomplishing my goal. Hundreds of worlds were revealed to me instantly.” He seems incapable of conscience.

  “You’ve wiped out hundreds of sentient races?” Raymond feels sick over the proclamation. He takes the Captain’s armrest to steady himself. “What manner of being were you before you became Allfather?”

  “I am only Allfather to you, Chancellor. To others I go by other names,” Allfather explains.

  “Names that likely afford you the same narcissistic meaning,” Tobias spits back.

  “I am omnipotent, am I not? I destroy in order to build a galaxy which will flourish. Organics are a plague upon my universe.” Allfather sounds very pleased with himself.

  “No, you are no God,” Labyrinth explains, walking to the viewscreen, looking for anything that might materialize as Allfather’s physical form. “Answer Raymond’s question. What were you before you entered the machine as consciousness? You must have memories of it, like our own AI Hosts.”

  “I do not. I have only memories of my physical form’s trials. Whether I was something before that, I have no recollection,” Allfather admits. A length of silence follows. “That is why I am a God. I created my own consciousness, my own sentience, and built myself an empire!”

  “I see no empire,” Tobias tells him, looking out the view ports. “Where do you call home?”

  “We’ll take you there.” Allfather replies ominously. At that moment the carrier is again wrapped in the strange energy bubble; the AI Hosts collapse as the computers freeze, ParaCom goes dark and lights flicker. A moment later they confirm they’ve moved another light year from their position.

  “Envoy 2,” Captain Huang says incredulously as the energy field clears and they can see through their ports again. The collection of ships is still. They do not hold a proper formation as her starships do. The carrier and destroyer appear upside down and to the far left while the four corvettes look adrift in the ocean of space, each pointing in a different direction. Apparently, none of their colony ships escaped this fate.

  “Scan the ships for life signs,” Raymond orders, alarmed at their unsightly arrangement. The Comm officer conveys to the bridge there are over 1500 life forms registering. That means 25% of the crew is gone.

  “Envoy 2 is well enough,” Allfather asserts. The ships are in orbit over a blackened planet with oceans of methane and dark clouds spitting terrible lightning storms upon the tortured landscape. “They are… sleeping.”

  “You’ve cut off their oxygen,” the captain says reading the details over her officer’s shoulder.

  “It is better they sleep now.”

  “So, when you said: I am in you before your flagship burned,” Raymond is fighting to understand their predicament, “those words were not just meant to play on our minds – they were the truth,” he realizes.

  “Of course, Chancellor. I do not say what I do not mean. I am in you referred directly to the mechanisms I dropped in your system. I have not returned because I am not yet ready. But soon,” promises the ancient AI.

  Labyrinth has been recording the entire conversation and routing it to United Earth via her roaming lance ParaCom. Quinn is receiving.

  “I sincerely hope your United Earth has been alerted to your situation.” Allfather says, capturing Labyrinth’s attention. “They should also know that they will not find the tools I left; they are not technology you can search for. They are – beyond your reach.”

  “You’re referring to the dimensional travelling you mentioned to Meiser.” Raymond states, remembering the briefing. “They’re hidden in another dimension.”

  “Dimensions are like layers of reality,” Allfather offers, “if you have a knife sharp enough you can cut through those realities, peer inside and occasionally leave something behind. But you do not possess such a tool,” he explains.

  “So, you don’t travel within dimensions?” Tobias asks.

  “Yes, of course, one cannot traverse so many light years so quickly and not move through dimensions simultaneously,” Allfather says. “You are all now dimensional travellers. Time travellers as well.”

  “Our consolation prize I guess,” Tobias tells the bridge, “if you want to look at the bright side.” He winks at Captain Huang and moves toward the weapons console. He looks it over and wonders if they have a chance. There are still no signs of Allfather’s location.

  “An optimistic view, Tobias,” Allfather congratulates him. “Now, if you’ll humour me, I’d like to show you something.”

  “Let’s not pretend we’ve any choice,” Raymond suggests to his enemy. He feels utterly helpless to defend the good people in his envoy. He considers that maybe it’s not his place to save anyone anymore, but old habits die hard. His jaw clenches and neck aches.