The universe disappeared. For the first time in millions of years, the Being lost consciousness.
The return to awareness was slow, tentative, its mind expecting the agonies to return at any moment. The sensations were there still, but only as a background throb. By the positions of the suns, the Being identified that it had been senseless for a little over an hour. But Vulpis had been right; the infection was self-limiting. Its cells had identified and destroyed the pathogen Vulpis had unleashed. Damage was surprisingly minimal; it would be able to replace what had been lost rapidly enough. But the cost to the Being in suffering had been terrible. A greater payload of the disease might well be too much for it. It would fall into the grey limbo of unconsciousness and never wake up. It wou
