There was little Lucius could do but let out a long sigh. He folded his arms across his chest, and let his head fall to one side slightly. Piecing together the infinitely complex pieces of galaxy 492’s ever-complex political background taxed even him, yet Alyssa had summed it up nicely in just a few sentences.

“Do you know what a paradox is?” he asked, when he finely took stock of her mood, and their situation.

Alyssa nodded, “sort of. Why?”

“A.R.I.A, disable ventricle 12.” His mind spun, and the cybernetic components in his body began to generate an intense pulse of electromagnetic energy. It jettisoned towards his mentee, and Pettigrew crackled, and then fell silent.

More confused than ever, Alyssa found temporary reprieve in the welcome silence. Her own thoughts, unintroduced upon turned back to why she was here, and to what end she had to go to get home.

“A paradox is a two point entity. When the wormhole formed here, in the present, some of our technology fell through and re-appeared at the second point, in the past.” He did not need to reiterate when, and how Alyssa transformed into what she was now.

“I thought the wormhole was closed?”

“It is, but in order for technology to develop in the past in order for that spaceship to fall into the wormhole, certain things have to happen at the right time to preserve the continuum.”

“The what?” Alyssa realised how useful Pettigrew might be, when she tried, in vain, to access the scientific logs of the Prima Vista. “I don’t follow.”

“Time is a delicate thing. You have to learn to control your powers with us, here, before you can be allowed to return to your home.”

The gun mage’s eyes widened, and the urge to punch Lucius doubled.

“And no, you’re not being held against your will.” The spy took of his cap, and rubbed the sweat from his brow. The humidity of the guest quarters started to get to him. He dropped it on the table, which thankfully sat between them.

“So I can just go?” Alyssa started to stand.

“I wouldn’t.”

“And there it is,” she stuck out her tongue. “Explain.”

Lucius pointed to his temple. "It'll all be in here to check once we are dismissed by P.A.X."

Alyssa shuddered at the thought of her 'computer' coming back online.

“Your manipulation of the Tap, in future years, will contribute to the war which eventually destroys Althanas, and in turn, gives birth to the galactic empire. We realise now that the wormhole created a paradox in order to ensure that, whatever happens, you are inexorably involved in those events.”

“You’ve said I’m a bad thing, yadda.” Irritation plastered over her face. Lucius knew the look all too well. He had been in the same position a century prior, when he had awakened from the Void.

“Not bad. Just,” he frowned, “critical.”

“What does Rayse have to do with the wormhole?” She remembered the sheer volume of information that had flashed in front of her on the man, and what he was doing in the surrounding territories to Scara Brae.

“Raiaera had tried to tamper with the continuum before, a painfully fruitless attempt to save Althanas. It failed, and much of Raiaera space riddled with temporal vortices that tore planets apart and caused the elder races to become extinct. Only drifters, pirates, and criminals dared to venture there now. Rayse has acquired the technology, or parts of it, that caused that devastation.”

“Oh…”

The weight of responsibility pushed down on both their shoulders.

“Should he ever acquire the means to bring that weapon to bear, on us, or the wormhole, then he will be able to manipulate the past and effectively become the ruler of an Althanas I’m not sure you or I ever want to see.”

There were fewer men in the galaxy with an ego as big as Rayse Valentino. Alyssa had to go back in time. She had to go home. She had to be ready to make sacrifices, her own, and on behalf of others, to make certain that the Tap dies, and the Thayne fall from heaven, and the people of his long forgotten home reach out and touch the stars.

"Will you help us stop him?" One eyebrow raised Lucius put all his faith in his newfound friend, hoping, free of technology and cameras and the overbearing presence of P.A.X, that she would make the choice of her own free will.