The news that they were all just prize-winning space vegetables waiting for a cosmic farmer to come and harvest them had a rather chilling effect on the mood aboard the "Odyssey." The victory party was officially over.
People were walking around the ship in a quiet, dazed state, as if they had just been told that the sky was not, in fact, blue, but was actually a giant, hungry mouth.
The revelation changed everything. The old fights, the old rivalries, suddenly seemed very small and very stupid. Who cared about pirates or Hegemony remnants when the entire universe was a ticking time bomb set by their cosmic landlords?
The new situation made for some very strange new friendships. The partnership between the Bastion Alliance—a messy, chaotic group of rebels and idealists—and the god Core—a giant, super-logical machine that used to think feelings were a bug—was no longer just a temporary truce. It was now a necessity for survival.
