Chapter 80

***This article contains spoilers.***

## Highlights

* The Legacy is Mael'nerak's old ship. Around 9,000 years ago, he sabotaged his wormhole generator and sacrificed himself to defeat the other Progenitor, and destroyed the rest of their fleets in the process. That's why he was never able to return to Valada.
* Mael'nerak created the Ashanath as an experiment in collective psychic consciousness, such as their telepathic command web. He spent generations teaching them how to form thought-clusters and create Astral sub-planes.
* The stone monoliths that Talari previously showed the team were actually excavated from New Eden before they ceded the planet to the Terran Federation. If the Terrans discovered the true nature of the Maliri, it would've attracted slavers, and ultimately escalated tensions.

## Notes

### Miscellaneous

* Edraele tapped into her life force to give John psychic energy. She wakes up with a horrible migraine.
* When Rachel looked at Alyssa with her healing ability, she saw that she was a Progenitor, but different. Alyssa isn’t masked by a shroud the way John is; her aura is beautiful.
* The Ashanath's old Progenitor ship, the Legacy, is Mael'nerak’s ship. The vast majority of the women being killed were Maliri and it was obvious that they were the crew aboard that ship. He might have turned good in the end, but he was an evil bastard in his prime. Alyssa saw him suck the life out of a bunch of invading thralls – they definitely weren’t Maliri as they had yellow skin and bright red hair. It was from his really early days. He looked just like the first images in the Nexus files: white robe, short goatee, stern faced, which must date it from at least 40,000 years ago. The echo might have even predated his invasion of the Achonin.
* Alyssa thought she was being creative when she designed the Paragon suits, but they look extremely similar to thrall armour.
* John banned Dana from piloting the Valkyrie due to target fixation, and had Sakura pilot it instead. Alyssa points out that to complete the Japanese mech girl cliché, they need to dress her up in a school uniform and have their resident tentacle monster violate her.
* When the team went to meet the Ashanath leaders, Faye worried about their safety away from the Invictus, where she'd be able to protect them.
* The Ashanath recovered the Legacy 9,000 years ago after it had been destroyed in a cataclysmic battle. They found it in the Niryean Rift in Zeta Pegasus, close to the Terran-Trankaran border. Alyssa and Dana deduce that Mael'nerak sabotaged his wormhole generator, and the force from the explosion destroyed the planets in Zeta Pegasus, leaving behind asteroid belts in their place. The remains of his ship was carried out by the blastwave. It explains why that area of space is so unstable, with miners getting sucked into randomly spawning wormholes and then vanishing. Mael'nerak sacrificed himself to defeat the other Progenitor and destroyed the rest of their fleets in the process. That's why he was never able to return to Valada.
* The Ashanath gave away most of their territory to the Terrans because they hoped that humanity would mature as the centuries passed and grow out of their need to assert their territorial dominance. As it transpired, that has not come to pass, but they have been content to cede worlds and remain at peace. Plus, they provide a strong buttress against the Kirrix and the Drakkar, who have become a much greater threat in recent years. Without the Federation’s continued support, the Ashanath Collective would have eventually fallen.
* Mael'nerak was active amongst the first several generations of the Ashanath, spending centuries living on their homeworld and training them to harness their psychic potential. The Ashanath were created as an experiment in collective psychic consciousness, such as their telepathic command web. He taught the Ashanath how to form thought-clusters and create Astral sub-planes, but never explained why he did so.
* Talari deceived them regarding the origins of the stone monoliths the first time. "When you arrived on Ashana, it was apparent that JohnBlake had not yet subjugated the Maliri, so I-"
* The stone monoliths were not taken from the destroyed homeworlds of conquered species, but from New Eden. The temple where they were discovered was a thrall recruiting facility and the monoliths described the history of Mael'nerak’s various conquests. The surrounding Maliri settlements had been badly damaged by an orbital bombardment, which left the temple partially demolished.
* When it became clear that humanity was on the cusp of interstellar flight, the ruins on New Eden were carefully excavated then brought back to Ashana 700 years ago. They removed all trace of Maliri settlements on the Gaia worlds that were eventually ceded to the Terran Federation.
* If they had left clues as to the real nature of the Maliri, it would have not ended well for humanity. When humanity eventuallyrealizes that there’s a species of gorgeous blue space elves on their doorstep, things will probably get ugly very quickly. If they find out that the women outnumber the men twenty-to-one, there’ll be a flood of men rushing the border. Despite The Warning, slavers and pirates would still take the risk if the reward was high enough for capturing Maliri women. The Maliri would respond by annihilating any ship that trespassed in their territory, which would quickly ratchet up the tensions between the two empires.
* By handing over Lenarra to the Terran Federation, the Ashanath doomed the Nymphs. However, the High Council several centuries ago were intent on appeasing Terran demands and averting any chance of war.

### Minor Characters

* David Gibbons — Terran Sergeant. Promoted to Terra's elite ComGuard. Worried that it was only due to the commendation from John.
* Grace Willis — Terran Lieutenant. On David's team in Port Medea.
* Makiri — Ashanath Facilitator. She is the Senior Medical Practitioner who runs the hospital Ashana Medical Prime, where she gave RachelBlake a tour.

### Coming Home

The walls were just as oppressively black as John remembered and the macabre crimson lighting still looked like it was filtered through a thick film of blood. A shiver ran up his spine as he felt that same sense of comfort at the sight.

Dana glanced up at him in surprise as she felt the shiver in his arm. “You don’t normally scare easily,” she said, before stopping to look at him curiously. “That wasn’t a tremor of fear I felt, was it?”

John slowly shook his head and replied, “No. As disturbing as it might sound, seeing this part of the ship feels like ... coming home.”

The redhead glanced into the murky gloom beyond, then wrinkled her nose in distaste. “I love you to bits, but I think I’d have to draw the line at living somewhere so depressing! This place makes Karron seem cheery and upbeat!”

**I don’t want to be the kind of girl that dictates how my man decorates his home**, Alyssa thought to both of them, **but I’m afraid I’ll have to put my foot down here.** They could both hear the playfully teasing tone in her voice as she continued, **Maybe we can just set up a jet-black room in the Invictus with blood-red lighting all over the place? Then you can go and hang out in your evil man-cave whenever you feel all dark and Progenitory!**