The eternal blackness was always just out of reach, just beyond the bubble of gray that surrounded his presence. He could feel the power pulsing from it, calling to him, but he could never reach it, since the gray just followed him.
After the first century, he realized the pulsing was laughter. The power of the blackness was laughing at his incompetence. He had let a mere mortal defeat him. He had allowed a weak corporeal being to destroy his physical body and trap it in the grave that was meant for a mortal fool, not for the body of a god.
That's what he was now. His body could be destroyed, but not the essence of who he was. He was no longer Gary Mitchell. The soul of the galaxy had made him so much more. He was a god now, above the limitations and laws of humans. Humans were nothing more than insects to him now, insects to be ground beneath his feet.
All he needed now was the ultimate power of the eternal blackness that laughed at him. Then everyone would know his power, his wrath, and his rule.
"What are you waiting for?"
A voice?
"You want the power, but you're afraid to seize it? What a pitiful failure."
"Who is that?"
"I am a mentor, someone to teach you the fullest extent of your power and your destiny. If you want the power, take it, force it to obey you."
The one who was Gary Mitchell did as the voice commanded, he grasped the power in his mind and he saw for the first time the infinite limits of his power. Suddenly, the voice had form, an ethereal outline with crimson eyes. He looked down and saw his own ghostly aura punctuated by piercing quicksilver blue eyes. The gray cocoon that cradled the infant god now clung close to him and filtered the power that now permeated into him from the void.
"Now then, isn't that better?"
The voice smiled as it spoke with a sarcastic glint reflecting in those crimson orbs. The one that used to be named Gary flashed his quicksilver eyes.
"You must be very brave indeed to mock a god."
"A god! Then you have no need for instruction then."
"What can you teach me?"
The rage built up in Gary as his eyes flashed brighter.
"Everything and nothing, godhood and insignificance, it's your choice."
Gary thought a bit. He had been alone for a very long time. Even the presence of this pest could be useful. A god should be accompanied.
"Well then mentor, what is your name?"
"Oh, I have no need for names. Names are for mortals and infidels."
"Your name!"
"If you must, I will give you a name to call me, for simplicity sake."
"And what is that?"
The crimson-eyed outline stepped forward and suddenly, a strangely reptilian humanoid appeared, as if he had stepped into a spotlight.
"Dukat."
