I was walking the decks of the Claritas, with a huge wolf at my left and a psyker daughter floating on the other side.

Janice dismissed her Custodes guard with a single phrase. "We are Lancefires, Shield Captain. You wouldn't be worried to walk beside another Custodes, right?"

The man sighed a bit too loud, but only nodded.

"Your mother doesn't get the same treatment though." I noted as I reached the only Gellar generatorium on the giant ship. Sure, the thing was large as well, and armored with a meter of adamantium on all sides, but it was still a single point of failure. The Emperor was still disregarding daemons as mere nuisances, probably because the same daemons simply burned to ash in his presence.

A pair of Custodes guarding the Gellar field emiter nodded at Janice, and one of them even uttered "Adepta Tertia." in a respectful voice.

Canis and I were ignored as irrelevant.

Then Janice waved a hand and locked the vault-door behind us. "I was told you have managed to unseal your first hermetic core?" she asked while measuring me with dissecting eyes.

"...How?" I asked in surprise. "Right, you were there when the Emperor operated on me." I realized a bit later.

"Hermetic transdimensional nodes, to be released from their seal upon encountering a specific danger or artifact activation. We also installed bionic organs. The heart furnace has already saved your life a few times, while the extra brain lobe aids to manage temporal shifts and the T-engine's probability vectors. And the normal Astartes cooperation too, I would guess." Janice said while hugging Canis and scratching his chin.

"Checking on the human experiment now? How filial of you." I muttered while placing my hand on the inner wall to transmute it into a meter of auramite instead. A bit draining on my mental reserves, but nothing like a complex machine or a planetary data-core.

"I also have two hermetic cores and a heart furnace. Just in case, he said" Janice spoke in a less pleased voice.

I sighed out loud, then searched my inventory to find another transdimensional beamer pistol, disguised as a fancy combi-bolter gun instead. Then I loaded a pair of darkstar rounds I got from a certain Votann, and a magazine of kraken rounds to fill the rest. "Dual use, prison or soul death. Primach-class enemies, or higher." I whispered as Canis drew away in wary manner.

Janice glanced between my wolf and the gun, before taking it and examing it with glowing blue eyes. Pysker bullshit! Convenient, but still bullshit.

"The transdimensional pocket will not contain a Great Daemon for long, but it should work against a C'tan shard. As for the death rounds...I may shoot Yvraine once, just for laughs. She keeps bothering Roboute and Sanguinius for some reason." my daughter mused in a thoughtful voice.

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"Roboute I understand, but Sanguinius? Really?" I asked a bit surprised at the mundane gossip.

"What? I can understand pretty angel Sanguinius, but grim-robot Roboute, really?" my daughter countered in outrage.

We both stared at each other for a moment, then burst out laughing. "I'm glad you found a boy eventually, even if he's not a Navigator. You aimed pretty high." I said with a tiny smirk.

Janice blushed a little, then grabbed Canis again as a comfort pillow. "He is quite difficult. And always dreams of better days, while the Imperium crashes around us."

I held out an obsidian card, and leaned back on the impregnable auramite wall. "When you need rescue, call me. I'll do what I can."

"So you also know. Terra is gone. It hasn't happened yet, but it's a matter of short years now. Maybe a decade." Janice said in a sad voice, while floating the blackstone rimmed card into her hand, an impossible feat inside a Gellar field, not to mention one locked with auramite walls.

"The fail-safe in the Golden Throne?" I asked a bit randomly. I knew of some kind of doomsday weapon meant to destroy Terra in case the Throne failed.

"I hope we can repair that, with your psi-tech STC. But even then, something worse happens. My vision ends when a new Eye opens, glowing with cold white light. One way or another...the Imperium falls." Janice said in a pained voice.

I was the opposite of an expert in pysker powers, but that seemed to me exactly like the light of the Astronomican. But somehow manifesting in realspace.

"Well, take 10000 years of prayers and the projection of an illumination beacon into the Warp which can be seen in most of the galaxy. I had to move Sotha 1000 light-years away to avoid constant Tyranid fleets, plus Orks and Eldar raiders. And poor Sotha only has a laser pointer beacon, not a lighthouse like Terra." I answered with a careless shrug.

"The Astronomican? It does fit the place, but Magnus is not strong enough." Janice spoke with obvious disbelief.

"I never said it would be Magnus. I kicked his red eye myself back on Fenris. You were there as well." I commented with a wry voice.

"I remember, father. Magnus, Angron and Lorgar...and Pef Lancefire waiting for them, like a lion preying on lambs. The Lion still hates you for stealing his glory and saving the Space Wolves." Janice whispered while Canis licked her hand.

"If I failed at Cadia, the Eye of Terror would have broken free, and split the galaxy in two. Cicatrix Maledictum. I can always punch another god in the eye, if the Emperor wants me to." I mused, mostly to myself. But I doubt he will ask. The Emperor kept his own secrets, and not even Janice was privy to all of them.

"How can you be so calm? The Imperium will fall. Everything will get burned or distorted. We are already exporting trillions of people every day, and is not enough!" Janice yelled in my face.

"Our home is the Fringe, Janice Lancefire. Save what you can, the ancient books and art at least. As for humanity, they will adapt or die. Blanks will be fine, no matter what comes." I observed in a colder voice.

"...Blanks. I see it now. You were preparing for this before I was born. Helping the Forges, for they carry the knowledge we will need to rebuild. And A'dam knew as well. No wonder you're so similar." Janice growled as a cold aura covered her.

Canis growled in return, his golden aura countering Janice almost perfectly. "Wooogh." my wolf spoke, the meaning clear in my mind. Wolftime.

Oh well. I knew a certain Necron who will want tickets to the End of Times lightshow.

It was time to trade again.