[Right? Bill waiting for an entire generation to die off so that he can begin his plans again is terrifying, and something Bill has absolutely done before.]

I spoke with them, when we went to the Bargeyard. The Admiral had waited too long to bring the Barge in for maintenance, so they hauled us in for repairs. It was an interesting place, an intersection of people and places from all sorts of universes, and all around the docks, there were Barges of every kind.

We received a note inviting us to come to a place called the Officer's Lounge to discuss our experiences under the current Admiral. In exchange, the Authority said, they would answer one question -- anything we wanted to know.

They put on a real show getting us there. Enormous doors, cavernous hallways, creeping unstoppable sense of dread -- until finally I was alone inside a great big room, surrounded by distant, shadowy figures. I could feel that they were looking inside of my head, that anything I thought or felt, they would know.

So, I said my piece, I asked my question, and I was out. They didn't seem that impressive to me -- they were surprised by what I asked and had to confer among themselves, which means we're dealing with more than one -- but they did seem extraplanar. That place was their seat of power, somewhere they could do whatever they liked.

I don't know much else about them for sure. But I do know that when Bill spoke with them, they made a reference to a piece of Earth media. So, either they're fans of universes based on my planet, or they're from one.

[He'd thought it was the second, when he and Bill tunneled out of the ship. But now?]

I'm leaning toward the first one. Frankly, I think they're fans of us.