The journey to the 'pre-cosmic' reality was not a journey through space or dimensions. It was a journey through the very concept of time. The *New Beginning*, its hull now woven with the logic of the Terrans and the hope of Aethel, sailed backward through the narrative of the multiverse, guided by the faint, ancient signal The Collector had provided.
They passed through echoes of their own history. They saw the Hive, not as a planet-sized monster, but as a simple, single-celled organism, just beginning its long, hungry journey. They saw the birth of the Administrator's System, a desperate, logical scream against the chaos of a dying world. They flew through the silent, perfect void of the First Shadow, before its curiosity had shattered it into a billion pieces of potential.
They were sailing into the preface of the book of all things.
