Chapter 13 is done! (Patreon)

Chapter 13 is done, I just need to complete my second run through.  In the meantime, enjoy this teaser! :-)  Feeling a little silly at the moment, so enjoy this music from Queen and scenes from the 1980's movie, Highlander.  You'll understand why as you read the teaser.

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"We must continue our pursuit," T'Maz said. "We must recover the device at all costs.”

By now the ship carrying the device had made it to the rift and entered it.

"Wait...so your 'plan' is to go through a collapsing tear in the fabric of space and time to chase a vicious alien race that we don't know anything about, except, that they now have a device which can tear the fabric of reality?" I asked, this time my voice coming from my own body, now that I was disconnected from the ship’s systems.

That seemed both insane and very illogical.

"We will enter the rip in two minutes," the Vulcan said.

I still had things to say on this matter, but hadn’t changed course either.

"Fighting them here is one thing, T’Maz. We have no idea what’s on the other side!" I pointed out vehemently. "We very nearly died here. We can't fight an entire race with my small ship. They could very well have a fleet waiting for us on the other side of the rift for all we know."

Granted, the Bird of Prey had done a fine job of taking out the remaining fighters in our universe, but there could be hundreds of ships on the other side of the rift with no way to know till we were on the other side. It’s exactly what I’d do, after all. And they'd proven that they would kill themselves in order to destroy us.

"With that device the aliens could attack anywhere in the galaxy with little to no warning," T'Maz argued. "They could even attack Earth, your home."

Well, it wasn't my Earth, but I did live there for a time.

And…Annika lived there.

My heart clenched painfully at the thought of her dying painfully, horribly on the claws of these Collectors. Would she cry out for me to save her, at the end? I shook my head to get rid of the worthless thought.

Trillions of lives could potentially be lost because I failed in this mission. I didn't care much for the fates of total strangers, however, as it turned out, a little was just enough.

Also, this rift would be gone in less than ten hours. Since we lacked the ability to create another one on our own, this might truly be the only chance we had to recover or destroy the device. The fate of the galaxy, as cliché as that sounded, might truly rest on our shoulders.

Fuck it, who wants to live forever?!

"Okay I'm taking us in," I said solemnly.

Somehow I felt like T’Maz and are were both feeling that same sense of impending doom.