As the Ecliptic Spear hurtled through the warp conduits toward Arcthrone, the Dominion's gleaming capital world, Veyn Korrath paced the command bridge like a caged predator. The stars outside the viewport blurred into streaks of light, a testament to the ship's immense speed, powered by the siphoned essence of a dozen harnessed suns. But Veyn's mind was not on the journey. It was on the prisoner in the holding cells below, and the damning data logs flickering on his personal holopad. Energy diversions, massive and untraceable, funneled straight into the heart of the Dominion's core sectors. If Lysa's words held even a sliver of truth, the hierarchy he had sworn to protect was rotting from within.
Lieutenant Saria Velt stood at the navigation console, her fingers dancing over the controls with practiced efficiency. She had been with Veyn for five years now, ever since her transfer from the outer rim patrols. Saria was not one for idle chatter; her Binding to a solar flare granted her a temperament as volatile as her power, quick to ignite but controlled by an iron will forged in the fires of loss. Orphaned during a rebel incursion on her homeworld, a minor planet in the Vega cluster, she had clawed her way up the Enforcer Corps ranks. The Dominion had saved her, given her purpose, and in return, she gave it unwavering loyalty. But lately, Veyn noticed cracks in her facade, subtle hesitations in her reports, as if the weight of their endless hunts was wearing her down.
"Commander," Saria said, breaking the silence without looking up. Her voice carried a hint of concern, masked under professionalism. "The Archon Council's secure line is established. They're expecting your report in ten minutes. Should I patch it through to your quarters?"
Veyn stopped pacing and turned to her. "No. Here on the bridge. I want you and the senior staff present."
Saria's brow furrowed slightly, a rare slip in her composure. "Sir, protocol suggests private briefings for sensitive matters. If this involves the prisoner..."
"It's because of the prisoner that I need witnesses," Veyn interrupted, his tone firm but not unkind. He had come to value Saria's insight; she was more than just a subordinate. In quieter moments, during long warp jumps, they had shared stories. Hers was one of survival: watching her family vaporized in a rebel plasma storm, then harnessing her first solar Binding to turn the tide against the attackers. It had earned her a medal, but also nightmares she rarely admitted to. Veyn respected that resilience, even if it made her overly cautious at times.
She nodded reluctantly. "Understood. I'll summon Sergeant Torren and the others."
As Saria activated the intercom, Veyn's thoughts drifted to Torren. The sergeant was a stark contrast to Saria's precision, a blunt instrument in human form. Bound to a white dwarf's unyielding gravity, Torren had served in the Corps for over two decades, his body scarred from countless ground assaults. He hailed from a mining colony on a harnessed asteroid belt, where life was cheap and survival meant crushing anything in your path. Torren's loyalty was pragmatic, born not from ideology but from the Dominion's promise of steady pay and the thrill of battle. He had a family back on some backwater station, a wife and two kids he mentioned only when drunk on synth-ale. Veyn had seen him risk his life for the team more times than he could count, but Torren's growing cynicism about the endless rebel hunts worried him. "Why bother chasing ghosts when the real threats are sitting on thrones?" Torren had grumbled once after a grueling mission. Veyn had dismissed it as fatigue, but now, with the data logs burning in his mind, he wondered.
The bridge doors hissed open, and Torren entered, followed by a handful of senior officers: Ensign Rylak, a young tech specialist with a Binding to electromagnetic pulses, and Doctor Elara Voss, the ship's medic, whose power drew from a gas giant's atmospheric storms to heal or disrupt biological systems. Torren's heavy boots thudded against the deck plating, his armored frame filling the space. "What's the fire, Commander? Heard we're chatting with the bigwigs."
Veyn gestured to the central holotable. "Gather around. This briefing involves discrepancies in the Conduit network. And our prisoner claims it's no accident."
Torren's eyes narrowed, his scarred face twisting into a skeptical grin. "That rebel witch? She's probably spinning yarns to buy time. Seen her type before, all fire and no substance."
"Perhaps," Veyn conceded, activating the holotable to project the data logs. Streams of glowing numbers and energy flow diagrams filled the air, highlighting the anomalies in red. "But these diversions are real. Billions of stellar units rerouted, not to rebel outposts, but inward, toward Arcthrone itself."
Saria leaned in, her solar corona flickering faintly around her shoulders, a sign of her unease. "If this is internal sabotage, it could implicate someone high up. An Archon, even."
The word hung in the air like a death sentence. The Archon Council ruled the Dominion with absolute authority, their Bindings to entire star clusters making them near-immortal. Questioning them was heresy, punishable by Conduit severance, a fate worse than death: being stripped of one's power and cast into the void.
Doctor Voss, a middle-aged woman with sharp features and a no-nonsense demeanor, crossed her arms. She had joined the Spear after a stint in the Dominion's research labs, where she had pioneered Binding enhancements. Her motivation was intellectual curiosity, driven by a desire to unravel the mysteries of celestial harnessing. But Voss had her secrets; Veyn knew she had lost a colleague to a failed Conduit experiment, an event that left her wary of unchecked power. "Commander, if we're presenting this to the Council, we need more than logs. The prisoner's testimony could be key, but interrogating her risks destabilizing her Binding. She's already showing signs of overload from those cuffs."
Torren snorted. "Let me handle the interrogation. A little gravity persuasion goes a long way."
"No," Veyn said sharply. "We'll do this by the book. Saria, accompany me to the cells. Torren, prep the ship for docking protocols at Arcthrone. Voss, run a full scan on those logs for tampering."
As the group dispersed, Saria fell into step beside Veyn in the corridor. The ship's hum vibrated through the walls, a constant reminder of the harnessed suns propelling them. "Sir, if I may... this feels personal. You've been distant since the planet."
Veyn glanced at her, appreciating her directness. "It's the doubt, Lieutenant. I've hunted rebels for years, believing they were the threat. But if the Dominion is complicit in draining the universe..."
Saria's expression softened, revealing a vulnerability she rarely showed. "I felt that doubt once, after Vega. The rebels claimed the Dominion provoked the attack to justify harnessing our sun. I buried it, focused on duty. But if it's true here..." She trailed off, her corona dimming.
They reached the holding cells, a sterile chamber lined with null-field emitters that suppressed Bindings. Lysa sat cross-legged on the bench, her patchwork armor replaced by a standard prisoner jumpsuit. Her eyes, still glowing faintly despite the cuffs, lifted to meet Veyn's as the door opened.
"Back so soon, Reaper?" she said, her voice laced with mockery but underpinned by exhaustion. Lysa was no ordinary rebel. Veyn had reviewed her file en route, pieced together from intercepted transmissions: born on a fringe world the Dominion had harnessed decades ago, she had watched her people starve as their sun's energy was siphoned away. Surviving by scavenging, she had discovered an ancient, untamed Binding method, one predating the Dominion's refined Conduits. It made her powerful but unstable, her pulsar energy prone to wild flares. Her motivation was revenge, pure and simple, but laced with a idealism that drew followers. "Come to torture me for more truths?"
"No torture," Veyn replied, stepping inside with Saria at his side. "Just questions. The diversions you mentioned, where do they lead?"
Lysa leaned back against the wall, studying Saria. "And who's this? Your loyal shadow? Does she know what the Dominion did to worlds like hers?"
Saria stiffened, her hands clenching. "My world was saved by the Dominion. Rebels like you destroyed it."
Lysa laughed, a bitter sound. "Saved? They harnessed Vega's sun, drained it until it flickered. The 'rebel attack' was a cover for their overreach. I was there, Lieutenant. I saw the Conduits activate, pulling energy until the atmosphere ignited."
Saria's face paled, her corona sparking erratically. "Lies. The reports said..."
"Reports written by victors," Lysa cut in. "Check your own archives, if they haven't scrubbed them."
Veyn intervened, his voice steady. "Enough. The diversions, Lysa. Tell me."
She sighed, shifting her bound wrists. "They're funneling power to a secret project on Arcthrone. Something called the Void Engine. It's not just harnessing planets and suns; it's designed to consume entire galaxies. The Archons aren't content with dominance, they want eternity, immortality through endless energy. But it's unstable. Each diversion weakens the universe's fabric, causing rifts, anomalies. That's why rebels like me fight, to stop the bleed before everything collapses."
Veyn's mind reeled. A Void Engine? It explained the growing reports of spatial tears in the outer sectors, dismissed as natural phenomena. If true, the Dominion wasn't protecting the hierarchy; it was dooming it.
Saria shook her head, but doubt clouded her eyes. "If this is real, why not go public? Why hide in rogue planets?"
"Because going public gets you erased," Lysa said. "I've lost friends, allies. My brother led the first resistance cell; the Dominion vaporized his fleet. I'm all that's left of that fight."
The intercom buzzed: "Commander, five minutes to Council link."
Veyn nodded to Saria. "Stay with her. See if she has more details."
As he left, Saria turned to Lysa, her voice quieter. "If you're telling the truth about Vega... prove it."
Lysa met her gaze. "Unlock these cuffs, and I'll show you memories through my Binding. But be warned, truth burns."
Back on the bridge, the holotable projected the Archon Council's chamber. Three figures appeared, their forms shrouded in ethereal light, Bindings so vast they distorted the transmission. Archon Prime Valeria spoke first, her voice like echoing thunder. "Commander Korrath, report on the rogue planet operation."
Veyn stood tall, relaying the mission details, then hesitated before presenting the logs. "We've uncovered energy diversions, my lords. Routed to Arcthrone."
A pause, heavy with implication. Archon Valeria's image flickered. "Those are classified reallocations for essential projects. Your prisoner is misleading you."
"But the scale," Veyn pressed. "It's causing instabilities."
"Enough," another Archon interjected. "Deliver the prisoner to us upon arrival. This matter is closed."
The link severed abruptly, leaving Veyn staring at the blank holotable. Torren, who had been listening from the side, approached. "That smelled like a cover-up. What's our play, Commander?"
Veyn's resolve hardened. "We dock, but we investigate. Quietly."
Hours later, as the Spear emerged from warp near Arcthrone, the capital world loomed like a jewel in the void. A colossal sphere of interlocking megastructures, powered by harnessed black holes at its core, it housed billions, the pinnacle of Dominion might. But as they approached the docking spire, alarms blared.
"Incoming vessels," Saria reported, rushing to the bridge. "Dominion enforcers, but not ours. They're hailing us to stand down and prepare for boarding."
Veyn's eyes widened. "They're coming for Lysa. And us."
Torren grinned, cracking his knuckles. "About time for a real fight."
The boarding party breached the airlock with precision, a squad of elite Conduit-Bound in black armor. Their leader, a tall figure with a Binding to a supernova's explosive force, demanded Lysa's surrender.
Veyn barred the way, his neutron star power surging. "On whose authority?"
"The Council's," the leader snarled. "You're relieved of command."
Chaos erupted. Torren unleashed a gravity wave, pinning two attackers to the deck. Saria's solar flares lit the corridor, incinerating weapons. Veyn clashed with the leader, their Bindings colliding in a storm of energy that buckled bulkheads.
In the cells, Doctor Voss freed Lysa, who joined the fray, her pulsar blasts turning the tide. "Told you," she quipped to Saria mid-battle.
The fight spilled onto the bridge, where Ensign Rylak hacked the intruders' comms, revealing orders to eliminate the Spear's crew. Betrayed by their own.
With the boarders repelled, Veyn ordered an emergency warp jump away from Arcthrone. Panting, he turned to his team. Saria, bruised but determined; Torren, laughing off a wound; Voss, tending injuries; Lysa, now an uneasy ally.
"We're rebels now," Veyn said. "But we'll expose the Void Engine. For the universe."
Saria nodded, her doubt replaced by fire. "For Vega."
Torren clapped him on the back. "About damn time we fought the real enemy."
As the Spear vanished into the void, pursued but unbroken, Veyn felt a new purpose ignite. The hunt had just begun...