Chapter 13: The Dread Pirate Rob, Nicholas POV (Patreon)

Chapter 13

The Dread Pirate Rob

Nicholas POV

I stepped through the portal and placed the strange corvette on the ground beside my throne. Getting close enough to the asteroid to open a portal and collect the corvette had taken half an hour and caused the crew to grumble. The grumbling was significantly less than in the past, as the more disagreeable crewmen, our would-be mutineers, were now hit every time they said anything.

I glanced at Nargus’s statuesque form as I sat down. Very little had changed while I was gone, and I was no closer to understanding when his transformation would finish. It meant we would have to move on and begin the evacuation without him.

With a thought, I dismissed the portal and pushed my Domain through The Pantheon and the local system. I didn’t bother pushing my Domain into the surrounding systems. We had too many dead crewmen to waste the Power needed to see further. What I could currently see was more than enough.

There were no threats or points of interest. Everything that was worth taking had already been taken, and the few hidden items were not worth my trouble as they were made for regular-sized people.

I chuckled as I noticed the crew were walking around The Pantheon with their chest puffed out. I’d crafted an F-4 destroyer for everyone who fought for us, boosting their technology grade and power output while turning them into proper pirates. They were significantly more loyal than they had been before. None of them had less than 73 loyalty points. Rob was the highest with 96 and would receive the corvette if he reached 100.

I had suggested we make the offer now and see if that worked, but Pan had convinced me to make Rob the temporary helmsman instead. The two were at the helm chatting while they waited for their next orders. Pan didn't have much to do without the delinquents to manage because the rest of the crew wasn’t interested in causing trouble.

I projected my voice to Pan. “I’ve retrieved the item. I’m opening a portal back to the capital.”

Pan informed Rob.

I wove the necessary Power, summoning a portal before The Patheon. Rob immediately took us in without stopping their conversation. As we coasted through the portal, exiting above Sector 3’s capital planet, I felt something reach out and wrestle control of the portal away from me. It also took hold of The Pantheon and tried to pull us through faster.

Pan immediately tried to counter the attack on the ship with his Power while I spread my Domain through the capital system, searching for the source of the disruption. I didn’t need a gut instinct to warn me we were in trouble. Nothing we had come across has been able to do anything like this.

Everything everywhere was pandemonium. The Church of Transcendence’s followers were fighting all the surviving players and NPCs while the capital was in the process of transforming. The assets I’d stolen and sold to Simple Mike had either dissolved or were making their way towards the city to become what I instinctively saw as the realm of a new God.

Purple crystal buildings were rising from the ground as a gigantic superstructure formed. I couldn’t see how advanced the structures were, which scared me because above the rubble that had been the Church of Transcendence’s cathedral sat a Transcendent being on a crystal throne.

It was a purple crystallised humanoid, and it was looking directly towards the sky and section of space where The Pantheon was exiting the portal. A Transcendent sceptre sat across its lap, emanating Power woven into a complex net, which surrounded the planet and pulled The Pantheon through.

Beside the helm, Pan whipped his head towards the planet and spotted the other Transcendent being. He grabbed the helm and pushed Rob aside. “Run to the captain as quick as you can.”

Rob frowned but did as he was ordered, leaping over the railing to land on my balcony and run for the throne room's doors. The stern finished passing through the portal, and the portal slammed closed behind us.

Space became chaotic.

I have no other words to describe it. The sceptre bent the laws of physics, and The Pantheon stopped dead in the water, unable to move.

Rob’s movements slowed as he reached for the handle. He was still moving, but only at an inch a second.

I tried to stand and discovered I was only slightly faster than Rob. I surrounded myself with Power, willing the effects restraining me to weaken.

I immediately moved faster, but it was still like I was pushing through honey. I bent down, picked up the corvette, and slowly walked towards the doors, advancing against the unseen force. I assumed Pan wanted us to upgrade Rob.

The Transcendent being let out an amused chuckle as he manipulated a whisper of Power and tugged at my Domain. “Good to see you’re listening.”

I recognised his voice and sighed. “Hello, Simple Mike.”

“Hello again, Nicolas. You must be wondering how I’ve taken control of your ship?”

I wasn’t.

“You gave me the technology that created The Pantheon, so I imagine you know all of its strengths and weaknesses and likely added a few weaknesses of your own.”

Simple Mike lifted his crystal hand and placed it against his chest. “That’s slander, Nicholas, and it hurts me that you would suggest such a thing. I don’t sell defective products or make defective products. But you are correct about the first point, some of my products have weaknesses that are intrinsic to their functionality, and I do happen to know how to exasperate these weaknesses.”

Through my Domain, I watched what I guessed was an F-10 fleet, led by an even higher-grade flagship, begin to rise from the planet. They possessed a crystallised nature similar in appearance to Simple Mike’s body but weren’t much different from their metallic counterparts.

However, they would cut through the crew when they reached The Pantheon.

Pan recognised the same danger. He immediately released the helm and leapt over the railing to the balcony. He was moving a lot faster than I was and reached Rob in only a few seconds. With a forceful shove, he opened the throne room doors and pulled Rob inside.

He turned and shut the doors. “Have you tried opening a portal so we can escape?”

I instinctively knew I couldn’t make a portal large enough for The Pantheon to escape, not while Simple Mike was doing whatever he was, but I still raised my hand and opened a portal. It was barely enough to walk through. It led to the mountain range where we found Jack, and it required significantly more Power to open than it usually did.

“I can make three this size,” I said.

“Good, if our plan fails and the worst should happen, leave me behind.”

I nodded. “I will.”

“But only if the worse should happen, my Liege.”

“Of course.”

“I was just checking. You responded rather quickly.”

“Pan, I literally met you today. To be clear, I won’t sacrifice myself to save you. But I won’t throw your life away either. Now, what plan are you talking about?”

Pan’s gaze darted to the corvette, answering my question. “Rob, would you be interested in becoming extremely powerful? The corvette the captain holds is at least E grade, possibly higher.”

Rob’s eyes widened. “What do I have to do in return?”

“Kill the Transcendent being coming to kill us.”

He grinned. “Deal.”

You have improved your relationship with Rob.

+4 loyalty.

100/100

Rob is now loyal to you.

I grinned as I handed Rob the corvette. As their technologies merged, a blinding flash of light enveloped the two, and then I received a very scary notification.

You have destroyed your relationship with Rob.

-100 loyalty.

0/100

Rob’s form began to shrink as he transformed from a man into a teenager. The light disappeared a second later, leaving a thirteen-year-old boy in front of us. It was a thirteen-year-old boy who looked like he had come out of an Anne Rice novel. Dark red veins lined his skin, and blood-red orbs filled his eye sockets. There was an intensity to his gaze that no child should ever have.

“Flesh,” he hissed.

My gut instinct kicked in, warning me that I would be his meal if I didn’t give him another food source in the next few seconds. I opened a second portal next to him, which led to the prisoners to the lower deck. Rob’s head snapped towards the portal, then he leapt through in a blur. The screaming started as I closed the portal.

Pan hadn’t waited for permission and had already leapt through the other portal that led to the mountain range. I was only a step behind, diving headfirst for extra speed. My instincts were warning me to get as far away as possible.

I landed on the other side and slammed the portal closed. “What the bloody hell was that?”

Pan swallowed. “That was a bloodline transformation.”

“I don’t know what that means.”

“It means Rob just became bionoid nobility. I don’t have time to explain. You have a minute to two to bait the other Transcendent into attacking The Pantheon before his instincts warn him Rob is there.”

I opened a much smaller portal and pushed my Domain through to see what was happening back in the capital of Sector 3. Rob was consuming the mutineers the way he’d consumed the corvette, and I could no longer read his technology level, which implied a lot.

I threw my voice through the ship. “All crew to arms. Incoming high F-grade fleet. Gather on the main deck and fire at will. Please ignore the transformation Rob is undergoing.”

Simple Mike's body vibrated as the crew slowly raised their hands and began firing their pistol at the rising fleet. Shields appeared around the fleet, defending against the lethal energies that threatened to destroy them. The crew immediately noticed their weapons were less effective against destroyers than in the past and began targeting the frigates, leaving the cannons to take care of the larger vessels.

The vibrations across Simple Mike’s body turned into a rolling ripple as his fleet started to vanish. “How did you strengthen your slave so quickly? Yesterday, they were nothing by F-1 grade trash.”

“I’ll enlighten you if you tell me how you became Transcendent and gained this fleet?”

He tilted his head to the side and nodded. “I used a large portion of the equity you sold me to purchase this body and escape my prison. The fleet you’re fighting accounts for half of my remaining assets, which I assumed would be enough to defeat you without risking myself.”

“I didn’t expect you to answer,” I said to buy time.

“Your offer was in my favour. It was smart business to answer.”

“And you know I wasn’t lying like I know you weren’t.”

“Being Transcendent is useful like that. Now answer my question.”

“I used my F-7 Wisdom and Might to destroy fleets and gather the resources I needed to build stronger vessels for them to merge with.”

“That certainly changes things. And I was so hoping to stick to my budget.”

The rubble around Simple Mike began to dissolve and separate as materials flew towards him, transforming into technology. In the space of a few seconds, an F-1 grade crystal shield generator appeared at his feet, a few seconds later, it upgraded into an F-2.

My gut instinct kicked in again and warned me he would attack the moment the shield he was building was completed.

I turned to Pan. “What are our chances of winning against Simple Mike if Rob doesn’t win?”

Pan took a seat on the ground. “Transcendent beings don’t grow stronger out of nowhere. They have to have followers to grow stronger. Since the Church of Transcendence looked like it was waging war on the players, we can assume that they swore themselves to his service. Since the Church of Transcendence is a human NPC faction trapped here in Sector 3, he can’t have more than a billion followers, which gives him a D grade attribute if he spreads his Transcendent Points correctly.” Pan frowned. “We are in serious trouble if Rob can’t win.”

On the planet, Simple Mike finished upgrading his shield generator. He grabbed his sceptre and stood, staring up at The Pantheon. He lifted the sceptre, and I felt him gather his power. A beam of golden energy burst from the end of his sceptre, passing through the space between him and the ship at the speed of light, only to enter and exit the portal I’d summoned as he raised his arm. The same beam Simple Mike had directed at The Pantheon collided with his flagship, obliterating it.

Simple Mike immediately entered FTL, launching from the planet, passing through his shield that now protected his real like it wasn’t there. He collided with The Pantheon, shattering the back third of the vessel a fraction of a second after disappearing from the planet below. A third of my followers and what remained of the mutineers were vaporised as the lower two decks were exposed to the vacuum of space.

The only part to survive intact was Nargus. Power tethered him to the ship, holding him in place despite the entire throne room being gone.

Simple Mike floated in space for another fraction of a second before he swung his sceptre, unleashing a powerful burst of energy towards what remained of the Pantheon, only to have it blocked by a wall of blood-red mist.

Rob glared at Simple Mike from the middle of the lower deck. “You destroyed my meal.” He raised his hand, and the cloud of red mist shot towards Simple Mike.

Simple Mike raised a shield to block the mist but watched in shock as the mist speared him through the stomach.

Rob twitched his arm, yanking Simple Mike towards him. “Know your place, food.” The moment Rob touched him, Simple Mike dissolved in a burst of light.

Rob rose into the air and flew to the main deck, where he began consuming the rest of the screaming crew. I noticed he avoided Colin and his other friends, so some of his personality had to still be in there despite him losing his loyalty.

It was over in less than two minutes.

I watched the blood-red mist flow into Rob’s body and skin, returning his features to more normal dimensions. Rob was left looking like a normal thirteen-year-old boy. A normal thirteen-year-old boy who could inspire nations. He had the face of someone who would be a future king.

The eight survivors immediately fell to their knees and bowed their heads in worship.

“We greet our lord,” they said as one.

Rob backhanded Gauge, causing his body to explode in a wave of shrapnel, which killed four others. “I have no use for the service of trash.”

He turned to Colin, Porter, and Heart and smiled. “Hello my friends.”

Colin, Porter, and Heart kept their heads bowed. “We live to raise your glory.”

Rob shook his head. “I don’t need servants. I need allies.” Rob turned to the approached fleet and then to the tiny portal I’d opened on the other side of the system. “I know you’re watching me, Captain, so let me clarify what you’re seeing.”

He vanished from my sight. Considering how close my Domain was to omnipresent, that was impressive. Over the next few seconds, the fleet disappeared and reappeared beside the Pantheon in pieces. Then, there was a ruffle of air beside me.

I very carefully and very slowly turned and met Rob’s gaze.

He studied me in return.

I could no longer read anything about him from his gaze. He was as foreign to me as Pan. I wasn’t sure how he had gotten to this planet several systems away, but I knew it wasn’t through a portal. Strangely, my gut instinct told me I wasn’t in danger anymore.

Pan seemed to relax.

“Are you here to kill us?” I asked.

Rob shook his head. “Not today.”

“What do you want then?”

“I want you to look after my friends. I want you to make them strong. As strong as you made me. In return, you can be my patron.”

Quest Received

Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse

A bionoid Lord has ordered you to turn his friends into Lords.

Reward:

+1 follower

“That won’t be easy.”

“For someone as powerful as you, it will be less difficult than you imagine. Now, make yourself useful and open a portal to Biolin for me. I tire of the insect world.”

I opened a portal beside him, wanting to get rid of him as fast as possible, and he stepped through.

***

Pan clicked his tongue and lifted Simple Mike’s sceptre, testing the balance, while The Pantheon repaired itself. He’d been working on the sceptre for over an hour, standing on the main deck, trying to take control of the weapon. With Simple Mike dead, that was apparently possible. Whatever Pan was doing finally worked because the sceptre shifted form into a cutlass.

Pan tested the weight and then flipped it over and offered it to me handle first.

I waved away the offer as I lifted my hand to stifle a yawn. “You fixed it. It’s yours,” I said, too exhausted to think straight. I was one munity, a God-level fight, whatever had happened to Rob, and about three hours past my bedtime.

“You do realise that by that logic, every Transcendent weapon we find will become my property, my Liege.”

“Good point. You fixed it, so you get to keep the first one. The rest are mine.”

“Spoken like a true pirate, my Liege.” Pan flicked the cutlass over and caught it by the handle, pointing the tip at me, grinning. “I want half?”

I chuckled.

I opened a portal in front of the tip with another that opened to the side of his head.

Pan chuckled. “But that’s negotiable, my Liege.” He lowered the cutlass.

“Would that have killed me?”

“No. Transcendent weapons scale with their wielder, and you didn’t invest in Might. In your hands, this weapon won’t miss because of your Domain. In mine, it will hit just as hard, but not as accurate.”

“Can you harvest with his realm now?”

The Pantheon could regenerate without resources, but it would be a lot slower. Harvesting everything Simple Mike had created made sense.

Pan nodded. “This should allow me to take control of his equipment and lower the shield.”

I opened a portal beside Pan, and he stepped onto the planet’s surface. The moment he was gone, I turned to Colin. “What happened to Rob?”

Colin and the others were still kneeling with their heads bent and eyes closed. They hadn’t moved since Rob had left. Colin swallowed but didn’t reply.

“Can you not talk for some reason?”

Colin nodded.

“Is it a physical problem?”

He shook his head.

“Is it cultural?”

He nodded.

Down on the planet, Pan placed the weapon against the barrier around Simple Mike’s throne and caused it to power down. Then, he began dismantling the realm.

“How many players survived the purge, my Liege?”

I opened a portal and stepped through to help. “In this system or the others?”

“This one.”

“2% of the player population that was on this planet fifteen hours ago are still alive. There is a 6% survival rate overall for the system. Only the toughest made it through. I don’t see many noncombatants.”

Pan nodded. “We should collect the survivors while The Pantheon repairs and then open a portal to limp to port and replace the crew.”

“That’s no longer necessary.”

“I don’t follow?’

“While waiting for you to take control of the sceptre, I discovered how my Domain and portal ability synergise.”

“I’m glad you finally started experimenting with your powers.”

“I haven’t. This was an accidental discovery.”

“Accidental?”

“I stayed in the same spot for more than five minutes while you worked on the sceptre. After that, my influence began to spread through this system and into the surrounding ones. I can now open a portal into systems we’ve never even entered.”

His eyes widened. “How fast is your influence spreading?”

“It spreads as quickly as the Pantheon travels. We don’t need a crew anymore. We can get the survivors of Sector 3 to Sector 6 through a series of portal jumps.”

“Once we’re finished here, is there anything else you need me to do?”

“Not yet, but in an hour, I’ll need to go through the portal and collect the Pool of Transcendence.”

***

I stood on the balcony of The Pantheon, organising the evacuation of Sector 3 while smiting the members of the Church of Transcendence. Pan was several systems away, fighting toward the Church of Transcendence last stronghold. The Pool of Transcendence needed to be destroyed so we could eliminate the Simple Mike threat, but the players also needed to be saved from the genocide the Church of Transcendence was enacting. So, we temporarily went our separate ways.

Through my Domain, I watched the survivors of the Church of Transcendence’s purge enter my portals. The capital wasn’t the worst-off system in Sector 3, but half the NPC population hadn’t survived the purge, and almost 95% of the players didn’t make it. With no news from the capital about why the sector had fallen, most players had used their last lives to defend the NPCs, which was why so many had survived.

I had to keep reminding myself that this was a net win. That the destruction I had caused was less than what the Horde would have visited upon us, but when you can see the corpses of millions of children, words and statistics don’t mean anything.

I felt like a failure.

Jack stood on the balcony railing, watching the planet below. Almost a million NPCs had sworn themselves to me after he made his sales pitch. NPCs converts brought their own ships with them as they swore allegiance, allowing me to remake them. Jack's fleet now contained over a hundred corvettes, the same number of frigates, with an additional destroyer.

The new followers weren’t enough to replace those we had already lost, so I was no closer to another milestone than before. That was disappointing because investing in my Domain no longer interested me. The next milestone and the ones after it were going into Power. The ability to travel through my Domain meant that I wanted to be able to see as far as possible, and I needed power to do that.

Jack’s voice reached my ears as he finished his silent contemplation. “If you want to talk to me about natural wormholes again, I can’t help you. I already told you everything I know.”

Jack had directed The Pantheon to the natural wormhole as we passed through an earlier system. Unlike the transit ring wormholes and my portals, I couldn’t see through it. I couldn’t push my Domain through it either. And it was too small for me to fit through.

“This isn’t about wormholes. Are you interested in gathering a larger fleet?”

Jack scowled. “I already gathered a fleet, and you got half of it destroyed.”

The sudden disappearance of several million people and a third, not half, of his fleet had left Jack in a bad mood. He’d thought he understood what he was getting into. Simple Mike had shown him he was wrong, and Jack didn’t like to be wrong.

“Your fleet is all repaired and accounted for. Now answer my question.”

“My fleet is already suspiciously large. No one will trust me if I turn up with more ships.”

“No one said you had to take your entire fleet with you.”

His mouth twitched, threatening a smile, as greed got the better of him. “Perhaps I could be interested in growing my fleet.”

“In that case, I’ll continue opening portals to vessels for you.”

“For how long?”

“Until we reach Sector 6.”

“Why not longer?”

“I’ll be sending you to meet with the pirate kings when we arrive.”

“Don’t forget I need a treasure fleet.”

“I’m aware of your needs.”

I dismissed him. Opened a portal beside him to his flagship and let him step through.

In another system I watched, Pan placed his cutlass against the shield around the church’s stronghold and command it to shut down. The moment the shield lowered, he raised his hand and unleashed his power on the massive structure, turning it to ash and killing the last members of the Church of Transcendence.

The Church of Transcendence has fallen.

The war has ended.

Congratulations, you have won a war with another faction! As the first member of your faction to achieve this result, you have been given an achievement reward:

+10 Transcendent points

+1,000,000,000 Tokens

Warlord Perk:

+1,000,000 Tokens a Cycle.

+100% Attack and Defence when fighting a faction you are at war with.

“That was faster than expected,” I said while opening a portal to Pool of Transcendence. “And far more profitable than I imagined.”

I reached through and picked up the Pool of Transcendence, pulling it out of the ash and through the portal. I held it in my hand and tried to destroy it with my Power. The results were underwhelmingly slow. The edges began to crumble and distort, but it would take several minutes to destroy.

I dumped my new Transcendent points into Power, bringing it up to D-7, and tried again. This time, The Pool of Transcendence crumbled into a lump of high-grade metal.

Congratulations, you have killed a Transcendent being! As the first individual of any faction to achieve this result, you have been given an achievement reward:

+10 Transcendent points

+1,000,000,000 Tokens

Transcendent Killer Perk:

+1,000,000 Tokens a Cycle.

+100% Attack and Defence when fighting against Transcendent beings.

As the first member of your faction to achieve this result, you have been given an additional achievement reward:

+10 Transcendent points

+1,000,000,000 Tokens

Transcendent Killer Perk:

+1,000,000 Tokens a Cycle.

+100% Attack and Defence when fighting against Transcendent beings.

Your Pantheon has killed the Transcendent Simple Mike

+1 Transcendent Minion

+10,000,000,000 Tokens

I opened a portal behind Pan as I dismissed the notifications. “Need a ride?”

“Most appreciated, my Liege.”

I closed the portal as he stepped into the throne room and tossed him what remained of the Pool of Transcendence.

He caught the lump of metal, frowning at what had once been Simple Mike, and then glanced at Nargus’s statuesque form. The Pantheon had regenerated around his throne. “Did you receive a Transcendent Minion token?”

I nodded.

“Then he’s dead. Did you gain another achievement reward? I notice you’ve raised our Power again.”

“I gained three.”

Pan huffed out a breath. “Are you still planning to invest in Power?”

Instead of answering him, I opened my character sheet and dumped the new points into Power, bringing it up to B-7. It was enough power for us to control The Pantheon unassisted. I poured all that Power into my Domain.

My awareness engulfed Sector 3, showing me every planet and person that was within her borders before expanding into the six surrounding sectors. It was hundreds of systems, thousands of worlds and moons, and trillions of people and aliens. Yet, the change caused me less discomfort than the previous changes and allowed Pan and I to power the Pantheon unassisted.

“I’ll take that as a yes, my Liege.” Pan used his new Power to finish repairing the Pantheon, and the regeneration rate exploded. “How’s the evacuation going?”

“Everything’s on time. We will reach Sector 6 just before the end of the Cycle. Jack has agreed to try to capture every vessel between here and there.”

“Hopefully, I can convince you to start thinking long-term next Cycle when everyone is safe.”

***

A day and a half later, Pan walked through a portal hauling coffin-sized metal slabs while grinning from ear to ear. I hadn’t found any more useful unique ships despite checking each system with my Domain, but I found a few interesting points. The metal in the slabs behind Pan was worth more than its weight in doubloons. Literally, each one was worth several chests of coin.

It was mostly E-grade rare materials, which I recognised from Simple Mike’s flagship, with something else mixed in. Since I didn’t recognise what that something was, it was likely even more valuable. Pan dropped the metal slab onto the main deck, then turned around and walked back through the portal to the asteroid.

Colin and the others didn’t look up as they kneeled on the main deck with their eyes closed. With more Power at our disposal, repairing The Pantheon and evacuating Sector 3 took only six hours. I could see everyone on the lower deck chatting and having fun or trying to find ways to the main deck to talk with me.

They all wanted to know what was going on.

On the other side of the lower deck, Jack was invading vessels spread across dozens of systems. He gained hundreds of new vessels every hour, which I then converted to human technology and improved. He was ready to find the other human pirates when we reached Sector 6. He hadn’t left his flagship in nearly a day.

…

Six hours later, my Domain reached the far edge of Sector 6, showing me that it was safe to enter. I wasn’t going to make that mistake again. From now on, I only went to places I investigated first.

I walked to the balcony, taking in the vastness of space, and I opened a portal. I then released a sigh. I’d done what I had set out to do. I’d got everyone I could out of Sector 3, and now they were safe.

My actions had been validated.

Pan took The Pantheon through the portal.

I projected my Domain to everyone below to share the happy news. “We’ve entered Sector 6. At the beginning of the next Cycle, you would be allowed to disembark on the planet moon or space station of your choice. Please use the time outside the Game to decide where you want to go.”

Everyone started to cheer.

Jack heard my announcement through his communication system and began shouting instructions, powering up his fleet. With over two hundred ships currently at his command, he had regained his status as a pirate lord and had what he needed to see this plan through.

When he finished giving orders, he looked up. “I’ve been out of the game for almost a year. Borders will have shifted. Kings will have risen and fallen in stature. Lords will be dead by the dozen. If we’re going to do this, I’ll need more recent information.”

Everything he said was a lie.

I dissolved the vessels he wasn’t taking with him and used the materials to create the treasure fleet he needed. I opened portals to their cargo bays and loaded them with bricks of refined F and E-grade materials. Then I filled Jack’s ship’s computer with scanner readings from the treasure fleet and watched his eyes widen. I added the flight logs and the times it would visit each system in Sector 3 to collect the resources they were hypothetically moving to a new location.

Jack swallowed. “I’ll see you next Cycle.”

I opened a portal in front of his ship that came out near the largest natural wormhole in human space. “Good luck.”