It had been two years since what was now known as the Aberration Incident. Although the 'mundanes' of the world were originally the target of the Imperials' reprisals for their treatment of the Ancients, those who were terrorized by the Aberration quickly turned to hail the Imperials as their saviors. It made the process of acknowledging the Emperor's claim and swearing fealty to him so much easier. There were some holdouts, of course—there always are—, but those holdouts found themselves isolated and were quickly shuffled off the stage.

If reintegration continued to proceed this smoothly, in another ten to twenty years Altamira would be permitted a Colonial Assembly for a measure of home rule in matters that were beneath the concern of their Imperial overlords. So long as they rendered taxes and other tributes due, things would settle into an equilibrium not so different from the time before the Imperials arrived. This was apparently a familiar pattern across the reclaimed worlds.

Although it should have only felt like a matter of months for her, Gally had a visceral sense of the three hundred years that had passed since the Calamity when she resumed her work as an administrative assistant. Whenever she would stop to think about it, it was surprising how little difference there was between her old civilian life and her new life in the Army. Thanks to her university education, she was eligible to become a warrant officer, so after an additional five weeks of training, she was able to escape the dog's life of an enlisted soldier.

Perhaps if she had not gotten her warrant, Gally might have found herself working as an orderly like what General Sultana offered to Giger that day in the square. She had what was for her the more respectable position of aide to the military liaison to the former Ministry of Magical Affairs, which was redubbed the Arcana Resources Management Administration. The mission of the former Witch-hunters had not changed so much, only now their main task was to press-gang potential mages into service rather than to simply repress them. Wittingly or not, many of them would still identify themselves as ARCANUM rather than the new label. The growing pains of the new order were still ongoing.

Gally stopped at the door to her superior's office and drew in a breath to prepare herself. It could be difficult to maintain military bearing around him, after all. She knocked on the door and cracked it open, saying, "Herr Major?"

Gally stepped into the office. The Major was sitting at his desk flanked by his two pink-haired orderlies, his brow furrowed as he was trying to do something on his tablet. Two years and still he struggled to adapt to modern technology. What were all those years of studying Lost Technology for?

As much fun as their usual banter was, Gally wanted to get back on task, or rather, she wanted to get on task in the first place. It always felt like they would get derailed before they could even pull out of the station, but sorting through issues like this was all part of her ongoing headache ever since she was given this assignment.

Speaking of assignments, Gally opened up her tablet and tapped on it while saying, "I hope you remembered that we're going to be on TDA in Dragomere for two weeks, Herr Major. We fly out after the end of working hours today. You did pack, didn't you?"

The Major gestured to his tablet as if it were some inscrutable puzzle.

Gally sighed and said, "By your leave, sir," before walking around behind the Major's desk, past the orderly to his right, and leaned over his shoulder, pointing to his tablet.

The Major was silent, furrowing his brow anew. All Gally could do was sigh once more.

She pointed to an icon and said, "You see this open lock here. Click on it."

The Major did.

He did that as well and once the scan was finished, the tablet said, "Unauthorized personnel detected. No unauthorized personnel are permitted within three meters of this device for secure mail access. Unauthorized personnel are requested to remove themselves at least three meters from this device or secure access will be aborted."

Gally looked at the orderlies and said, "That means you two."

The Major waved off the orderlies, telling them, "Go on. Stand over there for a bit."

Her counterpart did not have as much spring in her step as she followed. Maximilla, or 'Maxi' as the Major would call her, still shared a consciousness with the original, but over the past two years she had developed some traits of her own personality, though usually it was only the Major who could tell them apart.

Major Barz Falkner. Strictly speaking, his permanent rank was just leutnant, but he was brevetted to major to serve in his current position. The outlaw wizard Giger Taus took his old name back up again when the Empire gave him his second lease on life, much as Gally had gone back to being Narumi Takahashi once she found herself back in the warm embrace of the Father of All Humanity. The only trace of his old assumed identity was the fact that both Prissy and Maxi were registered under the name Taus. Still, just as Gally would think of herself as the new identity Giger gave her, she would think of him as the man she first knew when she was woken up from her three-hundred-year slumber.

He might as well have been a new person. His hair was shorter now, back to its original blue, and he had regulation silver-rimmed glasses instead of his beloved tea shades and a smart-looking Imperial Army uniform instead of the ridiculously gaudy robes he used to wear.

Gally did not exactly appreciate his choice of mental image, but if she complained, he would only try to come up with something worse. After all their time together, he really knew how to push her buttons, and if she had any sense, she had learned how to avoid inviting him to push those buttons.

Gally simply rolled her eyes and asked him, "Any regrets?"

Remembering those days when she was put to scrubbing floors and dusting the bookshelves, Gally found herself smiling as she said, "Yes, Herr Major."

And so the story of the outlaw wizard Giger Taus had not quite ended as some may have thought but only turned to a new new chapter, just as all of Altamira had done, one more world among the supposed ten thousand graced by the benevolence of His Majesty the Emperor. However, this world was a prize not so easily won. A stone had been cast upon the waters and the waves would soon be felt across the galaxy. The echoes of the Skyfall Calamity continued to reverberate and the price for continuing to reach for the forbidden fruit would have to be paid one day. However, it was as yet a distant concern for this little corner of space. For now, two weeks of Giger complaining about Dragomerean cuisine and their hotel accommodations would make the far-off threat off the collapse of galactic civilization seem all the more distant.