Mune'stahr and Pylott: HELLMARROW, a tale of the Ventriculum

EPILOGUE, "The Wheel Turns Ever 'Round..."

Things were different.

Tragically, Klauvane Tregg had not survived – his passage was heroic, honorable, and utterly shocking for Poli'Artta Ranzireth and the rest of The Glide's crew.

Lieutenant Commander Neuronia Singulareus parted company with the crew of The Glide soon after the Reset, returning to the Argossyan Navy and to the wilds of the Wrathbeurne Hive Domes. She felt she needed to be part of the reconstruction after the Devolutioner/Quegfellum War -- and she had to get as much pertinent information about Mune'stahr, Pylott and The Glide back to her Central Command as soon as she possibly could. Though she would definitely paint them in a heroic light, she still felt that they represented a possible future threat to her nation.

Poli'Artta Ranzireth stayed on with crew of The Glide, though, despite mourning Klauvane Tregg's death. She was grief-stricken and numb, weary from the extended period of extreme tension she'd undergone while on-the-run with Tregg, but she felt the Chronodigitator would've wanted her to set down roots with such a group of strong, unusual people. As unlikely as it sounded, NeeSharim reluctantly took the brittle, sharp-tongued Hexabreed warrior under her wing as an Apprentice Shipsman.     

The Ventriculum righted itself and all the manifold territories and all the assorted Organyk populated zones successfully rebuilt themselves, the life forms residing in those areas all being mercifully unaware that the Metaflow reboot had even occurred. But things had changed. Parts of the Metaflow had been re-written to include new ecological, topological and societally historic features.

The Nebulancers were gone. Vanished. The great Colonizer ships of the imperialistic Ascendent Integernarian clan had disappeared.

The Aingyllic Horde was once again allowed to run free across the Metaflow, independent of political or cultural borders. Androkambryah the Dissenter was formally imbued with the title and powers of Organyk Alliance Chieftainship by the Authoritarchs and the Anistrophic Morph-Elf Fae'letha Thane became his Sheriff of Territorial Transitions.

The Quegfellum Union and the Devolutioner Protectorate had, for the time being, had come to a mutually satisfactory truce and brought an end to their deadly conflict. Though still wary of one another and still possessed of simmering resentment and hostility, the two mighty technological nations had stepped away from the battlefield.

The Intercosm Paranescience within the Conjoined Planescape of the Banborough Aggregation had grown to include new previously unincorporated tribal territories. The entire principality was in mourning following the unexpected death of Queen Infernyya Rebekkon. The League of the Black Sun Seraphs, led by Prince Opthas Kandyruu, the new First Among the Knights-Paladin, jointly ruled the State-Proper alongside Zigmus A'arkenum, Infernyya Rebekkon's former Minister of Foreign Interactions, now the President of the Cabinet-Royal.

And by official decree, the Authoritarchs closed off all access to Kadaverign-Space and Hellmarrow.   Breaching its borders was punishable by death.

No one, anywhere, had yet seen or heard rumor of the reappearance of the Qaan'Rai. Though he was doubtlessly still alive, (anyone who knew anything knew that Arkyngales were almost impossible to kill and even then only at the hands of other Arkyngales), there was a collective sense that Taekonus Helmstrype had gone into semi-permanent exile.

But they kept watch for his return. EVERYONE kept watch. The reputation of the devilish Arkyngale Warlord became nearly mythic in proportions, undisputedly crowning him as every civilized nation's most frightening enemy.

Wenshalla Hax had decided to host the Outworld-Otherversal aliens, Mune'stahr and Pylott, at the Authoritarch's Sanctum of the Prismatic Faction off from the Magistorial Ring of the Rift Bridge.

"Mondrum Fellmanghul remains in a comatose dreaming state and we have him imprisoned within a sensory-shielded, fortified Psy-Cage behind a locked bulkhead gate at the Leviathan's Helm Relativity Fortress at the Cross-Terminus DMZ," Wenshalla Hax said, speaking to the former Hegemonic Emperium troopers from the planet Teshiwahur. "We allow no sentient self-aware being near him. The danger of him telepathically dominating them is too great."

"That's still a huge risk. If he's alive, he's dangerous," Pylott commented with unusual venom.

"We don't kill pre-emptively," Hax rejoindered. "That would border on barbarism."

Pylott shrugged. For her, the subject of Fellmanghul was a highly sensitive one.

They were standing in a large, voluminous half-shell of a chamber, under a series of skylights filtering illumination from the Metaflow's false sky down upon them. Large parabolic arches lined the eastern and western curvatures of the chamber and the tile flooring was inscribed with an artistic interpretation of images depicting defining moments in the history of the Authoritarchs.

"I'm more worried about Helmstrype," Mune'stahr said. "No one is truly safe with him still on the loose somewhere out in the Ventriculum. He's too powerful to ignore and he's not going to go away just because he's had a setback or two after encountering opposition. We have to find some way to be prepared for his eventual return..."

"We have yet to find any proof that he still exists. The Cosmic Reset may have overwritten his template..."

"Neither of us believe that. And meaning no disrespect, you weren't there. The Qaan'Rai is far more powerful than any of us imagined. Someone like that, who can do what he can do, doesn't get randomly 'overwritten'," Mune'stahr argued.

Hax sighed and held up a single large hand, the gesture indicating that the discussion end before it became too inflammatory. "We still haven't wholly decided what it is we want or need to do about the two of you..."

Mune'stahr and Pylott were caught off-guard by the statement and positioned themselves to face the Authoritarch giant.

"What are you saying?" Mune'stahr demanded.

"Currently, you act as vigilantes. You have no legal official standing as law enforcement officers. You're not even officially citizens of any known territorial or tribal nation. If you want to continue doing what it is you're doing, you'll need to become duly deputized officers of the law representing the Quantum Consortium of the Authoritarch Federacy," the alien demigod said. "Otherwise, we'll need to consider you to be agents of disruption, outlaws as it were, acting without the sanction of the Federacy. That would be unpleasant for everyone."

Hax paused and then looked down into the faces of the two outsiders from the Einsteinian Universe beyond the Ventriculum before pointedly saying, "And if that situation is not corrected, we'll be forced to hunt you down, despite your good intentions."

No one spoke for a long, tense time.

"Surely you knew that this was coming," Hax said, his tone and manner gentle, yet decidedly firm.

"And if we satisfy those terms, you'll be able to control what we do, when we do it, and to whom," Pylott said, fuming.

Wenshalla Hax did not speak, content to simply return Pylott's earlier non-committal shrug.

Mune'stahr cleared his throat loudly. Pylott tore her eyes away from Wenshalla Hax and tossed him a withering look.

"So, do we get paid?" the former mercenary contractor asked.

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