The vote had not been unanimous.
It rarely was.
Eight to five.
A quiet fracture running through the most powerful governing body on Earth.
Not disagreement over whether the mission should happen—
But over who should carry the weight of it.
In the end, the Council decided.
Sun Tzu would lead the expedition to Morag.
Not because he was expendable.
Far from it.
But because if anyone could turn a cosmic retrieval operation into a controlled, survivable campaign—
It was him.
Sun Tzu did not argue.
He never did.
He simply accepted outcomes and began adjusting reality around them.
Within hours, Site-19's orbital docks became a storm of controlled motion.
The Foundation's classified space program—hidden for years behind layers of false aerospace companies—was finally being activated at full capacity.
Massive hangar doors opened into darkness.
And there it waited.
A vessel unlike anything humanity was ever meant to see.
A Foundation-class Star Destroyer.
Engineered from a fusion of:
recovered Kree alloy composites Tesseract-derived energy lattice theory Stark-era arc reactor prototypes and SCP containment-grade structural reinforcement
It was not just a ship.
It was a moving fortress designed to survive reality breaking around it.
Sun Tzu stepped onto the bridge calmly.
No ceremony.
No hesitation.
Just measured efficiency.
Officers snapped to attention as he entered.
Not because of rank alone.
But because something about him made command feel inevitable.
He was not loud.
He did not inspire through fear.
He inspired through certainty.
"Prepare for transit," he said quietly.
The crew moved instantly.
Behind him, auxiliary systems powered up:
dimensional stabilizers reality anchor fields temporal drift compensation arrays
All precautions designed for the unknown.
Because Morag was not simply a destination.
It was an intersection point.
Between known space… and something older.
On the command console, the coordinates provided by SCP-343 flickered in stabilized holographic form.
Unnaturally precise.
Too clean.
As if reality itself had been politely asked to cooperate.
Sun Tzu studied them briefly.
Then nodded once.
"Engage."
The ship's engines roared—not with sound, but with spatial distortion.
Space bent.
Folded.
Collapsed inward like paper under invisible pressure.
And then—
They were gone.
Earth disappeared instantly.
The Moon.
Mars.
The solar system.
All reduced to a single streak of collapsing light behind them.
Hyperspace swallowed the vessel.
Inside the bridge, navigation systems displayed impossible geometry:
non-Euclidean star paths folded spacetime routes gravitational discontinuities across light-years
Most humans would have called it madness.
Sun Tzu called it data.
"Maintain formation integrity," he ordered calmly.
A junior officer swallowed hard.
"Yes, sir."
Even among Foundation personnel, space travel at this scale was still relatively new.
Controlled.
Carefully tested.
Limited.
But this mission ignored all limits.
Because they were hunting something that could rewrite reality.
Back on Earth, the O5 Council remained connected via secure channels.
Thirteen screens.
Thirteen minds.
Watching.
Calculating.
Waiting.
I leaned back slightly in my chair at Site-19, monitoring the feed.
The ship's progress appeared as a slowly moving point across a projected star map.
Too slow.
And yet faster than anything humanity had ever built before.
Julius spoke quietly beside me through the channel.
"He's already adapting the mission parameters."
Of course he was.
Sun Tzu didn't just follow orders.
He refined them.
Darius added from another feed.
"SHIELD has begun detecting anomalous space activity."
That was expected.
Even early SHIELD systems were beginning to evolve faster than anticipated.
Nick Fury would notice soon.
If he hadn't already.
Alex tilted their head slightly.
"The energy signatures from hyperspace entry are unstable."
A pause.
Then casually:
"I want to study it later."
Of course they did.
William's voice cut in calmly.
"Probability of hostile encounter on Morag: increasing."
Always cheerful news from the Doomsday Planner.
The Brain processed rapidly in the background.
"Trajectory remains stable. However, predictive models show divergence probability increasing after first contact with target anomaly."
Translation:
Something might go wrong.
Sun Tzu's voice came through the bridge feed again.
Calm.
Unshaken.
"I am aware."
No panic.
No hesitation.
Just acceptance of complexity.
The Star Destroyer emerged briefly from hyperspace for recalibration.
Outside the viewport, reality itself shimmered.
Stars bent unnaturally.
Space folded like layers of glass.
A young crew member whispered:
"…Is that normal?"
No one answered.
Because no one wanted to lie.
Sun Tzu stepped forward to the main viewport.
Beyond the glass—
The universe stretched endlessly.
Cold.
Infinite.
Indifferent.
And somewhere out there—
Morag waited.
The Power Stone.
A singularity capable of amplifying physical force to unimaginable levels.
Enough to shatter planets.
Or reshape entire civilizations.
Sun Tzu spoke quietly.
"Prepare retrieval protocol."
The ship responded instantly.
Weapons systems armed.
Containment fields activated.
Drone units deployed into standby.
Then he added something softer.
Almost reflective.
"History is shaped by control."
A pause.
"And this… is just another battlefield."
The Star Destroyer accelerated once more.
Back into hyperspace.
Toward Morag.
Toward destiny.
Toward something the Foundation could not yet fully understand.
And far behind them—
Earth continued spinning quietly in the dark.
Unaware.
Unprepared.