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Jake had briefly drifted off in the powerful lull following the multiple orgasms he'd shared with his two new lovers. He was now sandwiched, warm and extremely snug and cozy, between two massive polar bears.

He woke to the sound of Mak's laughter coming from the living area of the house.

"He looks like such a goof flipping and flailing through the air! I wish you guys could have seen him on his first kwarren ride. It was awesome! He looks like he's having a blast. I have to try that with him. I bet I'll look even worse. My balance isn't the best. It looks like so much fun though. Could we go try it?" the young bull asked.

"I would prefer if everyone stayed away from the water park for the time being. It took Jake's life once already and the next time would be permanent. I would not want to risk losing any of you. I love you all. You are my family now," Srythryn said.

"I have never been one to like to fly and I'm not overly fond of the water. I like to keep four feet firmly planted on the ground and my fur dry for the most part, but even I might enjoy that park. It does look like immense fun," Rhokki said.

"Oh shit, now I really wish we could go there! I would love to see how a big-ass cat handles weightlessness!" Mak exclaimed.

Rhokki chuckled and said, "It would not be pretty, I assure you."

"That's the whole point. It would be hilarious! Srythryn, couldn't the park be fixed up to be safer?"

"You have an engineering background, Rhokki, do you not?" Srythryn asked, "Perhaps you could work with my crew to design safeguards for the water park. We would need to ensure there is no way for anyone to move out beyond the rim of the ring pool and fall to the ocean below. That should be simple enough. Slightly more complicated would be to find some way to keep those of you who cannot spend significant time underwater from drowning in the zero gravity sphere of water at the center. No one is immortal anymore so I intend to block access to the park until it can be made safe."

"It should be a simple thing to make the necessary changes," Rhokki said, "We could set something up that would act against a small device that could optionally be worn to give haptic feedback indicating the swimmer is moving in toward the center of the sphere rather than out to the edge. They could use that to guide themselves quickly out of the sphere. It would not do to lose such a source of entertainment. We may be in this battle for the long haul and we will have to keep an eye on morale and take any steps to keep it from dropping too low. People need a way to take their minds off of things, even if only for an hour or two."

"Agreed," Srythryn said, "We will likely prevail against the jinvhon force that pursues us but we will be left defending the planet against a steady flow of threats that could keep us under siege for a significant time. With the mass of zeth ships fighting alongside us and resources streaming to us from the planet and its moons we could hold out for a very long time indeed. Things will be quite difficult from here on out. We cannot last against the collective forever, but in the time we do have remaining we may be able to find some way out of the jam."

There was silence for a moment as they moved further into the house.

The door to the bedroom was still open and Jake heard Mak's voice from in the hallway say, "Jake, are you awake?"

Jake felt it was important for the others to come to grips with the fact that the Chets were in their lives now too so he didn't bother to scramble to put on his clothes and simply said, "Yes, I am."

"Srythryn explained the situation with the other Chet to us," Mak said, while still staying out of sight to give them their privacy, "We asked the computer if you were asleep and it said you were, so we knew we weren't gonna be interrupting anything. We just wanted to come and meet the other Chet and let you guys know we're completely cool with everything. The battle's gonna start soon and we don't know what's gonna happen. We want to spend some time with you while we still can before we fly into the next shit storm."

Jake was snuggled up between the Chets and all three of them sat up on the mat as Chet 2 said, "Please, come in."

Mak came to the doorway and looked in at the sight of his life's love sitting between the two identical polar bear bookends.

He walked up to the edge of the mat, grinning at the two white bears, who were smiling back at him.

The young bull got onto the mat and crouched and hugged each bear in turn and said, "I don't know which of you is which, but it doesn't really matter right now. Welcome to the family, Chets!"

The bears smiled at him and Chet said, "I am the Chet you know. Thank you, Mak. I suspect we will be seeing even more of each other from now on. I am anxious to have you continue our training in the simulators, but I suppose we will have to use the ones on the Slirkstrith now."

"Those would be Juggernauts," Mak said, "I'm not familiar with them, so I'll need to learn them too."

"I would be more than happy to instruct you all myself," Srythryn said as he entered the room, "It would be a great deal of fun for me."

Rhokki followed Srythryn in and the whole family looked at each other, smiling.

"I guess I should make proper introductions. I hope you don't mind," Jake said to Chet 2, "but I've come to think of you as 'Chet 2'."

Chet 2 said, "It is fine. I am in fact the second version so it is perfectly fitting. I will need to have a small marking made to keep us distinguishable in future or you will all find it difficult to know which is which. I've always been tempted to get a piercing in one of my ears. Perhaps that would do the trick."

Jake chuckled and said, "It would certainly do the trick for me. I find piercings sexy. Chet 2, I would like you to meet the other people I love. This is Komakwa..."

"Call me Mak," Mak said.

"It is a pleasure to meet you, Mak. The other Jake told me all about you. He loved you very much and it pained him deeply that he could no longer be with you. I am most pleased that this Jake does not have that concern. Do not feel badly about what you did. He gave you no choice. I do not hold it against you in any way."

Tears welled in Mak's eyes as he thought of how he'd killed the other Jake.

He hugged Chet 2 hard once more and said, "I'm so sorry I took him away from you. If there was any way I could have avoided it I would have. It was the hardest thing I've ever had to do."

Chet 2 patted him on the back with one of his massive paws, then as Mak pulled back from the hug the massive bear smiled at him and nodded.

"This is Rhokki, who saved my life on the miquanowan sacred planet," Jake said, as Rhokki smiled and nodded at Chet 2.

"Jake told me some of what went on while he was held captive," Chet 2 said to Rhokki, "You saved him in more ways than one. He would not be here with me now if it weren't for you."

"I did it for entirely selfish reasons. I love him deeply," Rhokki said.

Chet 2 smiled and said, "For good reason."

"Of course, you already know Srythryn," Jake said.

Chet 2 smiled at them all and said, "I am most pleased to count you all as family. Jake gave me a brief synopsis of your adventures together while we rode the elevator to the front of the ship earlier. It sounded most exciting and I look forward to hearing the full tale in more detail from each of you."

Chet said, "I look forward to that as well. I have been mainly on the fringes, but I have never enjoyed my life quite as much as I have in these past months with you all on the Shadow's Claw. It has been a revelation for me to discover the truth about myself from my alternate self, and the brief time we've spent here with Jake showed I have been missing out on a great deal of enjoyment in life. I look forward to getting to know all of you much more intimately now."

Everyone grinned as they all looked from one to another. They were going to have a lot of fun together and they all knew it. Despite the dangerous situation they were in, they couldn't help but be excited about whatever the future might hold for their little family.

Chet finally said, "I am ravenous. I can feel my fat reserves draining away as we speak. I wonder if we might all go to wherever the mess hall is on this massive ship and have lunch."

They all agreed and Jake quickly dressed and they all headed out to the elevator and rode it to the mess hall.

During the elevator ride, Rhokki and Srythryn were already discussing the animals in the jungle so that the big lion would have an idea what he would be stalking later on when it got dark. He was thrilled to call the Slirkstrith home and he couldn't wait to get out and enjoy it.

The elevator opened and they emerged into the mess area. Rhokki, Mak and Chet all gasped at the size of it. It was all still new to them and it would take a bit longer to get used to the size of the ship, especially in these open areas.

Mak looked up at all of the siskreths walking upside down and along the sides all around the cylinder, having their meals or sitting on benches and relaxing beside the water fountains and trees, or shopping in the small markets.

"This is the coolest thing I've ever seen," the young bull said, "I love this ship! I can't wait to see the entertainment section!"

Jake chuckled and said, "I haven't even seen that myself yet. We'll get to discover it together."

Mak grinned and nodded.

They proceeded to get their meals and as they approached a table they saw Sintas come in with her XO. She waved at them and when the two cats got their food, the XO went to join other rhuxus from the Shadow's Claw and Sintas came to join Jake and the others.

"It is wonderful to see the whole family together," Sintas said, "I wish conditions were such that you could all enjoy each other without the threat that hangs over us. Your ship is truly a marvel, Srythryn. I hope that we will have the time for a proper tour soon."

Srythryn smiled and said, "The Slirkstrith is large enough that a single tour would simply not suffice. It will take me days to show you all of what she has to offer. I look forward to it. I'm sure that once the next battle is won, we will settle into a pattern that will allow us some time for relaxation and recreation occasionally."

"It's so unfair," Mak said, "We're trying to help everyone in the universe, and they all think we're their worst enemy. I get why we can't tell them the truth, but I sure wish we could have been luckier and destroyed the hub when we had the chance. We didn't do anything to the jinvhon people, yet they're doing everything they can to destroy us. It sucks."

"The jinvhon are good and honorable people, but they do not tolerate aggression against them. From their point of view we are the aggressors and we have wronged them deeply by destroying their ark ship and its entire population for no reason. It pains me that we are forced to try to destroy their fleet in order to defend ourselves. With the power of this ship, combined with the massive force of zeth ships that will be joining us in the defense of my home world, we should be able to hold out for an extremely long time." Srythryn said.

Sintas nodded and said, "Yes, there is no reason to despair just yet."

They all became somewhat more solemn and subdued as their thoughts turned to their predicament.

They ate mostly in silence.

When they'd all had their fill they went their separate ways to tend to any outstanding tasks before the encounter with the jinvhon fleet, then finally they all assembled on the bridge. Voph joined them there.

It had been hours since the decision to sacrifice the Shadow's Claw in an attempt to take out as many of the jinvhon ships as they could. Due to the use of the outer planets for gravity assisted acceleration, the Slirkstrith's ultimate course quickly became obvious to the jinvhon navigators and they could plot it out to its end.

The enemy had plenty of time to react once they'd determined the exact point that the ark ship would be exiting the heliosphere and they had used their time well. The jinvhon ships were now out ahead of the Slirkstrith. They were moving at a slower rate of speed due to having to change course, but they were now essentially heading in the same direction while closing together to try to block them, and they were accelerating at a much greater rate to attempt to match speeds as quickly as possible.

The jinvhon ships would turn to face the oncoming ark ship as soon as she approached range of their cannons so that they could begin to fire on her to try to weaken her shields. They did not intend to allow her to help the Shadow's Claw escape their wrath.

Unfortunately for them, the range of the Slirkstrith's cannon was much greater due to the higher power behind each shot, so she would be able to begin shooting first if she needed to.

The four hundred Juggernauts launched and headed out in front of the Slirkstrith to form a wall of strike ships. Their intent was to launch their sixteen hundred antimatter torpedoes in staggered sequences, creating a continuous wall of flak that would utterly destroy any ships caught in the center, and soften the shields of any others nearby so that the Slirkstrith could easily take them out with one or two shots of her powerful cannon.

Unexpectedly, almost at the moment the Jugs all launched their warheads, the jinvhon ships began to scatter from the center of their blockade ahead without hesitation. Clearly they must have surmised the plan and decided not to throw away warships needlessly. They knew that the Slirkstrith had enough momentum to break through, and they would need the firepower of every ship they had in order to try to take her out before she could reach the edge of the heliosphere and escape. Getting out of the way and continuing the chase from behind her was the only tactical move available to them. They had simply waited long enough to ensure that the torpedoes were expended needlessly, leaving the Slirkstrith even weaker for the upcoming fight. The warships' acceleration was far superior and it was only a matter of time before they would catch up to the big ark ship even if they let her slip through.

Srythryn called the Juggernauts back and they all docked with the ark ship again just as they approached the hole in the blockade and blasted through it.

A few of the jinvhon ships came into range and turned to bring their cannons to bear as the Slirkstrith passed through, but the ark ship's massive shields had no problem shrugging them off as they sped past and quickly got out of range again.

The jinvhon ships turned back on course and began to close their ranks again as they continued to accelerate hard. They knew that the Slirkstrith could not outrun them for long. Their acceleration capability was greater than hers because they did not have to deal with such excessive mass, or be concerned with preserving wildlife that was a source of food. The jinvhon could kick their thrusters to full and hang on tight to blast themselves forward as fast as possible and eventually their speed would be greater than the big ark ship and they would begin to catch up to her.

The Slirkstrith was pushing to get out of the heliosphere, and they might just make it. The jinvhon might think the aim was to jump away, but instead the idea was to get into a position where the remaining zeth ships that had wisely been held back could jump in and join the fight.

They were far enough from the siskreth home world and the other planets now, that they could safely detonate the Shadow's Claw without affecting them. They wanted to ensure that any jinvhon ships at the fringes of the explosion that would survive could not make it out of the heliosphere to jump to new positions. They needed to stop them all. That was where the remaining zeth forces would come in. Just as the Slirkstrith popped out past the edge of the heliosphere the zeth ships would jump in behind them racing inward to quickly engage the remaining jinvhon forces and keep them occupied while the Slirkstrith arced around to come back in and join the fight.

Finally, they were getting close to where they would let the Shadow's Claw go, and start to accelerate her back towards the chasing fleet. It would take some time for her to build a great enough distance behind them to keep them safe from the blast when she self-destructs. They would use the time to continue accelerating outward. It had been timed so that in the hour it would take for the Shadow's Claw to accelerate back to the midst of the pursuing fleet, the Slirkstrith would be crossing through the heliopause into interstellar space. The zeth forces could then jump in to join her.

They all waited anxiously for Srythryn to give the order to launch the Shadow's Claw.

Suddenly, the sensor officer shouted, "I'm detecting a mass of ships jumping in ahead! They're jinvhon!"

"What?! How many?" Srythryn asked.

"I count just over fifty so far, but more continue to join those! They are coming in hot just outside the heliosphere and are already racing inward towards us!"

"Shit!" Jake exclaimed.

"They must have held some of their forces back, just as the zeths did," Sintas said, "They are great tacticians, as I said before. They moved out of our way and let us through so easily because they knew they would be bringing another large force in from outside. We are now caught between them with our torpedoes expended. We will be utterly crushed by their combined forces."

"Indeed. If we use the Shadow's Claw, we can only weaken one force or the other. Even if the zeths jump in, they will now be on the other side of the new jinvhon force and will not be able to join us. This fight just got a great deal more difficult," Srythryn said.

Jake's mind raced. There had to be some way out of this mess. If only they didn't have the restriction of not being able to open a wormhole inside of a heliosphere. They could simply jump away and none of this would be a problem.

He still wasn't sure exactly why they had to jump between points in interstellar space instead of jumping out from within a heliosphere, or into one from outside. Srythryn had explained long ago that 'bad things' would happen if they tried to open a wormhole between two areas of space with significantly different charges and the only way to avoid that was to open the wormholes between two points in neutrally charged interstellar space. He'd never asked exactly what those bad things were, but he assumed it must be quite devastating to the ship.

As he thought about the mess they were in now, his mind wandered back to the QECH hub that controlled the favors and their failure at destroying it from within. If they had succeeded, they would have been heroes of the entire collective, instead of being hunted by them all. If only they could have somehow found a way to get at the hub and destroy it from the outside.

There was no chance of doing it now. They knew the hub was hidden in a nearby dense nebula, but they didn't know exactly where it was within the cloud. They did not have exact coordinates and because of the nature of the nebula, it was impossible to scan it to find the hub. It was likely chosen as a hiding spot for that very reason.

If they didn't have this restriction of having to jump in interstellar space, they could jump right into the nebula where the hub for the favors was hidden and thus bypass all of the defensive turrets that littered the cloud and attack the hub directly. It didn't matter anyhow since they didn't know the exact coordinates of the hub within the nebula. They wouldn't know where to jump in, and in any case it would cause whatever devastation happens when you jump into the unlike-charged space and the ship would be destroyed.

He suddenly got a glint of an idea.

"We will launch the Shadow's Claw in thirty seconds," Srythryn said, "We have no choice but to proceed. We cannot risk being caught in the blast if we launch her ahead of us so we must still launch her at the force pursuing us to weaken them and reduce their numbers. Voph, if you could have the zeth forces jump in behind the new jinvhon force ahead and chase them in to engage them, we will have them caught between the Slirkstrith and your people and we may make a serious dent in their numbers before the remainder of the force behind us that survives the blast catches up and joins the fight. It will be a much harder fight than we had hoped, but there is still a very small chance that we might prevail."

"Wait!" Jake shouted.

All eyes on the bridge turned to him.

"Srythryn, you told me long ago that the whole reason we have to open a wormhole between two areas of interstellar space was because bad things happened if you tried to jump into a heliosphere. What sort of bad things, exactly?"

Rhokki said, "I can answer that. Our people have studied wormholes extensively. The effect is very similar to our yanking system. If we were to open a wormhole between interstellar space and the inside of a heliosphere, it would be almost like opening the hole between a high-pressure area and a vacuum. The heliosphere would instantly rush into the wormhole and be compressed together as it attempts to blast out the hole at our end. The result would be massive, focused collisions of charged particles that would result in a powerful explosion at both ends. We would be destroyed."

"Just how big would that explosion be?" Jake asked.

"It really depends on the exact conditions. If the other end of the hole was near the heart of the heliosphere, it would be quite large, but not even quite as large as the explosion we are about to cause by annihilating all of the antimatter in the Shadow's Claw's buffer and converting all of her matter to energy. It would most definitely destroy any ships in a large radius around either end of the worm hole, including our own."

"What if we opened the hole from interstellar space to connect it right to the heart of a dense nebula?"

"That would be an entirely different story. The potential difference there would be several orders of magnitude greater. The resulting explosion would be much larger..."

"Jake, are you still thinking about the QECH hub for the favors?" Sintas asked, "Have you got an idea?"

"I thought I might, but now I'm not sure. I was hoping the explosion would be large enough to sweep the entire nebula. If it was, we wouldn't even need to know where the QECH hub was hidden within it, and we wouldn't need to get through the defenses. We would just blow the whole damn cloud up. It sounds like the explosion wouldn't be anywhere near large enough though. We'd be destroying ourselves for nothing, just on a chance that the hub might be within the radius of the small explosion. It might work if we knew where exactly it was, but otherwise it wouldn't be a big enough bang to be sure we caught it in the blast."

"We might not create a big enough bang," Rhokki said excitedly, "but we might well create a big enough crunch. The dynamics vary from situation to situation as I said before. A heliosphere is lightly filled with a very thin cloud of charged particles streaming outward from the star at its center. That is an entirely different thing from a nebula, which is filled with a very dense gas of mostly hydrogen and helium and some dust that would have significant mass along with the charged particles streaming from any stars within the nebula. Theoretically, if a wormhole large enough could be opened, the better part of the mass of the cloud would rush inward to collide at the center of the wormhole as it attempts to squeeze through to come out the other end.

"If the mass were sufficient, before it could blow out the other end it would succumb to its own gravity and begin to collapse even further. The mass off all of the dust and gas in the entire cloud would be greater than that of a super massive star and it would be compressed into a space a tiny fraction of what such mass would normally occupy. It would be like squeezing a great many stars into a space smaller than a moon almost instantaneously. As all of the mass collapses in on itself the result should be a singularity, with gravity so great that nothing in its vicinity could escape it.

"The singularity itself would pull the rest of the mass of the nebula in and consume it to grow even larger until the entire cloud is sucked in and it reaches equilibrium. The event horizon of the initial singularity would likely be far enough out to engulf the QECH hub, destroying it instantly. Even if it was not, as the black hole rapidly grows in size by sucking in the remainder of the nebula, the radius of the singularity's event horizon would become greater until it eventually did encompass the hub. It would all happen within a brief instant. The downside is that, while the wormhole is open, both ends would be exposed to the singularity. All of the matter on this side would be sucked into it as well."

"So if we could make that happen, we would be sacrificing ourselves, but destroying the entire nebula and everything in it, correct?" Jake asked.

"Yes, if we could ensure the formation of a singularity, the rest of the nebula would be pulled into its gravity well in short order. Nothing in or around it would survive."

Everyone stayed silent for a few moments as they thought about what Jake was proposing.

"This idea is dangerous, but I believe it might have some merit," Srythryn said, "How do you propose we do it, Jake? What is it you were thinking, exactly?"

"Well, I just thought that when we were skitching the Slirkstrith, we were able to do it because she has to generate a wormhole big enough to cover her entire length, but the hole is a sphere, so it's massive and it allowed us to ride alongside her through it. Could she make an even bigger wormhole? What's the limit exactly? How far apart could the ends be if you pushed as hard as possible?"

Rhokki said, "The energy required to generate a wormhole grows very quickly as you bring the two ends farther apart, and it grows exponentially with the radius of the hole. Each time you add ten percent to the distance between the two ends of the hole, you must use fifty percent more power to do it. However, if you add ten percent to the radius of the hole to make it larger, you need double the energy to do it. As you can imagine, the energy to make a hole larger as well as farther apart grows extremely quickly. Still, the bulk of the energy the Slirkstrith uses to make her maximum jump of a thousand light years is used to bend the space. If she didn't have to bend space, she could easily make a hole a hundred times larger than she normally does. It would be absolutely enormous. I would have to run the numbers, but it would likely be more than big enough to trigger the formation of a singularity in the nebula, especially if any stars were in range to be sucked into the hole by the potential difference. If the dust and gas in that nebula is the remnant of the supernova of a super massive star, which is likely the case, the remnants of that star would be near the center of the nebula."

"Didn't the zeths say that the hub was hidden in the accretion disk of a neutron star? Isn't that the remnant of a supernova?" Jake asked.

"Yes, a neutron star is the stellar remnant brought about by the gravitational collapse of the core of a super massive star caused by the ejection of its outer mass during a supernova. It is likely that the star itself was the original source of most of the gas and dust in the nebula. That would place it fairly close to the center of the cloud. It would most certainly not be at its outer fringes. I think if we made a hole large enough and placed it at the center of the nebula, we would catch the neutron star, and its red giant companion, and even the QECH hub itself and compress them together with the other gas and dust in the nebula. It is nearly guaranteed that a singularity would form in that case."

"By the sound of it, even if it didn't make a black hole, it would still destroy the hub, right?" Jake asked.

"Yes. There is very little chance it could survive. If in fact there is insufficient mass or gravitational force to form a singularity, it would at least be sufficient to compress the gas in the cloud enough to cause a fusion ignition that would create a new star. The resulting shock wave and burst of radiation would destroy the hub no matter where it might be in the nebula. The hub would not survive if we created a wormhole large enough and the Slirkstrith's buffer is the only one in existence large enough to do so," Rhokki said.

"So really, everything would hinge on being able to create a large enough wormhole."

Rhokki nodded.

"Srythryn, would you be willing to sacrifice the Slirkstrith if it meant having a good chance at destroying the QECH hub for the favors and freeing everyone in the universe?" Jake asked.

"Of course, I would do it without hesitation if the result was guaranteed. Tell us precisely what it is you propose."

"I'm still working on that as we speak," Jake said, chuckling, and then he suddenly thought of something and said, "Wait, you said the buffer and drive system could separate from the Slirkstrith in case of emergency. Does that include the warp drive and wormhole initiator?"

"Yes, absolutely. The idea is to protect the ark ship in the case of an imminent breach of antimatter containment. If possible, once detached, the drive system will initiate a jump to quickly bring it to a safe distance from the ark ship in case it detonates."

"That would not be sufficient, Jake," Rhokki said, "The tidal forces of the singularity would affect both ends of the wormhole for an incredibly great distance. We couldn't have the buffer and drive system move a safe enough distance away from us and the siskreth home world without giving it a great many days to accelerate. If we have it jump away to a safe distance it will consume too much antimatter and there will not be enough left to guarantee success. The buffer itself does not have a generator to replace the used antimatter so it would have no way of recharging itself to full for the attempt on the nebula. The generator stays with the Slirkstrith to keep us under power."

Jake continued to think hard. It should be possible to do this without sacrificing any more than the Slirkstrith's drive system.

Maybe they could use the old skitching idea one more time, but in reverse.

"Voph said the nebula is just a short jump away," Jake said, "We were on board the Shadow's Claw when he said that, so I assume he meant it was a short jump for the Claw. What if instead of blowing up the Shadow's Claw, we send her out ahead with the detached buffer and drive system from the Slirkstrith riding along further ahead of her. Once they got out into interstellar space, the Shadow's Claw could bend space and initiate the wormhole to send the Slirkstrith's buffer through to a point just outside the nebula, but then close the wormhole before the Claw herself goes through. She would stay behind. There would be no reason to sacrifice her. The buffer would then be sitting right at the edge of the nebula and it could then use its wormhole initiator to open up a wormhole from there to a point near the cloud's center, and make the hole as large as it can, using up the entire load of antimatter in the still fully charged buffer. Would that do the trick?"

Rhokki grinned and said, "It would be a hell of a trick indeed. In that case you would be exposing not only the center of the nebula to the tidal forces of the great mass rushing in, but the edge of the nebula near interstellar space where the other end of the hole is would be exposed as well. Any matter that did manage to escape through the wormhole would come out at the edge only to be sucked right back into the center in a sort of feedback loop. The result would not be completely predictable, but the most likely outcome that would almost be guaranteed would be the utter destruction of anything within the nebula, including the QECH hub. It is an amazingly clever idea! I think it would work!"

"Wait, you said we need to send the Shadow's Claw out along with the buffer and drive system into interstellar space," Mak said, "How do we do that now? There's a whole wall of jinvhon ships rushing in ahead of us again between us and interstellar space. We already blew off all of the antimatter torpedoes we had the last time to make a hole. That's not an option anymore."

"Srythryn said it before; if they see the massive buffer detach and race towards them, they'll assume we're using it as the biggest antimatter bomb ever made in a desperate gamble to destroy them all at once. There's nothing they could do but scatter and accelerate outward and away from it at maximum thrust to try to put as much distance between them and it as they possibly can or be completely vaporized. It's us they want to destroy and they won't care about the buffer. They'll know full well once the buffer passes or detonates, they can move back in and destroy the Slirkstrith easily since it will be defenseless without the buffer," Jake said.

Srythryn smiled and said, "That is correct. Excellent thinking, my love. They will open very wide to let the buffer through. They couldn't even risk taking a single shot at it or it might detonate and take them all out. Their only choice will be to run from it using as much acceleration as they can possibly muster. With the stealth measures of the Shadow's Claw, they will not even know she is right behind it and following it out. They will get out of the way, then turn their attention to us as we will be completely defenseless without our buffer."

Sintas laughed and said, "You've done it yet again, Jake! You've given us the means to succeed in a way we never would have conceived of. We spent too much time thinking about how to locate the hub and then how to get through the defenses to go and destroy it. Clearly that was not possible. The idea of destroying an entire nebula who's cross section is hundreds of times larger than an average heliosphere certainly never would have occurred to me. Rhokki, how quickly could you get together with the other engineers to run the numbers? I trust you, but we need to be quite certain that this will work. It will leave the Slirkstrith completely defenseless with the entire jinvhon fleet already racing in from both sides to destroy her."

"Agreed," Srythryn said, "We would most likely be sacrificing the Slirkstrith and all aboard her. Without the buffer we would be at the mercy of even just one of the hundreds of ships that are almost upon us already but, as I said earlier, I would be most willing to do it if the result were guaranteed."

Rhokki said, "I will get right on it now. I'll have your answer in ten minutes."

"Make it five, please," Sintas said.

Rhokki raced off to the nearest briefing room to open a comm link with all of the engineers from both ships at once to confer with them.

Mak said, "Jake, someday when I make my play to become ruler of the whole universe, I want you to lead my fleet, OK? No one will be able to stop us!"

Everyone on the bridge laughed.

"It is quite interesting how your mind works," Chet 2 said, "It is a solution I would not have considered. It seems like it can't fail. In fact, it almost seems like an obvious solution in hindsight and one that any of us should have seen, though none of us likely ever would have."

"I think it's just that I haven't been exposed to the 'rules' of this universe for my whole life the way you all have been. You know without doubt that opening a wormhole from empty space into non-empty space would be catastrophic to the ship doing it, so your mind simply doesn't go there," Jake said.

Srythryn nodded and said, "I believe you are correct. A fresh perspective always helps, and from the point of view of all of us who have been exposed to this wide universe for so long, yours is by far the freshest."

"If this works, we need to be ready to start broadcasting every last bit of evidence the zeths have gathered out to the entire collective. They need to know everything we did this for, before the jinvhon destroy us and the truth dies with us," Jake said.

"Yes, you are correct. Thriststris, please make the arrangements. If this plan should work and the hub is destroyed, we need to immediately push all of the evidence we have against the First Ones out to everyone on a universal broadcast in a high-speed, compressed data stream immediately, and continue to loop it non-stop for as long as we can. We may not have much time before the jinvhon reach us and destroy this ship. We no longer have QECH comms on the Slirkstrith but I believe the zeth QECHS system can communicate with a relay back on the miquanowan world that can pass it on to a QECH broadcast system to everyone in the collective," Srythryn said.

"Aye, Captain. I'll make it happen," Thriststris said.

Voph raised his hand and waved at Thriststris, but Rhokki was not present to translate.

"I assume you're saying you'll work with me to get the information out?" Thriststris asked.

Voph nodded.

"Rhokki will be back shortly," Sintas said, "He will work with both of you."

Just then Rhokki came back into the room with a grin on his face and he said, "I have discussed it in great detail with members of the engineering teams from the Claw and the Slirkstrith and we've run the numbers thoroughly. We are all in agreement. Given the size of wormhole the Slirkstrith's drive system will be able to generate with a fully charged buffer from not having to bend space, there should be sufficient mass compressed together as it tries to rush through to the void beyond the hole to collapse it all into a singularity. It will be right on the borderline. That means that even if the singularity fails to form, there will be more than enough to ignite into a very energetic, super-massive star. The resulting blast and shock wave from the initial formation of the new star's giant heliosphere would destroy not only everything within the nebula, but the enemy forces that are gathering around it as well. It would be quite devastating to the hub either way. Its destruction is completely guaranteed, without any doubt whatsoever."

Srythryn smacked his hands together and shouted, "By the Granth's gargantuan goiter! We thought we'd lost our chance at extricating the collective from under the thumb of the First Ones, but Jake has given us the means to do it! This is unexpected good news!"

"Indeed," Sintas said, "We will likely not survive this, but you will be a hero to the entire universe, Jake. It may take them some time to forgive you for it, but in the end they will know that you have almost single-handedly saved the lives of untold hundreds of billions, or even trillions of people who would have suffered death as a result of the depraved entertainments of the First Ones over time. You are a truly unique man and I feel honored to have known you and to have been a part of this."

"As do we all," Rhokki agreed.

Jake looked around at everyone as they all grinned back at him. Everyone he loved was right here in the room with him and he was essentially condemning them all to death along with him, yet they only seemed happy with him. It spoke to the kind of people they all were. They gave no thought to the sacrifice they were making and were only happy that they were able to help the rest of the people in the universe, no matter the cost. He loved them all intensely for it.

The two Chets came forward and each put a massive paw on one of his shoulders and kissed him on each cheek. Mak came and gave him a big hug, followed by Rhokki, who did the same.

Srythryn came last and wrapped Jake into his arms and said, "I knew from the moment I first met you that you were something special. You have proved that assessment to be incredibly weak. There will never be another like you. I cannot tell you what it means to me that you are mine."

Tears began to well in Jake's eyes as he hugged the big croc back. It didn't seem to him like he was anything so special. It was all of them that made this possible. He was nothing until they came into his life. They were everything to him. They made him feel that nothing was impossible.

He only wished there were some way to do this without leaving the Slirkstrith defenseless. They would all likely die at the hands of the vengeful jinvhon, but at least they would die knowing they had achieved what could be considered the single most important victory in the history of sentient life in the universe.

Srythryn pulled back from his hug, kissed Jake quickly on the lips, then turned and said, "Let us do this before it is too late. Sintas, you and your crew are no longer welcome aboard my ark ship. Please move everyone back to your own ship and accompany them as quickly as possible. We have less than an hour to prepare. Once you've sent the buffer and drive system through, you will find yourself out in interstellar space with the freedom to go and join your own ark ships. They will need you to aid in their defense. There is nothing you can do for us here. I would greatly appreciate if you would take Jake and the rest of my family with you."

"Like hell! I'm not going anywhere!" Jake said.

"Please, my love. I cannot live with the knowledge that you will perish along with this ship when you could live aboard the Shadow's Claw. You are still an officer of Sintas's crew and you should do your duty."

Sintas said, "Jake, since you have refused my offer to become my second in command I'm afraid I have no further use for you. You are no longer a member of my crew."

Jake smiled and turned to Srythryn and said, "Looks like I'm jobless now. I'm not going anywhere. There's nothing you can say about it so you should just not waste your time. I'm staying right here."

"Me too," Mak said, "I'm not gonna miss out on being a hero to the universe. It's step one in my plan to become its ruler someday."

Jake chuckled and grinned at the cocky young bull.

Rhokki said, "And me. I'm sorry, sweet sister, but I must stay and accept whatever fate is in store along with those I love."

Chet 2 said, "I'm not going anywhere either. I can fly a Juggernaut and I will be needed. I am a member of this ship's crew and I will defend her to my death."

Chet said, "I will not be going either. I see no future for myself any longer except at my new family's side."

Srythryn smiled and said, "You all make me proud. I love you all so much. It will be as you wish."

"Voph, I will leave the decision of your fate to you, but we haven't much time," Sintas said, "I will be leaving immediately to begin to move my crew back aboard the Shadow's Claw."

Voph put up his hand, palm out, and shook his head. It was clear that his intent was to stay with Rhokki.

Sintas smiled and nodded. She walked up to Rhokki and gave him a long, tight hug and a kiss on the cheek. "I love you, dear brother, and I am extremely proud of you."

She then exited the bridge to begin the preparations to undock the Shadow's Claw from the Slirkstrith.

The entire crew of the Shadow's Claw was together in the emergency section so it took a great deal less time to get them back to their own ship than it did to bring them all here. They filed quickly back through the docking ramps while members of their flight crew boarded the Stilettos and flew them out to dock with the Claw once more.

As soon as they were ready, the hatches were closed and the clamps released, and the Shadow's Claw was under her own power again.

She began to accelerate as hard as she could forward along the ark ship's length just as Srythryn ordered the massive sphere at the front of the cylinder that contained the antimatter buffer and drive systems detached.

Unencumbered by the ark ship, the buffer began to race forward and the Shadow's Claw slipped in behind it.

As expected, the jinvhon force ahead of them immediately began to accelerate as hard as they could to get out of the way of what they saw as a desperate move to eliminate them all in a massive antimatter explosion.

The Claw was able to accelerate at an incredible rate because of her artificial gravity systems protecting the crew, and there was almost no limit to how hard the Slirkstrith's drive system could accelerate without the mass of the ark ship attached.

It took only minutes for them to blast well past the in-rushing jinvhon force and reach the edge of the heliosphere.

Just as they passed into interstellar space, the zeth forces began to jump into the gap behind them and raced inward to engage the nearest jinvhon force. It was unlikely they would get in range in time to save the Slirkstrith but they had to try.

The Shadow's Claw bent space and opened a wormhole connecting a point well ahead of the Slirkstrith's buffer to another point just outside of the nebula that the QECH hub for the favors was hidden in. The moment the buffer passed through the hole it was closed to protect the Shadow's Claw, and everything on this side, from what was going to happen next.

The Slirkstrith's drive system had been preprogrammed and as soon as it came into position, it consumed every last bit of antimatter stored in its massive buffer and popped open the largest wormhole that had ever existed, connecting its own space with a massive sphere of space right at the heart of the very dense and highly charged nebula.

The result was precisely what Rhokki had predicted.

The greater part of the mass of the nebula, along with all of the millions of automated turrets that made up the defense system, instantly began to rush inward toward its center to combine with the mass of the neutron star and its red giant companion and the QECH hub itself as it all tried to squeeze through the wormhole to force its way out the other end.

Even before it could begin to spew out the other side of the wormhole, the incredible combined mass succumbed to the forces of its own gravity and began to collapse further and faster inward on itself. As more mass rushed in to add to the gravitational forces the collapse sped up until, within mere seconds, a singularity formed at the center.

The rest happened at very near the speed of light.

The event horizon shot out to encompass most of the remainder of the nebula and it instantaneously vanished to be replaced by a massive black hole.

Close to a thousand warships belonging to the few races that had been doing the dirty work for the First Ones for millions of years had gathered at the fringes of the nebula at the request of the First Ones in order to protect the hub from an outside attack. All of them were almost instantly stretched and torn by the unimaginably massive tidal forces at the event horizon and ultimately sucked right into the black hole along with the Slirkstrith's drive system, and anything else in the vicinity.

In a stretch of time that amounted to little more than the blink of an eye the massive gassy nebula vanished, to be replaced by utter blackness that swallowed all light that came anywhere near it.

All over the known universe, in every corner of explored space, in all of the plants, animals, buildings, ships, and people, the favors of the First Ones all went quiet at once.

The First Ones were quite suddenly, completely and utterly blind and deaf to everything. They could no longer watch anyone. They no longer had the power to touch anyone in any way. They were completely and utterly disarmed and removed from the equation. They were quite suddenly nothing more than disembodied minds floating in their own silent blackness.

As the billions of streams of lives that were being enjoyed by the First Ones suddenly ceased, the minds all cried out at once.

Somewhere in an unknown location, hidden well away from any area of the universe that was known to the collective, were the vast computers that housed the minds of the First Ones. Inside of all of that circuitry, they all screamed in rage and anguish at being robbed of what they felt was theirs, but no one could hear them. They had been utterly silenced.

The Slirkstrith immediately began streaming the evidence that had been gathered over time by the zeths, including the proof that the First Ones had destroyed the Earth and everyone on it, as well as the rhuxus world, Ausku's world, and the jinvhon ark ship that had been in orbit around it. Everything they had done right down to the final bid to destroy the hub by collapsing the nebula was added to the stream and looped for all to see.

All over the known universe the broadcast went out and the information streamed to governments, military, science and educational institutions. It streamed into people's homes and their vehicles and all of the ships in space. Everyone everywhere was suddenly learning the truth.

The one thing the First Ones still had was control over the main QECH communication hub that services the entire collective. They saw the data that was being broadcast and in their rage they shut down the hub to silence everyone else in the collective.

All at once all of the QECH comm gear throughout the universe became useless and instantaneous communication was lost.

The stream of data being transmitted by the Slirkstrith abruptly ceased, but it had already looped many times and hopefully it had been recorded by enough equipment to continue to spread, though now it would be limited to the speed of light.

As the jinvhon forces closed all around the Slirkstrith, all of those aboard her waited for their ends. They still had shields that were being fed by the trickle of antimatter from the generator, but there was no buffer to back it up. A couple of shots from a cannon was all it would take to finish them off.

They had done all that they could and they felt that despite their impending destruction, it was a complete victory. They had beaten the First Ones. They had freed the entire known universe from chains they did not even know until now were tightly shackling them as slaves to a decadent and depraved race of minds perverted by their own sense of entitlement, who felt the entire universe was their own personal toy chest to do with as they wished. The sword of Damocles that had been hanging over the entire collective had been removed and the harsh light of truth shone on the reality of their existence.

The jinvhon fleet finally reached the Slirkstrith and matched speeds with her but, to everyone's surprise, instead of opening fire to blow her to bits, they turned and took a defensive posture around her.

Everyone on the bridge waited with baited breath to see what would happen next. They did not have QECH comms so they couldn't attempt to hail the jinvhon fleet. They couldn't try radio because it couldn't possibly get through the jinvhon ships' shields without being encapsulated within their secret shield harmonic codes. They could not communicate in any way.

After a long wait, the sensor officer said, "I'm detecting a mass ejection of some sort of garbage from the jinvhon ships."

"Can you focus on some of it and scan more thoroughly?" Srythryn asked, "Could you zoom our forward scopes on it?"

"One moment," the sensor officer said as he tapped some controls and the main view screen switched to a view of one of the massive capital ships of the jinvhon fleet.

There was a small cloud of debris forming at the aft end of the ship and the view shifted towards it and zoomed in closely.

"Holy shit!" Mak shouted.

Everyone gasped as they saw what it was. As the image zoomed in the mass of particles grew and resolved quite clearly. It was hundreds of tiny, grey bodies. The jinvhon were spacing every one of the lackeys that had been aboard their ships.

"This reminds me that we have some trash of our own to dispose of later on, though I will be sharing a few words with Xelzix before we do," Srythryn said.

"I'd like to be there with you," Jake said in a cold voice.

"And me," said Chet and Chet2 in unison.

Srythryn smiled and nodded at them all, then looked back at the screen and said, "The jinvhon are a vengeful race indeed, but honorable, as I said. It appears they have been studying the data we transmitted. Thriststris, I want you to drop our shields."

"What? Why?"

"Just do as I ask, please," Srythryn said.

"Aye, Captain."

Thriststris lowered the shields and then shortly after that the sensor officer said, "The largest of the jinvhon capital ships ahead is lowering her shields, Captain."

Then the communications officer said, "We are being contacted by focused radio beam, Captain."

Srythryn smiled and said, "Put them through."

The image on the main screen suddenly shifted to show the bridge of the jinvhon ship. An extremely large and muscular looking creature filled the screen. He looked vaguely like a gorilla from Earth, but with a more prominent brow and slightly longer and more delicate features on his face. He had four arms. The two at the top were massively muscular coming out from incredibly broad and powerful shoulders and a thick neck. Those arms looked like they could snap a tree in half. Their hands were massive and thick, with three powerful fingers and one opposing thumb. They looked like they could form an iron grip, but would not be very good at manipulating tools. The second set of arms just underneath the large and muscular ones were longer and very slender. The hands on the slender arms looked extremely dexterous and each had four long fingers with two thumbs opposing them. They looked like they would be well suited to even the most delicate work. The creature was covered in a longish, light grey fur that looked sort of shaggy. Jake couldn't see down past the creature's waist but he suspected the legs were thick and powerful.

The massive creature studied Srythryn for a moment, then he said, "You are Captain Srythryn I presume. I am Captain Dokan. We have been monitoring your transmission. We understand now that the stealth ship we have been hunting was not responsible for the destruction of our ark ship. We also see clearly now that you and your people are not in any way the enemy of the collective, but its saviors. We are displeased beyond measure at being duped by the First Ones for so long. It is they who callously destroyed our ark ship and all of those aboard her at the same time as they murdered everyone on that planet, simply in order to further dupe us into doing their dirty work for them and hunting you down. We do not take such deceit lightly. You have exacted our revenge against the First Ones for us by removing their ability to harm us further and for that our race will forever be grateful to you. We pledge our strength to you and we will defend you and your world against any who attempt to do you any harm.

"As I'm certain you are now aware, the First Ones have cut off all of the members of the collective from each other by shutting down the QECH communication hub in order to cripple our diplomacy. We must now retreat to our world to keep it safe during whatever chaos might ensue, but for the time being we will be leaving half of our force here to help you defend your planet until such time as the last of those threatening you retreat to their own worlds. Shortly before we lost communication, I was asked by our leaders to convey a message to the one responsible for the destruction of the hub that your transmission called Jake Smith. They wish him to know that he will be considered a guest of highest honor by our people any time he may wish to have dealings with us, and that in return for removing the yoke from our necks, we will grant him the fulfillment of any one request he might make of our race in the future without question. He has only to ask it when he is ready."

Srythryn said, "Thank you, Captain Dokan. Before your ships depart, we would like to make an important offering to you. We have aboard this ark ship many millions of communication cores for a new hub and spoke quantum communication system of zeth design. We would like to offer you sufficient numbers of them to allow you to equip your primary war ships and your home world so that we may all re-establish instantaneous communications as soon as possible. We would like to enter diplomatic discussions with your people to begin the formation of a new collective. We have sufficient QECHS cores to begin to disperse them to all of the races over time who express an interest in joining our new collective, so that we may return to the levels of diplomacy we enjoyed before. Please pass that message on to your leaders. Thank you."

Dokan smiled and bowed deeply and said, "You honor us beyond measure by including us as the first race in the newly reforged collective. Your race will no doubt be at the head of the table, and we will be proud to assist you in any way we can to bring all of the other races on board. I thank you, Captain Srythryn, on behalf of all my people. I must take my leave of you now. Please convey my thanks to Jake Smith as well and let him know that he is seen by our people as the greatest hero that has ever existed."

The screen went blank.

A rousing cheer went up all around the bridge as they realized they'd pulled themselves out of the fire and they were no longer in danger. All eyes of the smiling, happy people were on Jake Smith as they clapped and cheered and shouted his name over and over again. Tears welled in his eyes as one after another, every crew member on the bridge came forward to hug him and thank him for what he'd done not only for them, but for their families on the ship, and for their entire race. The members of his family crowded around him, chests swelling with pride, and planted kisses on his face.

Over the next months some chaos did ensue throughout the collective. Several races who'd had strained relations in the past began to fight aggressively over resources that bordered their systems. The loss of instantaneous communications meant each race was suddenly on their own once more and couldn't call anyone for help. Piracy became rampant as well for the same reason.

A few of the more militant and mercenary races who had been doing much of the heavy lifting for the First Ones in the past immediately broke from the collective and refused to join the new one. They came together to form a union of their own and cut off diplomatic ties for the time being. They would need to be closely watched. No one knew when or how the First Ones might attempt a comeback, but whatever they did, they would need arms and legs to do it for them and those races would likely be the ones chosen for the job.

The QECHS communicator cores were being distributed as fast as possible to bring instant communication back to all races who wished to join the new collective, but it would take time to cover everyone. The cores were being given away to any race that signed the pact to join the new collective, but each race who received some were asked if they would like to donate fuel credits to a fund that would be used to rebuild the orphaned races whose worlds had been destroyed. Many races refused, but most gave generously to show their gratitude. Needless to say, the entire new collective was watching and made note of which races went which way as they began to form strong alliances with others while weakening relations with those they found less appealing.

Ausku's people had already found a new home. Chet's people expressed an interest in having them use the space in the more temperate regions of their world that were too warm for them to use. Her people had accepted and their ark ship was already in orbit and waiting as land was developed for them to live on. Their offer would be extended to the humans and the rhuxus people if necessary but it looked as though it wasn't going to be needed. Negotiations had already begun with the miquanowans to see if they would allow the rhuxus and the humans to share the sacred planet. The miquanowans were intensely proud that one of their people had a hand in the liberation of the universe. Mak was a hero to them now and his father was nearly exploding with pride. With the help of Mogwo, it looked as though it was just a matter of time before they would be allowed access to the uninhabited planet, and the orphaned races would have a new home to begin rebuilding their populations.

The call had gone out for all humans to contact Jake, but so far not a single one had done so. Jake assumed it was due to the fact that it would be years yet before all of the planets were back on line with instantaneous communications, so he tried not to let it concern him too much. There was no longer any link back to the First Ones or their vast computer systems so there was no way to track down the humans. They would simply have to wait to hear from them.

The zeths who were now separated from their own galaxy were also looking for a new home to call their own, but their needs were entirely different and it would likely be easy to accommodate them. They have no need of oxygen, or even any atmosphere at all. Their metabolism was so completely alien that they were more like machines and any place that was not overly hostile in terms of radiation or dust storms would do, provided it met certain mineral requirements. They were interested in a large moon orbiting a gas giant planet in the miquanowan system. They wished to stay in close proximity to the rhuxus. Most likely it would be given to them as soon as the negotiations for the sacred planet were complete.

Modifications were underway to the Slirkstrith to fit her with a far more efficient antimatter generator based on the design of the one on the Shadow's Claw, which would dramatically improve her antimatter output to refill her capacious buffer in a much shorter time. They were also fitting her with a large yanking room with multiple chambers and scanners. Though she would remain a spinning cylinder because that was the most efficient way to create artificial gravity on such a large scale, they were also looking at working in artificial gravity systems of zeth design similar to what the Shadow's Claw had that would act to negate the effects of acceleration, allowing her to accelerate to up to 10 Gs without having to evacuate anyone to the emergency section or worry about the life in the jungles or oceans.

They were also planning to fit her with a much larger version of the disrupter weapon that could take advantage of her massive buffer to strip the shields off of even the largest capital ship with one shot. She would be almost unstoppable once she got her antimatter buffer and drive system replaced in several more months. For now, she was surrounded by a massive guard fleet of zeth ships and several from the jinvhon fleet.

The Slirkstrith was now considered by all races to be the flagship of the new collective.

The name Jake Smith was now being spoken in nearly every language on every world in the known universe. Much to his dismay, everyone had begun to refer to the massive black hole that had been formed as a result of his idea as 'Jake's Hole'.

While the masses who could never have afforded a resurrection contract saw him as their savior, he was considered by many of the most powerful people in the universe as their greatest enemy. From their points of view, he had almost single-handedly destroyed their immortality. He had, in effect, killed them all. Though he didn't know it yet, many had already begun to plot his demise.

Most races saw him as the greatest hero they'd ever known. The more closely they examined the evidence the zeths had presented and saw the escalating debauchery of the First Ones, the more they realized Jake Smith may have been responsible for saving thousands of billions of lives. He was being bombarded with diplomatic requests from tens of thousands of races. They all wanted him to come and visit them and meet with their governments and address their people. He was turning them all down. If he gave in to even one he would have to agree to them all, and that was not what he wanted the rest of his life to be.

He wanted to be right here, aboard the Slirkstrith, with his wonderful family.

He loved them all more than he could ever have thought possible, and he could not wait to see what other adventures awaited them all in the future. The side of that scale that held all of the regrets of things he had never tried was already beginning to lift off from the weight of his incredible adventures going down on the other side, but he still had a hell of a long ways to go to bring it back into balance. His true goal was to chip away at it until there was not a single regret left and the scale was heavily tilted in the other direction with a raft of experiences he had not yet even imagined. Now that he was no longer immortal that was not likely possible, but he sure as hell intended to do his best to keep on adding to it every day for as long as he might live. With the help of Srythryn, Mak, Rhokki and the Chets, there was no end to the possibilities for the future.

No matter what might happen, no matter how desperate things might be, with the ones he loved so much at his side, absolutely nothing seemed impossible.

The End