LThe journey back to Sector Gamma was a long, quiet, and deeply tense one. The crew of the "Odyssey" had just pulled off the universe's most daring and most ridiculous heist. They had flown into a non-existent, alternate dimension, fought an army of ghosts, annoyed a grumpy shadow-god into submission, and had come home with the universe's most powerful and most unstable super-weapon. They should have been celebrating.
But there was no time for a party. Regent Vorlag's chilling message had sucked all the joy out of their victory. While they had been off playing games with gods and shadows, the real war had been moving forward without them.
The Harvester, the Gardener's new, and very enthusiastic, champion, had not been idle. Unopposed, it had finished its master's terrible, beautiful work.
As the "Odyssey" dropped out of hyperspace and returned to their home sector, they saw it for themselves. The sky was wrong.
