Humanity Endures

Part 13 - Epilogue | Chapter 9

A wave of uneasy recollection crashed onto Velan. Around him was a meeting room that he had borrowed from the military installation where he had found himself, gathered around the central table within were his senior officers, and being discussed was nothing less than Light's End — for him and his original crew members, this chapter of the war was concluding the way it had begun. It seemed years ago that he and his senior officers, minutes after un-grounding their ship, had contemplated their next move and had decided to fly to Light's End for the first time, hopeful for easy glory and endless spoils; it was even more difficult to imagine that now, after a week of horror, sacrifice, loss, and slaughter, Velan and his officers were forced to plot their return.

Things were slightly different, of course: the dangers posed by Light's End had been proven; the Empire was reeling from two wars, rather than struggling to cope with a lengthy peace; and the number of people attending the meeting, despite Dentor being gone, was both far higher, and more varied. Extinction was not only possible, but in the minds of those present, it was probable; with this realization came an inexpressible dread that soaked up any good news the people in that room heard. Thinking that the fate of the very galaxy rested on their ability to adapt and to plan, the entire chamber — nearly all Velan's remaining, high ranking crew members, Ralthina included, though Iselviah had received her own ship — sat in silence, eagerly awaiting a proposal from none other than the lowly Xandra.

None had anticipated this outcome, and few had anticipated that the oft-mute Xandra would participate in the discussion at all, but with a crippling dearth of other options or proposals, her suggestion was uneasily welcomed nonetheless by even the most cynical amongst Velan's crew, even if few suspected that anything would come of it.

"Xandra," Velan began, his gaze focused solely on his officer at the other end of the rectangular table, "you said to me earlier that you had a plan to deal with the predicted reopening of Light's End; if there is one thing that the WSRC's chatter has made clear, it is that we need this plan. We can only act on it if you tell us what it is, so, if the gripping silence of this room has not made it clear already, we're waiting."

Xandra sighed, "If I were to tell you everything about this plan, I would be laughed out of this room; I can, however, tell you what is needed to fulfill it."

As Xandra spoke, she dispatched a secure textcomm to all present, a textcomm that contained a set of galactic coordinates which indicated a position hidden in the furthest reaches of the Oort Cloud, a mostly-uninhabited interstellar field of icy meteorites and space-detritus near the now-twisted world of Earth.

"We must go to these coordinates, acquire a device from some people, and allow me to set it up near Light's End — doing this could very well spare the galaxy a wretched fate at the hands of the alien scourge, though it may not seem that way from what I've just told you."

The room returned to abject silence, though rather than this being a silence of fear, this was a silence of incredulity; those present were uncertain whether or not to ask questions, heckle Xandra's "proposal," or laugh her out of the room as she had said they would.

"That's it? This is all you have? What even is this 'device'?!" Yelazar blurted, his words fuelled with rage at a perceived deception.

Xandra simply smiled, shook her head, and retorted, "This 'device' is our key to winning this war; you would be impressed to see what the Ministry of Espionage can come up with, given enough time, and enough legal freedom."

Terxah, her expression wide with disbelief, stammered, "You work for the—"

"Yes," Xandra replied, "I work for the Ministry of Espionage. I'm quite important there, in fact."