The Battle of Lh'owon

Durandal surprised the Pfhor garrison at Lh'owon with his modified vessel and, with the recently-thawed Security Officer, began reclaiming the S'pht homeworld. But the Pfhor Navy's Battle Group Seven arrived, commanded by Admiral Tfear, and accompanied by a horrifying surprise: Tycho.

The science AI had been recovered by the Pfhor from the ruins of the Marathon, reanimated "in Durandal's image." But where Durandal's rampancy had produced something approaching wisdom, Tycho's produced only hatred. He was cruel, sarcastic, and consumed by rage. He wanted the same thing Durandal wanted, escape from the end of time, but his methods were purely destructive.

Tycho's fleet forced the Boomer down onto one of Lh'owon's moons and began downloading Durandal's consciousness for Tycho's personal amusement.

But Durandal had one more card to play.

Similar events occur across the other timelines, varying only in whether the Security Officer or the BOBs are doing the work to reactivate Thoth, but with one major divergence: In the final Infinity timeline, rather than Durandal just reappearing after Thoth signals the S'pht'Kr, he is merged with Thoth and together they signal the S'pht'Kr. In this timeline, Tycho is not destroyed, while Robert Blake and the BOBs appear to die rather than escape and return to Earth.

Since it is stated that by 2888, no one knows what happened on Tau Ceti, the events of Marathon (2026) may be happening in the final Marathon Infinity timeline. With Robert Blake and the BOBs never returned to Earth, no witnesses were left to explain what happened on Tau Ceti.