The trip back to the ship was uneventful. Mostly because everyone had passed out. Even for the short trip over to the human ship. Sevs made himself stay awake. Even though he knew it wasn't exactly necessary, he still felt responsible for watching over his people. Maybe a lasting influence from Father.

He knew that Father was a system creation, but the way they had parted made it feel like it didn't really matter. Still, he hoped that part of the system persisted in some way. That Father could still see him. Sevs thought Father might be proud of him.

Captain Walters was waiting for them when they made it over to the other ship. It seemed that he was going back with them to report on the findings. Sevs was a bit surprised that he was going in person, but apparently, he had no issues leaving his second in command in charge during his absence.

The larger ships were the only ones capable of light speed, so they had to leave only 3 ships with the captured vessel. But security was mostly dependent on secrecy. If the Tarlaki managed to find this place, they could likely drive off any force left to protect it.

Once they appeared with the rest of the human ships, they hopped into a shuttle over to one of the flagships. On the way, they could see their surroundings. They were in the orbit of a small M-type star.

"I thought we couldn't get near any of the systems as the Tarlaki had claimed them all?" The question predictably came from Jason. Captain Walters didn't seem to mind, though.

"That's not entirely correct. They claimed all inhabitable systems that we have found. This system isn't technically habitable. The goldilocks zone is too close to the star, and all the planets become tidally locked." Walter started to explain while they were all looking out the window of the small shuttle. "Also, the radiation is something fierce. We still stop by systems like this to do some mining and fill up on materials, but we can't stay for too long. Some places like this have research stations, and others have probes. Once we come in and destroy them, we are on borrowed time before someone shows up to move us along."

Seeing that the Captain was willing to answer questions, Sevs took the opportunity. "I realize you might not be able to answer this, but what is the long-term plan? Are we just going to be nomads until we are wiped out? At what point does our fleet get too big?"

"I can't answer all of that. But you are making an assumption. That our fleet is growing. It's not really. The system gives us a bit more than what should be a replacement population, but we lose more than we should to people going their own way. For all we know, there could be other groups of humans out there." Walters said. "Besides, if we got larger enough, we might just take a system. I don't know if that would be too big."

"Well, if we did that, wouldn't the nearby Tarlaki work together more to destroy us?" Sevs asked.

"Maybe. Maybe not. I have never seen anything that suggests that they would be willing to work with their neighbors. I have never seen them do anything more than just squabble." Walters leaned back and looked up as if searching his memory. "Yeah, it's like the system has them all confined to their local zones. Of course, the system could always be even more of a jerk and change the rules on us."

"That's pretty rare, but it does happen when we manage to break the script enough. I have only made that happen a handful of times." Sevs idly commented. This made Walters sit up. The rest of the team rolled their eyes.

Walters looked around, reading the room. "Okay, what am I missing here?"

"You never properly introduced each other, right?" Bexy asked.

"I suppose not. How did you know?"

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

"It would make sense if you had." Robert jumped in.

Rather than ask, Walters turned to Sevs. "AW7869s, Walters. I didn't get much of an ID to really turn it into a good moniker like some."

"X77, Sevs," Sevs said. Walters nodded. "Ah, beta tester. I happened to meet one of you a long while back. You might know him?"

"Probably. In this world?" Sevs asked, his interest peaking. But Walters shook his head. "No, long before I got here. The name was Jon, J05."

"Yeah, I knew him, he was a good guy. Loved to play a tank. We spent a couple thousand years in a guild together. Can't say I knew him the best, but we had the same world more than a few times. I heard he ascended a few millennia back."

"Aww, that's too bad to hear." Walters commiserated.

"When you play for as long as he did, that's the goal. You have probably only been through a few dozen worlds so far, right?" Sevs asked.

"This is my 50th, been here a little under a century."

"When you have a hundred times that you might begin to understand. But don't worry about it yet there is still so much for you to do. I have to say this is one of the most unique scenarios I have seen in a long time. I've also heard it has a much higher number of ascensions than it should. That's why a lot of the original players are probably here."

"I've heard about that. I don't know if I will ever understand that motivation, though."

"Don't go looking for that understanding. Just do your thing." Sevs cautioned. It was one thing to want it after so long. When everyone he knew. Not just his fellow beta testers but family, parents, and siblings had all gone on. But the whole purpose of the system was to help you move on when you were ready. To give you the experience that the outside just couldn't.

At least, that is what it had been designed for. The singularity was something no one really understood.

The whole conversation had put a bit of a damper on the mood. The rest of the ride was silent as each passenger was left with their thoughts.

Right as they were docking, Walters seemed to snap from his musings. "Oh, yeah, so we are going to talk to one of the generals in charge of security first. And a Major from R&D. They will then report up. If more information is needed, then we might have to answer some more questions. I would bet money on the admirals having questions. So assume we are going to sit tight for a bit."

As they got off the shuttle, they were ushered through hallways toward the bridge where all the offices of the important people were. They were left in a conference room where they all claimed chairs. Bexy had to shoo Jason away from the chair at the head of the table.

They were all dozing, even Captain Walters, when the door opened, and a junior officer announced the general. They all popped to their feet until the short, stocky woman had positioned herself by her chair and motioned for them all to sit back down.

"I'm Gernal Winter. W1733r. I hear you have a lot to tell me. Why don't you start from the beginning."

Walters looked to Sevs and motioned him to speak. Sevs launched into the story, starting with them finding the empty escape pod, but Grenal Winter made him back up and start earlier. She had to do it a couple times until he started when they were first under attack.

She was an exacting interviewer. Luckily he had his team to back him up if he forgot something or didn't notice a particular detail she was interested in. The interrogation went on for a couple hours before Sevs finally finished telling her everything he thought he knew. Eventually, Winter called for refreshments. Once everyone had eaten a sandwich or two and was sipping a coffee, she dove back in. Now she had very specific questions for each of them.

She was especially interested in Bexy and Soshal. She was delighted when Soshal pulled out the ring of access keys from her pocket. "We don't normally get to these before they despawn. I'm surprised you managed to find one."

"If they are rare, how do the Tarlaki get back? We needed it to even activate the attack ship to return to their carrier." Soshal asked.

"We think it is a backup in case the normal ID system fails. The system must have been helping you along. Otherwise, the odds of you successfully making it through that whole adventure in one piece would be astronomical. Sometimes the system might have to nudge the world back into balance. We have been falling too far behind." The last part of General Winter's words were soft, as if they weren't meant to be overheard.

Sevs doubted that it was an accident, though. Everything he had learned about this woman so far screamed that she never did anything by accident. Certainly, not let something slip.