Over a period of weeks the Ayyah War slowed down and then was snuffed out; the information Chris Alan had passed on to the Fleetmen assured it. Soul Phasing just did not have the same effect as before once the Lightchildren used the “Puzzle Technique” on them. Stymied by this bit of cleverness, the Ayyah and the Shadow Sharks were eventually beaten back. Only a few would pop up now and again, but mostly the Cube returned to peace. Outside the fortresses of the Node and Nodelet Fields, however, fear and anxiety still ran high, and Shet’s serpentine agents milked the fact for all they could on his behalf.

On his behalf, indeed – for while Shet knew his final confrontation with Chris Alan was yet almost a millennium away, he now knew better than to challenge the Undying Singer’s White Hand directly meanwhile. And there was the defection of Edwin Bitterroot to consider. The whole reason for taking Edwin on was because his natural talents and supernatural Gifts were second only to Chris Alan’s among Lightchildren, and his training as a Blademaster under Toa was even better. Now Edwin was effectively neutralized at the very least; in fact he’d fought at the side of Chris Alan Starbright and Cody Lonestar against Shet himself.

What troubled Chris Alan meanwhile was another matter: where was Nicholas? Everyone out-of-Sphere (as he put it ruefully) had snakes on the brain. Thanks to Shet and the Ayyah, Treaty, Neutral and Hostile Powers alike began building or acquiring more ships and weapons. Diplomacy took a back seat to self-defense at every turn among species of every known archetype. Though the Ayyah War was over, the Cube had changed because of it – possibly forever, unless and until the Covenant Sphere found a way to calm everybody’s nerves.

So why wasn’t Nicholas taking advantage of the situation and stirring up even more chaos?

********************

The rotation of Lightchildren in the Deep Space Service saw Francis and Susan come back to Ge, Susan had only spent months out-of-Sphere, but Francis had spent three years. Chris Alan and his crew would also be rotated to Ge, barring some dire emergency that required him to leave; otherwise, he, Christina, Slate and Hilo would remain on Ge for a month at least. Chris Alan was glad for that; he would spend loads of time with his “girls”, Autumn and Crystal.