I shudder in my seat as our new rail car ran away from the scene of carnage behind us, now filled to the brim with the survivors of those that were ambushed by the demon cultists. The sights and sounds I experienced reminded me too much of what I had glimpsed through that shared connection to the Horizon Needle, even as diluted as it was from my position as the First Officer. They were echoes of echoes of echoes of the real thing, so far removed as to be considered ghosts and yet they were real enough to kill, and deadly enough to massacre hundreds for their goal.

  I look around and saw the same faces looking back, or rather, huddled in and refusing to look at anyone except those they held dear. Our shared trauma is a bond that would haunt us forever, and I wouldn't blame them for doing what I had ended up doing, as well as what spooked the Second Officer so much she now blames all of our problems at the Captain's feet. Looking at the devastation wrought so far, I can't say I don't blame her for doing so.

  And yet that would be the far too easier route, to find a scapegoat that you could blame all your woes upon. What had happened to us was unavoidable, in a way as much as our technology had made us think we were untouchable. We are young in the steps of godhood, and in our pursuit of a perfect home, a net caught us unaware and now we lie stranded; a lifeboat adrift in infinity.

  I was lost in my thoughts by the time we finally reached our destination: the guest reception area for the Oracle's party. Scores of servants and attendants were waiting and swiftly took us aside to a private lounge where we could freshen up and and improve our looks. Repairs were made, energy reserves refilled, and Liquid Metal stores topped up. I saw Marie at the distance with only one of her friends around, and hoped she was doing alright even if we were at odds for now.

  "We're really doing this, huh?" The Captain spoke up after he was done with his repairs and outfitting. "All that shit going on in her home, and the party is in full swing. I've heard of parties to die for, but not like this." A bitter chuckle escaped his mouth from the gallows humor before a frown returned to the Captain's face. We moved on from the reception area to a long hallway where the history of the Ascentron Circurrency was put in full, lavish display.

  Every detail was put there for those that cared to see, from the smallest setbacks to the biggest triumphs, nothing was spared. Of particular note was a part where the Oracle was first found and her subsequent meteoric rise into the elites, and then eventually, leader of our illustrious megacorp. Conspicuously, the tapestry ended at the part where the Horizon Needle pierced our home galaxy's supermassive black hole and into the great beyond.

  It is terribly great, I'll tell you that. So great to be stuck in hell and surrounded by demons. I inwardly smiled at the thought of telling all that to the Oracle's face before dismissing the idea entirely. At this far in my career, advancements are like fanciful dreams and demotions like land mines on a minute trigger. I'm perfectly content to stay where I am as long as nothing untoward happens to my immediate superior and his wellbeing. He's a good man and a better boss, and I'll be damned if I let anything bad happen to him.

  The Captain looked positively morose even as we left the gallery of history behind us. Even the offers of free drinks and delectable finger-foods didn't quite make the man' mood to improve even a bit, and that was something I had to fix as soon as possible. I began to look around at the amenities in display, seeing an honestly mind-boggling amount of things I've never seen before, and a few guilty pleasures I had to look away from lest their allure distract me from my task.

  "If you want to look around Gibson, don't mind me and just go. I'll be fine here." Isaac spoke up as I turned to face him. "You worry too much about people sometimes. Relax and live a little. Let me know how your night goes if you come back." A faint smirk graced the Captain's face as his words meaning came through fully to me. The blush that came over me couldn't be stopped, but I tried anyway.

  In a way, Isaac was right. I haven't had much time off since this entire shitshow happened. I'm either by the Captain's side or sleeping. And all of my usual day off activities can't really be done when a war is still going on. I think about my situation a bit more before deciding to follow along to a line of people going somewhere. I have a feeling there's something good at the end of this line.

  I watch Gibson go with a mix of relief and trepidation, as now I couldn't use the excuse of his company to avoid meeting the Oracle face-to-face any longer. With one sip, I drain the small cup I was nursing dry, handing it off to a wandering waiter before moving on. Wherever I go, heads inevitably turn my way at first by instinct, and with luck, they would turn away back to their own business. I didn't really have somewhere to go, but staying put tends to make one's mind wander to unpleasant memories of the past.

  "Captain Isaac, pleasure meeting you sir." A man held out his hand for a shake and I obliged him, giving him a curt nod while excusing myself before he could say more.

  "Captain, please do join us for a round." Another man called out from a table playing a card game of some sort. His companions looked at me with some expectation, but were sorely disappointed as I waved them off with a good smile and brisk steps. I let myself wander to the crowd of people, the statues, the murals and the frescoes, the paintings and sculptures, the soft music and the loud sounds, the dancers fast and slow, and the smells spicy and bold. It all made for a heady concoction, and I was drinking it all in with a straw to my mind.

  Eventually, I found myself at a secluded lounge, the lighting dim and the atmosphere relaxed with smoke wafting around. A waiter guided me to an empty table and asked for my preference in refreshments. I picked one with a star's name and waved her off, waiting to see if someone will come along and liven this sedate environment. Lo and behold, a beautiful singer in an eye-catching outfit walked up to the stage with her crew to a smattering of heartfelt applause.

  "Good evening, my lovely patrons. It is good to see you again. And for those first-timers, welcome to our humble abode. Enjoy the drinks and sample the food, but most important of all, sit back, relax, and enjoy the show." The singer flashed a brilliant smile and I couldn't help but be taken in by it, just for a moment. Taking her advice, I sunk in deeper into my chair and noted the material's exquisite plushness, soft yet firm enough not to make me drown in fluff. My drink came and it appeared I had ordered some type of hot drink, to be poured into a small cup and sipped occasionally with perhaps a salty finger food of sorts. I ordered immediately such a thing and waited for the music to come on.

  "Mind if I take this seat?" A man sat down near me before I could stop him. All thoughts of getting him to leave, however, left as soon as I really saw who the man really was. Dressed in a fancier version of his usual work clothes was the Ascentron Circurrency's current Head of Reseach, the Mentat. His career is a long and illustrious one, well-documented and with a personality that surprisingly meshes well with the general populace.

  "The Mentat, it's a pleasure to meet you." I say while offering out a handshake. He took it and gave me a small smile as the music finally picked up in the lounge. "Do you drink? I can have a waiter come and take your order."

  "No, it's all good. I'm trying to quit, to be honest. I'm almost year clean at this point, though I've really been pushed lately with all the work that's been piling on." He looked away, his eyes no longer here but elsewhere faraway; the look of a man that' reaching the limit of the amount of bullshit he was going to take from life. "You've done your part stemming the tide, but there's still more of them out there even as we speak here. More lives lost with every meter of ground we take back from the enemy. The question is, how much more will need to be spent before we're done with it all?"

  "Hopefully not too many before we get out of here. Wherever here is." I said, meaning every word. Despite my exposure to the horrors of this universe, I've yet to glean any meaningful information about it that didn't make me want to scrub my memory banks clean again. Whether this is all there is or whether there is more to it; some part that is not a neverending nightmare where we can at least catch our breath before running away once more.

  "You don't know yet? Where we are? But you delivered the payload the Shroudwalker designed herself. Not to mention your little episode before you blacked out." I frown at the Mentat' mention of an 'episode', mostly because I don't know which part of my experience he was referring to, or if I had done something which escaped me completely.

  "What did I do? What really happened when we got here?" I asked the question I've been meaning to avoid for the rest of my life, but my drink was getting to me at last. The Mentat stared at the singer on stage, now singing some song about perseverance in the face of battle or something. After a few minutes, he went back to me but deployed a privacy field around us, shutting out the world and leaving me all too aware of how vulnerable I am right now in this dress-body.

  "What do you know about the Shroud?" The Mentat asked.

  "It's another dimension where organics with the psionic gift draw their powers from, right? Synths and the like don't seem to be able to access it, and one of our Reality Thesis experiments ended up inviting a ton of giant psychic space monsters into our home galaxy." I gave him my answer, already not liking how this Q&A session was starting out.

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  "An acceptable, if sparse level of knowledge regarding that realm. Well, it appears we are in this universe' version of the Shroud, but much, much more openly hostile and malicious than in back home. When we, or rather, you, punched a hole into this universe, the denizens of this chaotic realm took notice." I shudder as memories of those eyes looking back from within infinite voids. "I remember well your attempts to flee from them, as the ship tossed and turned like it was a pleasure shuttle you were taking out for a joyride. And then there was a cry and a sound like a trillion panes of glass broken at once, and then the songs started with your voice in the lead."

  "The songs?" I asked, mind whirling as I take in this new information.

  "Yes, at least that's how I perceived it. Other people experienced it differently, from what I've gathered, but that's not the point. For a very brief while, you became a conduit of the things lying in wait in the dark." The Mentat's voice became somber as he too seemed to be haunted by memories best forgotten. "You promised me a gift of knowledge unknown, of mysteries unraveled and enigmas understood that long eluded me. And all I needed to do was simple. Worship by your side, at the altar of-"

  "Don't say it! Do not say that name, or any other!" I shouted, my hand reaching up by instinct to choke the words from the Mentat' mouth. It got about halfway until my arm unexpectedly powered down, turned limp and useless as the man looked at me with a mix of pity and wonder. I struggled at my weakness for a bit before at last some measure of calm came back to me and I moved on from my task.

  "I refused, of course. If there's anything I learned from all my years in life, is that there is no shortcut without a greater price at hand. Nothing is free, not truly. And I was proven right of course, as you've seen firsthand the devastation these parasites can unleash to those that resist their siren call. But not everyone said no." I drink up from my cup only to find it empty, and so was the rest of the hot drink.

  "How many did I-" I knew the word, but felt myself fall short of saying it.

  "Around ninety nine percent of the population was affected, though those that become permanently changed is actually less than a thousandth of a percent, rounded up. Of course, those are just the ones we've discovered so far. The easy ones. The tricky part is figuring out which of them are hiding their condition from being found out. And that's where you come in, really." The horror I felt at hearing the true scope of my failure pale in contrast to the questions I have after hearing that tidbit at the end.

  "Me? What do I have to do with all that? I can't interrogate a trillion people all by myself." I joke around by throwing a random number at the Mentat.

  "No you cannot, and we're not expecting you to. But you were, for a very short time, connected to everybody in a very intimate and personal way. And that connection has left a mark which resonate in the presence of certain energy signatures. When you were entombed in that Gigantes body, I took the liberty of implanting an amplifier of sorts, which would draw the afflicted to your presence over time." I immediately try to sense where this device was on my person, to no avail.

  "Don't bother, the design's tamper-proof and tied to your central neural matrix. If you try to remove it yourself by any way, the fail-safe will engage and fry your mind and any backups you have on remote servers. Rest assured though, it does not make you any more visible to the enemy than you would be without it. We tested for that extensively, among other things." One very unpleasant conclusion was reached by my mind as I took in all of this new information.

  "I'm bait, aren't I? That's what this party is for. The Oracle's cleaning house in one fell swoop with me drawing people in." I stood up from my seat and made a move to remove the privacy field when a hand grabbed my arm.

  "I'd greatly advise against leaving now, Captain. There's no telling how many hostiles have already infiltrated the Oraculum by now, and most of our military assets are tied up to prepare for the trap to be sprung soon. If you leave now, you're going to be on your own." I scowled at his reasoning, but then was reminded of Gibson and how he'd run off at my own urging. If there was even a grain of truth in what the Mentat said, I'd need to keep my friends close and my enemies closer.

  "I'll keep that in mind, Mentat. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a party to enjoy." The man nodded, dispersing his privacy field and exposing us once more to the outer world. There were less people around, and no music was played in the lounge anymore. A break? Or something more sinister? I put the paranoid thoughts back to where they belong, but keep them a bit more at the forefront than before.

  Right now, it pays to be a bit more suspicious of everything.

  She was always a vision, in more ways than one. As I see her now, tending over a row of plants whose colors could only be seen in the higher ultraviolets and humming a song whose words escaped my translation software, she seemed almost fragile. But then her proximity sensors caught my being and she rose up to her full height, no longer a gardener but a leader; the CEO of a megacorp whose reach now transcends universes, if a bit stilted at the moment due to an error in judgment by the ship's own captain.

  I aim to rectify that mistake as soon as possible.

  "Second Officer Marie, we meet again, and you are none worse for the wear, I hope, given your recent experience with the intruders of my Oraculum?" Contary to her well-known symbol, the Oracle herself has a slew of eyes arranged in a circular fashion on her face, missing only one central eye which seems to be by design. All of them were no doubt scrutinizing every part of me and finding flaws and weaknesses to exploit. Or maybe they were looking past my paltry self and was looking instead at the bevy of games played by her fellow players in the Ascentron Circurrency. Who knows?

  "I am well, Oracle. Your security is excellent and did their duty well. Unlike some people." The face of that traitor flashed by and I grimaced, balling my hand into fists. It beggars belief that someone like him can continue to walk so freely and without worry even now after the enormity of his failure upon entry to this accursed universe. I am of course not without fault, as I wavered for a second when he made that offer. That he was compromised so while bearing his station is an unforgivable sin which should have had him begging for mercy and atonement. But no, a simple apology sufficed for him it seems.

  "Careful, Second Officer. Your eagerness for the job is commendable, but take care not to slander your fellow man for something he had no control over. In fact, that very thing is what we are here to discuss in light of your ambitions." I stood up a little straighter after hearing her words, admonishing myself for letting my anger cloud my character, even for a moment.

  "Understood, ma'am. I am ready for the discussion to begin." A small smile passed over the Oracle's face as she walked away on over to a small gazebo which looked out into the view of a planet; a recording of a brilliant green and red sky turning dark blue as its sun set upon the horizon. Some refreshments were laid out on the table; delicate glasses of drinks so transparent they looked empty and small treats good for a nibble and nothing more. She took the seat across from me and so I naturally took up the one facing her.

  "I have found, after careful examination and analysis of our surroundings, a clue as to what this universe is really like." The Oracle began talking as I listen in intently. "It is two systems in one, not unlike how it is indeed back home with the material world and the Shroud, and yet this realm is intertwined even more with its dark mirror than our own. Our entry here brought us into the greater half of the equation, where psychic energy reigns supreme and is shaped by and influences the thoughts, dreams, and emotions of sentient beings. The cause and the effect, all in one convenient package.

  "It bears many names: the Sea of Souls; the Empyrean; the Immaterium, and my personal favorite, the Warp. Such a charming little name, don't you think? Like distortions on the water's surface, hiding what is underneath the endless depths below. And oh, how we have found those things, haven't we, Marie? We have stirred the muck and found them crawling all over our stuff and loved ones.

  "And even that might not be all that bad if it weren't for those four things in the dark lurking about in their own not-so-little corner of the Warp. If we had jumped the moment we entered here, we could have had a chance to escape." A wistful silence hung in the air as I thought about her words as carefully as an organic might chew on the roots of their teeth. "But who could've known ahead of time such vast, malicious entities were waiting and watching, pondering and playing. And now we are part of the games that they play, endlessly like eternal children of a cosmic playground. They will never let us escape all too easily, not before they've had their fun or we've met our doom."

  Silence hung between us as I struggle to comprehend the things she was telling me. The Shroud? The Warp? Malicious entities? Is that what's been attacking us all along? Monsters of pure psychic energy drawn in by the arrival of the ship? But then that would mean they were the ones that caused the breach, and the ones that, that-

  Oh, no.

  "W-Why are you telling me all this, ma'am? What do you want from me?" My voice came out quieter than I had meant to, my previous drive to succeed now replaced with a caution and no small amount of fear. In response, the Oracle gave me a wide and charming smile, just like the mouth of a predator before they bite down on their prey.

  "I need some insurance in case Captain Isaac loses his grip on reality. He has been touched deeply, even more so than the fanatics perverted by the tainted touch of the Warp. He bears a mark of the Four in his core, and the only thing that's kept him from unleashing a catastrophe right now is a singular attachment to survival that overrides any emotion and reason his mind feels. And so we will give him one in the form of an eternal penance, with you as his keeper and constant reminder of his failure."

  "That was before I realized we're stuck in hell!" I shouted at the CEO and almost stood up from my seat. "This explains so much, but so little. Why don't you just have someone else pilot the ship? Why can't I replace him as the Captain? What aren't you telling me, Oracle?"

  "I have told you everything you need to know, Second Officer. Figure out for yourself what's missing, and I assure you, there is no cost too high that I would pay to keep this empire safe from threats external, and internal. Do you understand me, Marie?" And now her guise of leader fell from my eyes and inside was the true machine logic at full force. She has found all the variables in play, put in the contingencies where needed, and orchestrate the rest by way of her pawns, willing and not-so-willing. It was now that I see the true depths required to fill the seat of CEO, to be the one that charts the course of history over countless lives, and be right every single time.

  I don't remember how I got out of that garden, only that by the time I came to my senses, the screams and shouts were starting.