Inside the shimmering, chaotic bubble, the universe was quiet again. Regent Vorlag's reality-bending attack could not penetrate the wall of pure lawlessness that now surrounded the Bastion Alliance fleet.
They were safe. But they were also profoundly trapped. It was like being on a tiny, calm island in the middle of a raging, hungry ocean.
The Odyssey, now floating at the very center of their strange, new bubble-nation, became their capital. The bridge, which had been a scene of frantic, desperate action just minutes before, was now a hub of controlled, focused recovery.
The first thing they had to do was figure out how to survive in a place where the rules of science had taken a vacation.
The job fell to Zara. She was in her element, a scientist faced with the ultimate puzzle: a universe with no rules. Her eyes shone with a manic, excited energy as she raced around her lab, her fingers flying across consoles that flickered and sparked unpredictably.
