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As Promised, a short epilogue for my first book. :)

With this done and passed to an editor friend of mine, I am free to look into new projects. So expect some progress on some of my other long-standing series.

Also expect some news regarding possible comissions and trades available in the near future.

I hope you all enjoyed the novel, and stick with me as I progress into my next writing phase.

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Epilogue

A brief distortion preceded the appearance of a dark shape floating in the habitable ring of an unknown system on the edge of the galaxy. A stream of light-flares spark against the dark shape flare into being before lancing out in every direction on a searching ques. They spread further outwards, seeking the signal screaming into the night, calling for someone to come in and find them.

*

"We're picking up a signal, I think it's them."

Loftwyn immediately strode over to the sensor station and practically loomed over the sensor officer's shoulder. He peered down over his shoulder at the growing detail from the sensors spreading across the system. Around the fourth planet of the system, two moons orbited in a complex dance that played havoc with the drones navigation systems at the speeds they travelled. None-the-less, they picked up something obviously metallic, reflective, and emitting energy signals around the further of the two moons. A few commands from the sensor station redirected a half dozen of their probes into arcs that would take them on close trajectory to the object.

"Are there any radio signals coming from it?"

"Not that we can pick...wait...yes, low energy, but a repetitious signal...it could be a carrier wave."

"How long until the probes are in range for a good visual signal?"

"Approximately 2 hours, second."

"Get the Captain."

*

"Probes are coming into range now Captain."

Dalarin nodded from the command chair and gestured to the crewman, "Bring whatever we are getting on screen."

After the original notification, Dalarin would not leave the command chair. As the probes passed by on their arcs, their telemetry passed along more defined data, though in many ways the sensor readings did not make sense. Unusual radiation readings and weird bounces from LIDAR scans made it questionable that they were picking up something other than a heavy metallic asteroid. He commanded the ship into an intercept course though, and tightened the orders on the probes so they could get closer looks at the objects, along with closer visual scans.

The main view screen shifted to a feed combined from a group of three probes passing within a few dozen kilometers of the object. At first, the object looked like a simple shiny object, reflecting sunlight along the edge of the horizon. As the probes drew in closer, the object resolved, details cleared.

"I...is that the Starlight Dreamer?" Loftwyn asked hesitantly,

"I think so," Dalarin replied, "but what happened to it?"

The object on the screen looked like it was a ship, at one point, but something twisted it and shaped it into something out of the brain of an insane god. The original spindle shape was gone, twisted and distorted, but with no sense of join or damage. Angles that made no sense twisted sections off at weird angles, and shafts of metal pierced through the hull and reached out into space. Some vestiges of the original shape remained; the engines with the reactor core remained an extension off the main hull. Tethered to the hull in various places cables reached out past the distorted hull to a great reflective sheet spread out in a dome over the hull, so that the majority of the curve faced outwards to the system's sun.

"We're not picking up anything that indicates that their reactor is running," the sensor operator reported.

"No...you wouldn't...or they wouldn't have that," he gestured to the dome, "that's a solar sail and solar panel sheet. It's an emergency power source for if all other power is dead."

Dalarin walked back to his station and touched a control on the side of the command chair, "Starlight Dreamer, this is the Driving Blow, are you receiving? Captain Tsarchon, are you receiving my signal?"

"We're receiving no signal," Loftwyn reported from the comms station, "we're still getting a carrier wave though."

Dalarin nodded, "can you use the probe to bounce a laser off the solar sail?"

Loftwyn blinked, "I suppose so, but why?"

Dalarin walked over to the sensor station and tapped a few commands into the station, "bounce this pattern off the sail please, repeat at 5 second intervals, for as long as the probe stays in range."

The comms officer looked down to the pulse sequence, then over to Loftwyn. At Loftwyn's nod the comms officer tapped the commands into his console.

*

"It's about time someone went looking for us, you'd think finding the saviors of the high council members would rate a swifter rescue.''

Dalarin couldn't help the smile that crossed his lips as Lilanthe's voice came across the ship's comm system, loaded with a familiar sardonic tone that was as much a relief as seeing even the twisted shape of the_Dreamer_ in the distance. There was still some time-lag though, with their voices crossing the void they lagged a few seconds each direction as the carrier laser crossed the space between the ship and one of their probes.

"Well, perhaps if you had let us know your whereabouts a little bit sooner, we might have been able to come around this part of the galactic arm a bit more quickly. After you did...whatever it is you did, everyone assumed you were destroyed."

"Almost...perhaps, but we're a bit more of a resilient lot then you might think. So when can we expect the rescue shuttles, as you can see, the Dreamer has seen a few better days and isn't really going to go anywhere anytime in the near future. You're lucky you're talking to me, actually...I'm outside right now, pointing a laser signal pretty much directly at one of your probes."

"We're on our way in, but we're still a day or so out. We will start getting our shuttles prepped and ready to ferry the crew over. How many are left, and when will I be hearing from my oh-so-beloved cousin?"

There was a noticeable pause following that question, more than any time delay should allow for, and when Lilanthe's voice returned it came back much subdued.

"We still have about eighteen crew remaining...some of them will need medical care. We've mostly recovered from any serious injuries, but Sires didn't have enough supplies to completely care for some of their injuries. We had to put a few of them in hibernation chambers to hold them until rescue."

Dalarin nodded, realized she couldn't see it,

"All right, I will have medical crews standing by, and we'll prioritize them on the first shuttles," he coughed, "and since you so carefully dodged the question, what happened to N'Tanya?"

Another pause, longer this time,

"It's....it's not my place to say Dal," Lilanthe started, "just, when you get within range you might want to come over with one of the first shuttles."

"All right, but I need to talk to whomever is in charge then. Things have happened during the weeks you've been missing,"

"It sounds like we will have stories to share then. See you soon."

*

It was not the condition he expected to see her in, ever. When he thought of N'Tanya, he thought she would meet her end in the blaze of light as her ship's engines detonated, or at the beam or blade of someone who finally proved that they were better than she was. Not like this...not laying in a medical bed, feeding tubes and catheters inserted in her body, keeping her heart beating and taking away the wastes from her body. Not pale, not wan, not...weak. The dim lighting also did not help. All power systems were critical, with nearly every ounce of generation coming from the solar sail going to vital systems. The entire ship was at one-quarter gravity as well, making movements clumsy at best.

"How long as she been like this," he asked without turning towards Sires, who stood attentively a step behind.

"Ever since the event, so, what...three weeks now?"

Dalarin turned towards her finally, a frown on his face, "What happened?"

"I don't know..." Sires started, though she hesitated when Kagami stepped forward.

The dreamer pilot had kept vigil just inside the medical bay door, while the human girl, Samantha, Dalarin remembered, was outside. Neither had said a word when Dalarin arrived at the medical bay escorted by Lilanthe, or even when Dalarin stood almost aghast at the sight of N'Tanya's weakened condition.

Kagami stepped forward and brushed her hand over N'Tanya's, just below one of the IVs.

"It occurred before we could escape," she started quietly, "N'Tanya went outside the physical ship to...do what we needed to end the threat, and she was attacked by one of the predators in the Dream. Samantha noticed while we fled, and removed the attacker, but not before this," she concluded as she gestured to N'Tanya.

Dalarin's frown deepened somewhat as he looked to Kagami, "I thought the predators destroyed a person's mind irrecoverably. Something about the energies generated by a brain that touches their space, even as subconsciously as we all do, feeds them."

Kagami nodded, "Yes, and inevitably leaves those unprotected brain-dead."

Dalarin gestured angrily to N'Tanya, "Then why is she like this? You and I know she would never want to linger, turn off the machines, let her die, if she is going to pass regardless."

Sires shook her head, "Because of this," she said and pressed a couple of controls on the side of the medical bed.

Immediately a display above the bed lit up, showing several graphs, waves, and numbers. Many Dalarin recognized as heart rate, blood oxygen, and the like, but then he noticed and raised an eyebrow to Sires.

"Those are brainwaves...aren't they," he asked as he looked up to a series of lines at the top, they were not still, bursts of activity crossed the display, followed by a slow curve wave.

"Yes, they are...and some of this activity is somewhat familiar. Some of it looks like the brainwaves your people display while dreaming...but subtly different and I don't know what the low cycles are."

Kagami ahemed and drew Dalarin's attention, "Samantha told me that it looked like the predator wasn't...feeding on her, like she was resisting. That shouldn't be possible unless...well, was N'Tanya ever tested for the Dreamer gene sequence?"

Dalarin considered, "Supposedly, all of us are at birth. It is considered a great honor for a lower caste family to produce a citizen with the gene; it means potential position and status advancements for the whole family."

Kagami licked her muzzle slightly and prompted, "...but?"

Dalarin looked to the two of them, "You know as well as I do that among my people, all those with the Dreamer genes go into Military service. It is mandatory. Even commercial ships have contracted military personnel serving as their Pilots."

Lilanthe's tail swished behind her and smirked, "So...for some families, it might be better if one of their potential inheritors wasn't forced into military service?"

Dalarin nodded, then brushed his hand over his face, "Yes...it's entirely possible that a family might falsify the gene tests to keep one of their children out of the Military," he glanced to N'Tanya, "you're saying that she has the gene then?"

Kagami nodded slightly, "It is the only possible explanation, even without training one of us with sufficient will could potentially recognize and resist one of the Dream's predators."

"Will is not something that my cousin lacks," Dalarin replied sardonically,

"I know," Kagami continued, "I can only imagine that she withdrew inside to protect herself. She may still be alive, just so withdrawn that she does not connect to our world...especially since she withdrew while we were in the Dream."

Sires turned off the display, while Dalarin looked between the three women, "So what are you doing to try and reach her?"

Sires frowned, while Kagami's eyes narrowed, "There is little we can do with these facilities...we have some ideas, but we need a true medical facility to attempt them...preferably one not in a prison."

Dalarin waved that away, "You don't have to worry about that...your rescue of the council and really, the entire planet, under my orders of course, have bought me a lot of leeway with the council. I've pardoned all of you, including the Human girl and N'Tanya."

He glanced to the door, "Speaking of...if N'Tanya is incapable of command, who is in charge? This doesn't change some of the things I have to say."

Lilanthe and Kagami glanced at each other, "Well...right now," Lilanthe started, "we're all sort of taking part of leadership. I don't think anyone wants to claim the Captain's spot...we think that would be admitting she was gone." She glanced around,

"Besides, there is very little actual functional ship left to command." She gave a quick lash of her tail behind her in agitation, "So we have been working together on decisions."

Dalarin gave a quick slash of his hand, "That is not going to work for long. The remainder of your crew will need someone to look to, and someone to make decisions," he frowned again, "for now though, get those who are working together on the decision-making. You have to know what happened while you've been gone."

*

They turned the lights up in the main conference room, their power supplemented by emergency batteries brought over from the Driving Blow to the stricken ship. Gravity was back up to full with their assistance, which made it much easier as Dalarin paced back and forth, while he gestured to the view screen.

Lilanthe shifted slightly; she was decidedly uncomfortable in a seat that by all rights should have contained the Captain. She looked over a star map displayed on the view screen. Spread across the map was little red markers, with brief lines of text next to them.

"We weren't the only ones attacked." Dalarin started after the rest of the command crew assembled.

Rakarra, Dunner, Fitter and Nasir sat on one side, while Sires, Kagami, Samantha, and finally Lilanthe occupied the head seat.

Dalarin touched one of the little red dots, which zoomed into a still picture of a twisted wreck, floating in space. Debris drifted all around it in the photograph, and Lilanthe recognized the remnants of at least a half dozen ships among the wreckage.

"It seems you were right," Dalarin continued as he looked to Lilanthe, "there were simultaneous attacks on at least three dozen different targets spread across a handful of races. All of them seemed built to target the command, military, or political infrastructure of the primary powers in this arm of the galaxy."

Dalarin licked his lips,

"Casualties are extensive. The...weapons," he continued with a half-glance to Samantha, "mostly targeted star bases, shipyards and fleet supply bases. They contained the weapon's effectiveness to just the structures involved in those cases. But, like the attack you stopped, they also targeted whole planets."

Lilanthe blinked, while Samantha blurted, "Planets? How many?"

Dalarin sighed, "Three that we know of." He touched another dot on the display, bringing up another still image, this one of an obviously cracked world, slowly starting to break up as its structural forces no longer held it together.

Samantha gasped and covered her mouth, while Sires looked to the screen coldly. "How many dead?"

Dalarin returned her gaze steadily for a moment before he finally dropped it and looked back to the screen, "Conservative estimate? Millions...this is, unlike anything we've seen for centuries."

Lilanthe touched a few controls on the table and highlighted a few more locations. The numbers of casualties were staggering, and she couldn't still her tail as she looked at the cold numbers that showed what could potentially be called a campaign of genocide.

"Has anyone claimed responsibility yet? Have any demands come forth?"

Dalarin shook his head, "No, and that is the part that is the most confusing. If these are the humans, we've not heard anything from them. No demands, no orders, no threats, nothing. They haven't sent offers of aid either, they've gone completely silent."

Lilanthe tilted her head to the side, "What do you expect us to do then? Why are you telling us this? We're not exactly in a condition to fight at your side."

Dalarin shook his head, "I don't need you to fight...at least not directly."

He looked to each of them in turn, "So far, you are the only ones that have shown that these...weapons can be stopped. You're also the only ones who've gotten even close to discovering who is involved, and where they are attacking from."

He turned to Kagami and Samantha, "I am here to plead for your help. Whatever you did, if you can, you need to teach others. We need to find a way to prevent this kind of destruction, to prevent the kinds of deaths that they've proven they can cause with their weapons. And you," he turned to Lilanthe, "we need you to find out who, and why. You've gotten closer than anyone."

He gestured around, "This crew, you're all the most experienced people dealing with this enemy."

He then looked directly to Lilanthe, "We're at war now, with an enemy that apparently has all of the advantages, the technology, the information, and now...the initiative."

"We need a weapon of our own...and as far as I can see, you are the only advantage we have. So I need an answer from all of you, since my cousin is unable to answer for herself,"

He pulled up the map, and then zoomed out, showing the red dots spreading across the galaxy like blood droplets.

"Are you ready to help me go to war?"

END