When Keshnar and Omega were back on the Dawn, only then did the Professor ask him the question floating inside his mind.

“What now?” He rolled up behind him, holding a datapad, reading the same information that Omega had given to the two. Only his version had more details about himself and what he remembered from those long-gone days.

“We wait. Let your granddaughter do her own digging. About the wolf? We will see. It is a start, for now.”

“If half of this is true….” The Professor said, going through the details and finding it increasingly unbelievable. This sounded more than magic than science… and he was not a wizard. “How could we defend against something that can turn us into dust with a thought?”

“While being a drone for… It… I learned a lot of things.” Omega stopped, looking at him. “I am much more than what I was when they took me away.”

“Is that a good or bad thing?” He asked back, looking him up and down.

“I am already modifying you all,” Omega replied.

“Wait, what?!” Keshnar jiggled, dropping the datapad and growing out tentacles to tap at his jiggling body with a frightened voice.

“I will make sure that he can’t erase you from existence. It did not create the universe; it just unlocked some of its secrets. I build up defenses around you all, so it needs to get through them if it wants to eradicate you. That way, we will have a chance.”

“For…” Keshnar gulped, already guessing at where he was going with this.

“To bring it down.” Omega nodded. “When we are ready, I am going to open up the road to Earth. That is going to grab its attention. Lure it out, and then we can destroy it.” He said with a cold voice. “For that, I need an army. If the Claws have the best fleet in the Galaxy, then I am going to get them. One way or another.”

…
….
…..

“Good catch!” Omega smiled, standing next to Sylen.

“Hehe~ What should we do with her?” She asked back, wagging her tail as they watched Kuti sitting in the empty room, wearing only a rag around her slim body. She was surprisingly calm after being captured and refused to say anything.

“Good question,” Omega replied, crossing his arms and looking at the screen before him. “Her lips are sealed?”

“Yes,” Dawn answered. “Sylen tried to interrogate her, even resorting to threatening her. Like being thrown out of the airlock. Nothing worked. She didn’t say a word.”

“Hmmm. She is loyal.” Omega murmured, tilting his head.

“We can see that!” Sylen replied with a sigh, a bit of admiration flickering in her eyes, looking at the figure of Kuti.

“Well, she is in love. No surprises here!” Omega giggled, and seeing Sylen’s reaction, he just scratched the base of her ears. “I can see it in her. No wonder she wouldn’t give up Junita!”

“This is so typical of her!” Keshnar added, arriving at the lounge, sounding tired and troubled. “She once spied on me the same way and was the first to know about me joining the Neo-Hegemony! Decades before it became public back home! I think one of my students was her moles back then too!”

“Luckily, this one was caught before she could do any harm!” Sylen replied proudly.

“Plus, she looks like more a mouse than a mole,” Omega added but watching their clueless reaction, he just shrugged. “Whatever. But this came at the perfect moment!”

“Oh?” Sylen and Keshnar asked simultaneously.

“I am going to send back some clues with her devices. Set them up as if her little agent here found something incredible! Junita should work on looking up the things I presented to her. If her agent sends back home some relevant information, even shocking ones… that would help us greatly! It will cement her belief in what I said to them. Even if Roxo won’t, getting the Alliance on our side is already a good step forward.”

“In terms of money and raw capital,” Keshnar added, “They are one of the best. If Junita leans towards our side, she could work out exclusive deals and get people to start trading with us. Our projects do need that kind of funding! The Alliance is rich. Richer than most even would think!” He explained it vigorously, as he was once a prominent member of it before leaving everything behind. “The question is, what are we going to trade with?”

“You already know the answer.” Omega smiled while Sylen just looked at them, tilting her head with question marks above it.

“I wouldn’t trade any of our top-of-the-line stuff.” Keshnar trembled, his voice serious.

“We won’t. I can come up with things that are not that vital and were common back then… and they are all for civilian use. I won’t trade military tech, don’t worry!” He laughed. “But let us see what will happen first! I am more worried about Roxo and his wolf-gang. He didn’t take well to my refusal….”

…
….
…..

Junita was back on her ship, frantically going over details from her vault with the ones she got from Omega. If she could, she would have asked the bugs, too, but as they had no -peaceful- contact with anyone else, it was impossible. She was pulling up reports from the Alliance’s multiple branches and from all of her resources from other empires, including the Vogh themselves. Just as she was reading an Alliance report of an utterly wiped-out system, she received an encrypted message from Kuti.

“Hm?” She jiggled, reaching out with a tentacle and activating the projector. “Did she find something already? She usually does not call so soon….” She mumbled.

Yet when the information came through, she stopped in place. It was clearly fragments from an encrypted report. Only parts of it were readable, but it was already shocking, especially with the included fuzzy images. They were, once again, created from Omega’s memory. Right after, he woke up, obliterating the first agent of Finis. After that, he traveled through the Astropaths just by himself.

He had two goals in mind after waking up with his memories returned to him. One: Find them all and kill them. All of those who were sent out. Two: Lead Finis on a wild goose chase. He was sure that he was looking for him, and if he could lead the agents to different parts of the Galaxy and kill them off, Finis would start searching at the wrong places, giving them a little bit of time to prepare.

His dreaming only took a few hours in reality before waking up, floating in empty space. The rest of the time before he came back to the Neo-Hegemony was spent eliminating the immediate danger. Now he had to gather as many allies as possible and make sure he protected them from either Finis or the Creator long enough so they could destroy them. As to if it would be possible, he didn’t know. But he had to try… and after Junita read the encrypted message, he already had someone who was starting to believe.