The Concealed Puppeteer

[Tomtomrawr]

<Location: Open space, Omega space>

The end of the tunnel of light had brought a different feeling to Nimsala. Everything felt different. He could feel the light of stars, and whether the power had grown or diminished in even the tiniest fractions. He could now sense the star that he had originally jumped from, and knew from there which he had arrived at. But for a reason which he had yet to understand, he felt more powerful.

He gazed out of his beast at the planets that closely orbited the nearby star. There was a distinct difference in size of asteroids that orbited closer to the star than those that occupied the rest of the system. It seemed as if the smaller had been pulled in, with the larger left to spread out into their new territory. But it may have been that the larger had been pulled in and had broken apart, and the small were now the large in comparison. But he decided that speculation was pointless.

The anomaly was behind him, a shimmering tunnel now distinctly imprinted on the space-time difference. If he focused hard enough, he could even sense what was on the other side.

But he moved away from it with his beast, following Kran'Shi toward the lone star of the system, orbited by six planets and the asteroids. But there had yet to be an explanation for his sudden surge of power.

A patrol glided past. Two beasts, similar to his own, accompanying a structure of distinctly organic composure. Four thin pincers reached out from the core of the ship to move outward, then point directly back at each other. It appeared as if they would each channel something through themselves to create a combined power from all four. Each side had a small wing, but the main body of the ship drew attention away from them. The hull was a black-blue that was dark enough to blend in with the empty space background.

He stared at it with interest until he lost sight and sense of it, and then turned his attention back to his course. If he looked very closely, he believed he could see something near the star now.