The Great Work was the focus of the Caeliar species with the goal to observe and listen for communications from signals from all parts of the universe, searching for a more advanced species in order to potentially locate their next cultural step. The Great Work was controlled by an apparatus in each city-ship on Erigol, which was powered by remotely harnessed energy. After thousands of years of searching, the Caeliar decided to limit their search, eliminating any galaxies that were long dead, hostile to sentient life, or unstable. It had been hundreds of millennia since the Caeliar eliminated all galaxies within one billion light-years as viable candidates. However, in 2168, Inyx had hoped they were close to completing their work, having located a harnessed galaxy, and planned to activate the Great Work within days. When they attempted to make contact, an extragalactic feedback pulse perfectly attuned to their device was received, causing an overload and complete destabilization of their star and planet. The various cities attempted to escape via subspace tunnels, but with the instability, only two cities were known to escape the destruction - Axion and Mantilis. (ST - Destiny novel: Gods of Night)