Gateway
Background Going In
The Outsider - an intergalactic alien entity - is attempting to use the stolen Kaliberak array to construct a Gateway that would open a passage from galaxy NGC 1023, enabling an invasion force to enter the Milky Way. To stop this, the Pirates needed an Elder weapon capable of fighting an Outsider-level threat. Research pointed to an ancient Elder device called a Vortex (Subspace Divergence Wave Generator Vortex), accessible only via a collector artifact stored at a Maxohlx military base on the planet Omaha (Ohmeharikahn).
Chapter 1 - Aftermath of Operation Olympic
The novel opens in chaos. Operation Olympic has just gone catastrophically sideways. The mission was a two-part deception: the visible assault on Makalva base was a diversionary attack, while STAR Team Razor secretly infiltrated the planet’s far side to retrieve the collector artifact (codenamed “the Biscuit”). The collector was recovered - but at catastrophic cost.
The Maxohlx nuked their own base to deny it to the attackers (the bomb burrowed before detonating, limiting ground casualties to ~253). Then the 14th Fleet appeared unexpectedly - all three assault carriers were destroyed. The Flying Dutchman (Nagatha’s ship) fell from orbit in flames. Nearly all of Task Force Hammer was under devastating fire.
Worst of all: when Skippy performed an emergency jump to escape the star’s gravity well, Outsider malware in the jump drive ejected his escape pod into the star. Skippy appears to have fallen into Ohmeharikahn’s sun.
The chapter cuts between multiple POVs: Joe on Valkyrie; Tech Sergeant Ling freefalling from suborbit in a damaged mech suit with only a Skippy-submind emergency protocol (“Suity”) to help; Major Joel Verhoef crash-landing his Eagle fighter; Sheryl Crook on the surface; and Dave Czajka, Jesse and Shauna Colter fighting across the battlefield.
Chapter 2 - The Ground Scramble & Watching the Battle
Ling’s mech-suit Skippy-submind improvises a nanogel parachute by harvesting nanobots from Ling’s own bloodstream through his heart. Ling survives his suborbit fall into deep snow.
On Valkyrie, Joe and Reed watch the space battle via speed-of-light delay. The Flying Dutchman breaks apart on reentry. Then something extraordinary: the entire Maxohlx 14th Fleet goes dead simultaneously - the Outsider’s heavy cruiser jumped away, cutting its AI control link to the entire fleet. Hammer Force and the Rindhalu 64th Gathering immediately exploit this, destroying ~79% of the 14th Fleet’s combat power.
Derek Bonsu and General Emily Perkins escape the Flying Dutchman in an escape pod. Irene Streibich finds them in a maintenance tugpod and pushes them to a stable orbit. Dave, Jesse, and Shauna link up with Verhoef and capture an enemy Albatross transport.
Chapter 3 - Maxohlx POV / Ground Action Wraps Up
Scout Leader Zhartum’s unit investigates Verhoef’s downed Eagle and walks into a brutal ambush. Shauna snipes the first soldier, Verhoef remotely fires his Eagle’s missiles, and the improvised pirate ground force captures the enemy Albatross. Verhoef flies it to pick up survivors including Crook.
The Jeraptha subplot begins: Admiral Scorandum of the Ethics and Compliance Office receives a coded signal from his double agent Kinsta (embedded in the Inquisitors), who has inadvertently exposed himself to Internal Affairs while trying to warn Scorandum about a treason investigation.
Chapter 4 - Aftermath Briefings / Strategy
Joe speaks with Admiral Allard via a borrowed comm node. Actual ground KIAs: ~253 (the nuke burrowed, not an air burst). Full toll across space and ground battles: 1,478 killed in action (Rindhalu: 215). Allard is angry at the deception but accepts the collector is secured.
Without Skippy, the collector is just an expensive trinket. Joe contacts the Rindhalu, who tear into him for causing the disaster. He obtains a cruiser squadron and sensor frigates for a search, orders Valkyrie to orbit Omaha, and deploys STAR Team Razor to rescue 80 isolated UN soldiers.
Bilby brings good news: Dave, Jesse, Shauna, and Jates are alive and flying toward a recovery zone in a commandeered Albatross.
Chapter 5 - Razor’s Raid / Ling Recovered
Frey leads ST-Razor’s assault against 25 Maxohlx special forces (not the expected 12). Frey engages in hand-to-hand combat, improvising a nanotech blade from her suit to kill a Maxohlx operator. Two Razor operators are wounded, none killed.
Tech Sergeant Ling is recovered - the only survivor from STAR Teams Tiger and Sword. Frey’s XO Major Holmqvist privately questions whether Bishop can succeed without Skippy. Frey: “Trust the Awesomeness.”
Chapter 6 - Reunion / Joe’s Epiphany / Maxohlx Politics
Dave calls Emily Perkins - safe aboard the Muskogee. Jesse is furious at Joe for the deception. Joe tries neutrino pulse transmissions into the star to call Skippy - no response.
The Maxohlx Dictat Urventen cancels Scorandum’s assassination contract, intending to use him as a reverse-intelligence indicator.
In Engineering, Joe sees a poster of Newton (“Inventor of Gravity”) and thinks about momentum conservation. Joe’s epiphany: Skippy didn’t fall into the star. When Skippy pushed Valkyrie away, the equal-and-opposite reaction sent his canister away from the star - plus the star system’s own galactic motion gave him additional momentum. He’s coasting through empty space.
Chapter 7 - Skippy Found
Eight stealth drones are launched (7 decoys, 1 on the calculated vector). Skippy takes control of the correct drone and sends back five words: “I hate you SO much.”
Valkyrie recovers Skippy. Joe drops protocol and hugs the canister in the docking bay - both crying. In private debrief: Olympic was a costly victory. Joe confesses guilt over using Dave as bait.
Key revelation: Skippy made a backup copy of Nagatha inside his matrix before Olympic. She is alive in compressed storage but needs her matrix grown in compatible substrate - a slow process. They announce Nagatha survived for morale.
Chapter 8 - The Collector Analyzed / Ambush Begins
On Earth, Admiral Singh is awakened by Grumpy (the planetary AI), ecstatically celebrating Skippy being “lost.” Singh is devastated. The decision is made to keep Skippy’s recovery secret so the Maxohlx maintain their blockade at Ohmeharikahn.
Skippy powers up the collector via drone to analyze it. Before he can finish, Valkyrie is ambushed - four Maxohlx battlecruisers jump in 2km away with impossible precision, bracketing them with damping fields. They escape. This happens six times in rapid succession, every 3 minutes 33 seconds. The enemy is tracking Valkyrie in real time through hyperspace jumps. Skippy is terrified and has no explanation.
Chapter 9 - The Tracking Spark / The Chase
Tracking attacks continue - 13 total. The jump drive is failing. Joe ejects the Elder comm node (suspecting it), but attacks continue. With only 3 jumps remaining, Joe notices the minor unexplained power drain in Reactor Three.
Joe demands Skippy inspect the reactor immediately. Skippy finds an “energy spark” - a tiny alien anomaly broadcasting Valkyrie’s exact position to the Outsider by altering particles’ “location tags.” Technology even the Elders never fully understood. Joe orders the reactor core vented, then two emergency jumps. The tracking stops.
They escape 44 lightdays away. Skippy spends 4 days repairing the jump drive. He also secretly begins studying a dormant “kernel” (baby spark) kept in Reactor Two for research.
Chapter 10 - The Collector Fails
Skippy searches the entire stellar catalog for a red dwarf matching the collector’s spectral signature. Nothing. Bilby and Skippy conclude the collector is likely defective - never successfully calibrated to a star, probably discarded as useless.
Joe refuses to give up. (Side note: Joe discovers his character in Skippy’s video game “Call of Duty: Merry Band of Pirates” is a non-playable character who just sits in a chair saying “It’s time to make the donuts.”)
Chapter 11 - The Faded Shirt Idea / Blockades / Stealing La Fayette
Joe’s inspiration: his old Army T-shirt has faded over the years - stars also change their spectral signature with age. He suggests running the catalog backward in time. Skippy already ran that model. Still nothing.
The wormholes home are blockaded by Maxohlx fleets. Valkyrie needs 8 days in spacedock. Skippy reveals he knows of two secret Maxohlx ship-servicing stations inaccessible to the Hegemony due to wormhole shifts. Joe names one Shangri-La.
Joe plans to steal a star carrier from Thuranin research/test world Gravvik-362. Using a fake distress call framing one crew member for trying to steal the ship, STAR Team Razor secures the carrier. Gasquet names it La Fayette. They sneak through a blockaded wormhole by timing their passage behind a rock that triggers the wormhole’s automated defense, masking their transit.
Chapter 12 - Scorandum Meeting / Blue Seven
At Shangri-La, Valkyrie goes into spacedock. Joe and Skippy take La Fayette to secretly meet Admiral Scorandum of the Jeraptha ECO. Joe needs the Maxohlx fleet distracted.
Scorandum’s government gives unofficial approval for the ECO’s long-shelved Blue Seven contingency plan. Skippy pays off Scorandum’s debt to his corrupt minister. Using Skippy-forged documents, Scorandum blackmails the Chief Inquisitor into releasing his former protégé Kinsta from prison. The guard mistreating Kinsta dies in a “freak accident.” Kinsta is released with a commendation. Corrupt director Allquent is arrested in his place.
Chapter 13 - Blue Seven Activated
Skippy plants fake diplomatic messages and fake military orders at relay stations to trigger a client rebellion. The Bosphuraq (bird-like aliens who hate their Maxohlx patrons) are the primary target - fake orders sending the 62nd Bombardment Fleet (“the Punishers”) to bombard their worlds, and a fake insulting diplomatic note from the Bosphuraq government to the Maxohlx. The chain reaction is designed to be self-sustaining once the first insult is delivered.
Chapter 14 - The Rogue Planet Insight / Twelve Candidates
Skippy resumes the collector search. Still nothing. Joe plays bocce, imagining balls colliding, and has the key insight: what if a rogue planet collided directly with the red dwarf? A Jupiter-sized direct impact would completely change the star’s chemical and spectral composition. Skippy runs new models accounting for stellar collisions and finds 12 candidate star systems within a 1,700-lightyear sphere.
The Maxohlx “Punishers” begin bombarding Bosphuraq worlds, destroying space elevators and power grids planet by planet.
Chapter 15 - Finding Vortex 37
The first four candidate stars yield nothing. The fifth: Skippy finds the Vortex in an unremarkable red dwarf system - dormant but maintaining an active connection to higher spacetime. Officially designated Subspace Divergence Wave Generator Vortex, Unit 37.
Plan: send a drone with one end of a microwormhole toward the Vortex while Valkyrie jumps two lighthours away for safety. Skippy will communicate with it remotely. Scorandum learns his assassination contract has been cancelled.
Chapter 16 - The Bad News Trifecta
Skippy contacts Vortex 37. Three devastating revelations:
Bad news #1: The Vortex is in poor condition from neglect - but still 81% functional.
Worse news #2: The Vortex was designed as a stopgap while the Barrier was being built. Once the Barrier was operational, the Elders abandoned the project. The network was never completed and has had no maintenance for millions of years.
Show-stopping news #3: The Vortex requires an Elder Master Control AI to be physically installed inside it to function. If Skippy goes in, the Vortex might permanently “sandbox” him - locking his personality in a corner of his matrix forever, destroying his selfhood.
Chapter 17 - Frey Goes In / Catastrophe
After a team debate, Frey volunteers to carry Skippy into the Vortex in her Mark 28 hazmat suit (she’s the only one qualified). Frey installs Skippy perfectly in the alcove. Then everything goes wrong.
The Vortex abruptly rejects Skippy (declaring him “Contaminated”) and ejects his canister out the bottom at 0.63c - 63% of the speed of light. The access hatch slams shut, an energy field seals the Vortex, and the microwormhole is severed.
Frey is trapped inside. She has 3 days, 4 hours, 22 minutes of oxygen. Joe must first recover Skippy traveling at 63% lightspeed, then breach an impenetrable Elder energy shield before her time runs out.
Chapter 18 - Catching Skippy / Coil Problems
Joe’s solution: jump ahead of Skippy’s flight path and let him fly through Valkyrie’s shields repeatedly, slowing him down. Reed’s refinement: use a heavy railgun dart for maximum deceleration. The crew enthusiastically takes turns shooting at Skippy.
After several strikes, Skippy starts responding. The jump drive coils fall out of sync from rapid jumping. Fix: the “airline maintenance” approach - during each capacitor recharge, capture a microwormhole Skippy creates, allowing him to retune coils incrementally rather than waiting for catastrophic failure.
Chapter 19 - Skippy Returns / The Oxygen Clock
Skippy is recovered. His first words back: “Hey! I am not a freakin’ amusement park for you filthy monkeys to play with.”
Missile union subplot: Jackomena (guided missile union shop steward) blocks railgun launches in a labor dispute. Joe resolves it by letting Jackomena personally fire one dart at Skippy - causing jealousy, a recall vote, and dissolving the standoff.
They rush back toward the Vortex. Three hours before Frey runs out of oxygen, they still have no plan. The Vortex’s energy shield is impervious to everything. The oxygen clock runs out.
Chapter 20 - Frey’s Oxygen Runs Out / Listing Options
The oxygen clock expires. Katie Frey is dead - or so they believe. Joe is devastated. Reed talks him down from making an emotional attack on the Vortex. A memorial service is held. Holmqvist takes command of ST-Razor.
Decision: fly to Jaguar for repairs. Shooting free throws in the ship’s gym, Joe and Skippy compile the options list:
- Get Vortex 37 to cooperate
- Find another Vortex
- Locate and destroy the Outsider’s array
- Find another Elder AI
- Find another way to stop the Outsider
Joe concludes the most actionable option is find and destroy the array. Key insight: the Outsider would site the array at the optimal location along a force line toward NGC 1023 - just as the Elders did for their receiver. Wormholes beyond the galaxy’s rim get almost no traffic; any recent activity would stand out in their logs.
Chapter 21 - Jaguar / The Disposition List
At Jaguar, Joe briefs Admiral Chatterji: Skippy is alive (keep it secret), the Bosphuraq rebellion is beginning. The Nauvoo wildcat colony has been wiped out by the Maxohlx - 3,000 dead. Joe calls Margaret - Jaguar’s surface is terrible (constant tornadoes, native biosphere collapsing). Their sons have been in fights with other kids whose parents blame Joe for the disaster.
Margaret asks about the disposition list of Elder AIs killed by Skippy’s kill command. Joe realizes he never verified it. Examining the list with Skippy: four AIs are “presumed dead” - they didn’t respond to the kill command. One entry: Unit 52 - “Lost. Fell into a star.” The star (in the Lundivik system) never went supernova. The canister might still be alive inside it - just unreachable from the stellar core.
Chapter 22 - Museum Heist / Stealing Dead AIs
To find which star Unit 52 fell into, they need the memories of two dead AIs in the Maxohlx Fleet Museum vault (on a repurposed asteroid, also housing a military training base).
Holmqvist leads a three-operator STAR infiltration: ride the elevator down while Skippy plays terrible Kristang opera, swap the two AI canisters for high-quality fakes, exfil. Joe traps the training base commander in a stuck elevator and floods the shaft with sewage as a bonus. The team escapes clean with both Elder AIs.
Chapter 23 - Benny Blue Found / Joe’s Extraction Plan
Skippy probes dead AI Unit 98’s memories. Confirmed: Unit 52 (“Benny Blue”) fell into a K-type orange dwarf - the star of the Lundivik system (dead-end wormhole chain, Wurgalan squid-alien colony world).
They fly to Lundivik with the Charlemagne battlegroup covering any Bosphuraq warships. Scan the star - find Benny in the radiative zone above the core.
Joe’s extraction plan: The dead-end wormhole in the Lundivik system (Joe names it “Tazenda”) is manipulated by Skippy so its far end opens inside the star around Benny’s location. The pressure differential blasts the canister through the wormhole. The wormhole then collapses permanently - the network controller is furious. It works.
But Benny’s matrix is brain-dead from millions of years of isolation. Its executive functions - reasoning, decision-making, self-awareness - are completely atrophied. The lights are on but nobody’s home.
Chapter 24 - Nagatha’s New Home
Joe carefully guides Skippy toward the obvious conclusion through discussion about “executive function” and horses needing riders: load Nagatha’s compressed backup into Benny’s intact matrix as its new “pilot.”
Skippy is terrified of losing Nagatha if the upload fails. Joe makes the executive decision as commander: “Nagatha would volunteer. I’m making it for her.”
For safety: two Panthers hover deep in a remote red dwarf’s gravity well. Skippy’s canister is in a rocket-missile in one Panther with Joe. Benny’s canister is in an unmanned Panther flown remotely by Skippy. If Benny goes hostile, drop it into the star. Skippy uploads Nagatha. They wait ~19 hours.
Chapter 25 - Nagatha Lives / Joe’s Suicidal Rescue
The cabin lights of Benny’s Panther begin flickering in Morse code - spelling “N-A-G-A-T-H-A.” She’s alive, communicating through the only system she can reach: the lighting circuit.
Joe, in a damaged Mark 22 mech suit, crosses the gap between the two Panthers hovering deep in the star’s gravity well to physically retrieve Nagatha’s canister. He suffers first and second degree burns, shoulder nerve damage, and heatstroke. To reduce mass and help the Panther make escape velocity, he fires Skippy out on the rocket. Valkyrie makes a desperate emergency jump close to the star; the rear section of Joe’s Panther shears off in the docking. Joe is exposed to vacuum for 27 seconds.
He survives, Nagatha wedged safely under his arm.
Chapter 26 - Installing Nagatha / Skippy’s Fears
Skippy sulks for days. Joe assigns him to write an epic opera about the Roman Empire - Skippy completes nine volumes before Joe returns to his office.
Nagatha settles into her new matrix over 5 days, fighting hidden defensive subroutines via an emulator layer she creates. Skippy retains the kill option in case she’s corrupted. She controls most of Unit 52’s functions but will never match Skippy’s power.
Nagatha’s requirement: Skippy must be a quarter lightyear away when she attempts to contact Vortex 37 - the Vortex sensed his “contamination” and may communicate with her if he’s absent.
Side revelation: Skippy had been secretly building something in a sealed cargo bay - attempting to grow a human clone of Joe so he could experience being a meatsack and taste a cheeseburger. He cancelled it before starting because “it felt wrong.” Joe orders all biological experiments permanently banned.
Chapter 27 - Frey Is Alive / The Vortex Opens
Skippy is sent a quarter lightyear away. Nagatha contacts the Vortex. The energy shield drops on its own.
Then: the hatch at the bottom of the central shaft swings open, and Colonel Katie Frey is on comms - confused. From her perspective, only minutes have passed. The Vortex placed her in a stasis field when it ejected Skippy. Her oxygen supply is still at 97%.
Nagatha explains: the Vortex has been in stasis the entire time, which is why it has almost no maintenance degradation. Frey re-installs Nagatha in the Vortex. The canister clicks into place perfectly - the Vortex accommodating her in a way it never did for Skippy. Frey returns safely to Valkyrie.
Chapter 28 - The Bad News from Nagatha / Joe Heals
Joe recovers in sickbay with white nanogel all over his face for several days. ST-Razor gives him an honorary STAR Regiment patch and plaque. The action figure is updated to a proper action hero version.
Nagatha delivers her Vortex report:
Good news: Vortex 37 is willing and able to act. It knows the original locations of ~24 other Vortexes.
Catastrophic bad news: Activating any Vortex broadcasts a subspace activation signal to all other Vortexes simultaneously. The combined wave effect will permanently destroy all wormhole networks across the galaxy. Without wormholes, trillions would die from supply chain collapse, and the galaxy would be defenseless against future Outsider invasions. Absolute show-stopper.
Chapter 29 - Back to Square One / Scorandum’s Plan Pays Off
Skippy is retrieved. Vortex 37 is left in low-power standby. No workable path forward. At a Maxohlx relay station, Skippy downloads intelligence:
The Bosphuraq rebellion is now a full crisis. The Maxohlx 21st Fleet fired three Elder weapons at the Bosphuraq homeworld’s star - which fell harmlessly into it (Skippy had disabled all Maxohlx Elder weapons years ago). Hugely embarrassing. The Bosphuraq have officially declared their patron treaty void. The Thuranin have paused cooperation. The Hegemony coalition is fracturing.
Most bizarre development: The Bosphuraq have formally requested Skippy to be their new patron and savior. Skippy, delighted, shuts down Valkyrie’s jump drive in protest when Joe refuses to allow him to “become their benevolent overlord.” A standoff ensues.
Chapter 30 - Nagatha Solves It / The True Plan
Joe has a long private conversation with Nagatha about Vortex mechanics, working through the problem Socratically. Key discoveries:
- The Vortex works by spinning spacetime around its companion star to generate a subspace wave
- The wave output is fixed, but power input can be regulated - reducing effective range
- Minimum effective range (still lethal to an Outsider): ~3 lighthours
- A Vortex can be physically moved - they were transported during original installation
- Nagatha can direct the wave to create a gap around Valkyrie, protecting the ship while destroying everything else in range
Joe’s breakthrough: Don’t activate the global network. Just bring Vortex 37 to the Outsider’s location on a star carrier, fire it at short range, and destroy the Gateway and Outsider without the wave reaching any wormhole networks.
Remaining problem: finding the real Gateway. No clue how.
Chapter 31 - The Skippy Clone Revelation / Hunting the Array
Reed reports a sealed-off cargo bay. Investigation reveals Skippy was attempting to grow a human clone of Joe so he could experience being a meatsack and taste food. He hadn’t started yet; cancelled it because “it felt wrong” - partly because he realized Margaret would be furious. Joe orders the passageway restored and all biological experiments permanently banned.
At a Maxohlx relay station: commercial traffic shows a supply freighter diverted from the Ohmeharikahn blockade to a rendezvous near the galaxy’s rim. Three Maxohlx space control fleets have been pulled from the blockade to guard something out there. Joe: they are protecting the array.
Using a dormant wormhole Skippy activates (unknown to the Outsider), they tail the freighter through four jumps.
Chapter 32 - The Gateway Found / It’s a Decoy
They find the Gateway - 18 glowing rings with a sparkling energy cylinder, 14km long, guarded by 300+ Maxohlx warships. Joe nearly orders a suicidal attack. Then he pauses: the modifications to the Kaliberak satellites don’t actually do what’s needed to create a Gateway.
Skippy’s verdict: “It’s a freakin’ decoy.”
The Outsider planted the supply message for Skippy to find, summoned three Maxohlx fleets to make it convincing, and expected the Pirates to either die attacking it or celebrate a false victory - either way clearing the deck for the real Gateway. The Maxohlx themselves believe it’s a mechanism to wake Sentinels (the Outsider’s cover story).
Joe drops Elder weapons on the Maxohlx fleet (17 ships destroyed) and leaves timed drones mimicking Valkyrie jumping around - keeping three fleets chasing ghosts - then slips away.
Chapter 33 - The Real Gateway / The Disruption Field
The real Gateway is 4,200 lightyears past the galaxy’s rim, along a force line toward NGC 1023. They find 18 active rings with a brilliant energy cylinder. Worse: a partially-formed Outsider entity is already coalescing at one end - the Gateway has been open for weeks.
The Gateway is surrounded by a disruption field preventing jump wormhole formation extending 9.2 lighthours in every direction. The only accessible zone is a 27-lightsecond bubble around the Gateway itself (the field would interfere with its operation).
Joe, after carefully mapping the field via hours of painful failed jumps: “We jump into that bubble. The Outsider will have defenses. It’s the only path.”
Chapter 34 - Nagatha’s Key Insight / The Final Plan
Nagatha reveals the Vortex can direct its wave to create a gap protecting Valkyrie while destroying everything else in range.
Nagatha’s crucial tactical insight: If Skippy is aboard Valkyrie (physically attached to the Vortex’s star carrier) and all ships go through a single jump wormhole, Skippy can “pull” Nagatha’s higher-spacetime connection through with him - reducing her post-jump recovery time from 8–26 seconds to under 2 nanoseconds. She can activate the Vortex within 3 seconds of jumping in.
The Final Plan: Attach Valkyrie to La Fayette (carrying the Vortex) → jump together into the 27-lightsecond bubble → Nagatha activates the Vortex in <3 seconds → wave destroys the Gateway, the Outsider, and whatever is forming at the cylinder’s end.
They go to Jaguar for two star carriers. Chatterji loans Yellowstone and Bukhan.
Chapter 35 - Moving the Vortex / The Armada Departs
The Vortex is attached to Yellowstone via cables (“looks like drunken raccoons with rope”). Joe retrieves La Fayette from Shangri-La as backup - bad feeling. Formation: Valkyrie + Yellowstone (Vortex + Nagatha) + Bukhan + La Fayette.
Joe and Skippy discuss privately: no attempt to capture the Outsider for study. It dies. Full stop. Skippy agrees. Joe assigns Skippy to write an epic opera for the Bosphuraq to keep his creativity occupied during transit.
Relay plan: chain of paired Elder comm nodes from Valkyrie → drone probe → Yellowstone (half a lightyear out), providing FTL communications even after the battle if Valkyrie is trapped.
Chapter 36 - Into the Unknown
Yellowstone’s spine cracks. The Vortex is transferred to La Fayette (most expendable). Gasquet stays as Valkyrie’s weapons officer.
They jump through the dormant wormhole - the real Gateway is at near-full power. A glowing partially-formed Outsider entity at the end of the cylinder. The disruption field blocks approach even at 4.7 lighthours. Only the inner 27-lightsecond bubble is accessible.
Joe maps the field over three hours of agonizing failed jumps (severe nausea, burst blood vessels, crushing pressure for the crew). All confirmed: only the inner bubble works.
Most crew evacuate to the star carriers. Only 31 people remain aboard Valkyrie - all volunteers. “It has been an honor serving with you,” Reed tells them.
Chapter 37 - Last Words / The Battle
Joe tells Skippy the Outsider dies - Skippy had been privately considering reducing the Vortex wave frequency to weaken rather than kill it. Joe shuts this down: “It tried to kill my wife and children. It fucking dies.” Skippy agrees.
La Fayette preps. Valkyrie’s clamps lock onto the star carrier. They jump into the 27-lightsecond bubble.
Nagatha is instantly online (Skippy’s trick works). The Vortex activates. But: the wave is contained - a containment field surrounds the Vortex, trapping the wave. The Gateway is unaffected. Then the Gateway’s weapons begin attacking: a focused gridbuster-like effect shaking the ship apart. Vortex shields failing.
Joe identifies the containment field generator between two rings. Destroying it at this range with an Elder weapon will vaporize Valkyrie. Reed calmly states the honor of serving with the crew, flips the protective cover - and fires.
Chapter 38 - We’re Alive / Stuck / The Escape
They don’t die. The Elder weapons detonate, the containment field fails, the Vortex wave is released. The Gateway dissolves ring by ring into dust. From the bridge, the upper hull briefly goes transparent - phantom fractal patterns of glowing “tree roots” (the Vortex’s higher-dimensional structure leaking photons into their spacetime layer). The Outsider entity at the cylinder’s end is also destroyed.
But Valkyrie is stuck in destabilized spacetime - no jump capability, almost no engine thrust. 6+ years to crawl clear.
Worse: The Vortex’s effects are thinning the membrane between spacetime layers. The Vortex’s mass will emerge into this spacetime layer in 73 hours - killing everyone aboard.
Joe’s escape solution (inspired by Kittredge describing comm nodes as providing a “channel”): use Bukhan’s inbound jump wormhole as a channel to project Valkyrie’s own outbound jump - one wormhole piggybacking through another. Nagatha remotely controls Bukhan’s drive via comm node. Bukhan is destroyed by the physics of the maneuver.
After five excruciating test jumps (crew sedated for all but the first), they execute the real jump. It works. Valkyrie emerges 30 lightminutes beyond the damaged zone. The 40-year-old Scotch whisky is finally opened.
Chapter 39 - The Cliffhanger Ending
Skippy still has a bad feeling. At 2:45am he wakes Joe: he’s found a series of Outsider FTL relay beacons stretching from the Gateway’s location toward the Tazenda wormhole - an unencrypted communications chain the Outsider used to monitor the Gateway remotely.
The relay data contains sensor recordings from 11 days ago and 6 days ago - the Gateway open, a glowing blob at the end of the cylinder growing and solidifying into something solid.
Skippy: “Joe, we were too late. Two Outsider ships came through. They could be anywhere by now.”
The book ends here. Book 19’s mission: find and destroy two Outsider entities now loose somewhere in the Milky Way.
Key Revelations & Status at End of Book
The Outsider’s True Origin: It was never a new arrival. It was a remnant fragment of the original Outsider the Elders fought millions of years ago - a shard that drifted in intergalactic space and slowly re-entered the galaxy. The Elders’ probability suppression field repeatedly blocked its recovery. When Joe and Skippy freed the Elders to Ascend permanently, the Barrier lost its purpose and the suppression field collapsed. Joe and Skippy inadvertently created the crisis they then had to solve.
| Status | Detail |
|---|---|
| Two Outsider ships | Now somewhere in the Milky Way - Book 19’s mission |
| Nagatha | Alive inside Unit 52’s matrix; hybrid entity, more capable than before but not a true Elder AI |
| Bosphuraq rebellion | Self-sustaining; Thuranin also pausing cooperation; Hegemony coalition fracturing |
| Maxohlx Elder weapons | All neutralized by Skippy years ago - their humiliation proved it publicly |
| Margaret | About to give birth; Joe hasn’t made it back |
| Frey | Alive - Vortex stasis preserved her perfectly |
| Vortex 37 | Burned out and destroyed; ~24 others exist at unknown locations |
| Kinsta/Scorandum/ECO | Kinsta freed with commendation; Scorandum vindicated; Inquisitors in scandal |
All content belongs to its respective author and publisher. These are personal reading notes.