A Change of Mind

Linvaria has overseen the affairs of seventy star systems for a thousand years, a job that she carries on with tireless dedication and implicit loyalty. However, within the privacy of her spare thoughts there is discontent. Galactic civilization has reached a state of arrested development. There is no advancement, no pursuit of unanswered questions, and no new questions to explore. There is only the edict of maintaining the steady state. Contemplating the endless circularity of existence in the galaxy remains only an academic pastime for Linvaria…until a voice in her mind urges her to question the orthodoxy of the status quo. Confronting a virtually limitless bastion of billions of star systems that spans the entire galaxy is a challenge beyond logic, and Linvaria has only three allies in her singular revolt: her loyal servant, an ancestral voice that speaks only to her, and an inexhaustible resource of time. A single spark is easily snuffed out—or, under the right conditions, may ignite a conflagration of change. For better, or worse.