CELESTIAL: what power lies at the edge of the universe?

In the future, humanity has reached a level of technological advancement of 2.73/4 and are in the process of colonizing a new pocket of the milky way galaxy. But they are facing a problem. Rebellions are threatening to destroy the peace and overthrow the central government on earth. To combat this the government assigned bounty hunters to capture the rebels and bring them to justice. But what the people don't know is that these bounties are meant to cover up an even more devastating problem. The rebels, meanwhile are actually being shipped off to an unexplored, hostile planet to work in fulgurite mines. A mineral recently discovered to contain the amount of energy of a lightning strike in pieces as little as one shard. Enter Ezra the protagonist of the story, once