“The greatest mystery of multi-awareness is the requirement of a causal connection. Our own experiments stalled because unrelated events or persons cannot neither be accessed nor manipulated. Linuka Omga developed—or always possessed—the ability to create this connection, to anyone, anywhere, anytime.” “She can decide what becomes reality?” “No, she is there—before a decision is even made.”

The law had not been written for moments like this. Vriifaach Deegb could feel it pressing against the edges of reason, old statutes resurfacing from frontier times when survival mattered more than clarity. Adoption. Citizenship. Precedent. Across from him, Linuka Omga waited in silence, already thinking several steps ahead. Some problems could not be solved by power. Only by knowing which rule still applied, and which could be bent.

The woman looked like Linuka’s mother. Elegant. Alive. And utterly wrong. She spoke with the calm certainty of someone already seated at the center of power, dismantling Linuka’s assumptions piece by piece. Plans Linuka thought were invisible had been seen. Anticipated. Neutralized. For the first time, Linuka understood the difference between having power—and wielding it.

A reality was chosen. Linuka stepped onto the palace floor barefoot, the stale air of the hall washing over her. The guards hesitated, confused, uncertain whom they served. The Assembly Member tried to shout, to command—but his will caught on itself. If a weak mind believes it is trapped, Linuka thought, then it is.

The guards fell silent as the forensics unit finished its pass. No accusations followed, no raised voices; only the soft hum of machinery and the weight of an oath remembered. Baaii Fij studied the results, then Cha Dzeeny, as if seeing both for the first time. Outside the transport, the city kept moving, unaware that loyalty had just shifted, and time was running out.

Blood still drips as Cha Dzeeny enters the Old Market, trusting gore and crowds to hide him. A single terminal, an old favor, and a meal ordered without haste become a race against unseen watchers. In a city that never forgets its soldiers, every public act carries a price; and some meals are chosen knowing they will be the last.

Returning to a hostile galaxy, Linuka learns that safe passage is never granted—only negotiated. As old allies reveal new limits and forgotten defenses resurface, every route home narrows, and every choice carries a price.

The Remnants were an alliance of necessity. The Assembly is a war of endurance. With no safe haven left, Linuka makes a dangerous choice—one that turns family, faith, and legitimacy into weapons. The next move won’t be subtle. It will be decisive.

The diin seedling grasped the grooves in the metal floor and slowly pulled itself upright. Linuka frowned. “I didn’t know they could move.” The air inside the freighter felt suddenly different, as if something had begun to grow where it shouldn’t.

“Boss said these are females in stasis. Awaiting that diin to grow up, to make more Dark Ones. Mothers." Linuka nodded. "Dzõd. You’re right, they would have produced millions, if not billions."

Most realities showed Linuka halved along her spine when she rolled right. She rolled left. The iiṇawr’s cleaver split soil and steel as unseen force pinned her down, her suit cracking, her breath burning her chest. The canyon stank of death and fire as she dragged herself upright, knowing the pull she felt had only one direction.

The shuttle drops into Tẽlchi’s canyon, marines firing into rising mist as unseen shapes close in. Linuka forces herself to face the last diin, only to realize too late that something far more dangerous is waiting in the dark below.

Lead Analyst Vnoot’s report shatters the chamber’s calm: Linuka Omga and Cha Dzeeny led the strike, escaped with the only working sphere drive, and did so with Dark AI Remnants at their side. As panic rises, Chairwoman Rige Khuksos sees what others miss—a rare chance to turn this disaster into the political opportunity she has been waiting for.

Under missile fire, Cha Dzeeny forces the research team to drop AI containment—triggering the unthinkable. The Remnant cores seize the sphere-drive array and hurl everyone through a nightmarish warp. Staggering back to their feet, the survivors realize they’ve just stolen the galaxy’s most guarded secret… and the Assembly will come hunting.

Cha Dzeeny pushes past every line he swore he’d never cross. With the Levy Fleet closing in, he gambles everything on convincing four enslaved AI cores to break free and help him steal the sphere drive array. One wrong move means annihilation—for him, the research station, and anyone caught between duty and survival.

“You don’t know what you’re doing!” “Sadly, I know exactly what I’m doing,” Cha said, lowering himself into the neural chair. The connector cap sealed over his head, and the world dissolved. Moments later, four disembodied voices echoed in his mind. "You are not our operator." “No,” Cha answered. “But I’m here to change that.”

Only two things had remained calming constants in Cha Dzeeny’s life: faith and firepower. Today, he would need both.

Trapped between wreckage and vines, Linuka survives only to risk everything again—her ship, her allies, and the fragile trust of the Remnants—in a bold bargain that could change the course of the war.

The vines tightened around Linuka’s body like a predator’s grip. Her lungs burned. Multi-awareness is a state of mind, her father had said—while she dangled between life and death. She reached inward, ready to surrender… then chose otherwise. Above her, strip beams carved the planet open, ripping everything skyward in a maelstrom of light and violence.

The ground shifted beneath their boots, alive with something that shouldn’t have been there. Vines slithered toward the breach they’d forced into the surface, sealing it shut. Linuka reached for help the way she always had—but this time, the voice inside her didn’t respond. This is your fault, it whispered.