A change is as good as a rest, someone had once said, and The Traveller couldn't agree more.

The adventurer had spent most of his life alone, but he had enjoyed exploring the many universes in the company of others - and right now, he was finding it curiously refreshing to be part of something greater, to be doing someone else's bidding instead of pleasing himself, it was, to an unusual degree, liberating, for he didn't have to go through all that often tedious business of selection a destination, or working out what to do when he got there. He went somewhere, did something, and came back - and it was far less restrictive than he'd expected, for his destinations were hardly ever predictable, and there were hardly ever any strict instructions on how to complete the task he had been set.

As far as trade-offs went, this duty was hard to beat - but The Traveller's level of enthusiasm could not be expected from his companion, Pratisha Westerly. A "witch" from a world where magic stemming from nature was a recognised religion, she had been with The Traveller for some months, but only recently, her taste for adventure had begun to wane, her zest for the exciting life seeming to turn sour, and The Traveller had been hoping for a chance to talk to his friend, but his duties hadn't allowed him much of an opportunity, and he was reluctant to force this, or any other issue. Everything has its time was one of the rules by which The Traveller lived, and for Pratisha, that time had not yet arrived.

Instead, The Traveller focussed on other pressing matters that lay ahead of him. He had been planning on paying a visit to an old friend, one who could just help Dominion in their struggle against The Pandemonicum, but word had just reached him of another friend, a more recent acquaintance who had quite literally just popped into his life. She had arrived just when he'd needed help the most, and he'd promised himself that he would repay her somehow, taking the girl to those who could help her - Dominion's "Grey Section" - and now, it appeared that that promise was about to be called in.

"The crystal artefact has been removed, and reincorporated into its source lifeform", said the Grey Section operative who had made contact. "Irinati's personality is reasserting itself, along with her memory patterns - but that's not all..."

The Traveller listened with growing interest to the report on Irinati's encounter with the being they were now calling "Jaceel" - the "shattered" child of The Goddess and Overlord Guixander - and the "quest" Irinati was about to embark upon, to recover the remaining fragments of Jaceel's psychic and magical essence. For such an endeavour, transport was required, and it was a service that The Traveller was happy, and honour-bound, to provide.

Reunions will have to wait, he told himself, adjusting the course of The Endless Sunrise to take him and Pratisha to meet with Dominion Five, just beyond the boundary of Dominion itself. The Mother-Realm calls, and her children must answer.

The course change in effect, there was nothing for The Traveller to do but sit back and relax until they reached their destination. To pass the time, The Traveller went to a chamber directly below the main control centre, to bask in the profound intricacies of what was contained there; the Tanusov Complex...

On one of his earliest adventures, following his accidental "exile" from Dominion, The Traveller had encountered an abandoned starship, the Tanusov, and in the data-banks of that vessel, he had discovered a work of theoretical genius, the "Tanusov Equation", and when he downloaded that data into the data-matrix of his own craft, the equation "came to life", almost literally. That "living" computer program, when linked into the ship's navigational array, was able to predict disasters, threats to life and freedom, throughout the Multiverse, and that was how The Traveller's life as an adventurer was set in motion.

Sitting at the centre of the Complex Chamber, the explorer could see that, for now, the Equation was at peace, quietly incorporating navigational data into itself as it went through its calculation cycle thousands of times a second, each result displayed as a misty ribbon of light, a closed loop projected in mid-air. Were there to be any impending incident, those strands would touch, their colours becoming blended into each other, but for now, each streamer was distinct, and separate, and that granted The Traveller a certain degree of inner peace, which was most welcome.

Several people The Traveller had encountered could possibly have understood what the Equation was doing, but only one had ever truly seen its true depths; one person who saw the Equation not as just some oddity of cross-dimensional physics, but as a work of art. That person was the friend The Traveller had been going to see before news of Irinati's "recovery" reached him...

Several years previously...

The Tanusov Complex was uneasy.

The Traveller didn't like it when the Equation acted up like this, as it normally meant that something very, very bad was "on the horizon", but this time, something was very different. The Traveller was reluctant to view the Complex as a living creature, but on this occasion, the legacy of the Tanusov was being a lot more alive than normal, and no matter how much he gazed into the Complex with his mind fixed on the truth, that he was staring into a visual representation of a mathematical formula, the adventurer couldn't help but feel that the Complex was... afraid.

Returning to the Central Core, The Traveller started to try and make sense of the Complex's output, feeding it through the navigation system of The Endless Sunrise. Within a minute, the navigation cortex had resolved a destination fix - but it didn't stop there, as it always had before. A few seconds later, a second destination appeared on the chart, then a third... a fourth...

There were a whole string of dimensional stress-points, realities linked together by some kind of tunnel, which appeared to be an artificial construct. As the navigation cortex generated more and more destination points, The Traveller could start plotting a path for the tunnel, even to the point of being able to predict intersections before the Complex, and determining a start and end point for the phenomenon.

The start, he could soon determine, was closed, and as far as he could tell, there appeared to be no way for The Endless Sunrise to pass into the tunnel. The energy field that brought the corridor between universes into existence was designed to keep out intruders, and the only way left to gain access to the interior was to go to the other end, and hope that was open...

Unable to resolve destination co-ordinates, reported the navigation cortex. Spatial resonance alignment in flux...

It was then that the explorer realised that the Complex, and the whole Multiverse, had every right to be afraid. The other end of the enclosed corridor was submerged in a universe where commonly-occurring "laws of nature" simply did not, could not apply, the kind of place where only the most alien of beings could exist.

Creature that were only ever spoken of by name in moments of madness.

Every world inhabited by intelligent beings had its own gods and demons, some unique to a particular world, others worshipped in several realities under different names,, but for many races, in many universes, their nightmares were haunted by the same primal terrors - the Lost Gods.

The Traveller had never come into direct contact with those entities, and he was deeply thankful for that. On several occasions, he had played a role in preventing The Lost Gods from harming helpless civilisations, or helped to undo some of the damages caused by the creatures or their followers, but never before had he been present when an incursion by those unholy beings, blasphemies against reality itself, was either imminent or already in progress, and there was nothing he could do about it. "Continue analysing the barrier", he instructed the ship's computers. "Any fluctuations, any weaknesses, I need to know about them immediately."

Scans in progress, responded The Endless Sunrise. Initial analysis - high-confidence match made between interdimensional penetrative field and Horde technology.

The Traveller hadn't imagined the possibility that things could get worse, but the situation had managed to surprise him. The Horde were an interdimensional empire, driven by the endless thirst for new conquests, and he had crossed their path before, but in recent years, that empire had been dealt a devastating defeat and, beheaded, the remnants of that power had struggled to continue, factions developing, in-fighting destroying their capability to wage wars on other realities - in-fighting The Traveller had, on occasion, helped to promote. Now, however, the evidence seemed to suggest that what was left of The Horde were getting desperate, maybe to the point of calling upon the reality-twisting power of The Lost Gods to support their efforts...

"Traveller...? Traveller, it's Dominion Five..."

The present...

The Traveller snapped out of his memory-laden trance as Pratisha called out to him. Tearing has gaze away from the Tanusov Complex, he looked round to see the spell-caster standing in the archway leading into the Complex chamber, as always a vision of understated elegance, in pristine white linen and fine black leather. "Dominion Five is calling", she said, trying not to sound too insistent. "They've detected our approach, and they want to finalise the docking arrangements."

"I'll be right there", he told her, but he waited for his companion to walk away before leaving the chamber. Unlike her predecessor, Pratisha found the Complex disturbing - she had told him that looking into it was like "staring into the heart of Mother Nature; do that long enough, and She'll stare right back... and maybe find me lacking" - and the explorer allowed his friend a moment to compose herself before they next spoke. I'm going to miss you, he said to himself as he strode briskly up the curving walkway that linked the Complex Chamber to the Central Core. You may not have actually said anything, but I understand... but that doesn't mean I have to like it. All you need do is tell me.

The main view-screen in the Central Core displayed a face The Traveller immediately recognised as one of the computerised "avatars" of Myromar, one of Darkhawk's most trusted companions, subtle variations in her face and hair distinguishing her from her "sisters" as the digital "soul" of Dominion Five. Pratisha had never seen her, or any of the other Myromars before, but the nature-witch could already tell that "Myromar-Five" wasn't quite normal. "Her eyes...", murmured Miss Westerly. "I wasn't looking before, when I spoke with her. Something behind them is... lacking."

"I'll explain later", he told her - and he was sure she would react to Myromar in the same way she had reacted to other creatures that displayed intelligence, yet defied nature, such as robots, or the undead...

"Endless Sunrise to Dominion Five, we are receiving you", he said to the woman on the screen. "How can I help you?"

"Greetings, Traveller", said Myromar-Five. "We just need to confirm what docking facilities you require. We have plenty of launch bay space..."

"I have detailed plans of the Explorerhawk Class in my system", The Traveller replied. "All you need to do is confirm that the interior of Dominion Five doesn't differ from the standard specification too much."

"We have expanded diplomatic facilities", came the answer, "but command areas and crew quarters are on the whole unchanged."

The Traveller glanced to one side, at a small display-panel showing the interior layout of a ship identical in design to Dominion Five. "Is Chamber Sixteen on the Central Deck where it's supposed to be?"

"Yes - yes it is", answered Myromar-Five, sounding a little bewildered.

"Just make sure they're vacant, and that should be fine", said the adventurer. "I'm aligning our drive output with your shield matrix... interfacing with your reality - now."

Both adventurers felt a familiar sensation, a feeling comparable with having the deck suddenly drop a half-inch or so, as two realities slotted together, the "universe" inside The Traveller's vessel becoming one with the interior of Dominion Five, and the rotating external shell of the Endless Sunrise, a sphere of panels resembling stained glass, came to a stop. One of the glassy panels turned grey, and opaque, and at the centre of that, a door started to form as the matter of the hull continued to restructure itself...

"We better not keep our hosts waiting", said The Traveller, collecting Pratisha as he swept past, onto the platform outside the Central Core, which sprouted curving walkways that reached every part of the ship's interior. "Our hosts, and a friend..."

...to be continued...