Chapter 47: The Sovereign's Exodus
The departure from New Seattle was not a victory lap; it was a desperate, calculated retreat. As the Sol-Invictus groaned, its massive engines igniting with the emerald-tinted fire of Carson's 33rd Strand, the citizens of the Lower Sector looked up at a sky that was finally clear of smog. They saw the golden Dreadnought—once a symbol of their oppression—rising through the atmosphere like a new moon.
Carson stood on the bridge, his hands gripped tight on the command rail. The Void-Poison had reached the base of his skull, manifesting as a dull, pulsing ache that synchronized with the ship's warp-drive. He had successfully bluffed the Emperor, but the weight of that lie was heavy. The "coordinates" he had handed over were real, but they were incomplete. He had given them the door's location, but he still held the only key: the Primordial Hilt.
"Sir, the Imperial fleet is maintaining a distance of five parsecs," Aura reported, her holographic form flickering with the massive data-load of the ship's sensors. "Prince Valen is following our wake. He is not attacking, but he is 'Mapping' our warp-trail. They are waiting for us to lead them directly to the event horizon of the Styx-7 Star."
"Let them follow," Carson muttered, his eyes fixed on the star-map. "Hobs, how is the crew? Are the 'Broken Gear' soldiers holding up?"
Hobs walked onto the bridge, wiping oil from his mechanical prosthetic. "They're terrified, kid. Most of these guys have never seen a star up close, let alone lived on an Imperial warship. They're calling you the 'Star-Reaper' now. Some of them think you're going to sacrifice us all to the collapsing sun just to keep the Emperor from getting his hands on the Library."
Carson looked at his mentor. "If it comes to that, Hobs, I will. But my father didn't hide the Second Library in a black hole just to destroy it. He hid it there because only someone with a Resonant Soul can survive the gravity-shear. The Hegemony ships are built on 'Static-Qi.' They'll be crushed long before they reach the archives."
Carson sat in the center of the bridge and began to meditate. To prepare for the gravity-well, he had to expand his 32nd Strand (Aegis) into a ship-wide shield. It was an unprecedented feat of cultivation—turning a personal defense into a planetary-class hull reinforcement. As he entered the trance, the gold veins in the ship's walls began to glow with a soft, protective emerald light.