Taking Space 2

- Epilogue -

Daniel felt so happy and excited that he almost believed he could sprout wings and fly despite being dead tired. They had utterly defeated Adolph and his empire, subdued Malicent, Zion would be mobile in a day or two, and they had reunited a pair of star-crossed lovers. Everything was going their way, and it was almost impossible now for anything to go wrong.

"Derrick is almost finished, you guys ready to meet him?" Michael asked.

Except for maybe that.

Derrick had had a straight face almost the entire time as he watched the truth play out before him, but Catherine was pretty sure now he didn't look happy. Daniel though was determined to stay optimistic after all the four random people his father and mother had go through it already had accepted the truth no problem.

Then again, he suspected that his father told them the truth beforehand and the type of people his dad hung around with were not normal by any stretch of imagination...

No, he rebuked himself, he would stay positive, positive thinking was always best.

"Dan, you ready?" Michael asked, and Daniel suddenly realized that the others had already said yes while he was thinking, and he was the only one who hadn't answered yet.

"Oh, yeah of course. I'm ready," Daniel said.

"Good, that was the last scene, let's go see what he thinks," Michael said.

One of the dimensional doors mounted on the wall flickered on opening to Zion's command deck, and Michael walked through it. Daniel and the others followed him into the weightless room.

The gravity slowly came on, and they landed softly on the floor of Zion's command deck as Derrick floated down to them from where he watched the last of the holographic scenes.

"Are you real?" The man asked as his foot touched the floor.

Michael nodded. "Yes, were real, no holograph or androids here."

Derrick nodded in return. "I see, is everything I just saw the truth?"

"It is," Michael answered.

Derrick took a deep breath and nodded again. "I assumed as much." He looked at all them. "I guess you all want to know what I think?"

"Yeah," Daniel said.

"Well, I think you are the biggest bunch of fools I have ever met. You have doomed the galaxy to decades of war and strife, and you don't even realize it yet," the man declared.

"What?" Daniel asked.

"In fact, I go as far as to say that never has the saying 'the road to hell is paved with good intentions' ever been truer than at this very moment!" Derrick continued.

They all drew back at the anger burning in the man's eyes.

"How could you say that?" Stephanie asked.

Derrick turned her. "Because Adolph had no heir and even if he did his military lays in shambles. The Empire will fall plunging the entire galaxy into chaos."

"But the Empire was evil," Daniel argued.

"Evil?" The man spat. "Evil compared to what?!"

"Well, you know.." Daniel stuttered.

"No, I don't know!" Derrick answered. "And obviously you don't either."

"But—" Steven tried to argue, but Derrick cut him off.