"Are you sure about this timeline, sir?" Julio asked as I finished explaining when I expected us all to leave.

"It does seem a bit," Kyouka hesitated, "much?"

"I don't even know what I'm looking for in a Principality," Julio said. "Much less a Horesman candidate."

"I must admit the same," Kyouka agreed.

"You'll both do fine," I assured them. "You're going to be fighting in your galaxies for decades, centuries probably. In that time you'll have plenty of time to evaluate and test anyone you want for any position."

"And since you're in charge now, you can just do what Rickshaw does and make it up as you go," Carrie told them.

"Not the time," I sighed.

"They need to know that it's a viable strategy," Carrie argued. It really wasn't but I couldn't explain how it wasn't at the moment.

"Anyway," I said trying to pull us back on the correct track. "There's no rush to find someone who's a viable candidate until we're approaching the total domination of the galaxy you're in."

"That sounded better in your head didn't it?" Carrie grinned.

"A bit," I admitted. "The point is that if you feel like you don't have the experience neccessary for choosing people for this, you don't have to worry about it right now. Just use similar criteria for the people you choose that you would have chosen for Paladins or Wings; adjust the scope of their capabilities and ask yourself how they would measure up in your previous positions. Sometimes you'll make mistakes and that's okay; it's how you deal with those mistakes that are really important to this."

"What's the protocol if we encounter alien races that have comparable tech to us?" Julio asked.

"Make polite contact, but be ready to defend yourself," I told him. "There's no telling how they'll react to having a new race with railguns, ballistic missiles, and other weaponry that could be used to destroy planet-bound races without consequence. Do what you can to assure them that you're there to help the galaxy at large with any Scourge infestations that may or may not be there, and if they attack you, don't show mercy."

"If we were to go through the entire galaxy and were unable to find Scourge presence?" Kyouka asked.

"Then you'll set up a series of monitoring stations and smaller colonies without an aggresive expansion plan to keep an eye out while you move on to another galaxy," I answered. "Make sure to use either uninhabitable planets or planets without a sentient species."

"I think we can do that," Kyouka said. "Where will we be going?"

"I want you to head to the galaxy the Wardens designated as SG-8391," I told her. "Julio, you'll go to CG-08623; Carrie and I will be going to BSG-9786. After you finish with those galaxies, you'll choose your own course."

"We can do it," Julio promised. "But it sounds like we'll need Galaxy-Jumpers. As far as I know the only ones of those the Nephilim have are your Phoenix's Wings, Screaming Banshee, and Soaring Dragon. Are the Wardens donating more for this?"

"No," I told him. "You'll be ferried to your Galaxy-Jumpers soon enough. It's going to take you about two years to stock it with all the supplies you'll need and that's after I've already put your staff together."

"Thank you, sir," Kyouka said. "Now I have one more question."

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"Go on," I prompted her.

"How do we become Demigod?" she asked. "If you're the one choosing, then how will you know that we're suitable for the rank? If we're choosing from among ourselves, then won't we just end up playing politics?"

"I have a set of criteria that are to be met and you are being evaluated by a series of Cybers," I told her. "If you meet those criteria, then you'll be notified of your new rank. If you don't meet them, then you'll never know."

"That seems a little hands-off for you," Julio said.

"It has to be," I told him. "If I was constantly looking over your shoulders, then I'd never get anything done. If I spent time evaluating you myself, then it would take centuries we don't have. If you do achieve Demigod while I'm still alive, then everyone will be told. If you don't get there and I die, then Carrie will take over as has been the plan since I left Rallypoint for Earth."

"That's everything on my end then," Julio said. "I'd like permission to choose an aide for me. The way you have Carrie as an aide for yourself."

"Seems reasonable," I said. "Not like this is a job that you'll be able to do without help and someone to talk to anyways. Anyone in mind?"

"I was hoping for Principality Ichika," he said. "Before she was put in charge of Arrakis, she was a really big help to me and I think she'll be just as helpful for this."

"Go for it," I said. "Don't let her think that this is an order from you or I though. It's her choice. Even Carrie got a choice about twenty years ago."

"Why worry about running one planet when I could watch you fumble your way through all this," she said. "This was much more entertaining."

"What about you Kyouka?" I asked. "Anything in particular you want or need before we go?"

"Permission to ask Eriks to be my own aide," she said.

"Granted," I said. "Now, I haven't eaten all day, so I'm going to the cafeteria. I'll see you two before we all leave I hope."

I stood on the observation deck of the Phoenix's Wings and looked out at the stars, marvelling at the sheer vastness of it all and hoping I was making the right choices. Again.

"There you are," Carrie said. "I was wondering where you were and what you were doing."

"Just thinking," I said, my eyes not leaving the view in front of me.

"That's dangerous," Carrie joked, "the last time you were thinking, you ended up starting us all on a crazy adventure and extending all our lives by a factor of ten."

"It's been one hell of a ride," I agreed. "New planets and more alien races than I could have thought possible. All of them met and seen because of one misunderstanding. And now we're about to send our people out into the wider universe to touch new galaxies that have never seen anything like us and to cleanse them of something we were practically made to fight against."

"You don't think that's true do you?" Carrie asked. "That we were made to fight the Scourge and they were made to fight us?"

"If it is, then when we find whoever started all this, I'm ripping them apart," I said. "We're living things, we have free will, we made a culture and a civilization that's almost impossible to totally understand by outsiders. The thought that it was all ordained by some jackass with a test tube and a crazy idea makes it seem cheap and that's just wrong."

"I kind of hope it is true actually," Carrie admitted after a moment. "It means that there's a script and if we want to really choose for ourselves, then we just have to go off-script and make them see us for what we really are."

"Badasses?" I asked.

"People!" she corrected. "It's like you said, we're alive and we can make our own decisions. That means that we aren't dolls and they don't have the right to control us and play with our lives. Or the Scourge's"

"Does that mean that if it turns out the Scourge aren't in control of themselves that you'll start arguing that we should save them?" I asked.

"I might," Carrie admitted. "It's easy to hate something when all you know of it is that it's cruel and wants to kill you. When you learn that it's not in control of itself the way you are, then you just start to pity it, and if you learn that it can't even fight that control, then how is hurting it any different than killing a toddler. They can't protect themselves and they might think you're the one that's supposed to protect them."

"Well, if it does turn out that way, then we can look into trying to salvage the Scourge," I said. "After all, with what we know now, they're family in weird, roundabout, fucked up way."

"Which means that we're in the middle of one huge family argument," she joked with a sad smile. "That's a really messed up way to think of it all."

"That's why I try not to think of it that way," I said. "Cause then I want to try to help them be better, and I know that's just going to end in blood and heartbreak."

"Well, we've got a while to go before we get there," Carrie said. "We probably won't be the ones to see that though, so we should probably just stop thinking about it all."

"I wish it was that easy," I sighed.