Karl and Joe were watching television, a news program that neither of them were actually watching. "Today, in Newport Pagnell, a terrorist's home was raided, containing parts needed to create a rocket, a police investigat-" "Joe, i'm going tonight." spoke Karl. Joe looked over to him "Tonight?" asked Joe, in a vaugley worried tone. Karl reached into his pocket, and pulled out the last of his money "Joe, you've been a great friend." he said, placing the money into Joe's hand "But it has to be tonight." he added. Joe had never been particularly interested in Karl's plan, and never really understood why Karl wanted to do it, but he had mostly went along, occasionally shielding Karl from prying eyes. Karl stood up, and began to walk outside to the garage. Joe, without really knowing why, followed him. The Garage was filled with random junk, but in the middle sat a great machine, Joe still didn't know what exactly it was, but Karl had vaugley remembered it's name from an old book his grandad once showed him, and that he cherished, with the words so worn out by eagar hands, he could only guess at it's proper title, his Aceshi had been a project since childhood, carefully brought from his different houses, each time bit by bit, until it was too big to move.

Karl stepped back outsdie the garage, carefully checking if anyone was inside the small alley outside. Joe looked down at this thing, a glass dome sealed a small frame, two huge cylinders dragged off the back, along with two others attatched to the main body, it was white and blue, ugly, with a strange rectangular symbol on the side of a long abolished kingdom, Karl talked of it like something of divine beauty, Joe still didn't understand, but he thought that Karl would, and that he ought to help a man so determined.

Karl walked back into the garage, began to raise the garage door. "It sounds quiet, and there shouldn't be any cars outside now" he whispered. The way out the door was clear, Karl had made a clear path about a day ago.

Karl leant against one of the large cylinders at the back, and pointed Joe to lean on the other, and they began to push, they turned the great machine around the alleyway, and began dragging it down the main road, it was suprinsgly light, Joe found, light enough that he felt comfortable to ask Karl a few things.

The Air was cold, and only the soft glow of long breaking street lights kept them from total darkness, they coloured everything in a dark yellow hue, like a blanket of honey.

"You know, i never asked you much about this." said Joe, leadingly. "That's alright Joe, god knows i told you." replied Karl. "How long have you been working on it?" asked Joe. "Since my friend got a job at the CORR, but he'd been on board since secondary." answered Karl. They pushed the Machine outside of the driveway, and onto the long stretch of the main road.

"I've got the plans published online, anyone who wants to can make their own." said Karl, unprovoked. "One day they'll want to." continued Karl. "That's what i was wondering, why do you want this so badly?" asked Joe. Karl spoke in a mantra he had thought about continually, with the tone of a priest reciting a passage from the bible. "Even after all these years, there's something magical." Joe had heard him say it before, but this time it felt more important. "You know, before they made the solar planes, people used to travel across the oceans." began Karl "Across these huge distances, in collosal metal shells, called ships, they stopped when the SolarPlanes became too efficient to ignore, but even with planes, they still used ships, even the last generation of ships they made, they weren't even being used to carry freight at that point, people just wanted to ride on ships, they even had people fly planes before, they used to have these terrible things called cars, everyone used to be the captain of something." Joe still didn't understand exactly why Karl was doing it, but he felt like Karl had convinced himself, and that was enough.

They came by the back entrace to the cricket club, and pushed the Machine through. Karl walked ahead to the front of the pub and the nearby houses, in case anyone was still awake. "I just need her there" said karl, pointing to the inside of a sectioned off football field. The tyres went over the mud of the field better than either of them thought they would.

Karl attached a metal device onto the side of the machine, and placed a small glass cylinder filled with a strange bright copper liquid on top.

"So what happens now?" Asked Joe. "I get to enjoy my last few moments here." said Karl. Karl took out a small pack of Sensanol, and passed a tab to Joe. "Let's go sit down." Said karl. They walked over to the incredibly old park, and sat down on the 150 year old roundabout, whose wood had been replaced so often, arguments over whether it counted as worthy of historical preservation had once raged in completely boring municipal political discussions.

"So that'll be it then?" asked Joe. "If they stop me." said Karl.

The moon hung brightly in the sky, thousands of stars danced with the benefit of lessened light pollution, purple and blue clouds danced. "But if i win?" said karl, pointing to the stars "All of that, all that they took from us, everything will be ours again." "All of what?" Asked Joe. Karl was incredibly upset at Joe saying that, but he lacked the words to say why, tears began to well in his eyes. "Oh dear." said Karl. For a brief moment, Karl considered not going ahead, and living out the rest of his life in a quiet way. He remembered how his best friend John had always wanted to work at the CORR, but never see what his work came to. He remembered the boy who joined the Secret Service, and then seemed to drop off the face of existence. He remembered the old book his grandad had given him, ignored for decades in the old room of an attic until he found it and asked his ancient grandad what it all meant. He thought about the grandchilderen he would never have.

Karl had been staring forward. Joe asked "Karl, are you alright, do you want me to call someone?" Karl asked Joe, without moving: "Why don't you want to go?" Joe leant back and thought. "The Custodes keep things simple, they keep me happy, i don't want to leave." "But isn't there so much more? Something beyond this?" asked Karl, with a vague air of desperation. "If there is, it wouldn't be right, the Custodes are where they are because they worked hard, and who am i to take that from them? Why should i want to take that from them?" "I don't know what they teach you in those higher schools, but that's what i think." Karl had read books his grandfater had managed to accidently hide from the Custodes in his attic, he had read them over and over. Karl knew Joe wouldn't ever understand as he was, but he thought doing this might convince him to look for the things that would let him. Karl and Joe walked over to the machine, and Karl opened up the large glass dome, and pulled out a small screen, pulled out an antenna, and handed it to Joe. "Joe, i want you to have my old books, they're in the garage, please, for my sake, read them, they're worn and a lot of them are for kids, but please." Joe looked down at the screen. "What's this for?" asked Joe "Just watch it." replied Karl.

Karl sat down in the single chair inside the Machine. "I need you to step back to the roundabout Joe." Joe started walking back to the park. Karl flicked 4 switches, each of them labelled with tape and marker. The Dome came down, and Karl took out his last meal, a small tablet, a nice bit of breaded turkey and chips, which probably wasn't the healthiest, he knew. Karl looked out through the dome to see if Joe was far enough away, which he was. Karl took a deep breath, and pressed a small button of the screen that dominated the bottom view of the front of the Machine, the two back wheels ejected themselves, pointing the machine up at a sharp angle. Karl turned on the main screen, waited to see if the angle would be enough, a green tick appeared on his plotting software, intended for usage in missles and stolen from the CORR. Karl put on a pair of ear phones, and began listening to an old video his grandad had saved and turned into an audio file a long time ago, it began: "Post-war America, was peaceful.", Karl remembered every part of it perfectly, mouthing along. Karl didn't know what war the relaxing voice was talking about, or what America was, he'd heard small snippets, rants from his grandfather where he'd correct himself midway on the "new names" of things, but the past before the Custodes was a stranger to him.

Karl continued flicking switches, until he came to the final one, he stopped, and checked again for Joe. "Can you hear me?" said Karl. Joe's screen shot to life, and he saw a live feed of Karl's screen, and his voice. Joe gave a thumbs up. Karl hit the final switch.

For a moment, there were two bright yellow flashes, and then pillars upon pillars of smoke. The Machine Shuddered and rattled continually, Karl set his eyes dead onto his screen, waiting for the exact moment to jettison the two solid rocket boosters. Joe sputtered at the sheer ammount of smoke present, and covered his mouth, continually trying to outrun the smoke, eventually stopping at the edge of the field. The inside of the Machine was brutally hot, and Karl's face began to sweat heavily, he continually wiped his fore head, still dead set on his screen, a continual number quickly shot down, Karl felt himself slow, as much as that was possible when moving so fast, and saw the number approach zero. He focused intesely, and flicked a final switch, he climaxed, and a small explosion on the sides forced the SRB's away.

The Machine continued on with it's speed, and Karl felt the iron grip of gravity slip from him, he leant back in his chair, and turned on an air conditioning system that would've overloaded the systmem had he tried it before, Karl forward outside the glass dome to the infinite majesty of it all, the dancing stars, the purple clouds. He was in a state of pure elation as he drifted by with an intense speed higher into the realm of god.

Karl basked in the majesty of it all, all he had hope for was real, he continued drifting forward into that perfect plane, whose name he still didn't know despite hearing it so often in those old books.

Karl remembered he had an audience and began frantically scrambling across the screen "Joe!" He yelled, "Joe!" He sent a live feed of it to Joe, who looked on with a keen interest, the first he had felt for this project in all the years he had lived with Karl.

Karl checked his screen again, flicked two more switches, and he was sent forward again, gracefully this time, like a swan through water, he sailed across the karman line, and went further, and further, until he looked back and saw the faint blue glow of the horizon, as the small marble of his home grew smaller and smaller.

Through the tinny earphones he was wearing, an old mantra took on a new life "Even after all these years, there's something magical about space." "A certain hope" "An aspiration for the future." "A trancendental leap to a new future for mankind." "We might have been born too early to explore the universe." "But we can still dream."

Karl laid back, revelling here, in the place whose name he did not know. he closed his eyes and remembered his Grandfather's smile He remembered the stories his Grandfather told about his Grandfather, who fought in a civil war in spain in a time nobody remembers, and few could read about. He remembered the ardent passion he had for comrades who died before he was born, and the energy with which he despised the Custodes. He remembered what was taken, and what had to be returned. He thought about the hell bringing he would be bringing grandchildren into if he couldn't stop this.

Karl opened his eyes, and there before him, intruding into the cradle of humanity hung the station, grey, angular, cruel in it's utilitarianism. An icon of a green phone appeared on screen, and karl pressed down onto it.

His face was unmistakable, Chief Executive Officer of Custodes Capitis, or CC, as their golden logo showed, the lord protector, Rex Argent. Rex's face was almost totally unremarkable, a collage of every mundane feature imaginable pushed into a amalgamation of total normalcy. He wore a plain business suit, and sat on a black leather chair, he had a slight smile, and behind him a cacophony of people in similar looking suits rushed around, behind them lied a small core of dishevelled looking engineers, engrossed by their computers.

"Good evening." began the lord protector. Karl sat silently, shocked that the stories had been true. "You know, it's been a good long while since we've actually had to do this." "You've fallen through the cracks a little bit."

Joe kept watching intently at the wonder of it all, and the imposing grey structure that seemed to threaten it in a primal way.

"I take it you know the proce-" "Why?" Interupted Karl "Why are you doing this?" he continued.

The lord protector's brow furrowed. "One of the chief goals of any business is to protect it's investments." "Do you know what's out there? Do you have any idea of what could happen if we were to allow people out there?" "Do you have even the faintest idea of the sheer risk to our collective investment that could be?"

"Are they out there?" asked Karl "They are." responded the lord protector "More than you or i could imagine." "And what they'd do to us doesn't bare thinking about." "We can bring you home"

"You do understand what will happen if you don't go home, don't you?" Karl nodded.

"Can i convince you to stop?" asked Karl. "You can't convince human nature to stop." replied the lord protector.

Karl stopped, and a silence hung between the two men.

"What is it called?" asked Karl. "Are you going to return or not?" repiled the lord protector. "What is it called?" repeated Karl.

The lord protector sighed. "They used to call it Space."

Karl looked out across the infinite depth of it, Space. Space. He knew where he wanted to die.

"Now." "Are you going to return, or not" said the lord protector, raising his voice.

Karl stared into the screen of this man, this tyrant. "You are a repugnant swine." said Karl. The lord protector looked shocked for a moment, and then began to smirk.

Karl used the small cannisters of fuel situated around his Machine to turn it away from the station, and towards the infinite darkness of Space. he flicked the final switchs he had, and the liquid engines on the back of the Machine roared to life, though they made no sound.

Across the dark expanse, a single comet of Metal and Glass rode, a ball of majestic fire.

"They tell me your name is Karl." said the lord protector.
Karl ignored him.
"Well Karl, let me tell you something before we end all this."
"We have been here for hundreds of years."
"We will be here for hundreds more."
"No effort of you, or any other will end us."
"Out there, maybe."
"In here? Certainly not."
"So enjoy the last few fleeting moments you are so desperate to cling to.

Joe was transfixed at this point, out of a hope for Karl, and a rage at the lord protector, a man he had come to see as an icon of merit.
"And in these brief moments before you're dead, and you know you soon will be, know that it meant nothing, like all the lives we hold under our grip." finished the lord protector.

A large gun appeared out of the station, and aimed at the Machine, a bolt of superheated metal shot out, travelling much faster than the Machine
"Goodbye Karl."
Karl threw his engines to full throttle, but in his heart he knew it wouldn't be enough.
"Joe?" said Karl, knowing he couldn't respond.
"You were a good fri-"
The bolt smashed into the side of the Machine, and the video feed cut out.

Joe dropped the screen in shock.
A thousand tiny frustrations suddenly made sense to Joe.
Joe picked the screen back up and wandered back to the house, in a state of dizzyness.
He walked back into the garage, whose door they had kept open by mistake.
Joe took all of Karls books and walked back inside to read them.