All things considered, we reached CZ Prime rather quickly. Days tend to pass quickly while meditating. My friends found out about my breakthrough after the fact, and some of them were quite shocked to know that I had made it to the 12th divide. However, they didn’t let the fact of my strength deter them, and redoubled their efforts in growing stronger.

I was also meditating, but to consolidate my newfound strength. After breaking through, it would be bad if I simply let all that energy run rampantly through my body. It had to be tamed, made my own.

Some people make the mistake of growing as fast as possible, as soon as possible. But, doing things without stopping every now and then to stabilize internal mana and incorporate it fully is like building a house atop loose sand. Without a stable foundation, all that you build is liable to simply crumble, and it imposes a limit on how high you can build.

So, I need to take some time and make sure my foundation is as stable as possible. I want to be able to rely on it for anything.

Athena and Heimdal also started meditating, inspired by my own breakthrough. Well, Heimdal was inspired. Athena seemed more scared than anything. Every time she glanced my way, I could tell she was frightened by my strength and potential. So, she buckled down and gathered her strength, intimidated by both who I am and my strength.

It seems my presence tends to catalyze growth in those orbiting me.

Jvorg and Isis didn’t start doing anything like meditation though. I asked Jvorg about it one day, and he explained why.

“Well, it is not like Isis or I can really increase our martial strength like the others here can. Our mana is already as full as it will ever get. From here, all we can do is increase our knowledge, and fill our repertoire. And, to start with, we are not exactly fighters, see? We are more suited for a support role.”

I’ll admit, I hadn’t thought about that before.

There’s just this running assumption that everyone’s trying to get strong, to further their own power. That everyone has their goals to work towards, and will achieve them through mana.

Of course, this can’t be true, no matter which direction you approach the issue from. While it’s certainly the case that there is a well-known upper stratum of fighters and mages in human society, there also has to be people supporting them from the background. We need our healers, logistics handlers, and merchants. A stable base among the population is necessary to ensure the wellbeing of all.

I guess the same is true in the Pantheon. It was kinda the assumption that everyone there is focused on personal strength and increasing it. But, all organizations require personal to work on logistics and management, after all. No matter how powerful you are, you still need to eat.

So, while the rest of us become consumed in our meditations, Isis and Jvorg kicked back, relaxing for the journey. Isis was reading books taken from…somewhere. They would just appear in her hands or vanish while I wasn’t looking. And who knows where she keeps them, since it’s always a different book. Jvorg passed the time writing stuff down. When asked about what he’s writing, he gets oddly cagey and won’t say anything about it. Weirdo.

Anyway, like I was saying, we reached CZ Prime fairly quickly. Only a few days were spent in the cramped and close quarters of the Federation ship, though with the group we had, it was probably very lucky that tensions stayed as low as they did. I could very well see Athena accidentally blowing up the ship after a heated argument or something.

CZ Prime itself is a military hub for this entire sector of space. We were able to see it from the outside while approaching, and the complex itself looked wholly unremarkable, like any other rock floating through space.

If there were anything to set it apart, it would be the aura emitted by the rock. The place practically stunk of military rigor and martial prowess. There were at least three people within CZ Prime at the 10th divide or higher, and they weren’t hiding the aura created by their strength.

Fools. It’s lighting up the entire base to anyone looking, and defeating the whole purpose of hiding it in the first place.

The ship coasted in towards the rock and a panel in its side slid open, the gleam of metal walls inside confirming that the entire base is housed within the clever façade. Doubtless, there were many more porting stations all along the sides of the rock, hidden away from sight along with all manner of defense weaponry. Our ship smoothly entered the docking bay, and we waited while the massive doors shut behind us, and airtight tunnels were extended toward the ship. It seems like the entire bay area still occupied a vacuum, and the tunnels would lead into the pressurized base itself.

Several docking procedures were followed, and it would be a day or so before all the personal aboard the ship were unloaded. It would take longer to resupply and refuel. It seems that our little group was given top priority, as we disembarked in the very first group, along with the ship’s captain and those personal under her direct command. The airtight tunnels easily fit our entire group, and could accommodate ten people walking side by side. Probably, they were designed with transportation of goods in mind for resupply.

Behind us, the Federation ship didn’t even occupy a fifth of the hanger. It’s sleek construction and rounded surfaces contrasted with some clear damage along the ship’s side, only emphasizing the fact that this ship was the only survivor in a pirate attack.

I recall our interrogation of those two captured pirates, and the stunning facts they presented us with. With only four ships and eight people, they have nigh destroyed a fleet of military vessels, with only the flagship escaping due to our appearance. They attributed their victories to the improved energy generators on their vessels, and how they were able to pump out mana towards engines and weapons on a previously impossible scale.

Jvorg took a look at the generators, of course, and couldn’t make heads nor tails of them.

In his words;

“It’s like the people who made these engines are far, far ahead of us in technology and engineering. Not only that, but imagine if humanity grew up…differently. Say we are walking down a road, and there are paths to choose. Very early on, we advanced our technology in a set way, and continued farther and farther down our chosen path. Everything we have made was built upon the foundation of those very earliest discoveries.”

“Now, imagine that we had taken a different path at the very start. Say that our technology was build upon a completely different foundation from what we have today. You would get technology like that found in those generators.” He paused to let his next words sink in. “These outsiders or aliens have a culture and society different from our own. If these engines are any indication, they will at least treat their technologies very different from our own. I want you all to be prepared to meet a people wholly different from our own, yes?”

There is one thing bothering me, though. These aliens are vastly superior to us technology wise, right? I mean, those generators were capable of outputting a terrifying amount of mana—enough to run a small city for as long as you need.

So, why are they giving these generators to random vagabonds in the Fringe? What’s the goal in that? What are they trying to do?

It just seems like for the answer we got with the generator, so many more have cropped up to replace it. We know next to nothing, and it’s annoying.

While pondering the issue, we reached the end of the extended tunnel, where a pair of airlock doors stood quite solidly. The captain presented an ID to some sort of scanner, and the doors hissed open smoothly. Waiting on the other side was a group of men and women in military dress, with varying expressions across their faces. The lead of the group—a man with silver-grey hair and a perpetual annoyed expression—stepped forward. He had the aura of someone in the late stages of the 10th divide.

“Captain Farthings. Would you mind enlightening us as to what all this fuss is about? Specifically, the point in which you lost the entirety of our 6th Reconnaissance Fleet?”

Ah.

It seems we’re in a bit of trouble.

Well, the captain is. But, we seem to be under her group at the moment. Hmm. This might get annoying.

~

~

An hour later, and we were still stuck in a white-walled room, seated off to the side almost as an afterthought. The captain had been taken by the higher-ups at CZ-Prime into a room down the hallway over there. Since then, nobody’s bothered even looking our way. At one point, the idea of simply teleporting out using Heimdal’s ability had been entertained. However, doing so might put the captain in a tight spot, so we decided to wait a bit—at least, until she comes out of that room. Doubtless, she’s telling her superiors what’s happened. If we could help by corroborating her story or something, then that would be great. After all, she did let us bum a ride here.

However, the hours lengthened, and there wasn’t any movement from the room down the hall. Athena was bringing up the topic of simply leaving more and more often as her patience wore down lower and lower. The core members of the captain’s crew were also seeming to grow more agitated as time went on, distressed by the lengthy interrogation their captain was doubtless undergoing.

Eventually, the room’s door opened, and those higher-ups stepped out.

Their eyes immediately flicked to where we sat. I sighed, simultaneously feeling the movements of a large number of people around us, coming closer. The clatter of military issue boots reached us, and we were surrounded by heavily armed and armored soldiers pointing pulse rifles at our faces.

“Please surrender peacefully.” Said the man with the silver hair, who spoke as if looking down at us from a height. “I wouldn’t want blood to get on these nice, white walls. Just had them cleaned.”

Athena bristled, immediately dropping into a combat ready stance. Heimdal put his hand on her shoulder, and shook his head.

“What? But, why not?” She asked.

“Too much trouble.” He responded.

The silver haired man saw this, and smiled with thin, bloodless lips. “Good. I don’t like it when people cause trouble. Just follow these nice men to your cells, and everything will be fine.” He said, sure of our compliance.

Jvorg eyed the man.

“Captain Farthings back there should have told you who we are, no? Where we wish to return to?”

“Oh, I’m well aware.” Replied the man. “And I’d say people like you should be locked up by principle. It causes less trouble in the long run.”

“Ah. Well, that is an issue. See, we would really like to be going, and it would be nice if nobody was hurt by our leaving. This includes any under your command, and yourself as well.” Athena muttered at this, something about not minding the possibility of hurting the man. “In fact, the best possible outcome for all of us right now, would be if you simply let us leave, and acknowledged poor Captain Farthings back there for the information she has brought to your lap.”

“The information we have no reason to trust? The Captain was found colluding with members of the Pantheon. Likely, half of what we got from her was false. Or, she simply told us what we wanted to hear. It tends to happen with traitors. ”

Jvorg sighed deeply, like he was disappointed.

“Please tell me you did not torture the unfortunate woman. I would be most upset if this were the case.”

“I am given leave to do whatever I wish to my subordinates, especially ones who have betrayed the Federation’s Legions.”

“That is a yes, I take it?”

“Yes.”

Jvorg sighed again, and I took action, silently enveloping the entire base in my domain. I think only Isis noticed.

Once the domain settled, I bent everyone’s perception of time, holding it in place for now. To me, they all now appear frozen in place, my flow of time moving much faster than theirs. I stood up from the chair I sat in and left an illusory copy of myself there, just in case. The door to the interrogation room was still slightly open, and a little push brought the room into full view, including the bruised and battered figure of Captain Farthings. Seeing her like this made me angry—see, I rather admired her for running a fleet of her own, and doing it fairly capably. Sure, she messed up with the pirates and all, but so have many other fleet captains. At least she came out of the encounter alive, along with the crew of her personal flagship. All in all, she is a capable leader, and shouldn’t be treated like this.

Before this point, I had no idea how deep the animosity between the Federation and the Pantheon ran. I just knew that there was a grudge. And now, I’m mad that the captain got caught up in this. She only did her job.

The glint I see in her non-swollen eye says that she is also angry. So, while still bending the concept of time, I leaned over and cradled the captain in my arms. I carried her back to where our own group was, surrounded by the military’s force.

I dropped the domain, and made sure to look the silver haired man straight in his eyes as I seemly appeared in front of him, holding the tortured captain.

“Heimdal.” I said. “Get us away from here.”

The man blinked, surprised to see me seemingly teleport so suddenly, and with the captain as well—who was equally confused by the situation and tried moving around between my arms. I quieted her down, easing her mind into pleasant dreams and a freedom from pain. Even there, though, I could feel her concern for the rest of the flagship’s crew.

Mmh, I’ll make sure they’re fine.

Trust me.