The Rossem Project is close to success, and will allow a hand picked expedition to explore other worlds, searching for the threat that faces the planet Tharia, but as they begin their mission they discover that there are many other threats out there...
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After a quick trip back to Tharia's universe to restock with provisions and teleport copies of the felisian maps back to Tharia, the Jules Verne set out once more, this time to begin their search for the Shipbuilders in earnest.
They were now experienced and proficient in the handling of the ship and navigating the immensities of empty space, and after their visit to the felisian homeworld they had a good idea of what they could expect in the universes they would be visiting. They would always emerge in the vicinity of a bright star, it seemed. That star would almost always have planets circling it, and those planets would almost all be empty and barren.
At first they would be visiting worlds that the felisians had visited before them, to check the accuracy of their reports and investigate the ruins of dead civilisations that sounded as though they might be the one they were looking for, but if none of them panned out they would sooner or later have to visit universes that the felisians had never explored. The search for living worlds among all the dead ones would be a long, slow process and they were all resigned to a mission that was likely to stretch on for years ahead. Almost everyone except Saturn and Captain Strong were expecting their tours of duty to end without their having found anything of importance, therefore, leaving the ship to continue its mission with a new crew. Only the old wizard and the Captain were dead set on staying with the ship for as long as it took. The rest of their lives if necessary.
"Saturn's not going to like seeing you leave," Tassley told Thomas as the two of them mixed spell components in the ship's laboratory. "Not so long as you're the only one who can sense Rossemian magic."
"He'll just have to get used to it," replied Thomas without looking up. "I'm not leaving Derry without a father. He'll be okay for a couple of years, back home with his grandfather. Dalron won't want me getting in the way of his shayen education in any case, but I don't want him forgetting all about me. I'll stay with the ship for a couple of years, but then I'm off home. Back to Haven."
He realised he was getting quite homesick for that little cottage, their home for the twenty best years of his life. The wanderlust, the insatiable curiosity that had slowly driven him to distraction, cooped up in that small valley while the whole wide world lay unexplored outside, had now largely been satisfied and he was feeling ready to settle back to the comfortable home life again.
Lirenna, having read this in his mind, was delighted, the only sadness being that they would have to leave their dwelling tree behind. If Thomas was successful in his attempts to recreate Tak's vivomancy spells, though, and they were able to breed a gall wasp that could survive in a cold climate, then they could grow their own dwelling tree back in Haven! Thomas would never live to see it, of course, as it took the wasp larvae almost a hundred years to create a tree large enough to begin hollowing out, but Lirenna and Derrin would have it to remember him by.
"I've already told Saturn," continued Thomas, "and I've told him I'm willing to come back aboard if they find anything they think might be to do with the Shipbuilders. To lend my magic sense to the mission. It would only be for a few weeks at a time, though. Once I go home, I won't be leaving on any more long adventures. No more trips to the Southern Continent, or back in time to old Agglemon. I'm not as young as I used to be. My adventuring days will soon be behind me."
