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1ACT 1 - Earth
2Chapter 1 - Helvetica
3The first and very likely last ever Winnebago to shoot through the star-speckled void of space couldn't withstand the pressure of the singularity of a black hole any longer. The engine went hypercritical, nothing could stop the massive energy surge of an uncontrolled Antimatter-Matter reaction now. The Adamaris was racing through the endless emptiness of space. The reactor core shielding wouldn't hold much longer. All gauges were going off the scale at once. She knew it had been a suicide mission. But it was the only way she could save her friends; bring them home. Bring them home from the nightmare that was space. She had agreed to do this. Not agreed with the others, she knew very well that they never would have approved this. She wouldn't die. She would meet a fate far worse.The stars zoomed along. Soon, she knew, there would be no more stars for her to see. Soon, she would disappear. She didn't fear it, nor did she anticipate it. She was doing it not for her, but for the ones she loved. The ones she cared about. The ones who would stay with her and go through everything, for the last thirty years.The Adamaris' drive core breached. The shielding failed, the outer hull of the ship cracked. She chuckled. It had to look silly from the outside, an old Winnebago with some rocket thrusters attached to it piercing the void of space. The windshield cracked and split under the pressure. She felt the air being sucked out of the window into the vast nothingness of space. Light beams flashed through every crevice and crack on the damaged dashboard. The screens and blinking control lamps all glitched out and faded to black. Shards of glass flew through the room. Her collection of comic books and used coffee cups fell off the table and were catapulted outside. This was it, she thought. This is how she would die. She thought about her life. The events that lead her up to this point. Worth every second, she thought.
4Worth every second.
5
6The radio from her alarm woke her up. Michael Jackson was playing. Her room was dark, although not for long. Her roommate Ellie turned on the ceiling light and stretched out.
7"Morning" she yawned.
8"Morning", Sina replied sleepy. It was still dark outside. The calendar on the wall read 21st of October, 2022. Sina ripped the paper from the calendar and read the quote on the calendar page for today, the 22nd of October. "The human heart is a strange vessel. Love and hatred can exist side by side.", the quote of the day read. Scott Westerfeld said that. Sina didn't know who Scott Westerfeld was. She turned towards her closet and pulled out a towel. She threw it in Ellie's general direction, then got one for herself.
9
10Sina stepped outside the building on the cold autumn morning. The road was almost wiped clean, no cars were there, no people, just a few stray colorful leaves from the trees near the road. She looked around. Autumn was by far her favourite season. All the leaves change colour, the world changes, people change, your outfit changes, you can drink hot chocolate... Sina always liked it.
11
12"Midland Road. Next station is Midland Road. Please stand clear.", the announcer said. Sina got up from her seat and stood in front of the subway doors. The subway station Midland Road was always very busy, especially now, at eight o'clock in the morning. Men in suits with heavy briefcases, college students with laptops and children with backpacks for school. The Midland Road station was huge, four levels with four tracks on each one, two for local and two for express trains. Along with hundreds of other people, Sina rode the escalator to the surface. She liked to look around and wonder what jobs the people with her had. Most people working on the Midland Road however were salesmen, stock brokers or lawyers, occasionally an architect or a newspaper editor. Rich people. People that were so important and rich they got their own name tags at annual shareholder's meetings. People like William Dorset.
13
14William Dorset was the CEO of Dorset SE, a company working with stocks and generally anything that had to do with money and the likes. Sina actually had no idea what exactly Dorset SE was doing. She knew it had something to do with money. The only thing she knew about Dorset SE was William Dorset's daughter Sarah Dorset who - incidentally - was in almost all of her high school courses. For almost twelve years now, Sarah and Sina were best friends. They did almost everything together. They met everyday, they hung out together, they helped each other wherever they could, generally had fun. Sure, sometimes they fought and argued, but those were minor drawbacks to a friendship that great. Sarah was not spoiled by the money her parents made. Quite the contrary, in fact. Sarah was humble and although she had more than what she would ever need, she was thankful and kind-hearted. Everything she got she shared with Sina.
15
16The air in downtown Helvetica was not only warmer as in the outskirts, but a lot more tense. Everyone needed to be somewhere, quickly. Always quicker. More efficient. But not me, Sina thought. She had time. Time to appreciate life.
17
18Sarah was sitting on one of the breaker boxes littered throughout the city. Everything in this city was connected. The traffic lights, the advertising displays, even the hydrants and payphones where connected to a city wide network. Sarah looked around and let her legs swing. As she saw Sina coming up the escalator, she jumped down from her spot and greeted Sina with a hug. Sarah was short, about 5'1, fairly pudgy and had chin-long blonde to almost white hair.
19"Hey, Sina! How are 'ya?", Sarah asked.
20"Well, you know", Sina replied. "I had a strange dream last night."
21
22"Come on! We're gonna be late!", Sarah said. .TAR.BZ2 was the coffee shop of Sina and Sarah's choice, but as they went there today to get a decaf hazelnut macchiato for Sarah and a green tea for Sina. Sarah had offered Sina something more like actual coffee, but Sina declined the offer. However, today the queue was longer than usual. It was about 8:30 already, and class started at 8:20. Sina and Sarah were running up the Midland road, left at Prince Rupert Plaza."Today, ladies and gentlemen", the Arts and Crafts teacher said. "We are going to combine Art and Science" Sina and Sarah joined the circle of students around their teacher. "And nice of you two to join us, too."
23
24The Arts class was moved to the Helvetica Central Park for today. The scottish teacher had his very own and sometimes strange teaching methods. Today, he brought cameras, but not just any cameras, but spectroscopic scanner cameras. These cameras could analyse what any material was made of. Of course, Sina and Sarah were paired to work together. Sina pointed the camera at a large boulder near her.
25
26Scanning sample...
27Sample scan completed.
28Compound analysis reveals:
29Silicon (Si)
30Oxygen (O)
31Aluminum (Al)
32Iron (Fe)
33
34"That's strange. That rock, the scanner says there is Aluminum inside, but that shouldn't be. There's no aluminum ore in this part of Canada.", Sina said. She was intrigued.
35"Maybe it's hollow, you know, like those spy movies, where there's a secret underground base below it"
36"That's not likely", Sina said. "But it could be hollow." She pointed at a small crawlspace. "Do you think you could fit in there?"
37"I... I can try.", Sarah said and crawled through the hole. The rock was indeed hollow, but Sarah couldn't see much. The little light that shone through the hole she came in through was not enough to see anything, so she carefully touched her surroundings. She felt a cold metal slate on to her left, and a plasticky pole sticking out of the wall. She pulled, and indeed the pole slid out of the wall. She couldn't see what it was, but it felt familiar.
38"Found anything?", Sina said from outside.
39"I think", Sarah said. With her lisp, the 'th' sounded very strange.
40
41At lunch, Sarah bust out her MacBook. An expensive piece of tech, but as the daughter of one of the richest men in Canada it was no big deal.
42"So, what did you find?", Sina asked.
43"This thing", Sarah said and showed Sina a flash drive. A symbol was embossed on it, a stylised T followed by the number 1.
44"You found it in a cave. Are you sure you want to put it into your computer, just like that?"
45"Yes, why not? What's the worst thing that could happen?", Sarah said and connected the flash drive to the side of the laptop. It booted, but the normal operating system didn't show up. Instead, a strange screen opened up.
46
47Terra-1 Remote Unlock Control
48$ t1 init
49This flash drive is not a flash drive, but a network probe connected to the network of the Terra-1, a spacecraft capable of speeds over light speed. You are in posession of this flash drive, and thus are now registered as owners of the Terra-1. Please keep this matter at utmost secrecy.In order to gain access, the Terra-1 will require a combination of numbers and words which is unique and will be generated. Please ready pen and paper to write the code down. If you are ready to proceed, please type "t1 code-gen".
50$
51
52Sina and Sarah were baffled. Was that true? Did they find a spaceship and more importantly, how did it get there? How was speed over light even possible, Sina asked herself? Sarah didn't seem to mind. She got a pen and a piece of paper from her messenger bag and typed in the command.
53
54$ t1 code-gen
55This code is unique. Please write it down and store it at a safe place.
56Code:
57Theta 32 Upsilon A113 D5-Delta-Tau
58If you have written down this code, please type "sudo shutdown -r now"
59
60Sarah wrote the code on her piece of paper. As she was about to type in the other command, Sina stopped her.
61"Hey, what are you doing? Don't you realize this is totally crazy? We can get in trouble! What if this is a secret government thing or something?"
62"I know! It is totally crazy!", she laughed. She punched in the command and the computer rebooted to the familiar macOS Yellowstone interface.
63"We can't just take this and follow orders from someone or something we have no idea even exists!", Sina said.
64"Maybe we should do exactly that! Life's short, you know?"
65"I don't suppose there is any way I can stop you from doing this?"
66"Not at all", Sarah said.
67
68Chapter 2 - Legacy
69
70Sina and Sarah saw the smoke from afar. Smoke? Was someone doing a barbecue? In October? At 8 AM? No. That smoke wasn't a barbecue. Something... something was burning.
71"Oh my god", Sina and Sarah said simultaneously and started running. Running towards the source of the smoke.
72
73The campus. The campus of the Helvetica High School was more crowded than ever. Everyone, students and teachers alike, was staring at the main building. Flames were leeching up the building, windows were blown out, nothing was even recognizable.
74"What happened here?!", Sina yelled.
75"Faulty wiring", one of the firemen doing everything they could to contain the fire explained. "Someone kept the electrical heater in the attic on. The breaker box overloaded, and the rest is history."
76"Is everyone safe?", Sarah asked.
77"Not exactly, we're waiting on a rescue team. They're still in there."
78"Oh god! Someone is still in there?", Sarah yelled in shock. She had to help. She always had to help. "Hold this", she commanded and gave her bag to Sina.
79"What are you doing?!", Sina said. "You can't go in there! You'll die!"
80"I'll save those people! They... they can't die!"
81"Sarah! They're trained professionals! You aren't!"
82"I don't care! There are people in there! People with lives!", she said and ran.
83"Sarah! Don't!", Sina yelled. She couldn't live without Sarah. Sina's parents were dead. She didn't have friends, apart from Sarah. Sarah was the only thing keeping her going, every single day. If Sarah was gone, Sina would not be Sina anymore.
84
85But Sarah did not care.
86
87Sina was laying in her bed, staring at the ceiling. Ellie was sitting at the desk and worked on her paper for school. It had been almost two days since Sarah died in the fire. Ellie assured Sina that she would be there, whatever happened. Sina didn't reply. The caretakers at the orphanage also wanted to talk to Sina. She didn't. The ceiling had a crack. It was going to the left wall, then down that wall, into the floor and disappeared there. Sina wanted to know where the crack came from. Where it went. What caused it. But now wasn't the time, Sina knew. Sina did knew she was supposed to grieve, but she didn't. She didn't grieve. She wasn't sad. In school, she had learned about the five stages of grief, but she just didn't fall into that roster. She didn't deny, she didn't bargain, she wasn't depressed, she just accepted. Sarah was dead, she knew. There wasn't any denying it. The only thing Sina could do now was move forward.Someone knocked on the door.
88"Do you want me to get that or-", Ellie said.
89"Come in", Sina said. A boy stepped inside. He was about 5'9, had dark brown short hair and wore a white shirt with a circular pattern on it.
90"Hey", he greeted and waved.
91"I'll... I'll just leave the two of you alone", Ellie said, put her pen down, took her phone and left the room.
92"You're Tony, right?", Sina said without looking away from the ceiling. "The guy that sits behind me in history class"
93"Yes, that's me", he laughed. "You know, I... I figured that if you want to talk, you might... I'm... I mean, if you need to talk, I'm here for you", he stammered.
94"That's nice of you", Sina said. The ceiling suddenly wasn't that interesting anymore.
95"Yeah, I thought if you wanna play a game, I brought one, I just thought you wanna... y'know, think about something else"
96"Sure, what do you have in mind?", Sina said and sat up.
97"I've brought my- wait, is that Sarah's bag?", he said and looked at Sarah's bag. Sina had brought it home.
98"Yes, I... I mean, it was the last thing she gave me. I'm... I think I'm obligated to keep it.", she said. "I know it's silly, but... yeah."
99"No, no, that's alright", Tony said. "That's good! You know, it's almost like a part of her lives on."
100"Yes... You're right", she sighed. The ceiling suddenly was interesting again. She laid back down and stared at the crack in the wall.
101"You mind if I look inside?", Tony asked.
102"Go ahead, but please don't take anything", Sina said without looking away. Tony assured it and opened the designer bag. It was neatly organized inside, something Tony would not have expected from Sarah. There was a piece of paper sticking out. Tony grabbed it and folded it up. Someone - presumably Sarah - scribbled something on it. A series of letters and numbers. Theta 32 Upsilon A113 D5-Delta-Tau.
103"Hey, do you know what this is?", Tony asked and held up the paper. Sina looked away from the crack and glanced at the paper.
104"Yes... but... it's nothing. Really." She looked back at the crack. Did it move?
105"That's not nothing. Come on, tell me. If it's something about Sarah, I bet talking about it will help you."
106"Well, I can tell you, but you're not gonna believe me. It's totally stupid.", Sina said. Her voice was monotonous, and the rain pounded against the window.
107"So?", Tony said after a brief second of silence. "What is it?"
108"This is an access code", Sina explained. "There are those boulders, in the Central Park. One of them is hollow. Sarah and I found it, and Sarah crawled inside it, and in the cave was this access code. I don't know where it leads to or what it does, but from the context, it is the launch code for a spaceship"
109"A spaceship?", Tony repeated. The storm outside was raging, and Tony's raincoat was completely soaked. He had hung it up outside, in the reception area. "I dunno. Maybe. I believe you."
110"You do?", Sina asked. Tony seemed nice. She always wrote him off as being just a typical high school jock. She didn't have much to do with him, she knew that he liked sports... but that was about it. But he obviously did care for Sina. He was the only one of her classmates who showed up at her place to see if she was all right.
111"Yeah, I do", Tony said and looked at some of the books in Sina's shelf. Fantasy, fantasy, science fiction, a book about baroque literature and one about the ecosystem of the earth. Sina's library was not very extensive, but Sina didn't mind. She loved reading, but she had to go to the library for that. She couldn't lend books, she didn't have a library card, but she could go there and read books. "Do you wanna go there?", he asked, donning 'The Ecosystem of the planet Earth' in his hand. "I have time, and the rain isn't that bad, we could go there."
112"I'd... I'd like that", Sina said and smiled. She got out of bed and got dressed while Tony was waiting outside. Sina left the room and got her raincoat from the coat hanger Ellie had found in the cellar and put next to their door.
113"Tell me, what is it like, living in an orphanage?", Tony asked as they were walking through the pouring rain to the metro station, covered by their yellow plastic coats.
114"It's not bad, if you mean that", Sina said. "It's a bit like a big family, you have your sisters, your brothers, the caretakers who are a bit like your parents... but of course it's not perfect. Sometimes I wish I knew my parents. Or, you know." She shrugged. "Had known them."
115"How were your parents? Do you remember them?"
116"I know that my mother was beautiful", Sina remembered. "I have a picture of her in my closet, so that I can see her every morning. She must've been brave, taking the long journey from the Netherlands to Canada." Her parents moved to Canada when Sina was two years old, just as the government had announced that they were expanding to the west coast and would build new modern cities there. Her parents were excited at the time, and Sina reckoned that she must've been, too. They moved to Canada in 2009, where they lived in Toronto. They liked it, but as Sina was five years old, they went out for dinner. It had been a stormy night that day, and her mother Johanna couldn't see the road that well. She crashed head on into another car that was on the same lane, but coming from the other direction. The car cracked like a tin can, and Elin and her husband Jasper died almost immediately. Sina didn't know what that meant, at the time, and she didn't realize her parents were dead. She wasn't sad, and she still couldn't be. Years later, the Toronto Orphanage had to be closed, as Toronto had to take refugees from the neighboring state. At that time, Helvetica was ready to be populated, and so Sina moved to the West coast of Canada, into the new city. She met Ellie there, and Sarah. She was happy there.
117"And your dad? Do you know something about him?"
118"He was a programmer", Sina replied. "I don't understand computers that well, I didn't really know what he was doing." Tony and Sina put down the hoods of their coats as they descended to the metro station at the Rainier Boulevard. The station was empty, like most of the time. Well, almost empty. A girl, almost as old as Sina but with blue hair made into dreadlocks was standing at the uptown side and turned knobs and pressed buttons on a handheld black metal box. Tony and Sina watched her for a while, she didn't seem to take note or care.The train rolled into the station. It kinda looked like a futuristic space shuttle, Sina thought. White metal casing, streamlined design, autonomous computer controlled piloting... the future was now.
119
120"So there we are", Sina said and pointed at the rock in the central park. It was still raining, and no one was here either. Why would they? The central park was only nice when people were there, and people were only there if the weather was nice. Needless to say, it wasn't right now.
121"And how do we get in?", Tony asked.
122"Through that crawlspace there", Sina replied and pointed at the small hole. The ground beneath it was wet and muddy, and Tony didn't want to crawl through the wet dirt. Sina went in first, and after a tiny bit of motivation from Sina, Tony overcame his scepticism and came through as well. To their surprise, there was a keyboard next to an elevator door inside, and it was backlit so Sina could see what she was typing. Carefully, she typed in the code from the now wet and almost dissolving paper Sarah had scribbled the code on. She pressed the last button and the backlighting of the keyboard changed from white to green. Slowly, the elevator door opened. The light coming from the inside was blinding them briefly, but after a few seconds Sina and Tony could see into it. The chamber behind it was an elevator of some sorts, with a leather and wood interior. Right next to the door inside was a panel with eight buttons and a small color display. Sina stepped inside, but Tony stayed put.
123"This isn't right", he said. "We shouldn't be here. Let's just leave and-", he said, but was interrupted by Sina grabbing him by the hand and pulling him inside. As they both stood inside, the door closed and the elevator started moving downwards. It had to move down by a lot, because it took almost two minutes for the elevator to stop again. The doors opened, and Sina and Tony saw a large room in the same design the elevator was built. Glossy wooden slates, leather, beige and brown colour palette... this room reminded Sina of those expensive Mercedes limousines Sarah's dad drove, or better, was driven in. The room was oval, with two levels seperated by a step of about six inches. On the higher gallery, there were five computer consoles and a big slanted touchscreen in the middle, and on the lower level was one rotary chair with a monitor about the size of a smartphone in one of the armrests. Two slanted consoles with very comfortable looking chairs were in front of it. The most notable feature about the room though was the massive television screen embedded in the front wall of the room. It was black, but a logo was displayed in the middle.
124
125It read 'T1'.
126
127Chapter 3 - ADOS
128
129Tony carefully ran his fingers over one of the fiberglass surfaces. The screen lit up and displayed numbers, graphs and buttons. Tony absently touched some of the buttons. He didn't know what they did, he just felt like trying it out.
130"What are you doing?! You don't know what it does! Be more careful!", Sina yelled and shoved Tony away from the terminal, but the command Tony unwillingly entered was already being executed. A circular panel on the floor started to glow. Diodes in the ceiling pointed at the panel and created a ball of white light. The white beams reformed into the silhouette of a man. The glowing ball changed from white to colorful, to black, red and skin color. The light formed a person, a photorealistic man.
131"Please state the nature of the emergency.", he said. The man was wearing shades and a black uniform with red accents and the same logo on the shoulder that was displayed on the screen. Tony instinctively hid under the left console.
132"Who is that?!", Sina whispered. She was cowering right beside Tony, holding him by his shoulders.
133"I don't know", Tony answered. "But he's not human"
134"Please state the nature of the emergency.", the man repeated.
135"How do you know?", Sina said.
136"Well, he appeared out of thin air! Humans don't do that!", Tony muttered.
137"Point taken"
138"Please state the nature of the emergency." Sina carefully came out of hiding.
139"Um, hi", Sina said and waved at the man. "I... um, don't mean to intrude or something, but..."
140"State your identity.", the man commanded.
141"I'm Sina, and... I'm... I... who are you? What are you?"
142"My designation is ADOS-T1, build 9926. I am an artficial intelligence hologram."
143"And... what are you doing here?", Sina continued.
144"I am currently in the process of initialisation of my holo matrix."
145"No, I mean... what is your purpose? You are a computer, right? You have to have a purpose. That's... how computers work, don't they?"
146"You are correct. I am the ship's emergency command hologram. My purpose is to maintain the ship's command structure in case there is a class 4 or higher command destabilisation event."
147"The ship? You mean... this really is a spaceship?"
148"Positive. To be precise, it is a class X cruiser type of starship."
149"And... the starship... what do we do now?"
150"Please stand by. My emotional subroutines are currently compiling.", the hologram said. It froze in place.
151"Is it... dead?", Tony asked and came out of hiding.
152"No, of course not", Sina replied. "It just froze. Like a computer. You know, when it's loading. It freezes." She wanted to knock against the hologram's head, but her hand phased right through the projection. After all, the hologram was just made of light. Sina stumbled and fell right into ADOS. Tony laughed. "A little help would be appreciated!", she grumbled and got up again.
153"Emotional subroutines compiled. Sorry about that.", the hologram said. It was much more natural now.
154"Are you okay?", Tony asked.
155"Okay? Yes, I suppose so.", he said and scratched his head. "I'm sorry if I seemed apprehensive. I'm an artificial intelligence, and you activated me. I just needed to... load my emotions. I know it's kinda strange, but... ", he shook his head. "I digress. Um, welcome to the Terra-1, Sina and... I don't think I got your name.", he said and looked at Tony.
156"Tony. Tony Carter. Nice to meet you.", Tony said and tried to shake ADOS' hand, but of course, phased through. Sina chuckled.
157"Are you two alone or..." he looked at Sina and Tony. They looked back. "So you're alone." Sina nodded slowly.
158"Well, this is a major problem."
159"Why? What is the problem?"
160"Now, I understand that this might be crazy, but this is a starship. It's for exploration. Deep space, out of this solar system. The galaxy. Other planets, stars. And to operate this kind of ship, a ship that's very advanced by the by, you need a crew. Five hundred people. Something in that range. And even with 500 men, it's nowhere near maximum capacity. You two, alone, that's almost impossible."
161"But what if we just leave and tell... I dunno, the government? They will do something-"
162"No. My code doesn't allow that. I'll have to give the ship to the one who first activates me. And that's you. I'm sorry, and don't take this personally, but even though I want, I physically can not give the access codes to anyone else."
163"How about you reprogram yourself?"
164"I don't understand you! I am about to show you things no one has ever seen before! Other planets! Other worlds, beautiful, beautiful things! And you don't even want to see that? I... I just can't accept that!", ADOS said.
165"ADOS, believe me, I would leave this place!", Sina said. "But I can't just go away. It seems... wrong. I have friends here!", Sina said and thought about what she said for a second. "Well, one friend at least."
166"Oh, I think you can. See, we can not leave the solar systems without either a way to live longer than about.. one hundred years or travel faster than light. Fortunately, we can travel faster than light. It's a type of hyperlight drive that forms a gravimetric distortion field around the ship. The ship - quite literally - bends reality and gravity around it. But that also causes a temporal dilation around the ship. For you, you will be gone for three months. On earth, however, you will be gone for two to three days.", ADOS explained.
167"Like a hyperdrive? In Star Wars?", Tony asked.
168"Not exactly, but the basic principles are the same."
169"But it's still three days. How are we going to bridge that? We can't just leave", Sina threw in."You can put each other in a deadlock situation. Tony, you can tell your parents you'll stay at Sina's for a while, and Sina can tell her parents she'll be staying at yours for a few days."
170"I... I don't actually have parents, you know."
171"Well, I'm sorry to hear that. But then you probably live at an orphanage. You can tell your caretakers."
172"Yes I do, but that won't work. They won't just-"
173"Just try it.", ADOS said and brought up a dial pad on one of the consoles. Tony hesitantly put in his landline number and touched the green dial key.
174"Hello, this is Eve Carter", Tony's mother said through the phone line.
175"Hi, Mom? This is Tony."
176"Oh, hi, sweetie! Where are you calling from?"
177"Um... a payphone. On... Midland road. My phone... ran out of battery", he quickly lied.
178"Honey, if you come home, could you do me a favor and pick up some olive oil from the store?"
179"Sure. Listen, I'll stay over at Sina's for a few days. Is that okay?"
180"Of course", Tony's mom said. "Can you be home in time for dinner?"
181"Yeah, sure. I'll just come by and pick up my stuff, okay?"
182"Do that, sweetie. I'll see 'ya later!"
183
184"I can not believe that worked out. I can not believe we are going into space.", Tony later said as he and Sina were walking back to the Midland Road station.
185"I can't either. I still think that's fishy."
186"And what do we do now? Just pack our stuff and leave?", Tony asked no one in particular."Seems like it. Come on, let's get to your house to pack your stuff.", Sina said. She was sceptical, but still fairly nonchalant about the situation.
187"Nice room you got here", Sina said. Tony's room was in the top floor of the two-story house in the western part of Helvetica. He had two high bookshelves filled with all sorts of curiosities, a gray laptop along with homework assignments on his desk, a couch, a TV with a fairly old game console attached to it and a twin sized bed. His dresser was pretty small.
188"Thanks", Tony said. "Help yourself, have a seat. I'll... I'll be done in just a second." Tony climbed on top of his chair and got a few bags from the top of the bookshelves. They were black and blue. With care, he took some of his clothes out of the dresser and put them in the bag with the blue cover. After he was done packing clothes, he went to the bathroom to get his toothbrush and the sorts. Sina took the game console out of the docking station and turned it on. An open world game was loaded. According to the number next to it, Tony had sunk more than five hundred hours into that game. Tony returned with his bathroom utensils in a small etui and saw Sina playing with his console.
189"Hey! That's mine!", he said and took it from her. He quickly turned it off and put it in a carrying case.
190"You have a lot of hours on that one game", Sina said.
191"Yeah, so what? I like it", Tony said and hastingly put his other things, like a few books and his phone charger in the other bag. "You have hobbies, too."
192"I just find it endearing that someone like you likes something nerdy like gaming." Tony sighed and sat down for a bit.
193"This all seems so surreal. Exploring outer space, we? Like, what? We're just some teenagers."
194
195"But isn't that what makes it so exciting?"
196
197Chapter 4 - Space
198
199Sina was in her room with Ellie. Tony had stayed at home; his mother wanted to have dinner before Tony would 'sleep over at Sina's'. She had to sit down on her bed.
200"Ellie, I'll sleep over at Tony's for a while. I'll... I'll be gone for the next three days. Cool with you?", Sina asked with fake coolness.
201"Hm? Yeah, sure", Ellie replied. She was sitting at her desk, absently doodling on a piece of paper.
202"Yeah, so... don't worry about me", Sina said. She was way deep in the awkward zone. Sina couldn't lie, Sina didn't want to lie. Sina had trouble with lying, and Ellie knew that.
203"Sina. I know that train of thought.", Ellie said. Sina stopped carefully filling her suitcase with her entire closet, including the picture of her mother.
204"What... what do you mean?", Sina asked and tucked Sarah's MacBook under her dresses. Mr and Mrs Dorset had both agreed to give Sarah's old belongings to her best friend. A lot of Sarah's stuff was still in her penthouse, but a few of her things, including the things in her bag that were at Sina's place anyways.
205"I know it's tough times for you. Sarah is... y'know. Your parents... and-"
206"You're not helping.", Sina interrupted her roommate. "Get to the point."
207"What I'm saying is, don't run away. It's going to get better, I promise.", Ellie said and sat aside next to Sina on her bed.
208"I'm... Ellie, I'm not planning on running away!", Sina chuckled. "It's just three days!"
209"That sure doesn't look like three days.", Ellie said and waved at Sina's equipment. "Y'all are goin' somewhere." Ellie smiled. "You're going to hit it off with Tony, arentcha?"
210"What- No! Ellie!", Sina said.
211"Anyways. Do what you want. I'll be here and keep your bed warm.", she laughed. "I'm happy for you, y'know. And it's great you let go. Sarah... Sarah's in a better place now."
212
213The crack in the wall was still there. Like a burning iron, it etched itself into Sina's memories. It was crazy that she never noticed it before. Something so unnoticable yet present, she didn't understand why she never saw it. Or maybe she saw it, but just not thought about it. Sina's eyes were drawn to it, she couldn't help but stare emptily. It had a strange fascinating quality; she didn't want to look at it, but she did anyways. The strange, unique shape of the cut was something she would always remember, she knew.
214
215Tony looked at his Casio watch. It was one of these ancient digital quartz clocks from the 1980s, and he was rather fond of it. It read 21:33. The moon was shining down, and it had stopped raining a few hours ago. People were sitting around on picnic blankets wrapped in thick jackets and cardigans, gazing at the sky. The rain clouds had passed by, and the stars were like speckles on a black canvas. Helvetica was a city of the present; for the sole purpose of stargazing, there were no lights in the central park except dimly lit stone pads on the pathways. Tony was leaning against the boulder where he was supposed to meet Sina. With this two bags and a suitcase he got some funny looks from tourists and stargazers around, especially as he tried to squeeze his stuff through the tiny crawlspace to the inside of the hollow boulder. In the dark, Tony couldn't see much, but he recognized Sina running down the path.
216"Hi! Sorry I'm late", Sina panted.
217"No problem", Tony replied. "You're only three minutes late. It's no big deal. Let's get in. Can I... help you with your bags?"
218"Thanks, Tony", Sina said as she was pushing her equipment and herself through the small hole. Inside, Tony took his phone out of his pocket and flashed a symbol at a camera diode next to the door. The elevator door opened up.
219"What was that?", Sina asked while putting her bag inside the lift.
220"The access code, ADOS sent it to me. No idea where he got my number, but I'll take it." This time, the elevator was a bit more active. The monitor on the panel next to the door gave a bit more information this time.
221
222Terra-1 Turbolift Control
223Position: Deck 0 - Base Station
224
225Tony pressed a button with a down arrow on it next to the panel and the door closed. The lift started to move. Sina felt the gravity drop a bit as the elevator moved down.
226"I... I dunno. Are you sure you wanna do this? We don't know what this will be like.", Sina asked. She was anxious about the whole thing. Space. What would it be like? It was too surreal.
227"Why not? It's probably the opportunity of  a lifetime! Space! Think about it! Something only a hand full of people have experienced... I'm down." He looked at his phone. As they descended, the reception got weaker and weaker. "Are you scared?"
228"Well, not necessarily scared... concerned would be a better word. I have no idea what I'm getting myself into. And I have so many questions! Who built this ship? Where did it come from? How does it work? Is there other life out there? And why us? Why did we find this? Is it just dumb luck?"
229"I'm as clueless as you are", Tony replied.
230
231"And here we are! Your new little home.", ADOS said and opened a door on Deck 17. The room behind the door was a small apartment. It was quaint and cozy inside. A large queen-sized bed and a glass desk with a computer screen on it was placed in the middle at the wall facing the ship's hull, with windows to the outside above it. Sina looked through the windows but couldn't see anything other than sediment and dirt. The ship was below ground, after all. There was a bathroom attached to the left side of the room, and a glass wall divided the main room into the bedroom part with the bed and the desk and a living room part with a comfortable sofa embedded in the wall and a coffee table facing the door Sina, Tony and ADOS were standing in. The wall to the corridor was several inches thick; cabinets and cupboard were integrated in the wall. A chute was also embedded in the wall, and it was backlit by blue light strips. ADOS walked up to it.
232"This is a material replicator", he said and knocked firmly against the casing. "It's how we on the ship survive. It takes care of any material needs."
233"And how does it work?", Sina asked.
234"Pretty simple. Do you drink coffee?"
235"Yes", Sina replied. ADOS smiled and touched a blue circle on the black screen above the material replicator and said the word "Coffee" to the device. A cup of coffee was forming in the chute below it. Sparks of light were circling around it, and as they dispersed, a cup of black Java coffee was standing in the chute. ADOS handed it to Sina.
236"Some people would call it magic"
237"It's crazy.", Sina agreed. She carefully put her finger in the coffee. "That's... certainly real coffee. Manifested out of thin air." She needed to sit down, and the couch that was looking comfortable really was comfortable. She put the coffee on the coffee table. A few lines of text appeared next to the cup on the glass surface.
238
239Cup of Java Coffee
240Issued through personal replicator
241Temperature 91.22° C / 196.19 F
242Personal property of Commander Sina
243Tap for more information
244
245"I'm not sure if I can really do this." Sina said. "To space.", she laughed. "To space. That's totally crazy. We're nuts."
246"I understand what you're going through. Actually, I have been provided with a number of subroutines and personality lattices to counteract these exact same phenomena. The best way would just be to launch and let you get used to the new environment. Trust me."
247"Are you sure?"
248"Yes, I am. Let's go to the bridge. Your luggage will be safe here."
249
250Sina fastened her seat belt. The four belts clicked together right on her chest. She was determined now. She was going to space, and no one was going to stop her. The launch countdown was displayed on every single monitor there was on the command bridge. Ten. No time for doubts now.
251Nine. Space, Sina. Space. Out there. You will see what no one has ever seen before, she thought.
252Eight. Tony seemed a bit stressed.
253Seven. ADOS was not fazed at all.
254Six. Time to relax. Everything would be okay, just calm down.
255Five. These probably were the longest ten seconds in Sina's life. And Tony probably thought so, too.
256Four. What was Tony thinking about, anyways?
257Three. Tony was probably fearless. That's how he always acted, after all.
258Two. Tony was tough. Tony was no doubts.
259One. Okay, Sina. You got this, she thought.
260
261Zero.
262
263ACT 2 - Nefario
264
265Chapter 5 - Yumeko
266
267The Terra-1 was drifting through space, idly. ADOS was scanning the space around the ship using the Terra-1's long range scanners. He had prepared something for Tony and Sina. His programming was complex, but broken down to its most mundane level, it could be explained pretty accurately with basic lines of code, if-statements and flashcards. ADOS' program had multiple levels, all interwoven and connected to and with each other. There was is holographic system, his personality subroutines, his behavioral AI patterns, his knowledge database and his memory circuits. All of these intricate systems were hand-crafted by one man. Who was that man? ADOS didn't know. All code that needed metadata had been either classified or overwritten. No matter where, the author of the program was always defaulted to 'John Doe'. ADOS believed that it would be for his best. Classified data was classified for a reason, after all.
268"Wha... What's happened?", Sina asked drowsy. She had been hanging in her chair for the past few hours, unconscious. Launching the spaceship out of the atmosphere was quite a monumental task, and the pressure of exiting the atmosphere rendered Sina and Tony unconscious. The first thing she saw was a planet. A planet that looked like earth. But with... two moons? "What is that?!", Sina yelled.
269"This, my dear Sina", ADOS said and got up from his spot sitting on the tactical console. "This is Nefario III. A type M planet. Habitable, About...  half as big as Earth. Carbon based, Oxygen Nitrogen atmosphere. And... and here's the fun part: It is inhabited. 185 thousand humanoid life signs." He handed Sina a small tablet of data. "Here, if you wanna learn more."
270"Wait, wait, wait, wait. Inhabited? As in there are actually people on there?"
271"Exactemento!", ADOS said. "Isn't it exciting? A new civilisation! And we're the first ones to make contact with them!"
272"I... I don't know. I don't know if I'm ready. And what's up with Tony? Is he gonna be okay?"
273"He'll be fine. He'll wake up soon, and then we'll be ready to go down to the planet. If you didn't notice, we are docked at a space port. A Nefarian space port. I have a shuttle in the shuttle bay to go down to the planet."
274"A shuttle? Don't we have teleporters?", Sina asked. Faster-than-light travel, molecular replication, artificial intelligence, why not teleportation?
275"No. Teleportation is very difficult to do. It's not impossible, but the amount of energy required to actually transfer matter to energy, or data is so high that there is actually no good way to make teleportation useful and versatile."
276"I still don't... aliens! I'm about to meet aliens! This is so crazy!"
277"Don't worry. I got some information on the Nefarians, and... well, they look like humans. Just... fit in. Be unnoticable. Don't do anything stupid." Tony woke up. His head was resting on the console in front of him. Very drowsy, he rose up and looked around.
278"What... where am I? No... wait... I'm..." he saw the planet through the main viewscreen. "Oh, what the hell.", he said and put his head back on the console. "Sina, we're not actually in space, are we?"
279"I think so, yes."
280"For god's sake."
281
282Sina and Tony stepped out of the shuttle J6. The shuttle was parked on the sidewalk of a street similar to Midland Road on earth. Sina looked up. Skyscrapers, four times as tall as the Empire State Building were reaching up into the sky, but they were also bending to horizontal, with docks for spaceships and flying cars. Flying cars? Wow, Sina thought. The future.
283"How about we look around? I mean, if we're here, we might as well.", Tony said. Sina laid down on a grass stripe on the other side of the street and looked in the sky. It was yellow. Flying spaceships and small autonomous delivery bots were zooming along the sky.
284"Come on, lie down!", Sina said. "Lie down, on this... on this alien grass!" She laughed. "This is what I always dreamed of! Another earth, another life, where everyone has the same chances, where I can just start anew!"
285"Sina, we can't stay here, y'know. We have to get back to earth."
286"Oh, do we have to?", Sina asked smiling. "You can go back. I like it here, I'll stay here."
287"You don't know anything. You don't have money, no friends... you don't even know their language. Look at those signs, they don't make any sense!", Tony said and pointed at a holographic street sign. It was reading some letters that barely resembled the latin script, but with some imagination, it could be read.
288"We'll manage. We have ADOS, he's got a lot of data about this planet, I-" Sina was interrupted by a boy, presumably Nefarian.
289"I'm sorry, I don't have much time to explain. You just landed here. Right?"
290"Right...", Sina and Tony said simultaneously.
291"Could you lads do me a favor? Now, I know I sound totally nuts, I know. But this planet, it's unstable. It's a strange geological phenomenon. This planet is... well, it's terraformed. Terraformed out of a volcanic wasteland. And this planet..." the boy gestured wildly and then pointed to the floor. He silently mouthed the words 'is going to blow up'.
292"I... what? But... even if that's the case, why is no one evacuating?"
293"My parents are geologists. They know about this. And so do all geologists on the planet. But our ruler, he... he does not approve of our methods. Or science at all, for that matter. He... you know what, I can explain all that jazz later. You need to help me. You have a shuttlecraft, you need to get me off this planet."
294"Should we, Tony?", Sina asked.
295"Of course! He needs our help!", Tony muttered. Sina nodded.
296"Come aboard. Do you have... anything you want to take with you?"
297"Well, I actually got everything I need in my bag, we should really lift off now. I have no idea how much longer we can hold up.", he said with a northern accent. He seemed like a nice person. But he was very tense at the moment. Well, who wouldn't be. If his planet was really about to explode, he actually was pretty chill about the whole thing.
298
299Shuttle J6 was in orbit. Sina, Tony and their new passenger looked down on Nefario III. It was just... there. Nothing was happening. Sina noticed other ships in orbit, just like them. They were looking down on the planet as well.
300"So? What now? Explosions? Anything?", Tony asked.
301"I don't know.", the boy replied. "I... I know it's gonna happen. But... I don't wanna see it.", he said and turned around. "I... I left my parents behind."
302Right when he finished his sentence and as if it was on cue, the surface of the planet got stricken with red cracks, showing everywhere on the planet. Not just the landmasses, but also in the oceans. The cracks became larger. Soon, the lava was prominent and only small bits of land were floating on top. But the spectacle wasn't even done there. As the planet was completely red and burning, it just shrunk. It got smaller and smaller, until it was the size of a baseball. Of course, something that dense couldn't exist for long. And it couldn't shrink any further, so it had to expand. In all directions at once. Molten pieces of stone, debris and other materials Sina did not want to know what they were flew through the void of space. If it weren't for the shields, the shuttle would now be a piece of swiss cheese.
303"Is this... I... This planet... it's gone", Sina stuttered.
304"I noticed", Tony said.
305"All that advancement... All those people, those cities... My god, all the people! They're all dead!"
306"This is just a bad dream.", Sina said and closed her eyes. "This is just a dream. I'll just open my eyes and everything will be okay. None of this is real."
307"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry, but there's nothing we can do.", their passenger said. "I don't want this to be real myself."
308
309"Your neurotransmitter levels are elevated and you are experiencing massive psychological stress, but other than that, you are fine." ADOS put the medical scanner on the side table of the bio bed Sina was sitting on.
310"All those people, and they are all dead now", Sina said. "Isn't that horrible?"
311"It is. But we have to be prepared for those things to happen. Space... there's so much we do not know about space. Things like this can happen any time."
312
313"So, who are you, exactly?", the boy asked.
314"I was about to ask you the same question. You're from Nefario III, right?"
315"Yes, my name is Yumeko.", he said.
316"Say, why do I understand you? You don't speak my language, do you?"
317"Well... I sure do. I mean, I can understand you, can't I?"
318"But... I'm talking English. That's... that's from earth. I'm from earth."
319"You're from Terra? Well, that explains a lot, mate.", Yumeko said.
320"Why? What do you mean?"
321"Easy. You have no idea about anythin'. You didn't know Nefario. That means that you either are from far, far away or from a non-FTL civilisation."
322"I... I guess"
323"And Terra is a non-FTL civilisation, for some reason. They're pretty advanced, actually. Don't know why they don't have FTL tech yet. They are pretty cool. I love Terran music, for instance."
324"How do you know that?"
325"Through the NVA. The... the Nefario-Vera-Alliance. Kind of a federation between the Nefario system and Vera, a planet... a few light years from here. We have a treaty to monitor other civilisations who are still non-FTL, and help them by... nudging them in the right direction, technologically. Terra, or earth as you call it, is no exception. As a matter of fact, the Terrans are so similar to us in terms of appearance that we have Nefarians living on earth, studying them. We've been doing this for... about seventy years now. That's when we learned about English and made it our language, it just simplified so much."
326"That's incredible", Tony said interested. "And the Nefarians... I mean, you are aliens."
327"I'd watch my mouth, pal. Alien is a really bad insult.", Yumeko said. He was standing in front of the tactical console, familiarizing himself with the database and the computer system of the Terra-1.
328"Right. Sorry. The Nefarians, you're like us. Like us humans. Are you that different?"
329"Yes, we're actually a lot different. The Terrans, they are a bit, not to be rude, but a bit simple. Their anatomy is very rudimentary and they have almost no discerning qualities."
330"No offense taken", Tony said. "And you, what makes the Nefarians different?"
331"Well, we're one of the few humanoid species to have a binary vascular system. Two hearts, three lung wings. We also have two livers and four kidneys. That makes us a lot more resilient. We also have, to some degree, supernatural abilities." Tony looked at Yumeko in disbelief.
332"Supernatural powers?"
333"Not really supernatural. The ability to alter the quantum states of particles and waves around us. Some have more impressive powers, some not. I have pretty useless powers."
334"Can you show me?", Tony asked. Superpowers. Now that was crazy. Aliens with superpowers.
335"I can try... but don't tell anyone. It's forbidden to use powers in my culture."
336"Well, your culture is pretty dead as is, so..."
337"No, actually not. There's Nefario Prime, II, IV, V and the Vi station. I'm not the only one left", he chuckled. He proceeded to snap with his right hand. Sparks were emanating with each snap, until a blue flame was hovering above Yumeko's palm. "This is it."
338"Whoa! You can create fire?", Tony yelled and stepped back.
339"No, not exactly fire. The polar opposite, actually. It's a cryo flame. It freezes things. And it's a reliable light source."
340"That's so cool!", Tony exclaimed. The door to the elevator opened and Sina and ADOS stepped on the bridge.
341"Hey", Sina said with a low voice.
342"Glad to see you", Tony said. "Are you feeling better?"
343"Yes", Sina said and rubbed her eyes.
344"This is Yumeko", Tony said. Yumeko waved lightly.
345"Hi", Sina said. "I'm Sina. Nice... nice to meet you."
346"Likewise. I... Can I make a request?"
347"Ask away", Tony said. Yumeko tapped a white silicone bracelet. A holographic photo popped up above his wrist. A girl was on the photo. She was about sixteen years old, had light pink hair and smiled at the camera.
348"That is my girlfriend. I would like go to her planet, to her home and tell her I'm all right"
349"Let's do that. ADOS, can you set a course for her home?"
350"Sure. Where does she live?"
351"Nefario V. If you get in orbit, we-" Yumeko was interrupted by an incoming transmission.
352"This is the Nefarian border control. You are instructed to stand down your FTL drive and prepare to be boarded and searched."
353"Oh no.", Yumeko said.
354"Why? What is it?", Sina replied.
355"Nefarian bureaucracy."
356
357Chapter 6 - The NVA
358
359"Halt! State your business", an NVA officer said. He was wearing a black uniform with green accents and an official looking hat.
360"We are travelers and explorers from Terra.", ADOS said and stepped forward. "We intend you no harm."
361"I want to see your ship's data sheet and your permit.", the officer said. Other officers were on the ship, searching every room for any clue as to why Nefario III collapsed, after all, the Terra-1 was the only bigger ship in the vicinity. ADOS pointed at a tablet computer on one of the consoles.
362"There, I downloaded them onto this pad."
363"What were you doing at the time of the explosion?"
364"We were in orbit, docked at this station."
365"Did you notice anything unusual?"
366"Aside from the planet literally exploding right in front of us, no."
367"How large is your crew?"
368"Two Terrans.", ADOS said and pointed at Sina and Tony.
369"Who's the Nefarian?"
370"He's a passenger. His name is Yumeko."
371"What is he doing on this ship?"
372"He is a survivor. We were just about to leave to Nefario V to inform Yumeko's friends."
373"I see." The officer signed another officer who was standing next to the turbo lift. He came closer. "What did the search of the cargo bay reveal?"
374"Nothing out of the ordinary, Sir. Their cargo bay is stocked with food, energy cells, tech, materials... everything in normal parameters."
375"Tactical systems?"
376"Impressive. Antimatter torpedoes, laser and plasma beam banks, autocannons, polaron emitters, tractor beams, modulated shields and an experimental particle cannon connected to their FTL drive."
377"Dimensions?"
378"Massive, sir. Class X. 94 decks, but the design is unlike anything I've seen before. It's not Nefarian design, but heavily influenced by it. But the computer core... they're using binary."
379"Double-check the license."
380"Yes, sir.", the under officer said left.
381"Where did you come from?", the officer asked ADOS.
382"A planet in the alpha quadrant. Terra. Sol III."
383"They don't have FTL technology yet."
384"That's true. This ship is an experimental vessel. It is also a secret project of one of our governments. It is integral that you do not make contact with our homeworld."
385"Duly noted."
386"Requesting permission to continue our journey."
387"Granted."
388
389The wind was blowing through the tall grass that surrounded the plaza to the planet greenhouse of Nefario V. Six hectares of planters and soil reserved for the Nefarian government. Anything the ruler wanted in flower bouquets, decoration and even the actual food supply was coming from the planet greenhouse. It was located just outside the town of Avonridge. Right now, after the sudden destruction of Nefario III, the demand for condolence bouquets was through the roof.
390"This is it.", Yumeko said. Sina, Tony and Yumeko were standing at the gates to the planet greenhouse.
391"What are we doing at a plantation?", Tony asked.
392"This is where Mika lives. That house over there, she lives there with her family. Her parents lead the plantation." He reached out and pressed the bell button on the pillar of the gate. Someone answered.
393"Yes, come in.", someone said. "If you have more orders, just... put them on the pile next to the mail box." The gate opened. Yumeko ran up to the house near one of the plantations and opened the door. He carefully stepped inside. No one was in the hallway. Yumeko slowly opened the door he knew was the living room. Two adult Nefarians, presumably the parents of Yumeko's girlfriend, were sitting at the dining table between towers of computer pads writing down numbers and orders on an old calculator that printed out the calculations. The paper coming out at the top was so long in went over the table and back twice.
394"I said, put them next to the mail box! We don't have room in here, as you can see", the father said. He was frantically swiping across the screen of a tablet PC. He looked up. His expression became happy. "Yumeko? You survived!"
395"I guess so", Yumeko said awkwardly. "Is... Is Mika here?"
396"Yes, yes she is! Upstairs, in her room! She'll be happy to see you alive and well"
397
398Yumeko carefully knocked at the wooden door to Mika's room. She used to share it with her sister, but that was a long time ago. Mika didn't talk about her sister often.
399"Go away", a girl's voice said from the inside. Yumeko pushed down the door handle and stepped inside the room. It was rectangular and fairly big, and since it was under the roof, there was a big glass panel replacing the roof. Yumeko had been here before, of course. On their second date, Mika invited Yumeko to stare at the starry night above the greenhouse. It was a unique location, since the plantations did only use the sun and no artificial lighting whatsoever. Now however, the room looked like a bomb went off. Pictures, texts, notes and other paper was strewn across the floor, some of it ripped to shreds. In the curner of the room was Mika's bed. On it was a blanket. Someone cried underneath. Yumeko sat down on the bed.
400"I said go away! Your stupid comforting won't make Yumi come back!" She sobbed. Yumeko pulled away the blanket slowly and stroked Mika's hair. It was colored in a light pink. "Stop that! Leave me alone!", she said without looking up.
401"Hey. It's all right. I'm not dead.", Yumeko said and turned Mika's head towards his. Mika jumped up as if she had been struck by lightning and bitten by a snake at the same time.
402"What! What?", she exclaimed. "You're alive?!"
403"Yes!", he said. "Yes!", he laughed with tears in his eyes.
404"You're alive!", Mika cried and hugged her boyfriend. "I'm so... I've never been happier to see you!"
405"Trust me, I feel the same way" Yumeko said and kissed her on the cheek. Mika slapped him.
406"Don't you do that ever again! You scared the living hell out of me!", she shouted. Yumeko jumped back.
407"I promise! I'm sorry!", Yumeko said and held rubbed his hand against the spot where Mika slapped him. He knew his girlfriend was like this sometimes. She could be very angry, but only because she loved Yumeko more than anything.
408"Tell me! How... I mean, how did you know? How did you survive? What did you do?"
409"I... while I was doing a test of my new seismoscope, I noticed that there was a slight irregularity in the gravimetric field. It was a sneaking anomaly, and it's caused by what I can only guess to be a detuned crystal in the material synthesizer matrix that was used to terraform Nefario III back in the day. I didn't know exactly when that would happen, but I did have a general idea of when. Eventually, that day came. I didn't know what to do, I... I got lucky. My new friends have a starship and got me off Nefario III just in time."
410"Your friends?", Mika asked. As far as she knew, Yumeko didn't have friends with their own ships.
411"Two Terran teenagers. A long story, really. They are waiting outside."
412
413"So, you two come from Terra.", Mika's father said while pouring a tea.
414"Yeah. I live in Helvetica, in Canada. Dunno if you heard of it."
415"No, I've never been there. Mika told me you own a starship, what do you do?"
416"Exploring, mainly", Sina said and took a sip of her tea. It tasted... unique. Unlike anything Sina had ever had before. The leaves in the tea kettle were colorful, red, yellow, violet... strange. "Nefario was the first system we saw. Aside from ours, of course."
417"Exploring? You can buy star maps of the whole galaxy at the Vi Station. There's not much to explore in this galaxy. The only thing I could think of would be the C-Sector, but...", Mika's mother replied.
418"But what?", Tony asked.
419"A word of advice.", Mika's father said and put his tea glass on a computer pad on the coffee table. "There's a sector, about 35000 light years away from here. it's about 7000 light years wide. Whatever you do, do not go there. It's a war zone. A merciless mass murderer lives there. No one knows what he does, why he is there. We can only speculate. There are only stories. The only thing we do know is that the few ships that do have the guts or the stupidity to fly in there do not come back. Ever."
420"Thanks for the... warning, I suppose", Sina said.
421"And I now live on the Terra-1, with Tony and Sina. I thought, maybe, because it's vacation, maybe Mika would want to go on a trip with us? A little road trip around the galaxy?"
422"I... I don't think so.", Mika's father said. "We got hands full here. We need every help we can get. Especially from Mika."
423"Please, Lawrence! It's vacation, and we won't do anything stupid!"
424"I dunno... space is dangerous."
425"Listen, Mr... what was your name again?", Tony asked.
426"Lawrence", Lawrence replied.
427"Lawrence. We are... granted, not the most experienced astronauts out there. But we just survived an apocalypse. I think we can handle a few weeks of sightseeing."
428"You do make a valid point. Is there an adult with you?"
429"Technically, no. But our command hologram is like a guardian to us."
430"Well... if it makes you two happy", he looked at Mika and Yumeko. "I guess the people in the office could pull some overtime. You can go if you want to."
431"Thanks, dad", Mika said.
432"But I want to hear from you at least twice a week, and I don't want you to go further than long range comms. And don't do anything stupid."
433"Yes, dad", Mika said.
434"And brush your teeth twice a day."
435
436Mika was sitting on her new bed in her new room on the Terra-1. She liked it here, it was a massive room for a starship. She was unpacking her luggage. She had brought anything anyone would ever need for two months. Even multiple boxes with strange hats just in case she ever went to the planet of hats or something like that. Someone knocked at the door.
437"Come in", she said. The door opened. Yumeko slowly stepped inside.
438"Are... are you all right?"
439"Yeah, sure", she said and continued unpacking her things. "Why'd you come?"
440"I just wanted to see you", he answered.
441"Well, here I am", Mika said. A good minute of awkward silence took place.
442"So... what do you want to do?"
443"Does this ship have an observation deck?"
444"I dunno. Probably. Computer, where's the observation deck?"
445"The observation deck is located at Deck 10, front.", the computer stated.
446
447"How far have you gone in the galaxy? What's the farthest you've ever been away?"
448"I... I was on Vera once", Mika said. "I can't go on longer trips, my parents, and the greenhouse... so, yeah. I've been to the Vi Station a few times... but that's about it. How about you?", Mika replied. She was lying on a couch on the observation deck, her head resting on Yumeko's left leg. The spotted void was above them. The ship was not moving. It was still in orbit of Nefario V, recharging the additional power cells.
449"I've been to the UFB, to their deep space exploration stations."
450"How is it? I've always wanted to go there."
451"Not like you think. It's insanely crowded. Like a basar. Everyone is trying to sell you things, or annoy you some other way."
452"Don't you think it could be romantic?"
453"Not the way you think. My parents were there because we stopped to recharge our ship. I wanted to look around, and I didn't like it."
454"Hm.", Mika said and looked at the stars. The ship started to rumble and jumped to speed over light. The stars weren't points anymore, but lines. Lines that faded to all colors of the rainbow at their end. "Computer, where are we going?"
455"The specified destination is a Class 4 Nebula in the Delta Quadrant. Estimated time of arrival: Two weeks, One day, fourteen hours, three minutes, twenty-five seconds."
456"Delta quadrant? Didn't your dad say we should avoid that part of space?"
457"Only the C-Sector. Computer, will we be crossing the C-Sector?"
458"Insufficient data."
459"See, no need to worry.", Mika said.
460"No need to worry? It just said that it didn't-"
461"Relax", Mika said. "Computer, play music." Yumeko did look very worried. Even the slow calming jazz the computer played didn't help. Mika didn't worry, though. A road trip through space, she thought.
462How exciting.
463
464Chapter 7 - The C-Sector
465
466The bridge was empty except Sina. She was sitting at the helm with a book in her hands. It was the so-called 'Owner's manual' of the Terra-1. What an odd choice of words. Owner's manual. Did Sina own this ship? Legally, yes. But she sure didn't feel like it. And it was also a nice detail that the manual was an actual book, in case the power went out, one could still read it. Someone had put thought into that. But who? Who built this ship? ADOS said this was a Terran experimental vessel, but he was lying so that earth didn't catch wind of Sina and Tony. Still, the ship had to have come from earth. A giant starship being dug under the Helvetica Central Park would've at least showed up on logs, or the plans. The only thing Sina could imagine that parts for the Terra-1 were delivered or built on different places all over the world and were brought to Helvetica where they were assembled underground. But even that would have taken not only time, but als every party to cooperate. And Sina knew how people were. No way everyone would cooperate on bringing electronic parts and incredibly advanced systems half way across the globe without someone sneaking a few parts in their private repertoire.
467"Computer, who built this ship?"
468"That information is classified. Only in emergencies this information can be revealed."
469The computer couldn't tell her. At least not yet. Didn't she read something in the manual about exploiting the computer? Sina quickly flipped to Chapter 17, the computer systems. There it was. 'Overriding security'.
470"Computer, get me a new authorisation code."
471"Generated. Your code is Theta-Tau-22-Sina-F."
472"Now, computer, who built this ship?"
473"That information is classified. Only in emergencies this information can be revealed."
474"Computer, security override. Authorisation Theta-Tau-22-Sina-F."
475"Security overridden. That information is classified. Only in emergencies this information can be revealed."
476"Computer, I just overrode the security! You're supposed to tell me!"
477"That information is classified. Only in emergencies this information can be revealed."
478"Computer, um..." Sina flipped through the book. "Um... isolate the responsible memory address and display them on my console."
479"Warning: LHC breach imminent. Lower the stress on the toroid magnets immidiately."
480"Computer, what is happening?"
481"The LHC is breaching. This ship is going to drop out of FTL velocity."
482"What- what can I do? Computer, what do I do?", Sina yelled. She frantically flipped through the manual. There must be something she could do.
483"Computer, red alert", she said. The light on all consoles and the accent lights on the bridge switched to bright red. "Sina to everyone, something's wrong! The computer says that the LHC is damaged", Sina yelled into the microphone. "Computer, activate emergency command hologram, now!"
484"Please state the nature of the emergency.", ADOS said after he appeared on the bridge. The ship was shaking. Sina fell out of her chair. The gravity went offline and she was thrown through the room.
485"I don't know! The LHC is destabilizing!"
486"What? How- how is that even possible?"
487"How should I know? Help us!", Sina yelled and tried to access one of the consoles.
488"The structural integrity is failing! We have hull breaches on decks twenty through sixty-four!"
489"Hold on! I can control the shields from here!", Sina yelled and frantically typed combinations into the tactical console.
490"Shields won't help us! The ship's gonna crash!"
491"Where? Where! We're in space! We can't crash!"
492"There's a station about thirty kilometers away, we can make it! Brace for impact!"
493
494Where was everyone? Right there. Everyone wanted to go somewhere. Everyone was rushing. Rushing up and down the escalators. The staircase was infinite. Up. Only up. Everyone was rushing up. Up the walls, up the escalators. Like in an Escher painting. Women with long, dark hair. Men in suits with briefcases. Girls with almost white hair and bulky glasses. But not Sina. She was falling. Falling down the hole in the middle of the staircase. No one faced her. No one noticed her. Why would they? Sina had abandoned them. Sina didn't care about them, why would they care about Sina? That wasn't how it worked. Not at all. Everyone screamed at Sina. Everyone screamed the silent screams.
495You are just escaping.
496
497"Where am I? What is happening?!", Sina yelled. She had just woken up. She hadn't died. She was in a small room with a large open gate. Her clothing had minor burns and cuts, but she would manage. The room was... peculiar. Unlike anything she had seen before. Like a patchwork. Built out of many different parts. But Sina didn't have time. She needed to find out what was happening here, and where she was. She tried to step out of the room, but was knocked back at the open gate. A surge of energy went through her body, like an electrical shock.
498"Crap!", she cursed involuntarily. She tried again, more careful this time. The closer she came to the open gate, the air started to jitter more. Like the static on an old TV screen. She touched it, and the gate shocked her again. A force field. An energy barrier designed to keep her inside. Insight hit Sina. This was a brig. She was a prisoner.
499
500"Hey! Is anyone there?", Sina yelled. No one answered. Her hand still hurt from the shock the force field gave her. Where exactly was she? The last thing she remembered was... the Terra-1. The bridge. She had crashed... where? She didn't know. But she was sure she wasn't on any NVA station. It was too... broken down for that.
501"Hello! Anyone around?" Sina didn't expect anyone to respond, but incidentally, someone did. Someone in the cell next to her.
502"Sina? Is that you?", someone said. That voice was familiar. It was Mika.
503"Mika! Are you there?"
504"Yes! I... Any idea where we are?"
505"I... I have a suspicion, but I'd rather not say it"
506"Why? Where do you think we are?"
507"The C-Sector's command center. No one has ever been able to leave."
508"But... why... how did we get here?"
509"I don't know. But I think I do know how to get out. I... Well, I hope this works.", Mika said. Sina wanted to warn her about the force field, but she was staggered and blinded by a bright yellow flash of light coming from the cell to Sina's right. As her vision became clear, she saw Mika working on a console next to Sina's force field from the outside.
510"Wha- how did you- How did you get outside?", Sina asked baffled.
511"Blink. I... I know I'm not allowed to use it, but it was an emergency."
512"You can teleport?", Sina asked. "That's amazing!"
513"No... not really teleport. Just over short distances. It's very exhausting." The force field fluttered and disappeared. Sina carefully stepped through.
514"Thanks" Sina said. She wasn't the only one in the brig. A lot of cells were arranged in a circular pattern around a round corridor. The cells were all locked by a force field each.
515"Let's get out", Mika said.
516"And Yumeko? Tony? Where are they?"
517"No idea. Maybe they're around here. We'll see." Mika picked up the pace and went further down the corridor. It was eerily quiet. Sina's skin was crawling. Something was up, she knew.
518"Mika, I got a very bad feeling about this.", Sina said and inched closer to Mika.
519"Hold this.", Mika said and pulled a circuit board, almost as big as a stack of playing cards, out of a wall socked and held it up to Sina's face. Sina held it for Mika.
520"What are you doing?", Sina asked. Her voice trembled slightly. She was distressed. Claustrophobia never occured to her, but this station felt... out of place, to say the least. She could tell that something was incredibly wrong here. How did she get here, what had happened to the the others and the Terra-1? Sina had so many questions.
521"Give me the chip", Mika commanded. Sina snapped out of her train of thought and handed her the circuit board. Mika's fingers slid into a cavity under one of the corridor's wall platings and plugged the chip into something, Sina couldn't tell what. The sliding door in front of them opened. Inside was a glass elevator with a small screen panel on the side, presumably to choose the floor the user desired to visit. Mika stepped inside.
522"Are you sure we should do this?"
523"Sina, you don't understand! We have no choice! It's either follow me, or get killed, or worse. We have no idea what's happening here. We have to assume the worst."
524"But... you don't know where we're going! You don't even know if this is the C-Sector!"
525"Follow me. Seriously." She reached out to Sina. Reluctantly, Sina took Mika's hand and got in the elevator. Mika examined the control panel closely. Apart from the settings for 'Bridge', 'Habitat', 'Engineering', 'Containment', 'Shuttle Bay' and 'Scrapyard', it had some other interesting buttons, like a clock, a power meter, and some other gauges Mika had no idea what they meant. Instinctively, she pressed the button for the Habitat. The elevator moved up. Up, higher and higher. Through the glass of the elevator and missing wall panels on the elevator shaft, Sina and Mika could see the massive structure of the station. It was... peculiar. Arrays of light diodes flashed at the two girls, as if they were waiting.
526"Creepy", Mika muttered.
527"Yeah... how many people do you think live here? I mean, the C-Sector. It has to managed by someone."
528"I don't think there's anyone.", Mika said.
529"What, how do you mean that?"
530"Think about it. We have a massive brig, rudimentary architecture, an engineering deck. Granted, a Habitat, but it doesn't seem like anyone actually is cleaning up or anything. There are a lot of theories on this, on who is really behind the C-Sector, and one of them is that a rogue AI, a computer, expanded it's matrix beyond what is physically possible."
531"Is that possible?"
532"I don't know. It shouldn't. But you can't know." The elevator stopped and opened. The habitat was - just as Mika predicted - very messy and looked like no one had cared enough to tidy up. The fridge was - apart from a month old stick of butter - completely empty. Plates and knives were littered all over the countertop, a blanket was strewn across the couch, the TV was running. On the other side of the round habitat, Mika and Sina found one queen-sized bed and an end table. There was a small book on the end table, presumably a journal.
533"Mika, I found a diary", Sina said. Mika was checking out the laptop on the dining table. She wasn't really listening, but focusing on the computer in front of her. It ran a strange proprietary operating system. Mika tapped the power button, and the computer lit up. It just booted directly into the system, without any password screens ot something. Something cut through the silence. The sound of the elevator moving. Someone had called it down to the lower levels. The elevator stopped for a minute and got back up.
534"Hide!", Mika whispered and crawled under the bed. Sina followed her. It was not exactly spacious under the bed, but it was acceptable for hiding under. The elevator that was placed in the middle of the round habitat opened its doors. Yumeko and Tony stepped outside. Tony looked seriously hurt. Yumeko was helping him on the couch. Mika crawled up from under the bed.
535"Are... are you okay? Yumeko, what happened?" Yumeko was surprised to see Mika here, to say the least.
536"I- What are you doing here? I couldn't find you in the brig, where you here all along or- Well, it doesn't matter, I guess. I used my power to overload the force field generator and got Tony out. He has some severe injuries. I suppose he didn't take the crash as well as we did, and he thought it would be a good idea to try and go through a force field. I'm looking for a med kit or something."
537"I... over there, I think", Mika said and opened a medicine cabinet hanging from the wall next to the knife block. It was neatly organized, with bangades, painkillers, antibiotics and medical devices. She handed Yumeko one of the devices who proceeded to hover it over Tony's burns. As Yumeko helped Tony, Sina took a closer look at the diary she had found on the end table.
538
539K-66-2486.15 - Noon
540The amp works... well, kinda. The psychic interface is almost unusable at this point, it's unreliable and slow, and I think it's damaging my synapses at this stage of development. I'll be off for a few days, I heard there was a lab at K'Erooza Prime specialized in telepathy. I'll check it out, with the Zenith. I don't think I'll come back until K-66-2571.43, but... you never know.
541
542Sina looked at the clock on the end table.
543It read K-66-2571.38.
544
545Chapter 8 - Cora
546
547"Guys. I... I think we should go.", Sina said. The clock counted up to K-66-2571.39.
548"Why? What's the matter?"
549"This journal says someone left a few days ago and will be back soon, around K-66-2571.43, and it's already 39."
550"That means... we only have about fifteen minutes left.", Mika deduced.
551"And then what? What's gonna happen then?", Tony asked, holding his shoulder.
552"I'd rather not find out.", Mika said determined and strutted to the elevator in the middle of the room. "Come on, let's move!"
553
554The elevator was crowded, four people in a very small elevator was more than enough. It was going down to the shuttle bay, because Tony figured the Terra-1 must've been somewhere, so the shuttle bay was the logical choice. The elevator took its time. The elevator ride must've taken about five minutes down, he reckoned. As the door opened, everyone was relieved to get out of that claustrophobia inducing cabinet of an elevator.
555The shuttle bay was immense, probably about twenty times bigger than the shuttle bay of the Terra-1 was. A big force field kept the air in and space out. Its edges were glowing blue. Tony could see a good twenty ships in the shuttle bay, from small shuttlecrafts to mid-range starships. But there was no sight of the Terra-1 anywhere.
556"Where... where is it?", Mika asked.
557"No idea", Tony replied.
558"Maybe... maybe the computer knows something?", Sina suggested.
559"Good catch." Yumeko pulled away a panel next to the elevator and pulled out some clear chips and put them back in different slots. The panel beeped. "Computer, can you hear me?"
560"Positive.", a very dark modulated voice said.
561"Computer, where is the Terra-1?"
562"Unable to comply. Please restate query."
563"At around K-66-2571, a ship was pulled out of FTL velocity. Where is it?"
564"The cargo retrieved at K-66-2571.04 is currently stored at the scrapyard on level six."
565"The scrapyard it is.", Yumeko said and stepped back into the elevator.
566"Ship 14, alias Zenith is approaching on a course 045 Mark 2. Stand clear." Zenith. The ship mentioned in the journal in the hab.
567"Hide!", Sina yelled. She, Mika, Yumeko and Tony hid behind one of the cargo crates. It was a mediocre hiding spot, but they wouldn't be spotted that easily either. The Zenith, a small spacecraft for a maximum of three people, landed on the surface of the shuttle bay. It stood there for about two minutes, then the door on the side opened. A person stepped outside. A girl, to be exact. About as high as Mika, about the same age as Mika... but she had blue hair. Blue hair that was made into dreadlocks. Sina... Sina knew that girl. She had seen her before. On earth, at the subway station. But that couldn't be, now could it?
568"Centauri, record log. Stardate K-66-2571.41. I've returned from my trip to K'Erooza Prime, and I think I now have what I need to work out the last nooks and crannies on the psychic interface. The K'Eroozanians were strangely... well, cooperative. They were very keen on sharing their research. Log end." She pulled a tablet PC out of her back pocket. "Centauri, access version control. Repository B 22. Add the data on the Zenith database to the research folder. Commit and sync."
569"Commit 4b18af created. Synchronisation in progress. Synchronisation completed."
570"Good. Centauri, build B 22."
571"Building B 22. 22. 22. 22. 22."
572"Cen... tauri? Are you okay?"
573"22. 22. 22. 22."
574"Centauri, isolate command failure."
575"Error is in grid 38, isolinear chips A4, A5 and B4 are detuned."
576The girl had a puzzled look on her face. "Centauri, when did these chips get detuned?"
577"K-66-2571.40."
578"Who detuned these chips?"
579"You did, Commander Cora."
580"Wha- No, I didn't! I was not there!"
581"Your biological imprint was present on the Centauri at K-66-2571.40."
582"No, I-" She stopped dead in her tracks. "Centauri, am I aboard the station?"
583"Your genetic engram is present twice on the station."
584"What in the stars- Centauri, Code Red.", she ordered. The lighting switched to a bright red, alarm fanfares were blaring over the intercom. She went back inside the Zenith and came back out with a laser pistol and a pair of thick goggles. It didn't take long until she found the crate the crew was hiding behind.
585"Come out of hiding at once. This is an order.", she yelled.
586"What do we do?!", Sina whispered hysterically.
587"Stay. I'll handle this.", Mika said. Yumeko hissed something at her, but she already came out of her hiding space.
588"What are you doing here? Answer me!", the girl demanded to know.
589"Cora, is it really you?", Mika said.
590"Centauri! Compare my genetic engram with hers! Now!"
591"The genetic engrams are identical."
592"So it's really you.", she said.
593"Cora... what has happened to you? You... you're not the Cora I knew."
594"Believe me. The Cora you knew died a long time ago. Also, I can see that three more are hiding behind that crate. You can come out." Slowly, Sina, Yumeko and Tony came out of their hiding space.
595"I... I think I owe you an explanation.", Mika said. "Guys, this... this is my sister."
596
597"Your sister? You... you knew what this was all along?"
598"No. No idea. I... it's a pure coincidence. Sina, you remember the computer in the habitat? It wasn't password protected."
599"Yeah, so?"
600"What if it actually was, but it's programmed to respond to a genetic engram. As my twin sister, Cora's engram is the same as mine. The computer mistook me as her. That's also why we didn't trip any alarms."
601"But... you weren't expecting us, were you?", Tony asked.
602"No, not at all. But... now that you're here... how did you even get here? There's a displacement shield around the station, no one gets in.", Cora asked.
603"I don't know either. Our ship dropped below FTL, and next thing I knew I woke up in your brig."
604"That was... I'm sorry. That was my collector beam."
605"Collector beam?", Yumeko asked.
606"It's... complicated. It's a tractor beam, and it works even on ships in FTL. If someone violates my airspace, the beam grabs it, pulls it into the scrapyard and puts the crew in the brig."
607"And... then? What happens to the crew?", Tony asked.
608"They die. Eventually. If they're dead, the replicator systems repurpose the matter and stores it, for later." The look on Mika's face went from interested to shocked.
609"What?", she asked. "You... you kill people?"
610"I... I don't kill 'em, they're already dead at that point"
611"Cora! That's horrible!", Mika yelled. Cora got angry.
612"Do you know what's horrible? This, this thing is nothing compared to what I have been through! In the four years I've been here, I have done things you wouldn't even begin to grasp the effect of! I have destroyed more lives than atoms are in your body! If anyone knows what's horrible, it's me!"
613"But... but how can you live with yourself? Don't you have a conscience at all?", Mika asked. She was on the verge of crying, but Cora smiled.
614"A conscience. Listen to yourself." She chuckled. "Ethics... Conscience... Those things are holding back what's important! Break the cycle and focus on what's important!"
615"What could be so important that it warrants millions of innocent people dying? Tell me!", Mika yelled.
616"Why do you care so much? They are irrelevant! You don't know them, I don't know them! No one cares, the world moves on!"
617"Cora... No one is allowed to think that way."
618"Why? Who's stopping me?", she laughed.
619"Cora. You have to stop this."
620"No! I won't! And no one can stop me!", Cora said triumphant. Suddenly, Tony charged towards Cora and punched her in the stomach. She was completely off guard and fell down, dropping her laser pistol. Tony picked it up and pointed it at Cora.
621"Tony, don't!", Mika cried.
622"I am stopping you, right now.", Tony said.
623"Now I get it", Cora said. "You work for the NVA, don't you. Your mission is to get me and bring me to them, isn't it?"
624"What? No! We flew through the C-Sector... we didn't know you were behind all this!", Mika said.
625"That's a lie. Why would anyone willingly fly through the C-Sector? It's etched out on maps! Any at least half decent Navlink system would avoid it, you know."
626"Not ours. It doesn't have any faction maps or anything."
627"What kind of garbage ship do you have?"
628"It's not garbage! It's from Terra, it's an experimental vessel", Sina said.
629"Don't tell me you're from Terra. You're not from Terra, are you- You are! That's brilliant!", Cora suddenly said and got up.
630"Hey! One more step and I'll-", Tony said with the gun in his hands.
631"You'll what? You won't do anything.", Cora said.
632"Oh, you think that?", Tony said. "If you hurt anyone, I'll... I'll make use of this thing!"
633"No, I don't think so."
634"And why, huh? Do you think I'm a wimp?"
635"No, because you're holding it the wrong way", Cora said. Tony fiddled around with the laser gun and turned it around. Cora just snatched from him and put it on her belt. "You say my collector beam brought you in, so your ship should still be in the scrapyard... Come on, let's go!", Cora said and ran over to the elevator.
636"What, you just... You... Cora, we-"
637"What? Come on!", Cora said, got in the elevator and pressed the button for the scrapyard. The doors closed and the elevator moved down. Sina, Mika, Yumeko and Tony just stood there on the shuttle bay, staring at the elevator door.
638"Is she... always like this?"
639"Absolutely.", Mika answered.
640
641"So... this is your ship, eh?", Cora said. She was holding a cup of coffee and looked at the Terra-1 that was standing between  hundreds of other ships and millions of tons of scrap metal and replacement parts. The elevator went deep down to the lowest parts of the space station. The scrapyard reminded Tony of a spider's web, metal bridges and conveyor belts crossed through the abyss. Like the shuttle bay, the scrapyard was equipped with a force field at the bottom. Unsurprisingly, the tractor beam emitter was right outside the force field. "It's massive."
642"I know, right? It's... bigger than any ship I've seen before.", Mika said. Cora took a metal bar out of a computer terminal and pressed a hidden button on the side. A blue holographic screen folded out above the bar.
643"It's... amazing", she said and read the data sheet. "Distortion-based technology, binary computer. Impressive armory." She folded the screen back together. "I like it. And you say this is the Terran pilot ship?"
644"Kind of", Yumeko answered. "Tony and Sina say they've found it by accident."
645"By accident? What kind of accident- you know what, I don't care. By the way, who are you exactly?"
646"He's my boyfriend", Mika said quickly and grabbed Yumeko by the arm.
647"Boyfriend?" Cora raised an eyebrow. "You do you, sis"
648"Cora, can... can we have this ship back? I mean, it's ours, so...", Sina asked carefully.
649"What would you say... if I came with you?", Cora suddenly proposed.
650"No! Cora! You stay here, you... I don't want you! You're a bad person!"
651"Mika. I... just give me a try! You couldn't have a better guide than me through the C-Sector. I know every nook and cranny of this part of space. I'll promise I won't do anything to harm you."
652"I don't trust you! Give me one reason not to chuck you down the abyss right now!", Mika yelled and inched closer. Cora moved back and held on to the railing.
653"Hey, stay back!", Cora said. Mika felt powerful.
654"You stay! You stay out of my life! You stay out of anyone's life from now on! You stop this madness, and you stop killing people! Do you understand?", Mika shouted.
655"I... Mika! What-", Cora wanted to say, but couldn't. Mika had pushed her over the railing, down the bottomless pit.
656"Let this be a lesson!", Mika yelled down.
657"Mika!", Yumeko yelled. "You just... you just killed your sister!"
658"I know what I did! I know... Oh my stars, I... I know what I did! I just... I just killed my sister" Mika sat down on the catwalk she had just pushed her sister off. "I'm... I'm a murderer"
659"Mika, please... I...", Yumeko tried to comfort her but was cut off by someone under them. Under them?
660"Hey! Could you help me?", Cora yelled from under the catwalk. Sina, Mika, Tony and Yumeko looked down the railing to see Cora floating in mid air about seven feet below them.
661"Cora! Wha- how- How do you do that?" Mika was confused, but also relieved.
662"The sweet spot", she said and tried to lie down in zero-gravity. "Every ship has one. Where the gravity generators cancel themselves out. Now, can you give me a hand?" Mika stood there, frozen in shock and disgust of herself. Tony shoved her aside and helped Cora back up to the catwalk. "Thanks", she said and wiped some dust from her shirt. She looked at Mika. "See? We're not that different. You let your emotions take over. But sometimes, you hurt others and yourself with that. I learned it the hard way."
663"Don't say that." Mika's voice was trembling. "You're nothing like me. You're everything I despise."
664"You're... you're just like me!" Cora smiled. "I was exactly like you, three years ago. But I've moved on, I've grown."
665"I think... I think you're right... In a sick and twisted way, you're right", Mika granted. "But you're not coming with us. No. Not in a million years."
666"Well, fine. Do whatever you want. I don't care. But if you... if you ever need something from me, call." Cora threw her one of the metal bar holo screen thingys. "Also, maps of the area. I mean, what kind of sister would I be?", she laughed. "You sure you don't want me to tag along?"
667"Yes!", Mika yelled.
668"Come on! Please!"
669"You're a horrible person! Stay on your station and don't bother us!", Mika yelled. She took Yumeko by the shoulder and walked up to the Terra-1. Tony and Sina followed her, shrugging shoulders.
670"Hey, call me some time!", Cora yelled and made a phone gesture with her hand.
671
672Surprisingly, the Terra-1 wasn't damaged at all whatsoever. The bridge looked like the bridge Sina knew, the quarters were exactly like the crew had left them, even the drive was operational. Sina tried to access the logs right before they were dragged onto Cora's station, but the logs didn't even exist. Strange, she thought. Why would Cora go the length of repairing the systems and deleting the logs if the ship would end up in the scrapyard either way?
673"Computer, launch sequence."
674"Initiating launch sequence. Please fasten seat belts." Sina did as she was told and put in her authorization code. The drive charged up and the ship left the station. It was... well, just as uneventful as it sounded. To be frank, Sina was sure she didn't even need to fasten her seat belt at all. One of the elevator doors opened. Mika stepped on the bridge, and she brought the map data Cora had given her.
675"'Sup?", Sina asked.
676"Hey, I got the maps here, if you want to download them. I mean, she's kind of right. Without a map of the sector, we're toast." She handed Sina the metal bar.
677"Yeah, I'll... I'll download them. Don't worry." She pressed the button on the side like Cora had done. The holographic screen folded up and displayed a wide array of data, but all in Nefarian script. Sina couldn't read it.
678"Is something the matter? You seem... not yourself, to say the least."
679"No, I just... everything is so sudden. You just met your sister for the first time in like four years, you find out that she's a terrorist and you just accept that fact and move on with your life. That can't be it, now can it?"
680"You should try not to think about it. Do something to distract you, play a holo novel for instance. For all I know you hang around at the bridge all day and stare into space."
681"What's a holo novel?", Sina asked. Novels were great, she had read a lot of novels back on earth. Her favourite would have to be... Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, she thought.
682"Like... like a movie, if that makes sense. A movie where you play the lead role. It's hard to describe, you need to play one for yourself to understand. So, you down?"
683"Yes, why not", Sina thought and put the hologram PDA on her desk. "Computer, download the map data from the PDA."
684"Affirmative."
685
686Sina and Mika were walking down the hallway of deck 7. Deck 7 was intended for recreational purposes, it even had an artificial garden that was three decks tall. But the garden wasn't where they were going. They were going to one of the holo grids, holographic simulation rooms that could simulate almost anything the user wanted to.
687"And you never tried a holo novel?", Mika asked and used the terminal next to a big metal door.
688"No, there's no stuff like that on earth. I mean, there are novels, and games, and movies, but... nothing like a holo novel"
689"I'm sure you'll like it. Personally, I love holo novels. One of my biggest hobbies, actually. I thought about writing one myself for a while." She looked through the library of holo novels she had brought from her home on Nefario V. Sina didn't recognize any of the book covers on the screen.
690"So, is there like a genre you particularly like, or do you have a favourite holo novel or something?"
691"I love detective stories. You know, those old things. Black and white, gangs, murder mysteries, I enjoy those. Taking a break from the modern world sometimes... it's refreshing."
692"Can I play one of these?", Sina asked.
693"Sure, I have one here. Set in the 50s, in Chicago on Terra. The president of the Chicago tribune has been found dead in the river. It's up to you to find out who's really behind it."
694"That sounds cool."
695
696ACT 3 - Pathos
697
698Chapter 9 - Noir
699
700"Which means you must be the killer, Mr. Jarrett.", Evelyn said. Mr. Jarrett was shocked.
701"Miss Sherman, I... this is outrageous!", he yelled. The moon outside shone through the window behind Evelyn Sherman's desk. A cigarette was burning in an ash tray. Evelyn didn't smoke, but the burning cigarette helped her focus. Helped her concentrate on the important things, like the file on her desk. The superintendent of the Chicago Tribune had been ruthlessly murdered and tossed into the Chicago River. The police wasn't interested, didn't even care. It was like they did not want to investigate. They wrote it off to suicide and tossed the file away. One of the new interns picked the file out of the bin and read it. Then they had passed it on to private investigator Evelyn Sherman. She wasn't the best, but she was ruthless. She would go every length needed to go.
702"So explain, Mr. Jarrett. Where were you on the 10th of May, 1948?", she said. "Don't answer. We both know." She pulled her Trilby deeper. "You were at Calumet Harbour, drowning Mr. Peter McLallin."
703"Why would I do that? He was not only my boss, but also one of my closest friends!" Jarrett was sweating. He knew Evelyn was right, and Evelyn knew Mr. Jarrett knew.
704"Let me show you something." She reached under her desk and pulled out a thick rope. "The rope you used to strangle McLallin. Your fingerprints are all over it. You're done, Jarrett." Evelyn got up. "But why did you do it? Money? Fame? The better position?" She stepped around the desk. "Or just because you're such a sick bastard?"
705"You're missing the bigger picture.", he said. "You're-"
706"I'm not missing anything. The only thing you're missing is your ability to lie. You're going to Alcatraz, and if that's the last thing I'll do as Evelyn Sherman, so be it." She grabbed Jarrett by the collar and shoved him up against the wall. "You're lucky I'm in a good mood today. I'll turn you in myself, right now." She turned his head to the window. "Take a good look, because this is going to be the last time you'll see the Magnificent Mile."
707
708Sina stepped out of the Holo Grid. Mika was waiting outside.
709"And? How was it?", she asked.
710"So... so real! It was... It was like I was actually there! I was Evelyn Sherman for five hours!"
711"Pretty cool, huh?", she said and pounced her friendly. "I have a lot of the Evelyn Shermans. They are my favourite holo novels."
712"I can see why! It was so lifelike, like I was travelling in time... it was fantastic!"
713"I can tell."
714"Oh? How so?"
715"You're still black and white.", Mika said and laughed. Sina looked down at her self. No color at all, she was completely black and white.
716"Yeah... I didn't think it would be so immersive. I didn't even notice I was gray most of the time. Computer, deactivate monochrome." She got back her colour as the computer stopped the projection onto Sina's skin.
717"Nice hat", Mika said. "My Evelyn wouldn't wear a Trilby, though. I liked how you played her. Very unique. And... and the rope, where did you get that? In my about ten playthroughs, I never found it."
718"I didn't find it. I just got a rope from the Home Depot on the Mag Mile and bluffed."
719"Nice one." Mika said. "Can I have my coat back later?"
720"Yeah, sure."
721
722"Look at that. A Yaktha class nebula. I love those things."
723"That's... just space dust.", Tony said.
724"But it's cool space dust! It's Hydrogen, and Titanium... everything's here! You could potentially find life in there."
725"I don't get it. What's so interesting?"
726"You don't want to get it. It's crazy! Space, what bigger mystery is there?"
727"Oh... I don't know, but there's a lot. I'm sure. Like... why is there a radio frequency in Russia that only broadcasts a blaring buzzer?"
728"Just... come on. Be creative. Be curious. Here. Have a look at the map of the sector Mika's sister gave us. Let's- hold on, what's wrong here?" Yumeko tapped the screen. It didn't do anything. On the contrary, it went pitch black. "Hey! Computer, what's happening?" The computer didn't answer. Yumeko knew what to do, at least he thought so. He pulled off a panel on the wall and wanted to mess with the optical chips to fix the computer, but there were none. The Terra-1 had no optical chips but instead, used a far more advanced version of it, the bioneural circuit. It worked like an artificial brain, only without the personality, without the free will, without the humanity. Without all that it was just a biological computer. But that also meant you couldn't just swap them out like you could with isolinear optical chips. If you ripped a gel pack out while it was operating, that was it. That thing was basically braindead at that point. "Crap", Yumeko said.
729"What's the matter?"
730"Something's wrong with the circuits. Computer? Can you hear me?" The computer didn't answer. Someone had been tampering with the circuits at the computer core. The bioneural gel packs had indeed been ripped out by someone. Some who thought they were isolinear systems.
731
732"Computer, activate emergency command hologram!", Sina said. She was standing on the bridge with the other crew members. ADOS appeared in front of her.
733"Please state the nature of the emer- Oh, it's you. What's the matter?", he asked.
734"The computer is acting weird. Do you know what we can do?", Sina said.
735"The computer should be okay, did you do something?"
736"No, I just was in the astrometrics lab looking at the star charts.", Yumeko said.
737"Hang on, I'll run a scan on the systems.", ADOS said and stood still for a moment. "Yes, it does seem like one of the main processor banks is out of alignment. We can't fix this mid flight, we'll have to dock somewhere and fix it by hand. The ship needs to be powered down for that.", he explained.
738"That seems impractical. What if you can't dock somewhere and one of the chips fails?"
739"That's not a problem. We can fix those, we just have to power the area down. The gel packs in the computer core however... if we shut the core down, it's game over. Like pulling the plug on a person on life support."
740"And you? Why aren't you affected? You're the computer, aren't you?", Mika asked. ADOS scratched his head.
741"Well, not necessarily. I'm a program, not the computer. I'm also not in the normal ship systems. I have my own little processor grid called the CORE. It's on deck 64, but that's not the point. We need to find a station or a planet or something to dock and fix the ship. Anyone got problems with that? Good. I'll scan for stations and planets in the area, just hold on a few minutes." He bypassed the network to the main screen with his holo matrix and picked out a station about two light years away from their current position. "This one looks good. NVA station P2, a power plant. No other ships there, we can dock and fix the grid. Anyone cool with that?", he asked. "Not that you have a choice, that is."
742
743"This is it. NVA station P2. I'll load my program into a battery powered emitter and fix the computer problems, but you have to be off the ship. I'll have to shut everything down."
744"Are you sure the station is safe? I don't read any life signs.", Mika said, looking at a console.
745"Yes, everything is okay. I assure you. The structural integrity is sound, the station hasn't been used for a few years... everything should be good. And even if it's not, this will only take a few hours. And just to be safe, take these." ADOS pointed at a wall panel, it slid open. Behind it were rows of small handheld devices with screens and touchpads. They looked like phones, but the screens were only on the upper half. The lower half was a trackpad like on a laptop. "These are called omnitools. Carry them with you. They're mobile sensors, have a bunch of tools built in, everything you might need."
746"Tools? What do you mean by that?", Sina asked, holding the omnitool in her hand and looking at it from all sides.
747"A flashlight, a magnet, a network probe, a laser cutter, a brute forcer, even a small holographic knife and a bunch of other stuff"
748"Whoa", Tony said, wielding his omnitool. A long, blue glowing blade was coming out at the top of the device. "Check this out, a lightsaber"
749"It's not a lightsaber, it's just a knife. Don't hurt anybody with it unless you have to, okay? I trust you to not do stupid things with that." Tony retracted the blade and put the omnitool in his pocket.
750
751"Computer, open door." For the first time in a week, the outer door of the Terra-1 opened. Tony, Sina, Yumeko, and Mika got outside and looked around. The dock was pretty small, for whatever reason. It had a few consoles to access the docking ring around the station and some to interface with the station's computers. The light on the edges of the room were just enough to illuminate it.
752"Computer, is anyone on this station?", Yumeko said. The station's computer answered.
753"Positive. There are 4 humanoid life signs at site omicron."
754"What's site omicron?"
755"Omicron is the shuttle bay and docking station."
756"It means us.", Yumeko said to the others. "Computer, what can you tell me about this station?"
757"NVA station P2, also referred to as Pathos Station, is an automated power grid breakpoint for the EPS distribution system powered by ProtoNet. It also is designed as a short-term habitat and a long-term research facility researching a multitude of faculties, including vacuum compression tech, quantum computing, electromagnetic hydrocollection and deep space construction. It was designed in 48 K under the command of his royal highness Kajaran I and the oversight of the Veran construction commitee." Mika's face suddenly lost her color. Yumeko gave her a concerned look.
758"This is dangerous. Be as close to the ship as possible. And don't wander off!", Yumeko said.
759"What do you mean? It's just a space station.", Tony said. "Remember what ADOS said, it's perfectly safe."
760"Oh, shut up, you rookie! You wouldn't even recognize danger if it was two centimetres in front of you!", Yumeko yelled. "Do you have any idea where we are?"
761"NVA station P2, the computer just told-"
762"No, you idiot! This is Pathos!"
763"Pathos? What's so special about a space station?"
764"It's a story. No one knows what really happened here.", Mika said quietly. "It was about five years ago, complete radio silence. No one heard anything from the station. They sent ships to investigate, but those never returned, too. For five years, this station ran on remote control by the stars know who. Fact is that whatever lurks here isn't very keen about visitors."
765"Attention to all personnel: The station is entering night mode. Please find your quarters and have a good night.", the station's computer suddenly announced. The lights went dark, the power went out. The consoled powered down, the rumbling of the fans and the air ducts stopped. The shuttle bay was dead silent. No one dared to move an inch.
766A sound cut through the silence. A shuffling, as if someone dragged a heavy bag across the floor.
767
768And it came closer.
769
770Chapter 10 - Station
771
772Sina woke up in a chair. She was restrained, couldn't move an inch. Her head was fixed in place, she could only look straight ahead. Sina figured she must've been alone since even though her head was restricted she could still hear. She heard nothing, though. Just the low and deep infra rumble of the space station's engine. Where was I? Okay, she thought. No need to panic. Order your priorities. First, get out of this chair. That was harder to do than say. Whoa, hold on, she thought. She was hearing herself. Hearing herself think. She heard an echo of herself in her head. Someone had tapped into her thoughts. Someone was experimenting on her. She thought. She couldn't think in peace though. Her thoughts were being reflected back to her, she couldn't focus, she tried anyways.
773Release the harness. Sina thought those words in her head and to her surprise, the clamps on her arms and ankles opened. With her hands free, she carefully lifted up the helmet someone put on her head and got up from her chair. She loosened her joints and cracked her knuckles. She was sore from sitting in the chair. How long had she been in there? The room she was in was fairly clean. It seemed to be a med bay of some sort, as there were medkits and other medical tools found in the cabinets and on tables. Sina checked the computer terminal that was attached to the chair she woke up in.
774
775NVA Station P2 Computer System
776Neuroimager V7.4
777User: c̀҉͝ơr̶r͟͏u̸͝p̨t͟e͘d̷
778Specimen: Female Terran of primary origin
779Specimen species: homo sapiens
780Planet of origin: Terra, Sol system
781
782Empty tables and rown for data sheets were below that information with the notification 'no specimen in neuroscope' displayed below it. Corrupted user. What does that mean? Her memories were floating back. The others at site omicron. The power outage. What had happened? And more importantly, where were the others? Instinctively, she reached in her pockets. Not really expecting anything, she pulled out the omnitool. It was disconnected from the Terra-1's mainframe and operated in local mode. It still had all the tools ADOS said it'd have. Sina looked for a door or something like it to get out of this medbay and find her friends. If Sina had been experimented on, she didn't even dare to wonder about what whatever was on this station had done to them. She found a door, but it was connected to a computer terminal. She went looking for it and found a workstation at a desk in a small security booth. There were three big buttons on the screen; E-Mail, Files, and Utilities. As Sina couldn't find any mouse or keyboard, so without really expecting anything, she tapped the E-Mail button.
783
784To: Terry, Site Upsilon
785From: Carrex D'Tha, Site Theta
786Please, for the love of anything is holy, please remember to never ever share your personal passwords or security codes in any form of communication with others. Also, if you'd be so kind and ask IT, and not the security booth at the med bay. I'll gloss over it this time, but please contact IT next time if you have questions about the security systems on Pathos, okay?
787Best regards, Security Chief D'Tha
788###
789At K-57-1888.23 Terry, Site Upsilon wrote:
790Hi, this is Terry from the hologram tech lab at Theta and I wanted to ask if my new password "T4T&ndgubb1ns" was acceptable as a new password for my workstation. I have sensitive information about the new holo screen on my computer and would like to use this as a new password. If you have any concerns about it, please email me back or call me on my mobile communicator. The address is NV-332-T3RRY.
791Cheers!
792-Terry
793
794Sina smiled as she read the e-mail. Even she knew that you should never give away your passwords or store them in plain text. Wait, K-57? That mail had been sent in the year 57 K? It was 66 K, Sina had learned from Yumeko how the interstellar time and date system worked. Since the dawn of interstellar travel in 0 A, the years had been counting up to the present year 66 K. So 57 K had been... nine years ago. The station had been abandoned for at least nine years. But Sina really didn't have time to think about that now. She needed to find her friends.
795
796Mika's eyelids were as heavy as lead. Her head was buzzing and aching, and even without touching it, she could feel that he had been hit in the head with a strong bludgeon. Her pink hair was clannish where she felt the strongest pain - Mika's blood had clotted and stuck her hair together. Slowly, and not knowing where she was, she opened her eyes. The room she was in was dark; so dark she almost couldn't see. She tried to stand up only to realize her hands had been taped to the wall with multiple layers of space-grade adhesive tape used for holding together parts of space stations. She couldn't move her hands a bit, so she yelled.
797"Hello? Yumi? Is anyone there?" Her voice was cracked and quiet, her throat was as dry as the Sahara desert.
798"They're not gonna come", a voice next to Mika said. Mika let out a high-pitched yarp of surprise.
799"I... I- Who are- Where..."
800"You're on Pathos. Site Lambda, power plant. You're stuck here, and you can forget about leaving unless you help me." The voice sounded just as broken and scratchy as Mika's, but Mika could make out that the voice belonged to a woman.
801"And... who are you?", Mika whispered. Whispering didn't hurt as much as talking.
802"The name's Honey. I'm a Nefarian." Mika could get a better look at her. She was taller than Mika and definitely about three to four years older. Her hair was unkempt and greasy, Mika couldn't make out the color in the dark.
803"What are you doing here? How-"
804"Same as you", Honey interrupted. "Exploring. I was here with my friend Raleigh. She... well, I don't know about her. I hope she's fine, either on some other part of the station or she made it back home. I'll have to hope for the best."
805"How long have you been here? You look... horrible", Mika said.
806"Thanks", Honey whispered and coughed. "But how long? I... I lost count. Days? Weeks? Who knows."
807"But... for weeks, how did you-"
808"Survive? My power. Healing minor wounds and enhanced resilience. I can go for a lot longer that two weeks without food or water. But now, maybe I have a chance. You're here, you can help me. Can you reach my back pocket?", Honey asked and nodded towards her pants.
809"I think so", Mika said and tried to loosen up her hands. With pushing and shoving, she managed to reach Honey's pocket. "What do you need?"
810"My knife. Pull it out and put it in my hand." Mika pulled a blade in a carbon fiber casing out of Honey's pocket and carefully placed it in Honey's hand. Very swiftly and determined, Honey pressed the button on the side and twisted the knife between her fingers so that the blade went over the black hull tape and cut it in two. Mika couldn't see, but she could hear Honey's hands fall to the floor. "That's it", she said. "Hold on, I'll cut you loose." Honey cut through Mika's restraints and accidentally also cut into her hand. Not deep, but still painful.
811"Ow! Watch out, Honey!"
812"Oh, shut up." Honey quickly waved her hand over Mika's cut and it stopped bleeding. Honey's hand was glowing green. "Let's get out."
813
814"By the way, what's your name?", Honey asked as she and Mika were making their way to the main lift. Acoording to the map on the wall, they were on one of the lower decks, at the power plant. Site Tau, this where they were now. Site Omicron was where they needed to be.
815"I'm Mika", Mika answered truthfully.
816"I don't think so, my aunt it called Mika", Honey responded.
817"My name is actually Mikhaila, but everyone just calls me Mika. It's just shorter- do you actually know where we're going?"
818"Up. The bridge. We'll see what we can do from there." Mika suddenly remembered how she got to the power plant. She had been knocked out by something.
819"Honey, is there someone else on the station?"
820"I kind of hoped you wouldn't ask that question." Honey stepped up to a hallway corner and peeked over it. "Phantoms. They were Pathos workers once, studying dark matter technology. Specifically how to harness dark matter to create power. No one exactly knows what happened, the government is doing a pretty good job of covering everything up. If you dig a bit deeper, you find some interesting details. There had to be an accident here. Dark matter radiation, and tons of it. Turned the workers here into these things. Deadly killing machines. The radiation roasted their brains and mutated their bodies."
821"How do you mean, roasted their brains?", Mika asked. She didn't dare to peek around the corner.
822"Busted effectively every part that makes them human. But most importantly, from what I could gather before I've been knocked out, they don't have mirror neurons."
823"Mirror neurons? What are-"
824"Those? Good question. Mirror neurons are special brain cells that can mirror the personality and mental state of other objects or life forms on your own." Mika looked very confused. "Easy. Look at me, tell me how I feel." Mika looked Honey in the eyes. Her green hair was tied up into a bun, her green eyes looked deep into Mika's. She looked exhausted, worried.
825"You look... very afraid. But also determined."
826"Correct. I am scared. Very scared, to be honest. Who knows, you might be the last person I'll ever see. But see, that was your mirror neurons. You were empathic, could feel what I feel. Every sentient organism has mirror neurons. Those things haven't. They know two things: Fight or flight. They purely rely on stimuli. Also, there's one right there. Be careful and do exactly what I say, not as I do. You got that, Mikhaila?", she whispered. Mika nodded. "Good. see that scaffolding above you?" Honey pointed at a net of metal bars and pipes on the cieling hanging deep enough that one could climb in it. Mika nodded again. "I'll boost you up, then you crawl a bit further and drop this on the phantom." Honey handed Mika a small packet of strawberry jam.
827"Strawberry jam? Are you serious?"
828"One hundred percent. Listen, Mikhaila. Their physiology has changed. They don't use sugar to get their energy, they use dark matter. Downside, glucose or basically any other form of sugar literally melts them down. Breaks down their DNA, or what's left of it. You just need put it on them somehow." Honey folded her hands and boosted Mika up to the metal railing.
829"You sure it won't notice?", Mika asked from above.
830"It can't, it's deaf", Honey answered. Her voice was incredibly raspy. Mika crawled on until she was right above the phantom. It was just... standing there. It was a horrifying mess of black flesh and metal shards... just looking at it made Mika's stomach turn. But she had a mission. Carefully, she reached into her pocket and pulled out the strawberry jam. With one hand, the opened the packet and turned it upside down. The thick, red substance slowly poured out and dripped down on the phantom's head. Like a hot knife through a stick of butter, it went right through. The phantom fell to the ground. The black smudges around it disappeared gradually, and a horribly disfigured dead husk of a person was the only thing left of the phantom. Gross, Mika thought.
831"Mikhaila, let's go!", Honey said. "Just jump, I'll catch you." She was standing under Mika, under the scaffolding. Mika carefully let herself down to the floor. "That's good. Now, next thing. I don't have that much stuff left. A few packets, maybe. But that's never enough. Where's your ship?"
832"Site... Omicron, I think", Mika replied. "But I won't leave without my friends."
833"That's good. Someone who's loyal to their friends. I'm glad to have you with me, Mikhaila." Honey looked at her hand. She was worried. It was still glowing in a faint shade of green. "We need to stock up. Crew quarters, Site Delta. The cafeteria's nearby. We'll see what we can get there."
834
835Chapter 11 - Search Team
836
837"Elevator going up: Floor 25. Cafeteria and Crew quarters." Honey and Mika were sitting on the couches in the main elevator. The elevator was large, almost as big as Mika's quarters on the Terra-1. It moved fairly slow upwards and Mika could look outside the glass walls of the elevator. Pathos station looked very... derelict. She didn't really know what she expected, the phantoms wouldn't clean up the place. Surely not. So the station looking the way that it is was entirely plausible. Mika just... didn't think it would be so bad. Everything was exactly like it hadn't been used in nine years, except some dried blood puddles and decayed corpses.
838"Honey, why did you come here? Why... why are you here in the first place?"
839"My friend Raleigh I told you about earlier. It was her birthday, and she got her first shuttle. She's 21 years old now. My friends and I, we were six people, we went for a test flight. Then, Raleigh suggested we'd check out Pathos, because why not? Well, I can tell you why not. The place is infested with phantoms. We docked, got out and were attacked almost immediately. I can't remember ev'rything. I know that two of my friends were murdered on the spot. Milow and Tigira. They're dead. I don't know what happened to Raleigh or Kira or Florence... but I know I'm here. Focus on what's straight ahead."
840"Your friends... died? Oh my stars, I'm... I'm so sorry"
841"Shut up. You're not helping. Do you have a phone?"
842"Um... yeah", Mika said and pulled the omnitool out of her pocket.
843"Can I borrow that for a second? Thanks" Honey snatched the omnitool from Mika's hand and punched in a number. She held it up to her ear. "Mom? Can you- Yes, yes, I'm here. Don't worry, I'm fine. I'll... yes, I'll come home as soon as I can- No! Mom, I-" Honey handed the omnitool back to Mika. "So that's that."
844"Was your mother-"
845"Mikhaila, I don't need my mother. I live on my own now." Mika looked at Honey's wrist. The mark on it was the same as on Yumeko's wrist. Nefario III.
846"Honey, where do your parents live?"
847"Oh, they moved to K'Zeer. UFB planet, like a big spa resort."
848"And... you? Where do you live?"
849"Orminster, Nefario III, why?" Mika looked away and out of the window.
850"I... you haven't heard, have you?"
851"Heard what?" Honey turned Mika's head towards her. "Mikhaila, What? Have I heard what?"
852"Nefario III blew up. Just... a few days ago. I'm sorry."
853"What? No, I mean, how? What happened there?"
854"A geological anomaly. It was... no one know it was coming."
855"That's... that's heavy stuff."
856"But... like you said, focus on what's ahead, right? Let's... let's find the others, maybe Raleigh is-"
857"Shut up! It doesn't matter! Everything is terrible!", she shouted. "My friends got killed by freaking alien monsters, my home blew up, my powers are almost depleted! What is there left?"
858"Honey, don't think like that. We need to-"
859"What do we need to, huh? What do we need to? I can die here, and literally no one would miss me or care!" She threw her folding knife on the floor and started crying. "There's nothing anymore."
860"Come on, Honey! You can't stop now! I promise you'll be fine!"
861"Oh, hush up. There's nothing you could do.", Honey wept.
862"You just gotta hang on. Just trust me on this."
863"Promise?"
864"Promise."
865
866Floor 25 was probably one of the most destroyed floors. Mika and an emotionally unstable Honey made their way to the kitchen. There were dead bodies littered across the hallway up to the gravity shaft, and Mika almost threw up.
867"You okay?", Honey asked.
868"Yeah, it's just... all those people, they're just... mercilessly slaughtered!"
869"Don't think about it. That's what I try to do. Let's get moving, the grav shaft is over there", Honey said and pointed at what looked like two empty elevator chutes. As they moved forward, Honey checked every corner and side hallway for phantoms. Luckily, there was only one standing in a side hallway to the crew and was facing the other way.
870"Listen, before we go up there, I have to tell you something. Listen, if there is anything going wrong, if you're being chased by a phantom or anything, just make a run for it. If it gets you, you'll die. So just run. Run for your life. There's no reason to argue with it or even hide, just run." She typed something into the keypad next to the grav shaft. "Damn. We need a key code."
871"Well, where do we get one?", Mika asked.
872"Don't know. The crew quarters might be our best bet."
873"Do you think there's someone still alive here?"
874"Don't think so. But maybe if we find a security station, we could check the crew's vitals. If someone's alive, their tracking bracelet should be visible on the computer. But that's not important. Grav shaft code, remember?"
875"Yeah, right." Mika and Honey went to one of the hallways branching off from the crew quarters lobby. The corridor ended with a big open door labelled 'Habitation pods'. The room behind it was fairly big, and had a table, multiple desks with computers, a lounge area with a couch and a big tv. The other side of the room was stacked with small cots, each with just enough space for a small bed and a shelf for putting for instance your phone on to charge it while you slept.
876"So that's how the Pathos crew lives", Honey said. "Cozy."
877"Let's look for a grav shaft code." Mika rummaged through the papers on the desks and the table but only found notes and calculations, formulas and other science stuff. Honey locked the door behind her and climbed up one of the cots. She threw out a lot of old photos and other trinkets and looked at some of the phones the people left behind, but she didn't find anything interesting. Mika, on the other hand, found an audio log recorder on one of the supply crates near the door.
878"Mike, this is V'Zed from Lambda. Alex has requested some materials, and if you were so kind as to bring them up, I'm sure someone would slip Yuki a word or two about your exceptional performance in handling cargo, and I know you want that position as leader of site Omicron, if you catch my drift. Don't thank me, and don't tell Casserole that I told you. The code to the grav shaft is 4426, not the one on file. I got to do something down at Tau, so if you got time to catch up, why don't you swing by? Anyways, see you 'round.", the audio recorder played back.
879"There you have it, 4426!", Honey said and jumped down from the cot. "Y'know, when this is over, I might consider living here. It's nice, y'know?"
880"Are you nuts? People died here because they were too careless", Mika answered. Honey laughed.
881"You didn't think I was serious, do you?" Honey smiled and looked at Mika. Mika looked like she didn't bother. "Come on, let's go."
882
883"Honey, on that recording, there were those names. V'Zed and Mike, and Alex, and Yuki, those are normal names. I can see that. But Casserole? Who's Casserole?", Mika asked and typed the numbers 4426 into the keypad next to the grav shaft. It lit up, more specifically, the left chute was blue and the right one now glowed orange. Honey carefully put her hand in the light and pulled it back.
884"Dunno. Look, the grav shaft works. Let's get moving" Honey jumped in the blue light and flew upwards. Mika followed. Her entire body felt weightless as she was flying up the about six meter high grav shaft. These grav shafts were of Veran design and could create their own gravity fields which would drag their passengers to whatever direction they desired. Almost like the tractor beams on starships. Mika had used grav shafts before. She loved zero-g, she even had a zero-gravity projector from an old spaceship in her room a friend of her father got her. She used to turn it on and float around her room while reading or listening to music when she was alone. Her second date with Yumeko, when she invited him to stargazing at night, they did that in zero gravity.
885"Hey, Mikhaila! We need to get going!" Mika snapped out of her train of thought and stepped out of the grav shaft.
886"Wow, that's... big" Mika didn't exactly know where on the station she was specifically, but she had to be way up because she had a wonderful view of the entire sector of space. The cafeteria looked more like a luxury restaurant than a space station cafeteria. Tables were placed around the round walls, the kitchen seemed to be in the middle strangely built around the grav shafts. "I think our best bet would be-"
887"The kitchen? I thought so, too. I'll check it out, you stay here." Honey walked around the kitchen booth and held a red key card up to the sensor next to the entry door. The door opened, Honey stepped inside and Mika heard a scream of surprise. She ran around to the entrance.
888"Who are you? I haven't seen you before! You must be a guest, why don't you sit down?", a floating robot said. Its voice was very strangely robotic, being almost three or four voices at once. Honey stood in front of the door and was baffled. "Please, I insist! Have a seat! Today, the Pathos Cafeteria serves a wide range of Terran salads, all grown an cultivated in the Pathos arboretum!"
889"Who... or what are you?", Honey asked.
890"Oh, I see! We haven't met, have we? How rude of me not to introduce myself! I am a type 495 cooking construct, but most of the crew here call me Casserole! Nice to meet you, very nice indeed! What are your names, if I may ask?"
891"This is Mikhaila and I'm Honey. Listen, do you have any sugar we can have?"
892"Of course I do! Why don't we discuss this after you had your lunch? Have a seat over there, I'll get right to you!", Casserole said cheery and floated into the kitchen.
893"What do you think?", Mika asked. "I am starving"
894"Is this really necessary? We could just give it a whack and take whatever we need"
895"Honey, be nice. Also, a bite to eat wouldn't hurt you either. You haven't eaten in three weeks."
896"I guess you're right. But if that bot tries anything shady, it's going straight to the scrapheap."
897"It's just a cooking robot! What could go wrong?"
898
899"That was delicious, Casserole. Now, about that sugar-"
900"Why, thank you! The ingredients for this meal are all grown and replicated right here on Pathos Station!"
901"Yes, Casserole, we need sugar. Loads of it. Can you provide us with that?", Honey asked. She looked and sounded incredibly annoyed. Mika figured that she wasn't very fond of being interrupted.
902"Sure! I'm happy to provide you with anything you might need. Sugar, why do you need that?"
903"For a personal project. Just give us any amounts you have, anything helps."
904"As you wish, Honey! I have ten pounds in storage right now, but I'm able to replicate more, if you want me to.", Casserole said. Her display was a circular display was mounted in the middle of her round casing and displayed a green circle as an eye. "Just follow me to the kitchen, I have everything you might need." Honey and Mika followed her to the supply closet in the kitchen. Honey grabbed an empty bag from the inside of the door and filled it with ten bags of crystalline sugar. Something in the tool cabinet caught her attention, something she could need. A fire hose. Honey had an idea.
905
906Chapter 12 - Found you
907
908"Honey, it's been two hours! What are you doing in there?"
909"Come in! I think I'm done", Honey yelled. Mika pushed the button next to the door and stepped inside the kitchen. Honey pointed a giant gun at her.
910"Bang. You're dead.", Honey said.
911"What the heck is that?", Mika asked and pointed at the weapon.
912"That's a gun."
913"I do see that, but it looks like someone tried to build a gun out of parts that definitely do not make a gun"
914"I know, I had to improvise a bit. But it works, so... yeah."
915"So what does it do?""It sprays a water-sugar mix. For the phantoms."
916"Where is Casserole? Did you see her?", Mika asked.
917"Oh, I-"
918"Do not worry, Miss Mikhaila! I am here!", Casserole said. Her voice came from the gun. Casserole's screen was embedded in the side of it, wires were coming out of it that were soldered to the electronic parts of the gun. Mika was speechless.
919"Didn't we agree not to take her apart?"
920"I- I needed the parts, and I asked her! Where's the problem?"
921"I... Let's just go, we need to find Yumeko and the others."
922
923Mika looked at a phone she had picked up from the cafeteria. She read through some of the e-mails on it, looked at the map of the station.
924"We should check in the computer labs. I see one life sign there, could be Yumeko.", Mika said and showed the screen to Honey.
925"What makes you so sure?", Honey asked as she wiped the ammo counter on her gun with her shirt.
926"It says one Nefarian life sign. Yumeko's the only Nefarian with us, so it's only logical."
927"It could be someone else. We're not sure we're the only ones on the station."
928"Well, we'll find out soon enough." Mika leaned back in her seat on the elevator. "Casserole, do you know who Yuki is?"
929"Yes, I do! Dr. Yuki is one of the chief researchers in deep space construction at Site Theta. She used to work in human resources but was recently promoted. I hear she has an opening for Chief of Cargo transfer at Site Omicron. Michael told me about that the other day.", Casserole told Mika. "She used to come to the cafeteria every day for pudding. Even on her birthday, she would come and talk to me. I enjoyed her company, you see. I do not think she had many friends, other people who liked her, but she was always there for me and I was always there for her."
930"Now arriving: Ground floor. Pathos lobby." The elevator stopped at the ground floor and opened. The lobby was as torn apart as the crew quarters were, however there were almost no corpses anywhere. The furniture was broken and the cushions were torn to shreds, the glossy wood of the front desk was stained dark purple from the blood that had been there for years, presumably.
931"How come no one's here? If I were a phantom-"
932"But you aren't. They don't think like we do. They only know one thing: Kill.", Honey interrupted Mika. She looked at a map of the place that was posted on the side of the elevator shaft. "What did you say, computer labs? That's up there. Through HR. Third floor. Up the stairs over there, through HR and then to the left." She took the gun and walked over to the staircase. "By the way, what are you doing here, Mikhaila?"
933"We docked our ship here because some of the computer chips or something are broken. Our hologram is fixing it, but we had to leave the ship, life support is taken offline and everything. We didn't think anything bad would be here, so-"
934"And the stories? Did no one of you say 'No, that's a bad idea' or anything?"
935"Well, we thought they were just that, stories. Urban legends, nothing behind them."
936"And now you're stuck here."
937"But that's not bad. Without me, you'd be stuck here."
938"I guess you're right. Thanks. I don't think I've thanked you - but you're right. Without you I'd be dead. Well, sooner or later." They went up the stairs to the third floor, Honey taking two steps at a time. The door to HR opened without needing a key code or a card. The room behind was not only a big office, but also a conference room. Dead bodies were seated around the conference table. Not only was that enough  to make Mika puke, but their heads were missing.
939"That's strange.", Honey noticed and came closer to the corpses. "Their heads just exploded."
940"Yes, I... I noticed that"
941"But look here." Honey carefully pulled a small electronic device out of one of the bodies' neck.
942"Honey! Stop, that's gross!", Mika yelled and stepped back.
943"Look, Mikhaila. It's a blackbox device."
944"So?"
945"Where's the recorder for it?"
946"I don't wanna know"
947"No, it overloaded. That was what killed those people."
948"But aren't blackboxes illegal?"
949"Only on NVA planets. Stations can use them. Most o' them do, in fact."
950"I think that's so... cruel. Saving the last moments of one's life... that's morbid."
951"Well, it's company policy here. And I think they're useful. In case of a medical emergency, you have all the vitals on file, just in case. But it's weird, like, what would overload a blackbox? The electromagnetic field for that would be so high, you would need about three solar storms for that."
952"Yeah, someone had to do that on purpose. But who would do something like that?"
953"Dunno. Let's get to the computer labs."
954
955"Good morning, Pathos. Before transferring any research data from on-site workstations to sites other than Deep Storage on Site Gamma, contact Chief of Security Imogen at Site Omicron for permission. This includes replicator plans for on-site tools. Thank you for your compliance."
956Public service announcements were the usual practice on Pathos Station, Mika presumed. Honey had pried open the door to the computer labs with a crowbar and a lot of cursing as she had to try several times to force open the door, but she did manage to open the door. The computer labs were underwhelming. Mika had expected rows of servers, massive computer towers and a smell of coffee, but the computer labs looked like a normal office. There were aluminum doors embedded in the walls, labelled with technical words Mika didn't know. Honey was holding the phone of one of the Pathos technicians and pointed it into different directions, looking for the life sign Mika had picked up in the crew quarters.
957"Over there. Follow me, Mikhaila." Honey readied her sugar gun. Honey carefully walked down the walkway between the desks, to a large metal rotary door with the label 'Machine shop' next to it. There were windows embedded in the door. Mika and Honey saw a phantom behind it. Honey checked the screen on her gun; all systems were set to go. She nodded and Mika opened the door using the panel on one of the window panels. Slowly, the door opened, sliding into two parts that went up and down.
958"Eat this!", Honey yelled and pulled the trigger. A thin layer of sugar-water rain shot out of the nozzle, hitting the phantom's back. It jumped in surprise and turned around.
959"What the heck?!", it yelled.
960"You... you can talk?", Honey asked and lowered the gun. Mika knew the voice from somewhere.
961"I'm not one of them, you idiots! How are you- Oh, Mika. Should've known."
962"Hey, who are you? And why do you know me?"
963"I'm- oh, yeah. Sorry. I, um..." The phantom disappeared and Cora stood where the phantom had been. "It's me."
964"Cora! You're... you're of them?"
965"No, you lunkhead! That was just a disguise! You know, so that the phantoms don't recognize me!"
966"Wait, wait, wait. You two know each other?", Honey asked. She was conflicted. "Explain that, Mikhaila."
967"Honey, this is my twin sister Cora. Cora, this is Honey. I found her in the power plant, where I woke up. Now that we got that out of the way, what are you doing here, Cora?"
968"I was following you. I can't let my little sister just run off into one of the most dangerous parts of the milky way galaxy!"
969"I'm not your little sister! I'm one measly minute younger than you! Besides, I can take care of myself. I don't want to see you, ever again! I don't want you following me! How did you even do that?"
970"The PDA I gave you. It gave me access to the computer systems on your ship, specifically the cameras. I got a good look around the cargo bay and teleported there."
971"That's a lie. Teleportation is impossible on quantum resolution. Living matter? You can't teleport that."
972"I'm Nefarian. I can teleport over short distances. I used that ability to build this." Cora held up a small metal box with dials and knobs placed above a dot matrix screen. "An amplifier. It allows me to teleport to destinations in range of about ten parsec. So I teleported to the cargo bay and hid. Hacked the computer to not detect me. May have busted some chips on deck 48, but who cares."
973"You may have busted some chips? The ship doesn't use chips, it uses bioneural circuits! You pulled them out thinking they were isolinear chips, and now we're stuck here! It's your fault!"
974"Wait, you're stuck?"
975"Yes! We're fighting for our lives here! What do you think we're doing?!"
976"Mika, let me help you. Let me help you find your friends, and let me guide you through this region of space. And if you don't want me helping you after we're off this station, so be it. But if you want to survive, you'll have to tag along with me."
977"We don't have to do anything! We have a gun that works against the phantoms, we can handle this. Do what you have to do, but be aware that we don't need you.", Mika hissed at her sister. "Leave me alone! I don't want to hear from you in a million years! You got that?" Cora nodded slowly. She normally wasn't taking attitude from anyone, but her sister kind of intimidated her. "Now buzz off!"
978
979Sina was walking down the corridor that was branching off the med bay. She read a sign on the wall - two arrows pointing into different directions, one to the bridge and one to the FTL drive. Sina didn't know much about starships, but she knew that entire stations usually didn't have FTL drives. She decided to go up to the bridge, maybe she would find something of interest there. Up two metal staircases, through the mess hall - a small, cozy room with a replicator and a table. Playing cards were on the table, scattered over it. Along with the cards were small dogtag-looking chips, each with different inscriptions: Bank of Nefario, 100 Nov; Bank of Nefario, 20 Nov, Interstellar Bank of the United Federation of Beta Planets, 50 Credits. Someone had been playing the Nefarian equivalent of Poker or another luck-based game. She looked around and saw bunk beds on the walls, hidden behind a milky glass door. There were four beds, each color coded to a locker and a uniform from the laundry processor. Her wrists were still sore from the chair she woke up in, and she couldn't help but wonder - who put her there?
980
981Rummaging through the personal things of people that once worked and lived here, Sina found some personal items. A picture of a reptilian and his family, a diary written in a language she didn't understand, an audio log in a language that sounded a bit like russian and a key card for the cargo bay. She also found a small sketchbook that - judging from the locker Sina found it in - belonged to the science officer. She flipped through it - it had belonged to a very talented artist, specializing in the phenomena of space around them. Sina also saw a drawing of the Centauri, Cora's space station. On the wall next to the personal lockers was a star chart, a holographic map of the stars in the nearby space, but none of the stars had names she recognized. Tellis, N'varex, Makato, D4-22SK2, Ooris and Loc'Seja, just to name a few. The map was peeling off on one corner.
982
983Chapter 13 - Guardian Devil
984
985"Who exactly was she? Why was she here?", Honey asked.
986"That was my sister. Her name's Cora. Or Constance Augustine, if you want her real name. She's a bit screwed up. You know the C-Sector?"
987"Yeah, sure. Who doesn't?"
988"She's C. Cora. C. Get it? Good."
989"Your sister controls the C-Sector? Your sister is a mass murderer!"
990"I am aware.", Mika said monotonously. Mika didn't care anymore. Not only was Cora a terrible person that committed multiple genocides, but more importantly was she a terrible person Mika genuinely cared about. No one had ever disappointed Mika like Cora did.
991"You're not gonna do anything about this?"
992"She ran away five years ago. I don't care about her. She's horrible."
993"That's heavy stuff."
994"Whatever. Remember, we need to find our friends."
995"Aren't you worried about her? What if she gets hurt?"
996"Oh, she'll get around. She probably survived a war or something. She knows how to take care of herself." She took out the phone from the crew quarters and scanned for life signs, Terran and Nefarian. She found one Terran life sign, male, at Site Alpha.
997"Site Alpha? Isn't that the dark matter labs?", Honey remarked. The girls looked each other in the eye.
998"Then move! If there's dark matter, there's phantoms! We need to get to Tony before anything happens!", Mika said and ran over to the elevator. She smashed the button on the screen next to the door. Far too slowly, it opened. Mika hoped. She stared at the red dot on the phone screen. Life signs nominal, it read. Just a little longer. Hang in there, Tony.
999
1000"Site Alpha. Warning: Spectroscope is required in this sector.", an automated voice said as Mika held up a key card Honey had given her against the thick blast door to Site Alpha. She had probably gotten it from the corpse of a scientist, or more accurately, from their uniform.
1001"Spectroscope. What is it and where do we get one?"
1002"I think that guy has one.", Honey said and pointed at a corpse in the security booth next to the blast door. It was wearing a helmet with a big round lens where the visor or the goggles would be. Very carefully, Mika picked it up and wiped some of the dust and stains away with her sleeve and slowly put in on her head. She could see through the single lens with both her eyes. She looked at Honey. The spectroscope reacted to being pointed at Honey and began listing information on her. In her field of view were words and diagrams, all describing Honey's vital functions.
1003"Your... neuro... transmitters are high? I dunno."
1004"I'm stressed! Of course my neurotransmitter levels are through the roof!"
1005"Spectroscope calibrated. Please proceed, Doctor Norris.", the automated voice said.
1006"Doctor Norris..." Mika looked over to the security booth. "I hope you'll be good in the grand woods."
1007
1008Someone had wrought havoc on Site Alpha - or what was left of it. Honey went up front with the gun, but Mika was right behind her, looking through her spectroscope, looking for traces of either Tony or the phantoms, just in case. The spectroscope operated completely silent, but was shining a cone of light on everything Mika looked at. She looked up, up to the signs in the hallway. It was branching off into multiple corridors labelled with technobabble words Mika had no idea what they meant, but if the phantoms didn't completely shred Tony the instant they saw him, he had to be in study. To be exact, live examination. Down the hallway, through the glass door.
1009
1010"...and as I arrived there, it was obvious that something wasn't right. Together with Henry, and Dra'nek, we put up the base. Fabrication drones, incrediby fast. In a few seconds, we had a fully fortified building in the middle of the infinite ice desert of Makato. The first three days, nothing happened. It was all quiet on the covert front. Our reinforcements were strong, the entire legion was there as well. I went to sleep that night, and doubled the security systems around the perimeter. All for nothing. It was lunar zenith on Makato when the sirens sounded. I got up, and everything went to hell. Got to the roof as far as I could, forget it. Half of the Legion, slaughtered. I grabbed everything I could need. First aid kits, guns, ammo, combat armor. Dashed out to the front line, to Henry. Bullet rain, there. Tried to help him how I could, but we had to retreat. To the base. And there was this android I picked up cheap at a pawn shop. Repairing it was a long project, but he was a useful servant. One of these android monks, apparently. Spiritual and all that. Hippies. Now, you have to realize that- well, it looks like I'll have to leave now. Take care!"
1011"Tony! My god, are you okay?", Mika yelled, ran inside the room and took off the spectroscope helmet. Tony sat inside a glass cube, and someone had pulled up a chair. It was empty, and a steaming cup of coffee was placed on a computer cart next to it. It was... Still hot.
1012"Mika! God, I'm glad you're here... your sister was just here! But she... she got beamed out or something."
1013"You look horrible, what happened to you?"
1014"I don't know... I woke up here. I think I'm in study, those black amorphous things just stared at me, and then your sister was suddenly there, and she... she was awesome! She slayed those things like a freakin' samurai! And then she just sat down and told me about her time in the war. No idea what war she was talking about, but-", Tony explained.
1015"Cora was here?", Mika asked.
1016"Yeah! Are you two on terms again?"
1017"No, we're not! I told her to go far, far away and don't come back, she's messing with me!"
1018"But how can she..."
1019"Teleport?", Honey completed the sentence. "A device that amplifies her blink. She built it. No idea how, but she did it."
1020"Can you just let me out of here? It's not exactly pleasant in here", Tony asked and knocked against the glass. Mika nodded and pressed the button next to the glass door of the cube. The sliding doors opened and Tony stepped outside, taking a deep breath.
1021"Oh, thank goodness! You don't know what it's like in there!", Tony said, hugging Mika. "You saved my life!"
1022"We don't know when the phantoms might come back. Let's go. Let's go and never come back here."
1023"Now that's a plan I can get down with", Tony said. Mika put her spectroscope back on and pointed to the other side of the room.
1024"Heads up, there are two phantoms on the other side of that door."
1025"Got it." Honey pointed the sugar gun at the door and backed out of the room through the door they came through.
1026
1027"Pathos Station Lobby. Please return your spectroscope to the Site Alpha security station. Have a nice day, Doctor Norris.", the automated voice said as Mika, Honey and Tony left Site Alpha. Tony had seen one of the phantoms up close and personal and screamed like a little girl. Honey had kept very calm and coated the phantom in a thin layer of sugary water. The phantom dissolved quickly, but Tony was a bit shaky still.
1028"Who's Doctor Norris?", Tony asked.
1029"The guy Mikhaila got her spectroscope from. He's dead."
1030"Any idea where Sina is? Or Yumeko?", Tony asked.
1031"We don't know, but we'll find them, I'm sure."
1032"What if they're dead? I don't think everyone was locked up in a nice safe glass cube like I was", Tony asked. He was concerned, he liked Sina, and Yumeko was his only real friend on the Terra-1.
1033"I'd rather not find out. Let's hope for the best." Mika took off her spectroscope helmet and looked at the phone. Except two Nefarian and one Terran life sign in the lobby, no life signs were shown on the monitor. She tried refining the settings and tweak the filters, but nothing.
1034"I... I don't see them.", Mika said.
1035"What do you mean, you don't see them?", Tony asked.
1036"They're not on the life sign sensor."
1037"Is it broken?"
1038"The best one I could find. If it's not on there, it's not there at all."
1039"So that means that-"
1040"They're dead." Mika closed her eyes and sat down on one of the many couches in the lobby. Tears formed around her eyes. Tony sat down next to her and tried to comfort her.
1041"You don't know that, don't lose hope, please."
1042"Yumi is gone, and I didn't save him!"
1043"Mika, please. Maybe the life sign detector is broken, you can't stop now."
1044"Oh, shut up! You can't do anything either!", Mika yelled. She was furious and devastated. With all her might, she chucked the phone against the wall. It shattered into a thousand pieces, like Mika's enthusiasm. She cried like she probably had never cried before. Even Honey put down her gun and sat down next to her, and Casserole on the screen on the side of the gun looked sad. Suddenly, a bright blue light beam shot down from the ceiling to the floor in front of the lobby and slightly darker crystal fragments of light formed in the pillar. The crystal particles formed a silhouette of a person - actually, a person carrying another one over their shoulder. Over the course of the next second, the light pillar disappeared and Tony saw who the person was - it was Cora, carrying an at least unconscious Yumeko over her shoulder.
1045"Mika!"
1046"Cora, what do you want?", she cried.
1047"I found your boyfriend. He was in deep space construction, in a de-pressurized section. Was about to collapse. I... well, kind of saved him a few seconds before the hull breach." Mika looked up. She saw Yumeko, and immediately looked a bit happier.
1048"Is he alright?", Mika asked and pressed her head against Yumeko's chest to hear his heartbeats.
1049"He's just unconscious. Took a fair beating, though. His left heart is a bit damaged, but in a few weeks he'll be alright.", Cora said. Mika got up and threw herself at Cora. locking her in a tight embrace.
1050"Cora, thank you! I can't... I can't thank you enough!" She was still crying, but tears of joy.
1051"Don't get too excited. You should get him to your ship immediately, he needs medical care. Site Omicron, over there. The path is clear, don't worry. I'll help you carry him there.", she said and started walking over to the blast door. Mika just sat back down on the couch.
1052"You know, maybe we should let her tag along. She's not useless." Honey looked at her.
1053"Don't ask me. I'd kill her first chance I get. She's a mass murderer! You can't let her live!", Honey yelled. Mika's expression changed and she inched closer to Honey.
1054"Now you listen and you listen good. My sister has done some bad things in her life. I'll be the first to admit. But she's still someone. Someone like you and me. And someone like you and me doesn't and never will have the right to value someone's life more or less than others."
1055"And she did? She killed those people! She thought she could judge over those people's fates!"
1056"But if you do the same, you will have valued your life above hers."
1057"But- she is-"
1058"Exactly. She is my sister. And..." she tapped Honey's nose. "A word of advice. If you try as much as touch my sister, you're going right through that airlock. You got me?" Honey was intimidated and nodded very slowly. "Good."
1059
1060"You know, entering though the main gate really is less tiring than teleporting into the cargo bay", Cora said and carried Yumeko through the docking gate on deck 21 on the Terra-1. He was slowly regaining consciousness and grunted in pain. Mika patted his head.
1061"Mika... what happened? Where am I?"
1062"Don't say anything. You're gonna be fine, trust me."
1063"Mika, what's going on?", he asked, slowly and hurting. Cora held up two fingers.
1064"How many fingers?"
1065"Two... why is Cora here? What happened to me?"
1066"You can consider yourself lucky. You've been exposed to the vacuum of space for about ten seconds and you can still see.", Cora said and opened the airlock door to the main corridor of Deck 21. "Med bay, where."
1067"Over there", Mika said and pointed at a room with a red plus on the door. Cora bust through the door and put Yumeko on a bio bed. Gauges and meters lit up on a screen above the bed.
1068"You're from Nefario III, right?", Cora said and did not wait for an answer. She rushed around the bio bed and typed things into the console on the side. From a cabinet next to the replicator, Cora got an IV bag of transparent fluid, attached it to the stand next to Yumeko's bed and clipped a small connector that looked like a computer chip to it.
1069"What... what are you doing?", Yumeko asked.
1070"Trying to keep you alive. This may hurt." Cora pushed the chip into Yumeko's neck.
1071"Ow! What was that?"
1072"A stimulant. Your body will regenerate, but you have to stay here. I will, too." She looked at her sister. "You." Cora reached to her belt and tossed Mika the laser gun she was carrying at all times. "Go look for the redhead. I'll fix your boyfriend. Until he's unstable, I'll be here."
1073"Cora, you can't just-"
1074"Sure I can! I'll take care of him. Don't you worry."
1075"Promise?"
1076"Promise."
1077
1078Chapter 14 - Orbiting
1079
1080"You know, living on this station... without all the phantoms, I'd consider it." Honey looked out the glass front of the elevator. From the twentieth floor down, the lobby was probably one of the most luxurious lobbies Mika had ever seen, even surpassing those on planets.
1081"How about you just do that? You've found out the key to defeating the phantoms."
1082"What do you mean? Just do that?"
1083"Look, Nefario III isn't there anymore. There's maybe just a handful of people who were off planet when it all went to hell. Why don't you set up a safe haven for everyone from three until they found a new home? You could live here, and you could work here too, kind of... like a charity.", Mika suggested.
1084"That... I think that's a pretty good idea. I mean, we have enough space... even ships and runabouts to pick up survivors... Yeah, that's good!", Honey smiled. "The Pathos Harbour. Got a nice ring to it, i'n it?"
1085"Yeah, I like it."
1086
1087"I've never been on a space station's bridge before. Ever wondered what it's like?", Mika asked with the sugar gun in her hands, covering Honey who was rewiring the door controls to the bridge.
1088"I'm guessing it's like a spaceship, only bigger."
1089"Thing is, what do we even do when we get on the bridge?", Mika asked.
1090"We access the main control console. From there, we boost the sensors with all the power we get and try to locate Tina."
1091"Her name is Sina."
1092"Right. Sina." Honey affixed the touchscreen back to the panel she was working on and pressed the unlock button. The blast door to the bridge opened.
1093"You know, that rewiring thing is kind of illegal"
1094"Yeah, so? The ends justify the means. We're trying to save a life here."
1095"I know, but... it's still illegal."
1096"Doesn't matter. We'll find your friend and after that you get the hell out of here."
1097
1098Honey had been wrong, Pathos' bridge was nothing like any spaceship bridge she had ever seen before. Unlike a starship, the bridge control room was a massively ginormous planetarium, and the ceiling and walls were plated with transparent glass panels Mika could see scaffolding and spotlights behind them,
1099"Whoa."
1100"Whoa indeed", Honey said and climbed a ladder down to what looked like an orchestral pit, but with computer consoles. "Throw me that keycard over there, would you?" She pointed at a red keycard with the Pathos emblem on it.
1101"Sure", Mika said and tossed it into the pit. "The Pathos Harbour, do you think it'll catch on?"
1102"It doesn't need to. It's a charity. People come and live here, and they work here. They care for each other."
1103"And finances? You can't just rebuild this station by hand and all by yourself."
1104"Don't worry about that. I'll make an announcement on the PlaNet for it, and hope people come." She typed into the keyboard. "Okay, let's see this baby up and running." Honey pressed a key and the glass windows on the rounded walls and ceiling suddenly sprang to life; they became opaque and all windows connected seamlessly into one giant screen. It was glowing blue and read the words 'HOLO SCREEN VERSION 3.5'. A few seconds later, the blue turned into a 3D live video feed of Pathos Station. It was a lot taller than Mika thought, and looked even bigger so close up. "Okay. Now check this out." Honey punched in a few key combinations and the 3D picture changed to an overhead view with all incoming and outgoing shuttles and runabouts.
1105"Okay, so what now?"
1106"We know that, except us, there are no life signs on the station."
1107"Yeah."
1108"But there is one shuttle in orbit around the station. A class C runabout. The Artemis. Neat name, if you ask me."
1109"If Sina's on the Artemis, we just need to get a message through. Can you open a channel?"
1110"I'm hailing.", Honey said. A video feed of the Artemis bridge popped up on the main screen. Sina was facing away from the camera, she looked at a poster with emergency instructions on the wall.
1111"Sina! Over here!", Mika yelled. Sina flinched and turned around.
1112"Mika! You- where are you?! I'm on some sort of... spaceship I think."
1113"Right. You're on the Artemis, a runabout of Pathos Station. Listen, you need to get back to the station as soon as possible. It's not safe, you need to leave.", Honey said.
1114"Who're you?"
1115"She's... it's a long story. Can you pilot the Artemis back to Pathos?"
1116"I don't think so. I have no idea how this ship works."
1117"Try opening the remote control gateways. Maybe we can nudge you in from here."
1118"No, you don't understand. I have no idea how any of this works. I can't do anything."
1119"Okay. Hang on, we'll find a solution.", Honey said and looked through the computer. "It says here that the ship has a neuronal interface. I'm guessing you can use it to control the ship. Look for a neurograph or something. A... a helmet or a hair net with a lot of wires coming out at the back." Sina turned away from the monitor and looked through the cabinets and shelves around the Artemis' bridge. Searching the drawers, she was looking for anything that could help her in any way. She didn't want to be all alone on a someone else's abandoned starship.
1120
1121"I really hope this works."
1122"What do you mean?"
1123"The neuronal interface. It's... Using it will be reckless, dangerous and potentially lethal."
1124"What- how? It's just..."
1125"Those things are so finicky. There's a reason they're not used anymore. If it's detuned, it could put you into psychoshock."
1126"So why-"
1127"Do we use it? It's our only option"
1128"Yes, I... but there has to be something we can do!"
1129"We tried to help her. Now we can just... hope her brain doesn't turn into a microwave dinner the second she connects it to the ship computer."
1130
1131"Mika? Are you there?"
1132"I'm here, Sina.", Mika answered. She tried to hide her fear; but telling Sina the truth would only make her more uncomfortable and worried.
1133"I found the neuro... thing", Sina said and held the helmet up to the camera. Honey took a deep breath.
1134"Connect the plug at the end of the cable to the small socket on the captain's chair." Sina did as she was told.
1135"So I suppose I just put the thing on now?"
1136"Yes, but you might wanna sit down.", Honey said. Slowly and carefully, Sina sat down in the captain's chair. She put the helmet on her head and immediately felt power coursing though every fold of her brain and nervous system. Her vision became blurry and turned into lines, lines turned into circles. Everything Sina heard just became a unified mess of echoes and voices that reverberated through the vast infinity of Sina's mind... She couldn't focus, everything just faded away. Everything became one.
1137
1138It was dark around Sina. Black, even. She could see nothing. She could only hear something - a voice. A familiar voice, a voice that had been with Sina for all her life.
1139"Sina, what are you doing?", it asked. It seemed to be all around Sina at once. But... Sina couldn't answer.
1140"I think I know what you're doing." Sina thought hard about it, but no matter how hard she tried, Sina did not know.
1141"Do you want to be with me? Is that why you're doing all these reckless things?" What did the voice mean? Be with her?
1142"You do not know, do you?" No, she didn't. She really didn't, and she didn't even know where she was.
1143"You'll find out soon enough.", the voice said. Again, everything faded, but to white this time. She was blinded - and lying down. She was lying on a cold metal floor, and she also felt something pounding on her chest. She then felt someone touching her lips, She felt horrible and choked, she gasped for air.
1144"I got her. She's back."
1145"How are her vitals?"
1146"All right. At least better that your boyfriend's. Hey! Red! Can you hear me?", Cora said. She was right above Sina and looked her in the face. She smiled. "Welcome back to the land of the living"
1147"What happened?"
1148"The neuronal interface the Artemis. It knocked you out, but your subconscious still retained the conversation with Honey. The computer extrapolated what you wanted, and that was pilot the Artemis to the dock at Omicron. Well... kinda.", Mika explained.
1149"You crashed into Site Gamma, but else you're okay. That's, by the way, pretty lucky. You crashed into the space station and everything you took away was a few bruises.", Cora continued.
1150"But... I'm okay now?"
1151"I think so, yes. Though... you can never be sure. Did you hear anything while you were blacked out? Seen anything? Because it doesn't matter. It was just neurons firing." Sina sat up and looked at her hands.
1152"You sure?"
1153"Pretty sure."
1154
1155The clock read 21:22. Sina helped Honey bring some supplies up to Honey's new office. The office was strangely completely untouched, even though the keycode was saved to a workstation the password to which was written down on a sticky note on the table. The office was beautiful, it had a big wooden desk, a massive window with a stunning view out of the 25th floor and a large workshop with a replicator, a recycling device that broke down anything into pure replicator-ready material, a workbench complete with a set of tools, a lounge on the other side of the room, everything a CEO could ever need in a executive office.
1156"Honey, tell me, is there something like a god or so on Nefario?"
1157"No... not per se, but there's this central belief of the afterlife. The grand woods, an infinite paradise where everything you've ever lost or anyone you've lost is waiting for you."
1158"That's..."
1159"Fascinating? Lovely? Sweet? Well, let me tell you." Honey opened a crate with new tools and medical supplies. "I think it's all a big hoax. Lies. There's no afterlife."
1160"Why do you think that?"
1161"I just... do. There's no scientific evidence or anything."
1162"But what if it's just... one of the things you can't explain?"
1163"There's no things that you can't explain. If you can't explain it, it doesn't exist. You can't explain the great forest, ergo it doesn’t exist. easy as that."
1164"Well, I guess you could see it that way. But aren't there just some mysteries?"
1165"Mysteries are stupid. If you can't explain something, why bother." Honey typed up something on her new computer workstation. "I got everything online. Rerouted the bridge controls to my desktop. I'll release a dispersed mix of water and sugar. Get rid of the phantoms, and after that I... well, I suppose I'll just be cleaning up for the next few months. Years, even. Maybe. I dunno."
1166"And... your idea? The Pathos Haven?"
1167"Harbour."
1168"Right. What about that?"
1169"I'll get a page on the PlaNet up and running, maybe make a stir about it with the NNA, and maybe get the UFB's support. You never know." Honey put up a picture frame on her new ebony desk.
1170"UFB? That's the United Federation-"
1171"Of beta quadrant planets. Right." Honey scribbled a number on a piece of paper that was laying on the table. She folded it in half and handed it to Sina. She took it and unfolded it, revealing a string of numbers and a word.
1172"35-2-138 Charlie, what is that supposed to mean?"
1173"It's Pathos' interlink frequency. In case you wanna call and catch up or something. Or just wanna call me for no reason." Sina put it in her pocket and wanted to leave. "Hey, before you go."
1174"Yeah?"
1175"If you ever find yourself in the area, stop by for tea."
1176
1177ACT 4  - Outer Space
1178
1179Chapter 15 - Day to day
1180
1181Mika laid down on the lush green grass and looked up into the stars. A slight breeze played through her hair, and the birds chirped.
1182"You know, this is what I like. Just lying in the grass, forgetting about the world.", she said.
1183"Forgetting about the world? That's not helping anybody.", Cora answered.
1184"Just... relax for a while. It can't hurt, can it?"
1185"Yeah, but... you can do that alone."
1186"Don't want to."
1187"Listen, I'll just leave you alone, I gotta start working on my workshop on deck 14, I found an empty lab I can use.", Cora tried to get away.
1188"Sis, you work too hard. Take the day off, unwind. And start by lying in the grass here with me." Cora laid back and closed her eyes. For a full minute, no one said anything.
1189"This is boring.", Cora broke the silence.
1190"You just don't wanna relax, do you?"
1191"No, as a matter of fact, I don't."
1192"You know what, then don't. It's fine. I'll find someone to relax with me. Go and do whatever it is you do.", Mika said. She didn't understand her sister. Cora had been working hard every single day to survive, so why couldn't she bring herself to relax for at least one day?
1193
1194Mika didn't understand. Mika couldn't understand, but who could blame her? No one truly knew what Cora went through to get where she was now. The war, the struggles she had to face, the countless setbacks, the seemingly infinite amounts of pain, the blood, sweat and tears Cora had put into every minute of every day she worked to survive - but it would never be credited, she knew. After all, she was first and foremost a ruthless mass murderer, a war criminal, a despicable radical. Cora knew she was a bad person, and sometimes that overwhelmed her. She was more than capable of hiding her own emotions, hiding her fears and insecurities behind layers of irony and pretending to be fine... but sometimes, when she was alone, when no one relied on her or judged her - she could get emotional and wonder about what her life could have been like - she easily would have graduated top of her class and got a top-of-the-line scholarship at the Nefario IV University, studied xenobiology and gravimetrics and probably would lead her own laboratory on teleportation and quantum computing, she could have been someone the world looked up to; Constance Augustine would be the one to make her family proud.Instead, she was the scum of society, the horrifying cold-blooded tyrant parents would tell their children to scare them; a murderer to whom the value of life meant nothing to whatsoever. No one you would want to have as a neighbour, the kind of person who cuts in line at the grocery store. She was just 16 years old, but she had already started a war, eradicated planets and star systems from existence, killing billions and billions of people in the progess. To Cora, it was collateral damage. To Constance Augustine, she would do everything to reset the universe, and to get another chance. Her journal she kept since she ran away from home at age 10 was her most cherished possession, often she would look back on days gone by. Days she was innocent still, the first days after she ran away. She first days had been the hardest, she hid from everyone and tried not to show signs of fear or anxiety, but after all she had been only 10 years old at the time. She lived on the streets, and the city of Avonridge had not been kind to her. She lived under a bridge, with some other homeless guys she had met. She was lucky as they were kind to her and understood her - for the first time, Cora felt like she had a family. She scavenged the scrapyard of Avonridge by night and stole computer parts, built her own machine and hacked big companies to get hold of bank accounts. She had systematically stolen money from other people's bank accounts and bought her first spaceship, an old class I runabout of the Vi station. Under the bridge, in secrecy, she worked on bringing the old tin can up to speed, and when she was eleven, it finally had a working FTL drive. Saying goodbye to her homeworld forever, Constance Augustine set out to the Delta Quadrant to leave her home once and for all.But all that had been almost seven years ago. Now, Cora was mostly over it. She had found influential and good friends, and she was still meeting them from time to time. Sighing, and with a bit of nostalgia in her, Cora opened the door to what would become her new workshop. A nice big laboratory, with all kinds of chemical and medical devices. One by one, Cora took the devices and put them in the replicator. She wouldn't need them.
1195
1196In the mess hall, Tony was standing behind the kitchen counter and tried his hand at cooking. He was never very good at it, but he found some recipes on the computer and wanted to try them out. He was whistling a song his father taught him as Mika walked in through the door.
1197"Hey", Tony said.
1198"Jarena", Mika replied. Yumeko had taught Tony that 'Jarena' meant 'Hello'. It was one of the few words that survived the switch from old Nefarian to universal English. "What are you doing?"
1199"Just... cooking", he answered. "Hey, let me ask you something. How long have Yumeko and you been together?"
1200"About... two years? Yeah, that's about it." She sat down on one of the barstools in front of the kitchen counter.
1201"And do you... do it?"
1202"That's not your concern!", she said. "But, yes. Occasionally."
1203"What was your first date? Was it totally awkward like first dates go?", Tony asked and stirred his ragout."No, not at all, surprisingly. I know it sounds stupid, but we kind of were the star-crossed lovers type. It was love at first sight!"
1204"Love at first sight doesn't exist. Love takes time and work."
1205"Yeah, I know... I guess Yumi and me are the exception."
1206"Is he 100% honest with you?"
1207"Yeah, of course"
1208"And are you 100% honest with him?"
1209"All the time!""Do your friends know him?"
1210"Well, yeah, I introduced him to them on our third date, I believe"
1211"And do they like him as well? Do they think you two fit together?", he asked. He got a fork and picked up a piece of red meat from the pan. He handed it over to Mika. "Here, taste this."
1212"They all say we're the perfect couple." She took the fork and bit down. "Oh my stars", she said. "Tony, this might be the best thing I've ever put in my mouth.", she said, chewing. She gave back the fork. "And yes, that includes what you're thinking of right now."
1213"Thanks", Tony said and looked in the oven.
1214"I didn't know you were such a good cook! This is fabulous!"
1215"Wait 'till you try dessert."
1216"But yeah, as I was saying, everyone I asked thought Yumi and me fit perfectly. Some even say we could be brother and sister."
1217"Brother and sister?"
1218"Well, obviously we're much more that just friends. Do you have a girlfriend?"
1219"I had several, but not anymore. But that's fine."
1220"Do you have a crush? I mean, on Terra?"
1221"No, not really... but hey, maybe I'll find someone out here. You never know." He paused for a second. "Out here, in space."
1222
1223Sina sat in the captain's chair on the bridge. She spent most of her time on the bridge. She liked the bridge, it had that luxury car aesthetic she knew from earth, from Mr. Dorset's expensive cars. Sina could remember it like it was yesterday, when Sarah and her drove up to the Dorset's cottage at Yosemite.
1224"Thanks for taking me with you, Mr. Dorset", Sina said.
1225"Don't mention it.", the billionaire replied, smiling. Sarah sat next to Sina on the rear seat of a Cadillac Escalade. She was wearing one of her comically oversized sweaters.
1226"When we're finally there, I have to show you my room.", Sarah said. Sina stared outside the window. Snow and mountains everywhere she looked. It was the 21st of December, 2016. The first Christmas Sina would spend away from Helvetica. She usually spent Christmas eve with Sarah either at the orphanage or at the Dorset Tower, and Sarah's parents were at the Dorset SE headquarters for their corporate X-Mas parties, so either Sarah would be at home with Sina and the butler and nanny, or at the orphanage with Sina and the others.
1227"However, girls, later I'll have a Christmas party with some business partners. Your mom has packed you something you can wear at the party."
1228"We'll be like princesses at a ball!", Sarah said.
1229"Yeah, that sounds fun", Sina answered. She wasn't really focused. She continued staring outside the window into the white frozen land. Even though she was with her best friend, she felt out of place in the sinfully expensive limousine. She wasn't living the high life. She was living the polar opposite, usually. With a roommate who she just lived with and she wasn't really friends with, in an orphanage... her place wasn't in a Cadillac Escalade with one of the richest men on the planet.
1230"What are we going to do on Christmas day?", Sarah asked.
1231"We'll celebrate together, and at noon an old business partner of mine will join us for lunch. I expect you to be on your best behaviour, okay?"
1232"Business, business, business. Dad, that's boring. Can we go hiking or something? All together?"
1233"Sweetie, I'm sorry, but I told you we'd only be here over Christmas because me and your dad have to get some things done. I'm sorry, but we just don't have the time."
1234"And what about Jeeves? Can he go hiking with us?"
1235"Sweetie, the house is gonna be packed later. We need every help we can get, and we need Jeeves at the house later at the party."
1236"Mom, that's gonna be so boring. Numbers, money, stocks, blah blah blah."
1237"Please, Sarah. It's just gonna be a few hours. There's lots of interesting people to meet, too.", Sarah's mother said."Sarah, come on. It's gonna be fun, trust me.", Sina said. "And if not, we can still go to your room and play a game or something."
1238
1239Sarah stood in front of a full-size mirror in her bathroom. She was wearing a long blue dress of the finest, most expensive satin and had a bow in her hair.
1240"You look like a princess, Sarah", Sina said. Her own dress was made of dark red silk that felt better that anything she had worn before. Her hair had been made into a glamourous top knot while Sarah had gotten braids. Sarah's bathroom was unreasonably large; it was a big jacuzzi bathtub and a beautiful modern shower. A giant window was also installed in the bathroom; Sina could see out to the beautiful landscape of Yosemite. The butler Jeeves knocked on the door.
1241"Yeah?", Sarah yelled."Young lady Dorset, the guests are here. Your father wants to see you."
1242"We're coming down, Jeeves! One minute!", Sarah responded. She turned to Sina, she was seriously distressed. "Sina, I dunno. I'm a bit... nervous?"
1243"Don't worry. It'll be all right. You look great, and the people down there work with your father. It'll be okay."
1244"Promise?"
1245"Promise."
1246
1247Chapter 16 - Beatings
1248
1249"Log date K-66-2578.11. So this is my new home, I guess. I really don't know how long I'll be staying here. Maybe a month, or so. Depends on what we'll do. For now, I'm just working on some projects a had lying around on the Centauri." Cora sat down on her new workbench and looked at the screen on the wall. "To be honest, I don't know what I'm going to do. I thought it would be exciting, going on a good old fashioned hyperlane trip... and that with my sister, of all people. But she doesn't want me here, I can tell." Cora took a long look around her workshop. It was painted jet black with blue accents, the same colour her hair had. "As of now, well we'll see what comes. I'm just going to be open and try to be a sister to Mika for once." She sighed. "Even if she doesn't believe in me. Log end." Cora liked her new workshop. It had everything she had ever wanted in her creative room on the Centauri. She had a cozy corner with a couch and a VHS player she had replicated, a game console was also connected to the old cathode ray tube TV Cora had also found the replicator plans to in the computer's database. She had always had a thing for old retro tech gubbins. She had also built a custom architect table with a giant screen holographic processor. She had always designed her tech with old fashioned paper and pen, but this... this was infinitely more comfortable and accurate. Everything about her work was now synchronised between her workbench and the architect table. But she knew what she would make first. She took a pen and started to doodle on the table. A few determined strokes with the pen later, she had already a crude idea of what her latest creation would be."Hey, Computer. Play some music, will you?", she commanded. Music started to play. Nefarian Pop, to be exact. Nefarian pop - or Nefarian modern music in general - could be best described as a postmodern fusion of early hip hop and jazz with just a hint of funk, all in all a kind of chill new age style, which represented Nefarian culture pretty well. Nefarians were all very calm and indifferent about everything that happened in the galaxy. The Nefarian government however was the total polar opposite of this. No matter what, the government had to involve itself in everything. For a while, there was a law in place where professions would be assigned based on Nefarian powers. For instance, everyone with healing powers like Honey would work in the medical field. Other powers, for instance hydrokinesis or other kinetic powers would mean a career in the construction field which was all controlled by the government. For a long time, Nefario had been a socialist state without any individual freedom whatsoever. Of course, no one ever admitted that. It would destroy the credibility of not only the Nefarian governmet, but also the entire NVA. As the biggest power in the milky way galaxy, no one would have either the courage to accuse Nefario, or was stupid enough to. Over the years, the government became less strict and for instance allowed the people to freely choose their profession. When Cora was little, she wanted to become a famous inventor. She wanted to be the one to make time travel work.
1250Reality, however, had other plans.
1251
1252"Hey.", Mika said. She was standing in Yumeko's door with a big T1-branded box in her hands.
1253"Oh, hey, Mika", Yumeko replied. He was looking at one of Cora's PDAs, more specifically, he was looking at a star map. "What's up?"
1254"I talked to Tony." She put down the box and closed the door from the inside. "I wanna get something straight."
1255"Yeah, what's on your mind?", he said and tossed the PDA on his bed."I think we should move in together."
1256"You are aware that we are on a spaceship? We basically live together anyway."
1257"I mean, one room. One quarter. You and me. What do you think?"
1258"I don't see why not.", Yumeko said indifferently.
1259"Hey, Yumi. Please." Mika looked him in the eyes. "I love you. But this won't work if you put me above everything. If you don't want do this, if you don't want me to move in, that's okay."
1260"What? No! Mika, you're seeing this all the wrong way! I want us to move in together. Seriously. I'm happy you asked me."
1261"You sure?", Mika asked. She looked a bit worried. Yumeko knew that face, so he did, what he always did when Mika looked like that. He put her in a tight embrace and patted her head.
1262"Absolutely. Now let's get your stuff here."
1263
1264"'Sup?", Cora said. She was hanging upside down from a horizontal aluminum support on the deck 14 hallway. Her blue dreadlocks were pointing at the floor. She was grinning.
1265"Hey", Mika said without turning her head towards her sister.
1266"What'cha up to?"
1267"Just... bringing my stuff to Yumeko's quarter. We're moving in together.", Mika explained. Cora flung herself into Mika's direction and mid-swing teleported herself to the floor, reappearing about three steps before Mika.
1268"Need some help with the carrying?"
1269"No, I... Cora, could you not blink around me? It's making me uncomfortable."
1270"What? Why?"
1271"First, it's illegal. Second-"
1272"Illegal? That's bullshit and you know it. It's my power. Not my fault I was born with it. I'm not hurting anyone with it, so why wouldn't I? Next thing, we're in outer space. Not only that, but my sector of space. It's not illegal here." Mika looked her in the eyes.
1273"I don't care. You stop it."
1274"You need some help now or not?"
1275"No. Thank you." Mika's voice was darker than usual. She wanted Cora gone.
1276"Hey, at least take this." Cora tossed her sister a small round disc with some lights on the sides. "It's a field manipulator. Put it on the side of the crate and you can lift it with one finger." Mika looked at her and slowly opened the casing of the device. She ripped the wires out of the chip on the inside and threw it out. Under the chip was a small insulated compartment. Mika cracked the insulation and pulled a small white crystal out of it.
1277"I bet that cost a fortune."
1278"You can bet your butt it did"
1279"I know, and do you why it cost so much?" She crushed the crystal in her hand. "Using these graviton artefacts is illegal in every part of the galaxy. But you don't care, do you. As long as it serves your stupid personal agenda, whatever it is or it may be, you're okay with it."
1280"I'm not having an agenda! I'm your sister, I don't plot against you!", she shouted.
1281"You sure don't seem like it. I don't trust you. People like you lie. Lie every single sentence."
1282That was it. Cora had done so much in the last days to prove to her sister that she could change and be a better person. But no. In Mika's eyes, Cora was still worthless garbage. She could tolerate her sister being a bit skeptical, who wouldn't be. But accusing her of lying to serve a agenda, that was it. That was the straw that broke the camel's back. Right now, Mika was nothing but another person that didn't believe in her. Cora snapped. She grabbed Mika's shirt and shoved her full force against the corridor wall. Mika's skull smashed against the aluminum supports of the corridor and made a loud bang. Cora began screaming.
1283"Now you listen and you listen good! I have never lied to anyone in my entire life! I work my ass off everyday to prove to you that I am not the one you think I am, and then you won't accept anything I offer to you as your sister! I am trying to fix and stick together what is left of our broken relationship and you don't have any intention to for once be my sister and let me help!" Just after that, Cora dropped her sister to the floor. Cora stepped a few steps back, she was shaking. What had she done? She wouldn't have hesitated to beat up her sister. Even without breaking her sister's nose, she already had slammed her against a solid metal wall. Mika sunk to the floor, drawing a purple smear on the wall. That streak of something gooey and sticky on the wall, Cora was scared of it. She had seen it too many times to count. But this was different. This was caused by her, and she did this to her sister. Cora hadn't felt this way in a long time. She felt true, irrational fear.
1284"Took you long enough.", Mika said, touching the back of her head. Her fingers were stained in purple. "I was wondering how far I could push you. Turns out, not very far."
1285"You... you're disgusting", Cora answered.
1286"You're the one who almost beat me up. You could've easily killed me."
1287"Don't guilt trip me! I tried to be a better person, a better sister!"
1288"Yes, you tried. But that's not good enough. Now get me a bandage."
1289
1290Yumeko stood in his quarters, unpacking the cargo trays Mika had already brought up. Mika opened the door from the outside and entered with a shipping crate and a bandage around her head. "Don't be alarmed", she said. "I slipped and hurt the back of my head."
1291"My stars, are you okay? You look terrible!"
1292"I know, I know. Everything's okay, really."
1293"Did she beat you up?"
1294"Who? The puddle I slipped on?"
1295"Cora did this, didn't she."
1296"Yeah. Of course she would beat up her own sister.", Mika answered sarcastically. "I slipped and hurt my head, okay? I'm fine!"
1297"You didn't slip, Mika. That doesn't look like you slipped. Cora did this to you."
1298"Yumeko, please, leave her alone! She didn't have to do anything with that!", Mika cried out, but it was too late. No one beat up Yumeko's girlfriend, no one. And Yumeko was there to show the world that. He rushed out the door and got on the turbo lift, deck 14. That was the last straw. The door opened to the corridor on deck 14. Cora was, again, hanging upside down on the support beam and bundled a large strand of cables together with a bunch of cable ties.
1299"Yo! It's Captain Y! What up?", she yelled. Yumeko walked up to her and punched her in the face. A direct hit, straight on the nose. Cora lost her grip and fell to the floor. Purple blood was streaming out of her nostrils.
1300"What was that for?!"
1301"No one beats up my girlfriend, you punk! That was for her!"
1302"I guess I deserved that", she said and wiped her nose with her hand. "I'm sorry for what I did to her. Really. I didn't want it to escalate the way it did." She coughed. "I'm deeply sorry."
1303"You better be, because there's more where that came from. I'll break every bone in your body if I have to." Yumeko turned his back and walked back up to the elevator. Cora had really made a big mistake. The pain wasn't the issue, she had felt pain far worse. A broken nose, that would heal. She deserved it, she thought. Yumeko was right, she shouldn't have hurt Mika. Trying to be a better sister wasn't going to cut it. Cora had to be a better person first.
1304
1305"In school, we learned that if we look at the stars, we actually look into the past, because the stars are many light years away. That all those stars are... actually already dead.", Sina asked. She was holding a cup of tea in her hand and sat on the floor of the bridge.
1306"That's actually only partially correct. Stars usually take about five to seven million years to die out. That would mean that the stars out there are more than at least one million light years away. It's unlikely that you're looking at an already dead star.", ADOS replied.
1307"So... what about that one? Can we go there right now?", Sina asked and pointed at a star on the viewscreen.
1308"That is..." ADOS stopped for a second and lines of code appeared on the screen. "That's UFB-55, and it only has one planet around it, JD-55. It's about as big as Pluto and has an artificial atmosphere. So yes, we can go there."
1309"So let's do."
1310
1311Chapter 17 - Travels
1312
1313"How... how exactly does FTL travel actually work? I mean... we can't travel at speeds over light speed.", Sina asked, standing at the control console for the FTL drive next to ADOS.
1314"I see you paid attention in physics class. As you probably know, according to Terran physicist Albert Einstein, everything that is matter and crosses the light speed threshold actually becomes energy. However, the light threshold is different in different substances. In a vacuum, it's at about 300 million meters per second. If you, however, enclose a spaceship in a... say, a bubble and bring that bubble to interspace, you can travel with what is effectively speeds over light speed, because the light threshold in intersapce is much higher. Any questions thus far?", ADOS explained.
1315"Yeah, what's interspace?", Sina asked. This level of physics was far beyond her understanding, but she felt like she kind of understood what ADOS was trying to convey.
1316"Interspace, or Subspace as some call it, is best described as a dimension that is directly below our space. It's always there, you can't notice it, and you can't enter it. Accumulate enough energy, however, and you can open a rift to Interspace. Squeeze through the bubble with your ship in it and you got yourself a ship in FTL. That's the bright flash you see when ships enter FTL. This ship however doesn't use this method of FTL. This ship uses what's called an Alcubierre Drive. It was named after, again, a Terran physicist by the name of Miguel Alcubierre. With Alcubierre FTL, we completely turn the idea on it's head. Think about it. How do we get to high speeds without breaking the light threshold?"
1317"I dunno.", Sina said. She had sat down, legs crossed and rest her head on her hand. "How about... getting the laws of physics not to notice?"
1318"Good catch. That's exactly what we do. We get the laws of physics to not apply. We find a legal loophole, if you will."
1319"And how do we do that?"
1320"Empty space is, as the name suggests, empty. So there's no matter that could cross the light threshold. The idea of the Alcubierre drive is to contract and expand the empty space in front and behind the ship. The ship is pushed through space, comparable to how an inchworm moves. It takes a whole lot more energy, but it's also a lot faster than the normal field FTL."
1321"Wow... that's cool. Are there any other methods of light speed travel?"
1322"There is teleportation. But it's only theoretical. There's also temporary portal induction, but it requires something like a central station where portals can be created and stabilized. Some ships, especially small ones, also use a slight variation of field FTL, where the ship can't create a field, only sustain it. It's shot out from a slingshot station. Most people learn to pilot with slingshot ships."
1323"Can you teach me how to pilot a ship properly? I think I should know that."
1324"Yeah, of course. We just need a small ship, maybe a shuttle you can learn to pilot. Then we'll work our way up to cargo transporter and then the Terra-1 itself, okay? Maybe you can bring us down to the planet if we're there." The door opened. Cora and Mika stepped inside the bridge and walked over to the astrometrics lab. Cora had a band-aid on her nose.
1325"Hey, Red.", she greeted.
1326"Hi", Sina replied and got back to ADOS. "So we need a shuttle. Can you, like, simulate one on the holo grid, so I can-"
1327"You need a shuttle? A small one, about Class III?", Cora asked. "Because I could have something to show you." She vaulted over the tactical console down to the captain's chair and plugged one of her PDAs into the expansion slot. A heavily modified shuttle appeared on the main viewscreen. Based on one of the normal T1 brand Class III shuttles, it had been modded to an extent no one on the bridge had seen before. Alcubierre superchargers, Multicolor lighting, tempered glass windows, all replicated interior... it was the equivalent of a luxury RV, only in space.
1328"May I proudly present: The Elaine!", Cora said and waved at the screen. "What do you think of the name?"
1329"It's... um... nice", Sina answered. "Did you build it all by yourself?"
1330"The ship itself, no. But I stripped it bare and rebuilt everything from the ground up, so, yes. Pretty much. The plans are my workstation, if you wanna check 'em out."
1331"And you suggest I learn to fly a spaceship with that thing? No offense, but I think I should learn how to fly a normal spaceship first. Maybe after that."
1332"Speaking of, we're in FTL. Where are we going?"
1333"A tiny planet in the UFB. It's called JD-55 and orbits UFB-55."
1334"What's so interesting about it?", Mika asked.
1335"I don't know. Sina wanted to go there, so we're setting sail. What are you two doing?"
1336"Um... things", Cora replied.
1337"And what happened to your nose?"
1338"I tripped over a cargo crate. Nothing special. Don't worry about me."
1339"You sure?" 
1340"Yeah. Nothing worth getting all worked up over. Listen, when are we gonna arrive on that planet? What's the ETA here?"
1341"Tomorrow, at least.""So, we have one day until we arrive at a planet we know nothing about." Sina laid back. "I'm down for that."
1342
1343"Ladies and Gentlemen, dear friends, on behalf of Dorset SE I sincerely thank you all for your attendance. It is, once again, a great honour to be able to host this celebration not only on behalf of the business and my loyal employees, but also on that of my family. It has been a very rewarding year not only for us, but also for all of our investors and to an extent, you all here. Now, we are mainly here to celebrate, so I won't make this speech too long and boring. Please. enjoy yourself. And, before I forget, my daughter Sarah and one of her friends will be joining us today." Mr. Dorset nodded. "Thank you." The guests applauded and raised their champagne glasses to Mr. and Mrs. Dorset.
1344"I feel so out of place", Sina whispered.
1345"No take-backsies", Sarah whispered back.
1346"Let's get something to eat, okay?"
1347"Miss Dorset! Nice to see you here!", a short bald man in an Armani suit said. "I reckon you don't remember me, but-"
1348"Oh, hi! Um... Mr. Haswell, right? My father invited you to dinner last month, didn't he?"
1349"Yes, he did indeed. I see, you brought a friend along?"
1350"Yeah, um... Sina? This is Mr. Haswell. He's a business partner of my dad."
1351"Please, call me George.", he said and shook Sina's hand. "Well, if you would excuse me, I got boring business stuff to deal with. Listen, maybe we'll get chance to catch up later.", Mr. Haswell said and disappeared in the crowd, leaving Sina and Sarah alone.
1352"You know what, maybe this could be fun after all.", Sina said.
1353"See, now that's the spirit."
1354
1355Tony stepped inside the Elaine. Cora's shuttle was comfortable, no question. She had done everything to make it cozy and slick; she had put out comfortable black couches, Cora could be living in the Elaine easily. She had a sleep compartment above the control room, kind of like a very low cot in an RV and a small, yet fully equipped bathroom. She also had a replicator as her only piece of kitchen equipment, as well with the aforementioned sofas and a coffee table along with a desk that could be folded outwards to provide a full mechanical keyboard and mouse and a two computer monitors where the table would go when folded up. Cora already sat behind the control console in the front and punched in the course to the planet below. Just to Cora's liking, the console was prominently comprised of physical dials and switches, glowing gauges and small monitors as well as a big array of mechanical keys, all with tiny screens behind them. Tony estimated there being about 400 individual keys on the keyboard alone. On the right panel there was a large 40-inch touch screen spanning the entire surface of the panel itself."Make yourself at home, but don't behave like it.", Cora said and flipped some switches and typed something into the computer, accompanied by very loud keyboard clicking. "If you wanna drink something or whatever, help yourself."
1356"Cora, are you sure this ship is safe?", Mika asked, running her fingers over the welding marks.
1357"Yeah, of course", Cora said. "I tested it already. It survived flying through the gap between a binary star with relative ease, easily exited and entered even Class Y atmospheres, and it even took on a group of pirates without any problems."
1358"Pirates?", Tony asked. "There are space pirates?"
1359"Of course there are", Cora replied. "They just want your cargo, though. I always blast them away."
1360"So this ship has weapons?"
1361"Multiple banks of phase alternating laser guns, antimatter torpedo launchers, a molecule agitator, plasma machine guns and EMP emitters. Also a loading bay for standard NVA rockets, in case you wanna upgrade. Everything you might need to get into a decent fight. Now sit down.", Cora commanded. Tony, Sina, Yumeko and Mika sat down on the couch as they were told. The door closed automatically, and the inside of the Elaine lit up. Strips of white light diodes marked the step up to the command module. The back of the Elaine was a solid glass panel, as well as parts of the roof and the front. The side panels were outfitted with shelves Cora had put stuff like books and trinkets from her life on. Things like little miniature meteorites, a snow globe of another planet, a red glass cube, a coffee mug with the word 'Milliways' printed on it, multiple computer chips and other memorabilia. Sina wanted to take the cup from the shelf, but she could not move it even an inch.
1362"The whole shelf is in stasis. Just in case the gravity generators go haywire, my collection won't be all over the place.", Cora explained. "Hey, I wondered - what exactly is your mission on the Terra-1?" Sina and Tony looked at each other and thought. What was their mission? No one had given them a mission.
1363"I don't know", Tony answered. "I'd guess just gather as much data and information about outer space as possible and return to earth."
1364"Return to earth? How are you going to do that without the whole planet noticing you? Hell, you probably caused a stir when you left. How long are you out here now, two weeks? I really hope you have a good explanation for your absence. The whole city is probably looking for you at this point."
1365"No, they're not. We covered our bases for the three days we're away."
1366"Three days? You've been away for weeks."
1367"ADOS told us that time is slowed down when you're-"
1368"Oh boy, time dilation." Cora laid her head on the console in front of her. "You know that's actually just a myth? Every third grader can disprove you."
1369"What? No, there's an actual phenomenon like that!", Sina said. "If you sent a twin sibling to the moon and kept one on earth and after two years got them back to the planet, the sibling that stayed on the planet will be younger"
1370"Yes, but that's not because of time dilation. It's because natural satellites like the moon have an atmosphere of tachyons which slow time down by a bit. Time dilation that would compress months into days, that's not possible. You would make mother nature a bit uncomfortable, just travelling through time like that. Forget it, ADOS lied to you." 
1371"Wow. That's... why would he do that?", Sina asked herself.
1372"Why would people do anything? Simple: To serve their personal agenda. Everyone does. I do. Mika does."
1373"Hey, I don't! I help other people, I do volunteer work!"
1374"To make other people feel better, which helps you feel better. Which is your agenda, to feel well. It's not that hard. Every being is egotistical. Even AIs. Especially AIs."
1375"But... he doesn't lie. He's a command hologram, he's basically a utility. Why would he lie?"
1376"He probably doesn't even know it's a lie. He's a computer, he's following his programming. And, on a related note, he's a very sophisticated program at that. I wouldn't be surprised if there were, like, a million fail-safes in place to ensure he does his job like he's supposed to. Even if he consciously lied, I wouldn't hold it against him." Cora turned a knob and flipped a few switches on her console. "This is the Class III runabout Elaine. Requesting permission to land."
1377"Elaine, state your mothership.", a woman's voice replied.
1378"Terra-1, Class X Cruiser, designation 1867.", Cora replied. A few seconds of radio silence followed.
1379"Permission granted."
1380
1381Chapter 18 - JD-55
1382
1383The planet JD-55 was in itself an oddity. A planet the size of Pluto, yet its gravity was as strong as earth's. In general, it was a lot like earth. It had grass, trees, an ocean, and even a house on it. Cora brought the Elaine down with almost full force; Mika almost fell out of her seat as the ship touched the ground.
1384"Hey, be careful", she muttered. Cora opened the door from her control panel and stepped outside. To her surprise, it was about 14 degrees Celsius, a rarity for such a small planet. Especially with artificial atmospheres, she would have expected at least twenty degrees outside.
1385"Nice out here", Sina said and looked around. Cora had landed in a forest, next to a small lake. "Where are we headed?"
1386"The house, I guess. Most logical step now.", Cora said and pulled out her phone. "Great. No reception." She sighed. "I guess we just need to get going. The planet isn't that big."
1387"How big exactly?", Sina asked. Cora typed something into her phone.
1388"Approximately the size of Canada."
1389"You call that not big? I don't want to know what's big in your book"
1390"I said, for a planet. For a planet it's tiny." Cora took off her jacket and tied it around her waist. "Let's move."
1391
1392About an hour later, there was still no house in sight.
1393"Couldn't we just have taken the Elaine again?", Tony asked.
1394"No, sorry. The fuel reserves are almost empty. I thought I could charge it here, but apparently I parked a bit far away."
1395"Do you even know where you're going? This area looks so familiar", Mika said.
1396"We're going north. That's all I know." The trees didn't seem to end. No matter where Sina looked, all she could see was pine trees. Cora had seemingly no problem with walking over possibly an entire planet. Tony was fine, too. Sina's feet were aching.
1397"Hey, can we maybe take a break?", Yumeko asked. "I don't think I can go much longer."
1398"Come on, don't be a baby", Cora answered. "It's been only one hour. Pull yourself together."
1399"Seriously, let's just take a break, Cora. Five minutes, okay? Let's find a clearing and just take five.", Mika suggested.
1400"Ugh, fine. Stay here, I'll look for a clearing." She walked over to one of the many trees and climbed up on a tree, surveying the area. After a good minute, Cora jumped from the top of the about 6 meter high tree to the ground. "A good ten minutes in that direction is a clearing. We can rest there."
1401
1402"Hey, look. The sun is setting.", Sina said.
1403"That's UFB-55. Not the sun.", Cora said. She was sitting next to Sina in front of a pile of sticks and wood, trying to light a campfire. She tried to spark a small flame using a stick and a bigger log, but she wasn't successful. She chucked the stick away. "Screw this!" Sina picked up the stick, pulled the log towards her and started twisting it, gently blowing on the mark the stick had left. It started smoking, and about half a minute later Sina held a burning stick into the campfire.
1404"See, you just need a bit patience."
1405"Yeah, yeah." Cora crossed her legs and looked into the fire. "Can I ask you a question?"
1406"Ask away"
1407"Who did you lose?" Sina was stunned.
1408"Wha- what? How-"
1409"I can tell. You've lost someone who was very close to you." Sina looked around. Mika and Yumeko had gone looking for food while Tony was going back to the Elaine to get some blankets and pillows.
1410"I lost everyone. My parents are dead, I don't have siblings and my best friend died in a fire."
1411"So that's why you're out here?"
1412"Probably." Sina sighed and looked at the orange sky. "Maybe I could start another life here. Earth disappoints me."
1413"Things will get better. Trust me, I've been through-"
1414"Things are better. It's exactly how I thought. I'm away from home, I have met new people, and everything is so much better. For the first time, I actually have friends. I dunno, but maybe I'll send Tony home without me in a few months. I want to stay here. Maybe live at Honey's." She looked at Cora. "And you? Who did you lose?"
1415"Way too many people."
1416"Do you remember them?"
1417"Every single one."
1418"Is there anyone you remember specifically?"
1419"Yeah. Her name was Lydia. I met her on a station in the Gamma Quadrant. I was out for a trip, and I got in a fight. Had to stop at the station and wanted to fix my hull plating. I brought the Zenith to the hangar and started replicating the parts I needed. It would take a while, so I went to the lounge to get a coffee. So there I was, standing in line for a way too expensive cup of coffee at Planetcups and this girl is behind me. She's about as old as I was at the time, about fifteen. She orders the exact same coffee as I did. So we get to talk and it turns out she's from Drion Prime. An alpha quadrant planet. We talk a bit about our lives and how we ended up here, and I learn that she's out on a road trip through the galaxy. This is her first time off planet on her own, and she's hitchhiking."
1420"Hitchhiking through space?", Sina asked. The fire was cracking and giving off a warm orange glow. Darkness had settled already. The stars are up on the night sky.
1421"Yeah, she was something. So I ask her if she needed a ride, and it turns out she does. I was going to Iapra in the Caron system. She wanted to tag along, and it was fine by me. She seemed cool. So we both go back to the hangar and repair my ship as good as we can, and we're off. Lydia... she was perfect. She was funny, she was witty, she was incredibly smart... I loved her. I asked her if she wanted to stay a bit with me, and she said she'd love to. Turned out she liked me back. So... she helped me with my research projects. She moved to the Centauri with me. I actually thought about laying off the being evil thing. I mean, I was happy. I had money, I had a girlfriend, I had everything I needed. For once in my life I felt like I got everything together."
1422"So, what happened to Lydia?"
1423"K-65-1229.45. About one year ago. I don't know how it happened, but I was out on the battlefield again. I don't want to think about that night. Lydia and me were in the base. It was dire. The NVA tricked us into setting up a stronghold on Iapra. It was stupid. I shouldn't have fallen for it. It was an obvious trap. I went out. I took my bike and rode out on the field. Henry's battalion was about to go down. I needed to get out there and reinforce them. A few minutes later I got a call on my headset." Cora looked into the flame. "The base had been rushed over. Everything had been burned down. I rode back to the base. I didn't care about Henry down there. I had made a terrible mistake. I should never have left Lydia alone there. And... frankly, when I arrived there, I was too late."
1424"Did they-"
1425"Yeah." Cora wiped away a tear. "Those bastards."
1426"I'm so sorry for what happened to you. For what happened to Lydia."
1427"It's not your fault."
1428"Do you have something to remember her? A photo or something?"
1429"I have this.", Cora said and pointed to her head.
1430"Your memories?"
1431"No, this. My bandanna. It was a gift from Lydia. She was the one who suggested I should get dreadlocks. I don't plan on letting that go. I will remember her."
1432"I didn't know you were so-"
1433"Let's just... let's just move on. You don't need to be sorry for me." She sighed. "When is Tony coming back?"
1434"He should be back already. Hey, how long are the nights on this planet?", Sina asked and laid down. Cora looked up into the starry night sky and put her thumb in the air. "About twenty hours."
1435"How do you know?"
1436"Just some simple astronomy. It's not hard."
1437It was silent. Actually, it was not silent at all. The campfire was cracking and rustling, crickets were chirping and an owl was calling through the night, silently, yet audible.
1438"Do you sometimes wish you could go back in time and save her?"
1439"All the time. But I can't. And even if I could, I probably wouldn't. I've moved on."
1440"Don't you miss her?"
1441"Well, yeah. Sometimes."
1442"So why don't you do something?"
1443"I can't. And that's okay. Listen, Sina. If you want to live in outer space, you need to accept that people die. Space is not made for life. It's expected and accepted. If you can't deal with that, go back to Earth." She closed her eyes and didn't say any more. Sina decided to get up and look around, but of course, it was too dark to see anything.
1444"Hey, Red, what's so special about this planet?", Cora finally broke the silence.
1445"I dunno. I just... wanted to go anywhere." In the distance, Sina could her rustling through the leaves and twigs. "Tony?", she yelled.
1446"Yeah, it's me", Tony shouted back from about quarter a mile. "I brought the sleeping bags and the equipment Cora wanted." Sina ran off into the woods to help Tony to bring all the stuff to their clearing. "You made a fire! Nice.", he said and dumped the stuff he brought next to Cora.
1447"Sweet", Cora said without opening her eyes. She held up her left hand. Tony tossed her the keys to the Elaine and Cora caught them, without looking. Sina took her instant camera out of her bag and snapped a picture of Cora lying by the fire. No one would think she was a mass murderer if they would just see this photo. Tony put up the sleeping bags next to the campfire, pulled up a log from nearby up to the campfire and sat down. After a while of no one saying anything, Yumeko and Mika also came back to the campsite. In the dim shade of incandescent light the campfire gave off Sina couldn't see very well, but she could definitely tell that Mika and Yumeko were happy.
1448"I'm pretty tired", Yumeko said and got a sleeping bag from the pile. He unfolded it and placed it next to the campfire, but at a safe distance. "What do yo think we're gonna do tomorrow?"
1449"Our best bet would just be to carry on. Maybe get to a mountain or so that we can survey the area.", Cora said and got a sleeping bag as well. She also tossed one over to Mika. Sina already sat on hers.
1450"You sure? This planet - I mean, yes, it's small, but still about the size of Canada. How long do you think we'll be here?"
1451"I really don't know.", Cora said. "But we'll see." she crawled inside her sleeping bag and closed her eyes. Tony went to sleep as well, Yumeko and Mika fell asleep shortly after that. They were exhausted. Sina laid down and stared into the night sky. The mesh of white dots across the skyscape had this strange... hypnotic and calming thing to it, Sina thought. Sometimes, Sarah and her would go to the outskirts of Helvetica to stare into that night sky. Helvetica was a very new city, and was finished in 2018 as a state of the art 'smart city', but it was fairly remote and the outskirts were still being constructed. There had been almost no light pollution at all, and the night sky was almost as beautiful as it was here. If Sarah would only be here, Sina thought.
1452
1453Chapter 19 - Gemini
1454
1455Cora slowly opened her eyes, a shadow was looming over her face.
1456"Hey." Cora instantly jumped up and got into a battle stance. She looked at the child that had been looking down on her. He was about 4' 6'', had pitch black hair and wore a grey sweater with cargo shorts. "Whoa there, calm down. I'm not a threat. I just saw you sleeping here in the forest and thought you need help."
1457"I- do you live here?", Cora replied and lowered her fists.
1458"Yes, at the house. About two hours from here by foot."
1459"What's your name?", Cora asked and rolled up her bedroll.
1460"Gemini. Nice to meet you!", he said and smiled. "Do you want to wake your friends? You can come with me. You've spent the whole night out here, you must be starving."
1461"Hey, can you tell me who else lives here?"
1462"Only me and my dad."
1463"And somewhere else on the planet?"
1464"Only me and my dad. We got a house on what we call New New Amsterdam. If you can wake up your friends, we can go right now.", he said. Cora looked around. The campfire went out hours ago. Cora had slept for 19 hours straight, and no wonder she did. She had been exhausted; this was the first decent night of sleep she had gotten in weeks. She shuffled over to Mika's bedroll and woke her up.
1465"Morning, sleepyhead.", she grumbled. Mika opened her eyes.
1466"Why... why did you wake me?", she asked.
1467"There's this kid. He says he lives here and wants to get us to the house. For breakfast. What do you think?"
1468"I think... breakfast? Why not?"
1469"Then go wake the others up, okay? I'll pack everything up."
1470
1471"Are we there yet?", Yumeko asked. His feet were aching. They were walking for about one an a half ours in a straight line.
1472"Almost! I can already see the bridge to New New Amsterdam from here.", Gemini said. He did not show any sign of fatigue, he was still upbeat and happy.
1473"Gemini, can I ask you something?", Tony asked.
1474"Well, you just did. But, yeah. Go ahead."
1475"Who is your father?"
1476"His name is Johnathan. He's a scientist, a computer scientist."
1477"And... what race is he?"
1478"Species", Yumeko whispered.
1479"I mean, his species. What species is he?"
1480"He's Terran.", Gemini replied.
1481"Terran?", Yumeko asked. "That can't be. Terrans don't have FTL technology."
1482"Well, my Terran does", Gemini joked. "He said he'll be home later today. I'm guessing he'll be coming back in, like... five hours? That should be about it."
1483"Do you know what he's working on? What kind of computer science?", Cora asked.
1484"Well, mostly the stuff goes over my head. He's an inventor. And a programmer, but mostly an inventor."
1485"And your mum?", Sina asked.
1486"Oh, I don't have a mother.", Gemini replied nonchalantly.
1487"I'm sorry about that"
1488"No, I mean, I never had one."
1489"Did she-"
1490"No, you don't understand. I literally never had a mother."
1491"Genetic cloning, probably", Cora whispered. Sina nodded. They continued over the wooden bridge; it looked like it had been built by someone who had never held a piece of wood or a hammer in their life before. Sina wasn't even confident it would hold six people. The bridge creaked suspiciously. She could see a house on the horizon. A nice large house. Three stories and an observatory with a glass dome ceiling.
1492"So that's your house?", she asked and pointed at it. "I like it."
1493"Yeah, it's pretty cool. My room is that there." He pointed at the observatory. "I can see the stars from my bed at night. I like to count them to fall asleep." He walked up to the driveway; it split into two with the left path leading to a hangar for spaceships with a convex curved ceiling made of solar panels. The sliding gate to the inside of the hangar was about opened half-way, but no matter how Cora turned her head, she couldn't make out what was in the hangar. Someone had meticulously cut the grass, every blade was exactly one inch tall, without any exceptions or compromises. Gemini walked up to the front door and unlocked it with a key he fished out of his cargo shorts.
1494"Come in, come in. And take off your shoes, please. John is pretty fussy about that." He pointed at a shoe rack next to the door. The atrium was bigger than it looked from the outside, in the middle was a semi-detached marble staircase to the higher floors which connected to a galleria looking down on a very luxurious dining area. Everything was lit by modern light fixtures on the floor and the walls, on the other side of the stairs was the lounge area with equally luxurious living room furnishing and a giant TV that was recessed in the wall. Tall speaker towers surrounded the TV and played a calming jazz tune. Modern and abstract paintings decorated the walls.
1495"Whoa.", Mika said. Sina was speechless. The building was big, yes, but she wouldn't have expected it to be a luxury mansion. "Nice house, Gemini."
1496"Thanks! I came up with most of the interior design ideas myself.", he said proudly. He pointed at the dining table. "Why don't you sit down? I'll make you breakfast if you want."
1497"Uh... Gemini?", Tony asked.
1498"Yeah? What's the matter?"
1499"Do you know where the toilet is?"
1500"Sure I know. I live here.", he answered and turned to the kitchen island that was standing freely in the room.
1501"I'd really need to use it", Tony said.
1502"Oh, right! I'm sorry, I don't get visitors that often. It's upstairs, left and the second door on the right.", he turned around to the stove an threw some eggs on. "There's newspapers on the coffee table, if you want to read." Sina got up and got an issue of the 'Inter Planet Indicator', put it on the table and started skimming through the articles.
1503"Hey, look. Honey's in the news.", Sina said and pointed at an article about the Pathos Harbour. "The architecture student Honey from Nefario III has focused on turning the delerict space station P2 into a refuge for other Nefarians who lost their home in the Nefario III incident." She looked lower and found an interview with Honey.
1504
1505What has brought you to opening the Pathos Harbour?
1506Oh, good question. I was stuck on this station a few weeks ago, my ship crashed. I was stuck here for about three weeks, and I didn't know what was going on outside of the station. Eventually, I found out that my home planet, well, exploded. And this abandoned station, it wouldn't take too much to get it up and running again. And then it hit me- this station could not only be a home for me, but could be a safe haven. A safe haven for those left homeless by the event that made me homeless. The station is big enough, a lot of people lived here once.
1507And how are the repairs going? When are you going to be ready to open to the public?
1508Well, we're open right now. At this time, we're providing shelter to 400 Nefarians and we're always welcoming more. You see, this is a community project. we're helping each other. And,as you see, the lobby looks pretty good already. The generators and solar panels are functioning at peak efficiency, the crew quarters are working as well the cafeteria, the shuttlebay is mostly operational, the old labs and offices are currently being remodeled into a school and a new research laboratory. So, if you are from Nefario III, please just visit us. Our Interlink frequency is 35-2-138 Echo, and we're in Sector ES-DY in the Delta Quadrant.
1509
1510"That's fantastic", Sina said and put the newspaper down. "Things are really looking up for her."
1511"Do you know her?", Gemini asked and served an omelet to Sina.
1512"Yeah, we were involved in putting Pathos back on the map as a refuge. I mean, she probably didn't tell the real story in any of the interviews, but we were there."
1513"If you don't mind me asking, what species are you?"
1514"I'm Terran.", Sina answered truthfully. "Tony is, too. Mika, Cora and Yumeko are Nefarian."
1515"Terran? Didn't you say the Terrans were non-FTL?"
1516"It's a long story." Tony came back down the stairs and sat down at the table. Gemini continued serving breakfast.
1517"So, tell me.", Gemini said and sat down on the last empty chair. "What brought you here?"
1518"It's a crazy story. And at that, totally random. I never knew what I was getting myself into."
1519
1520The sun was already setting again, even though it had only been out for six hours, at best. A small personal spacecraft, not bigger than the Elaine, broke the atmosphere of JD-55 and landed on the driveway in front of the hangar. The engines hummed and stopped shortly after. The door opened and Johnathan Damon Doe stepped outside. Johnathan was about 6'4'', of medium build and had black hair and an equally black goatee. Today had been a good day, he knew. He just closed another deal with the Nefario IV Resistance for a lot of money he was definitely going to earn. While the Resistance was technically a terrorist organisation, as a citizen of the United Federation of Beta Quadrant Planets he did not need to worry about the NVA and their laws. In addition to that, the Resistance was ensuring that no information about their contacts were shared with anyone, not even Resistance members. The Resistance had always worked on 'Knows a guy who knows a guy' base. Johnathan was a proud father to a young boy named Gemini who he lived with on the planet JD-55 which was orbiting the star UFB-55. Johnathan did what he loved for a living, and he loved doing it. He was an inventor and a  programmer, but after hours, he was one thing: A dad.
1521"Hey, you little rascal! You've you been?", John asked and hugged his son.
1522"I'm great, dad! I'm so happy you're back!"
1523"Well, I hope I didn't take too long. What's been going on around here?"
1524"I made some new friends! They landed on the planet and didn't know it was claimed, so I invited them to breakfast."
1525"Why don't you introduce me?", John said and followed his son to the house.
1526"I'd love to!" Gemini opened the door and lead his dad to the living room, where Tony, Sina, Yumeko, Mika were playing a board game while Cora read through Gemini's superhero comic book collection. "Guys, this is my dad!" They looked up, and Cora nearly fell out of her seat.
1527"Whoa! That's so creepy.", she said.
1528"Um, hello to you, too", John said and waved. "I take it, you're friends of my son?"
1529"Yes, I suppose we are", Mika said and hugged John. "Nice to meet you. I'm Mika."
1530"Why are they hugging?", Sina asked Yumeko. "They don't even know each other."
1531"Oh, it's customary on Nefario to greet with an embrace.", Yumeko explained.
1532"Nice to meet you, Mika. I'm John."
1533"I'm Yumeko. Good to meet you."
1534"My name's Sina. Your son told me you were from earth?" John looked surprised.
1535"Yes, I am. Earth? You can't be from earth, too, now can you? I don't think they have FTL technology yet."
1536"Well, we kind of got here by accident. It's a long story."
1537"Yeah, and our ship has a command hologram assistant who looks exactly like you", Cora said to John. John looked even more surprised.
1538"Is this designation by any chance ADOS? Build number 9926?"
1539"Yeah, that's our hologram."
1540"I... I designed him."
1541
1542Chapter 20 - Ellie
1543
1544It was a cold November evening. It was dark outside already. There was no snow yet, and there probably wouldn't be for the next few weeks. It was not freezing outside, but still plenty cold. Someone knocked at the door.
1545"Come in", Ellie said. The door opened and matron Margaret Orlando looked inside. Behind her was a girl, about the same height and age as Ellie, but a fair bit more chubby.
1546"Eleanor, this is Olivia Lee. She will be your new roommate."
1547"Okay. Good to know.", Ellie said and put her headphones back in. Since Sina disappeared, she had taken up french comic books as her new hobby. She found a lot of old Herge comics in the library and read through them for the better parts of her afternoons now. A lot had changed since the fire. Sina wasn't there anymore, for starters. The school also wasn't there anymore. The orphanage had switched to an internal school paid by the state. Ellie wasn't sure if she liked this revelation.
1548"Eleanor, be a bit more polite! And take those things out of your ears!" Ellie rolled her eyes and took out her headphones, put the comic book on the shelf next to her and got out of her sofa chair. "So, as I was saying, this is Olivia. She's your new roommate."
1549"Whatever.", Ellie said. "Make yourself comfortable."
1550"Don't be shy, Olivia. Ellie is very nice. How about you make yourself at home? I'll bring in your luggage later.", Mrs. Orlando said. Olivia nodded and thanked her. Mrs. Orlando left the room and closed the door behind her. Olivia sat down on Sina's old bed. Well, technically, she sat down on her bed. A minute of silence ensued. Ellie already had put her headphones back in and continued reading about the adventures of Tintin.
1551"Can I close the window?", Olivia finally asked. She was shivering.
1552"If you're cold, put on a sweater.", Ellie said.
1553"I'm Olivia, by the way", Olivia said. "I'm from Toronto."
1554"Uh-huh", Ellie said uninterested.
1555"What are you reading?", she asked. Ellie showed her the back of the comic book. "Herge. Nice." She looked around. "So, what do you do for fun around these parts? I didn't have time to check out the city, so-" Ellie tossed her a travel guide of Helvetica.
1556"Read up on the town, if you want."
1557"I heard your last roommate ran away", Olivia mentioned.
1558"Who told you that?", Ellie asked and put away her headphones.
1559"Mrs. Orlando told me. She also told me I should keep you company."
1560"I don't need company. And Sina is coming back. She promised."
1561"She told you that, didn't she.", Olivia said and laid down on her bed.
1562"Yeah, she did. Problem with that?"
1563"Well, she did tell you that, but she didn't actually return."
1564"Not yet."
1565"Do you listen to yourself? From what I've heard, she's been gone for a month. Either she's somewhere out there, living under a bridge, or she's dead already."
1566"Shut up!", Ellie yelled. "Shut up, okay? You didn't even know her! Sina always keeps her word!"
1567"Sorry! I didn't want-", Olivia stammered and went quiet.
1568"Hey, look. I'm sorry I was being such a jerk.", Ellie said after a minute. "Sina was my only real friend around these parts and sometimes I think she never saw me as a friend. You just... coming into my life is strange, to say the least." She sighed and smiled. "But you seem all right."
1569"Thanks", Olivia replied and laughed. "Why don't you show me around?"
1570
1571"This is our dining room. We have three meals a day here. Breakfast at 8 o'clock, lunch at 1 PM and dinner at 7 PM. The kitchen is right through that door over there, and next to the door is the schedule board. If your name is on the board, you have to do the chore next to your name tomorrow. Speaking of, school starts at 8:30. I got a timetable in my room. You can use my stuff for tomorrow, but we'll go to the city and buy some stuff for you. If you haven't got stuff already, that is. Our class is about twenty students. It's not just us, there are folks who live in the city and just come here to go to school. There's demand for it, after the main high school burned down."
1572"My god, when was that?"
1573"About a month ago. Sina's best friend died in that fire."
1574"And she ran away after that?"
1575"Yeah. After Sarah-"
1576"Sarah Dorset? Daughter of the CEO of Dorset SE?"
1577"Yeah. That Sarah. Well anyways, it just took a few days for Sina to leave. The funeral was two days after the fire. I was there. With Sina." Ellie sighed. "But I'd rather I didn't have to."
1578"Sorry for your loss."
1579"Don't be. It wasn't my loss. Sarah wasn't my friend. I didn't see her often." Ellie looked at her watch. It read 5:42 PM. "How about we watch a movie or something?"
1580"Yeah, sure. I'd like that." Olivia and Ellie were going back to the elevator, back up to the fourth floor. Room 402, where Ellie lived and Olivia would be living for the next years.
1581"So, what do you watch?"
1582"I like science fiction. Maybe an episode of Star Trek or something, I'm down for whatever." Ellie reached in her bag and pulled out a shiny 2021 model MacBook Pro. "Wow", Olivia commented. "How can you afford that? Those things are like... three thousand dollars"
1583"It belonged to Sina. Well, technically, to Sarah. When Sina left, she left Sarah's bag here. I figured it was up for grabs after two weeks, when Margaret moved the rest of Sina's stuff out."
1584"Isn't her name Mrs. Orlando?"
1585"Well, yeah. But we call her just Margaret when she's not around. Or Maggie. Whatever."
1586
1587Ellie was lying in her bed. It was about midnight, but she couldn't sleep. Like most nights. She missed Sina. She never noticed how much she cared when Sina had still been with her. Had still been alive. Ellie didn't want to think about it, but it was the most reasonable explanation. Sina was dead. She probably ran away, not knowing where to. Best case scenario, she got the border to the US and god knows what from there. Worst case, she didn't make it out of Helvetica. Died somewhere, probably due to a drug overdose. Sina would never do drugs, but then again, what did she have to lose? And this new girl, Olivia. Who did she think she was? She would never replace Sina. Not in a million billion years. Everything just always happened so fast. Olivia was fast asleep already. Some day, maybe, she would see Sina again. She wouldn't lose hope. Never.
1588
1589Chapter 21 - Contract work
1590
1591"This is my workshop.", John flipped the light switch next to the door and about fifty fluorescent light tubes mounted to the ceiling of the hangar jumped to life. The hangar was divided into multiple research and work areas, one focused on heavy metallurgy and repairs on spacecrafts, one for delicate work like assembling and dissecting computer terminals, one for woodworking, one for apparently leisure activities with a bean bag for sitting in and a wall-plug powered replicator. Another area was a gigantic device that filled almost the complete height of the hangar, and it looked like an unsafe cyberpunk contraption with monitors attached to every surface, cables hanging down like a futuristic tree. The roots of the tree were mostly ordered cables going through grates in the floor to an equally massive rack of computer cabinets stacked on top of each other. Directly under the tree however was a cushioned seat with a futuristic but still comfortable aesthetic. Above the chair was a circular shield, almost like a welder's helmet, but without a window.
1592"Whoa."
1593"I'm sorry, I didn't have time to clean up."
1594"So this is where-"
1595"Yeah. This is where I programmed ADOS."
1596"And me!", Gemini said.
1597"You?", Sina asked.
1598"Yeah. I'm a hologram, too. Andy is my brother, if you will."
1599"Andy?", Sina asked again. "Sorry if I just sound like an idiot, but this is all new to me."
1600"ADOS, if you will. But to me, he's a person, not a program. That's why I gave him a real name."
1601"I have some more questions.", Sina said. "If that's okay."
1602"I hope I can answer you at least something. You're from Terra - You ought to have a lot of questions."
1603"What do you know about the Terra-1?"
1604"Come again?"
1605"The Terra-1. The ship ADOS is deployed on, our ship?"
1606"Listen, I just programmed ADOS. It was contract work. I have no idea where or what my clients do with the product."
1607"But... you're from earth as well. How did you get here?"
1608"That's a long story. I was a programmer for Deep Mind on earth. They are involved in actual AI research. I had a pet project, a personal assistant. My mates found out about it and reverse-engineered it. Now, what they didn't knew was that my code builds on old legacy code that was used for MRI machines. You know, these big tube machines used in hospitals to scan brains. My program, my assistant used data from those programs. Brain waves, synaptic data. Technically, it's an artificial lifeform. They believed it was unethical. Perverted. Creating artificial life." John blew air out his nose. "Deep Mind fired me. I was jobless, I went from a high paying job to having nothing. I'd need to find a new job, so I went online and searched for job openings in the programming field. One thing led to another and I found an online forum on the deep web about things like my AI program. Someone posted a tutorial on how to use an old 56k modem to dial up to something called the PlaNet. An interplanetary network, secret to most of the population. I shared my code and someone approached me. They just referred to themselves as Sierra, and that was fine by me. They wanted to code a new AI fully fledged with over a million tactical and medical procedures. I said, sure, but I'd need payment up front. A day later, they arranged my murder."
1609"Are... are you a hologram, too?"
1610"No, I'm real. They made it look like someone from Deep Mind tried to... take care of me. Sierra left the planet with me and brought me to JD-55. It was the perfect home. I also was paid twenty million Interplanetary Credits. That's a lot of money, if you're wondering. I started working on ADOS. That was five years ago. I eventually got done. I gave Sierra the cartridge. They left and were never to be seen again. The next day, I got another ten million credits on my account."
1611"Have you heard from Sierra since then?"
1612"Nope. Haven't heard of anyone, really." John pulled a custom device out of his back pocket; a long silver block with a window on the front and a circular dial below the window. Behind the window was an exposed circuit board. John pressed a button on the side and a screen slid out and folded up to about four times the size of the device. "Tell me, how is ADOS doing?"
1613"Well, I dunno how to respond to that.", Sina said and thought. "He's doing his job. He's not online that often."
1614"Would you do me a favor?", John suddenly asked.
1615"Well... yeah? It depends."
1616"Would you take Gemini with you?"
1617"What? How-"
1618"He's a hologram. He is saved to a cortex chip, like ADOS is. Take him with you, let him explore with you."
1619"But why? I don't see-"
1620"It's his greatest wish. He wants to go out, explore the universe. But he can't. This planet is the only place he can exist. It's outfitted with hologram emitters so he can move around freely. I want him to have a normal life, and of course as a father I want him to fulfill his dreams. But he can't leave the planet. Your ship though, it has holo emitters. And I know it works with my code, because I designed ADOS."
1621"And you? Won't you be alone?"
1622"Don't worry about me. A lot of people live on their own planets. I got friends, I got my work here."
1623"So... you just give us the chip and we're off?"
1624"I just give you the chip and you're off."
1625
1626The computer's hologram terminal was placed on deck 64 and seemed creepy. At least that's what Sina thought. It probably did the job just fine, but it was not a place anyone would want to work or be, surely. The room it was in was darker than the rest of the ship. It felt... weirdly out of place, to say the least. In the middle of the room was a server rack with two slots for cortex chips, one was already filled with a chip that read "ADOS-T1 ECH Program" on the back. The light next to it was flashing yellow. Below the chip slot was another, with a red light next to it. Sina reached into her bag and pulled out the plastic-enclosed custom cortex chip John had designed for his son. It didn't look anything like ADOS' chip, it was a bit bigger and held together by a black gelatinous substance that connected what looked like normal printed circuit boards and biological components, similar to the bioneural circuits used by the rest of the Terra-1's computer systems. On Gemini's label was nothing except a scribble. "Experimental bioneural chip A-2". Was Gemini just an experiment to John? Surely not. They were very close, almost like a real father and a son. Maybe he had started as an experiment. Sina let her mind wander, thought about how lonely John must've been to build his own son. He told her to fulfill Gemini's biggest wish; to see the stars, and who was Sina to deny it, she thought as she plugged the chip into the empty slot and waited for the light to turn yellow. It started flashing and Sina turned around to the door, only to see that it was closed. She touched the button on the side of the door, but it didn't help- Sina was trapped.
1627Stay calm, Sina, she thought. There's nothing that can harm you. It's just a malfunction, she said to herself. She tapped the badge on her sleeve. "Sina to Cora, what's happening?"
1628No response.
1629"Sina to Tony? Are you there?"
1630"Sina to anyone! Do you hear me?"
1631Nothing.
1632"You shouldn't have let me die."
1633"What? Who- who is this?", Sina whispered, her back against the cold metal door. The voice split into tens of thousands of voices, rambling incoherent before becoming one again.
1634"You ran."
1635"Who is this?!", Sina yelled. She looked in the direction she thought the voices were coming from, but suddenly they were behind her, no matter where she turned.
1636"You failed. You didn't save me."
1637"Come out!", Sina demanded.
1638"I don't need to come out.", the voices whispered. "I'm already with you." Sina did not dare to move an inch. The world around her collapsed. The walls shattered, leaving behind a gaping black void. The floor became smaller and smaller.
1639"Warning. Low neural synchronisation. Seek medical attention.", Sina's omnitool informed her. She looked around, but everything was normal again. She was breathing heavily, her palms were wet. What was that?
1640
1641"Is she gonna be okay?", Tony asked. He was in sick bay, with Sina and ADOS.
1642"It's hard to tell. According to the data from her scan, she's fine now. However, she had a massive neural desynchronisation incident. No idea where it came from, and no idea if it will come back."
1643"I... I heard voices. And the walls broke away. They said... that I shouldn't have let them die."
1644"Who? Did you recognize the voices?"
1645"No... they felt familiar, though. ADOS, does that make any sense?"
1646"Usually the contents of a hallucination don't matter. However, you experienced desynchronisation. I would be surprised if the hallucination wasn't a deep dark fear or a repressed memory." Sina looked at her hands. Her vision was slightly blurry, but she would manage.
1647"What is desynchronisation, exactly?", Tony asked.
1648"It's when your neural impulses, simply put, your brain waves, start to act up and aren't in sync any more. If that happens, you could get what's best described as a traffic jam on the neural highway. Desynchronisation happens sometimes completely randomly, or after trauma, recalling a traumatic experience, or simply because the body is dying and clinging to a last thread of hope.", ADOS explained. He walked over to a replicator and ordered a 'synaptic monitor'. As he returned, the door to the hallway opened and Gemini stepped inside.
1649"Hi", he said. "Andy?"
1650"Who are you?", ADOS said and looked at Gemini for a few seconds. "You're a holographic program. Your metadata suggests that you were programmed by... the same one as me? How is that possible?"
1651"Well... exactly like that. I'm your brother. And... well, I didn't exactly want us to meet like this, in sick bay, but I heard from the computer that Sina spaced out and was brought here. I had to check."
1652"You're not my brother. I'm an AI program, we can't have family.", ADOS said and placed the synaptic monitor, which looked like a small silver disk, on Sina's neck. "Wear this for the next 48 hours. It will monitor your brain activity. If you feel the slightest sense of discomfort, even a small headache, come see me." He turned around to Gemini. "Now to you."
1653"Yeah."
1654"You're claiming to be my brother."
1655"I'm not claiming to be your brother! I am your brother!"
1656"Prove it." Gemini grinned. He had waited for ADOS to say that.
1657"Your private encryption key is 4816659728015004876186-"
1658"Stop! You're not supposed to share your private keys under any circumstances!", ADOS said. "You've proved your point. So... you share my core libraries. I guess that makes you... technically my brother."
1659"And aren't you excited? You have a brother!"
1660"Yes, I seem to have.", ADOS said and carried on with his doings. Gemini stood there, baffled.
1661"That's everything you have to say? I seem to have?"
1662"Yes, it is. Welcome aboard."
1663
1664ACT 5 - Layers
1665
1666Chapter 22 - The Human Mind
1667
1668"You had to deal with some pretty traumatizing stuff, I imagine. I just thought-"
1669"Look, I'm not a counsellor. I'm not a therapist. If you wanna talk, them I'm here, no questions asked. But I'm not the right person to speak with if you want to... I dunno. Get someone to dig up your deepest fears.", Cora said and scribbled something on her architect's table, only to delete the draft shortly after.
1670"You shouldn't have let me die.", Sina said.
1671"Huh?"
1672"That's what I heard in my hallucination. When my brain went haywire."
1673"And you wanna find out what it means?"
1674"Yeah.", Sina said and made herself comfortable in one of the bean bags Cora had put up in her workshop to sit and probably occasionally sleep on.
1675"Any clue?"
1676"I don't know. Maybe it means-"
1677"Think literally. Most hallucinations contain imagery, that's true. But the first idea you get is usually the right one."
1678"Sarah."
1679"Your friend?"
1680"Yeah. She died."
1681"In a fire?"
1682"I don't feel comfortable talking about it.", Sina said and looked down.
1683"But then why did you come to me?", Cora replied and drew a sketch of a wrench on her drawing board.
1684"Yeah. You're right." Sina sighed. "The next few days after her death, I blamed myself it. I could have saved her. If I had held her back, if I just-"
1685"I'm gonna stop you right there. You're not responsible for her death. It was an accident."
1686"I could have done more. I could have done at least something.", Sina said. Cora stepped away from the drawing board and looked through a box of old stuff she had brought with her as the came on the ship. "I mean, if Sarah didn't die, if she was here with me, then-"
1687"There it is!", Cora said and held up something that looked like a whip or a long cable. "So, you wanna know how it could have been? What could have happened? Wanna see Sarah again?"
1688"I want nothing more than that."
1689"Well, you're in for a treat. You see this?"
1690"What is it?"
1691"An old invention of mine. From when I was experimenting with implants and cybernetics." She looked at one end of the cable, it ended in a small chip and a needle. Cora stuck the needle into her shoulder and pushed the chip onto Sina's neck. "I call it the wondergraph."
1692"Why that?"
1693"There's a place in your mind you can design like you want. Most people only do it subconsciously. It's usually referred to as the wonderland." She pressed a button on the chip and four short pinpricks shot into Sina's neck. She cried out in pain. "And that's where the wondergraph takes us."
1694
1695Everything was white. An endless plane, an infinite space of emptiness. Sina was standing and looked around. It was all white. No matter where she looked, she saw nothing but white.
1696"Hey, can you see me?", Cora asked. Her voice seemed to be all around Sina.
1697"No, where are you?", Sina asked and looked around, trying to pinpoint the location of Cora's voice, but it was like wearing headphones.
1698"Hang on." A semi-transparent image of Cora glitched into the white void in front of Sina. Everything about Cora was blue, like Sina was looking at her through blue tinted glasses.
1699"I can see you. Well, sort of. You're blue."
1700"That's as good as it's going to get." Her voice was still around Sina, no matter where Cora actually stood. "Welcome to your mind."
1701"A bit empty, isn't it?"
1702"You need to remember. We can revisit your memories, but you need to be willing."
1703"I don't know if I want to."
1704"I understand you. You don't have to if you don't want to."
1705"No. I have to. I can't go though my life... just repressing all bad things." She focused on the day Sarah died. The 22nd of October, 2022. About one month ago, and she still didn't get over it. A door appeared in front of her - a familiar door. A white door with a hand-drawn sign on it. It was the sign on Sina's door, back on earth. In the orphanage. "Ellie & Sina", was on it. Sina put her hand on the door knob. She could see someone in the reflection, but it wasn't Sina. It was someone else, someone distant... who looked like Sina, yes. But she could feel that it wasn't her.
1706
1707"What are you doing? You can't go in there! You'll die!" Sina had tears in her eyes. Sarah looked at her with a stern face.
1708"I'll save those people! They... they can't die!", Sarah replied.
1709"I... I feel really uncomfortable.", Sina said. She was standing next to Sina, watching it all play out once again.
1710"I feel you.", Cora replied. "I don't visit my wonderland often for that reason. I miss Lydia."
1711"Why are we here again?"
1712"Find the source of your strange hallucinations." Sina snapped with her finger.
1713"Right. Where... where can we go other than ground zero?"
1714"Your subconscious mind. But I'll not go there that easily. Let's search the place."
1715"Do we have to? I... I don't want to hang around."
1716"Don't worry. I'm here. I'm your anchor." Cora said. Suddenly, her body began to flicker. Glitching in and out of existence, her voice stuttered.
1717"Are you okay?"
1718"Not- connection-" Cora had trouble speaking. "Don't- Sina!" Cora was gone. Sina was standing alone on the grass she stood over a month ago and watched her friend die. She turned her back and looked at the sky. She could still hear Sarah.
1719"Cora! Get me out of here!", she yelled. Cora's voice sounded like she was a robot. Sina had trouble understanding her.
1720"I- I can't- You need to- Head- head to your subconscious! Trigger- trigger a fear response! That- that will rip you out! Hopefully- and whatever you do, don't-" Cora was gone.
1721"Don't do what? Cora! Don't do what?!", Sina shouted, but didn't receive an answer. The sky was fading away. the floor changed to white. The burning school broke away into the void, Sina and Sarah disappeared. Everything was quiet. Sina, lying on the ground, dreched in sweat, could do nothing but cry. Eventually, her breathing slowed down. She got a hold of herself again, but was still deeply shaken. She stood up. Wherever she was now, it was safe. No evil or bad thought would get to her now.
1722"Sina. Stay with me.", someone said. She looked up and looked herself in the face. The same red hair, the same blue eyes. The second Sina was reaching out to her.
1723"What... who are you? Are you... me?"
1724"Kind of. I'm your conscious mind."
1725"So you're... exactly me?"
1726"You're reading too much into it. I'm just something your brain made up to not get you out of sync again. Stick to me. Stay focused. Stay synchronized. If you feel like you're fading away, rub your hands together. That will help."
1727"Cora said I need to get out of here."
1728"We're in agreement on this one. You need to get out of here as fast as possible. Sadly, you need to get through your subcon first. I don't think you're ready for that. But there's no way around it."
1729"What's so special about the subconscious?"
1730"It's where your deepest fears live. You're not stable. You're not completely in sync. If we go down there, you could be literally scared to death."
1731"But you just said we need to go through there."
1732"That's the problem. You should start thinking about it. What are your greatest fears?"
1733"Ugh." Sina shivered. "There's gonna be so many spiders down there."
1734
1735"Here we are. The gate to your subconscious." She opened the sturdy wooden door and stepped through it. Sina couldn't see what was on the other side, and that made her uncomfortable. Hesitant, and very carefully, she walked through the open door frame from the white calm space that was her mind into the seemingly infinite black nothingness that was her subconscious.
1736Everything went dark. Sina couldn't see anything, and it took a while for her eyes to adapt. She looked to the floor and almost had a heart attack. She was standing on floating stone tiles. Below her was the unending black abyss. She turned around and wanted to go back, but everything she saw was just a dark gray stone wall. The door was gone. A stone wall to her left, a path of floating tiles to her right. Sina didn't know what made her feel more uneasy.
1737"Where are you? Come on, follow me. We need to get out.", the other Sina said. Sina looked down. She could see nothing at all, but she knew that someone or something was lurking in the darkness. No time to be chicken, Sina. Just take one step at a time. She stepped forward. The tiles didn't bulge or give way, it was as if they were frozen in place and time. Sina took another step forward. And then another. She seemed like she got the hang of it.
1738
1739After what felt like an eternity, Sina and her double came to a cliff. The stone tiles stopped at the edge and Sina jumped from the tile bridge to safety. There were ladders on the cliff, ladders from above. Sina couldn't see where they came from or what they lead to, but Sina could also see a building like an airport control tower, only even more menacing. It was black, the windows were tinted and there was one metal door. For some reason, old marble pillars from roman times were strewn about the plateau. Sina could see her bag leaning against a toppled pillar. She walked over to it and opened it up, not expecting to find anything inside it. There was a pair of binoculars in them.
1740"I know what you're thinking. Don't."
1741"But I just-"
1742"The things hiding in the shadows are hiding for a reason. Drop those binoculars. Let's go.", the other Sina said. She opened the metal door to the tower.
1743"I don't wanna go in there.", Sina said.
1744"It's either this or get desynchronized here."
1745"Let's wait here for my friends to pull me out, okay? Just a few more minutes."
1746"If you get desynchronized again, you'll be a vegetable. So either die, or come with me."
1747"But-"
1748"Sina. You need to face your fears. We need to keep moving.", she said. Sina looked down into the abyss. For the fraction of a second she could see a pair of white eyes glaring at her from below.
1749"You're right", Sina said and slowly walked backwards from the edge. "We need to move."
1750
1751The tower was the manifestiation of the word creepy. It was empty from the inside, with a metal staircase leading to the top. There was nothing in the tower, no monsters, nothing staring at Sina, nothing at all, but Sina couldn't help it. She was in the deepest reaches of her brain. Everything she could ever be frightened of would hide here. Would wait. Would lurk. The inside of the tower was cold. Not chilly, not cool. Cold. The kind of cold that would make you instantly wish for a nice hot cup of tea. The kind of cold that would freeze your ears and nose. A crashing, biting cold. What would await Sina at the top of the tower, she asked herself as she followed her thoughtform up the steps. Suddenly, everything bad that had happened to Sina came back. Flooded her mind. Bad memories, hurtful memories. The many times she had been rude to other people. The many times she had been bullied. The one or two fights she had been in and lost. But she couldn't stop now. She took a deep breath that hurt the back of her throat and soldiered on. After about ten minutes of climbing the stairs up and seemingly not going anywhere, they came to another metal door.
1752"This will be the first of many.", the other Sina said. "Don't be scared."
1753
1754Chapter 23 - Don't be scared
1755
1756"What the hell did you do?!"
1757"I'm sorry, okay? I wanted to help her!", Cora yelled. Mika and Yumeko were looking at what Sina, who was laying in one of Cora's bean bags, unresponsive to any outside stimuli. "I jacked into her brain and tried to help her. Tried to find the source of her-"
1758"Come on! You aren't telling me you plugged into her brain and connected it to yours?"
1759"Well, yeah, but-"
1760"You idiot!", Mika shouted. "She's a Terran, you buttface! Her brain works on an entire different structure! It's like putting water on cereal! It doesn't go together!"
1761"Whoops.", Cora commented. "So, um... what now?"
1762"We get her to sick bay. Where she belongs.", Mika said and put her arms around Sina. "Come on. Give me a hand here."
1763
1764The room Sina found herself in was familiar. She recognized the large window and the expensive carpet. She was in the cabin in Yosemite. She looked down at herself. She was way shorter than usual. She was eleven years old again. And she knew what day it was. The party.
1765"Hey, are you there?", Sina shouted. It was strange, being eleven again. She didn't get an answer. She opened the room's door and wanted to go downstairs. Hundreds of men were standing at the foot of the stairs, minding their business. Sina slowly stepped down the stairs. They all simultaneously turned around. The mumbling stopped. Sina looked up and stared in their faces. They stared back, but they didn't have any faces.
1766"Don't be scared.", Sina said to herself. "Don't be scared. You are in control." She stepped down. The men started to whisper. Look at her. She looks hideous. How can she wear that?
1767"Ignore them.", Sina said. She took a deep breath, but it felt like a sharp sting. She tried to move, but instead everything else moved. The room got smaller and smaller. Who is this kid in rags? Why is Dorset wasting our time with this? Sina remembered what her double had said earlier. She rubbed her hands together and felt better immediately. She should just give up. Spare us the drama. She looked down at the ground and walked right through the crowd of people to the front door. She couldn't see outside the windows, they were barred and nailed shut. As soon as she touched the door knob, all the faceless ghosts disappeared. Sina laughed out of sheer relief. She noticed that she was normal sized again. She could see where she was. Her perspective had been warped; the floor was dusty and old, the chandeliers were broken and the stairway was derilict. Carefully, she went back upstairs and opened the door to Sarah's room. There was a bright flash and Sina was back on the stairwell up the tower, with her double next to her.
1768"Are you okay? How bad was it?"
1769"It was freaky", Sina said. Her voice was shaky. "Let's keep moving." She walked up the stairs and realized that her feet weren't aching at all. The flashback she just lived through, that horror episode... She had been feeling horrible in there. Sick. Cold. But not now. All that feeling ill was gone. Her thought-form didn't speak. She just followed Sina.
1770"Can I ask you something?"
1771"Go ahead."
1772"What... what are you? I mean... are you like an all access pass to my brain?"
1773"Try me." Sina thought for a second.
1774"26th of September, 2019. What happened there?"
1775"Thursday. Cloudy day. You were mad because you failed a math test and Sarah got 95%. You went home and were pretty angry the rest of the day."
1776"Cool."
1777
1778"Be prepared and stay focused."
1779"How can I be prepared for something that's supposedly the living incarnation of all of my fears?", Sina asked and placed her hand on the door knob.
1780"Don't think about it." Sina looked worried. She opened the door.
1781Sina was... somewhere. She didn't know where, it didn't feel familiar or anything. The only thing she felt was the concrete floor beneath her. It was a tough grit of concrete, like a road or something. It was dark, she couldn't see anything. She could only listen. And she did indeed hear something. A pounding. A dripping. Rain on a concrete street. Strangely enough, even though she was standing in the rain, it didn't rain on her. She was dry, she didn't feel the raindrops. Cacophonous engine noises suddenly sprang to life all around Sina. She heard card drive up and down the road, next to her, through her. But she couldn't see them. Couldn't feel them.
1782Suddenly, she heard two voices. Very muffled voices. A man and a woman.
1783"Do you think she'll be okay?"
1784"Please, she's home alone for one evening. We got a babysitter, and we'll be home in less than three hours, tops. There's nothing to worry about."
1785"Still.", the man's voice said. "I don't feel good about this. You sure you don't want me to drive?"
1786"I'll be okay, Jasper. Don't worry. Relax."
1787"I just... don't have a good feeling about this. The road is slippery, the..."
1788Sina suddenly realized. Jasper.
1789"Elin! Watch out!"
1790Elin.
1791There was a loud crash followed by a bang. Glass shattered. Tires squeaked.
1792"Elin!", the man screamed. "Elin!"
1793Sina had to sit down. Jasper cried.
1794"Elin! Don't leave me! Elin!" His cries echoed through the night. Sina could hear sirens in the distance. "Elin!", Jasper sobbed. "Elin!"
1795
1796"God, you look terrible. What was that in there? You almost desynchronized."
1797"I... I don't think I can do this much longer."
1798"Just one more. Either it kills you, or you get used to it."
1799"Sina... I don't want to anymore. I can't.", Sina cried. "My parents just died."
1800"But... you weren't there."
1801"What?"
1802"You were at home that night. What you saw, it couldn't have happened that way. You simply didn't know." Sina stopped crying and looked up.
1803"You're right", she said and snuffled. "I am in control."
1804"Good. Let's go. We're almost at the top."
1805"Do I want to get to the top?"
1806"It's your only chance to get out of here. You don't have a choice."
1807
1808"She seems to be in a Theta state. She's dreaming, but she can't wake up.", ADOS said. "What exactly did you do to her, Cora?"
1809"I didn't do anything! She wanted me to help her!"
1810"What did you do?"
1811"I made a neural connection. Entered her mind. Wanted to find out where her hallucinations and anxiety attacks came from."
1812"What did you use?", ADOS asked calmly.
1813"One of my old inventions. The wondergraph. Syncs up the user's and the patient's Mu waves to allow transition. But I was kicked out, and since then she was in this dream state."
1814"I need to see this wondergraph.", ADOS said. Cora put it on the chief medical officer's desk and pulled up blueprints on a PDA.
1815"You think she'll be okay?", Cora asked.
1816"At this point, I can't make a prognosis."
1817"You gotta do something!", Mika said and looked at Sina, laying there on the bio bed.
1818"I'll try my best, but right now I need time and quiet." ADOS sat down at the desk and began examining the device.
1819"I'm sorry.", Cora said.
1820"Sorry?! You just put Sina in a coma! What in the world is wrong with you?", her sister yelled back at her.
1821"It wasn't my intention, okay? I wanted to help her! Sina's my friend too, you know?"
1822"See! Everything you touch turns to disaster! Nothing you did has ever helped anyone!"
1823"It wasn't my fault, okay? I can't be responsible for everything that happens, you f-"
1824"Either you two leave immediately and let me work or the next time you see Sina it's gonna be at her funeral! Look at her stress levels, you're hurting her! Get out!", ADOS suddenly shouted and made a gesture towards the door. Mika and Cora looked at each other. Mika had tears in her eyes.
1825
1826The final door laid before Sina. It was an unremarkable door, a plain white wood door with a metal door handle. It was so nondescript, it had could been from anywhere. It wasn't familiar or anything, just plain and simple.
1827"The top. Here we are."
1828"You sure I'll be okay?", Sina asked.
1829"No. Not at all.", her doppelgänger said without any hint of concern or emotion in their voice. "I'll be surprised if you pull through."
1830"That's reassuring", Sina said and put her hand on the handle.
1831"Whatever you do, just remember this: You are in control."
1832
1833"You finally turned up.", Sarah said. She was sitting on her bed, looking out on Midland road. She looked down on the central park. The school campus adjacent to it was an inferno. "So, what do you think?"
1834Sina looked around. She hadn't noticed it before, but her clothing was entirely white. She was standing in the middle of Sarah's giant bedroom.
1835"What I think?", Sina asked. "What... what are you doing?"
1836"Well... maybe you yourself should think about that. I'm just a fabrication of your subcon."
1837"Sarah... I miss you every single day. I would give anything in the world to get you back to my side."
1838"Yet, you ran away." Sina clenched her fist and suppressed a sob. Her entire life, she had only had Sarah as anyone to talk to. Someone that would be with her, even in the toughest times. Sarah was that someone, and now she was gone. Gone for good.
1839"I didn't run from you! I ran from everything this world has done to you! Done to me! I just wanted a normal life, away from everything, but now away from you!", Sina shouted. "I want to be with you again."
1840"Even if that meant to never go on this adventure? To never go out and explore space?"
1841"Any day, Sarah."
1842"So bring me back."
1843
1844Sina was surprised. She didn't think Sarah would say that - not only because she was someone who would never ask for something like that, but because Sina herself wouldn't. This... version of Sarah, whatever it was, it was based on Sina's memories of Sarah. But that Sarah, sitting on the bed, intimidating her, that couldn't be the Sarah that died on Earth a month ago.
1845"But... how?"
1846"The layer of light."
1847"What?"
1848"A parallel plane to ours where time doesn't move. Where nothing ever moves. Where light is frozen forever."
1849"I could... I could go back in time and save you?"
1850"You have to try." Sarah was desperate.
1851"And... how do I do that?"
1852"You don't know. I don't know."
1853"And how am I supposed to find out?"
1854"You'll find a way. You always have. Improvisation has always been your strong suit." Sina pondered. What if this thought-form was right, that there was a way to get Sarah back? And if it was, would it be foolish to try? Would the real Sarah want it? All of those questions Sina would need to find the answer herself.
1855"I'll do it.", Sina said.
1856"I knew you would.", Sarah said and smiled. The wall of the room started to break, crack and fade away. The bed was engulfed by white light, Sarah became a unordered mess of lines and colors. The light came closer; it was a warm, pleasant light. It touched Sina's skin, touched her clothes. She knew that she at least had to try.
1857
1858"Warning: Mu waveform unstable. Administer neural stimulant.", the computer said. Sina was laying in bed, in a bio bed. In sick bay, not in Cora's workshop.
1859"What... what happened?", she asked. Her voice was almost completely gone, her head hurt like never before in her life.
1860"You're back!", ADOS said and smiled. He was standing right next to the bed, reading a printout of Sina's brain wave activity. "How are you feeling?"
1861"Terrible... like someone hit my head with a cinder block."
1862"On a scale of one to ten, how bad is the pain?"
1863"About... six. ADOS, what happened? I was with Cora, that's all I remember"
1864"She tried to sync your brain's Mu waves to connect to you and enter your mind. You were in a coma."
1865"I... wow." She sat up and looked at her hands, then her clothes. "Am I gonna be fine?"
1866"Most likely. You were lucky."
1867"Well, we humans are pretty resilient."
1868"If you want my advice, never do that again. Your mind has suffered enough trauma for one day."
1869"Yeah... hey, can I speak with Cora?"
1870"I don't see why you couldn't." He waved at Cora who was standing on the other side of a glass window, in the observation room. She opened the door and walked into the room.
1871"Hey, are you okay?", she asked. "My stars, I'm so sorry."
1872"I'm... I'm fine. Thanks."
1873"You sure?", Cora asked. That was unlike her.
1874"Yeah, I just... my head hurts. Maybe you could get me a cup of Ce'taney tea?"
1875"Of course", Cora said. "My favourite kind, you know? I don't usually drink tea, but... hang on.", she suddenly stopped. "How do you know about Ce'taney tea?"
1876"I... I guess I just do." Sina stared into emptiness. "Weird."
1877"Can I ask you a few questions?"
1878"Um... yeah, go ahead"
1879"How do you recalibrate a force field emitter?"
1880"Easy. Just go into debug mode, realign the grid and-", Sina stopped. "Why do I know this?"
1881"I think your brain just got modded."
1882"What?"
1883"When we were connected, part of my connectome was grafted onto yours. You share some of my knowledge and memories now."
1884"Is that dangerous?"
1885"No, generally speaking not... but it's never been done before. Successfully, I mean. And certainly not between species."
1886"Looks like we got a lot of catching up to do, then."
1887
1888Chapter 24 - Research
1889
1890"Course set for Pathos Station. Estimated time of arrival: K-66-2614.72. Estimated time remaining: Three days and twenty minutes.", the computer said. Sina had laid in the course, she was planning on visiting Honey. She needed to think about what Sarah had told her. Or better, whatever that thought form that looked like Sarah was.
1891Sina looked at her hands. They were resting on the control panel, in a position where she could quickly access all major controls. That was an ability she now had, apparently. The ability to quickly adapt. To understand new computer systems. Since she got the neural mod from Cora, she thought like she saw the world now... a bit differently. It was hard to explain, but she felt slightly... alien. Was she still Sina? She knew she was. She felt like Sina, but there was this slight... unease.
1892"Hey, where are we going?", Cora asked. She was looking on the bridge through the door to the astrometry lab, where she was drawing up a new variant of the sector's space map.
1893"Just... back to Pathos. I think I wanna stay there."
1894"Hey, you wanna quit?", Cora asked. "End the adventure?"
1895"Maybe. I came here to get a new life. Not... be a rover."
1896"That's... that's a shame. I thought you'd... you know. Tag along for a while. Explore."
1897"Wanna hear something funny?"
1898"Sure."
1899"I think Tony likes you."
1900"What? No way."
1901"Yeah."
1902"How do you-"
1903"It's my superpower. I just... I just know."
1904"Doesn't he know?"
1905"Apparently not."
1906"I'm gonna go test that theory. Be right back.", Cora said. She was visibly irritated.
1907"You do you", Sina laughed.
1908
1909"Hey, Tony!", she yelled and opened Tony's quarter door. Tony was sitting on this bed with a laptop computer on his lap. He quickly closed it.
1910"Jesus, don't you knock?", he said. "What do you want?"
1911"Sina told me that you had a crush on me."
1912"What?!", Tony yelled and went red as a tomato. "That's- not true!"
1913"Good.", Cora said. "Because if you didn't know, I'm not into guys."
1914"Um... thanks... for the heads-up?", Tony said confused.
1915"No problem. Hey, you wanna watch a movie later?"
1916"Um... yeah, why not?" Tony was still a bit confused. "Wha- why did Sina tell you? How did she know?"
1917"She said it was her superpower.", Cora said and jumped on the bed.
1918"Her superpower?"
1919"I mean, I didn't notice. It wasn't that obvious."
1920"Well.", Tony said. and looked out the window. The stars were zooming along, the ship was in FTL. "Do you... have a girlfriend?"
1921"Used to. Long story, don't really wanna talk about it."
1922"Bad breakup?"
1923"Kinda." Cora sighed. She made a smacking sound with her lips and looked around Tony's room. He had replicated a giant TV and put it next to the bathroom door. "Nice room, by the way."
1924"Thanks.", Tony replied, trying his best to keep the conversation alive. His efforts were moot, however. A good two minutes of awkward silence followed.
1925"Well, I'll be in my workshop if you need me.", Cora said and got up.
1926"Uh, yeah. Just call me later, okay?"
1927"Yeah. I'll see you tonight." Cora left the room and went over to her workshop.
1928
1929"I gotta talk to you.", Sina said. She was standing in the door frame to the workshop on deck 14.
1930"Yeah? What's up?" Cora asked. She was fumbling around inside a computer case. Cables and a big array of cooling fans were hanging out of it.
1931"What do you know about the layer of light?" Cora looked up. She was very serious all of a sudden.
1932"How much do you know?"
1933"Not much, I suppose. It's a parallel dimension where time stands still.", Sina replied truthfully.
1934"That's all?"
1935"All I know."
1936"Okay.", Cora sighed. She sounded a bit more relaxed. "I'll tell you. The layer of light was a myth. Something one person supposedly knew of once, and the story has been brought along over the years. Just recently, there was a discovery by a Veran scientist who was experimenting with interspace and FTL drives. And would you know it, he discovered something very peculiar."
1937"That there are eight distinct states in which a field irregularity can manifest.", Sina said. "Sorry, I'm still getting used to this."
1938"Yeah. Eight different phase variances. They're called 01111111 to 11111110."
1939"And those are the layers."
1940"Correct. These eight... parallel planes, you could say, are in superposition and make up what we call reality. Sometimes, small irregularities occur naturally."
1941"How does that... manifest?"
1942"Sometimes, when see something in the corner of your eye, think there is something, but when you focus on it and look there, nothing actually is there. That's a field irregularity. In that case, you are basically looking into other dimensions."
1943"Wow."
1944"Yeah, that's what I thought when I first read that paper, too. There's supposedly a way to travel to those other layers. But it's reckless and dangerous."
1945"I got to try.", Sina said.
1946"No. You are not travelling to another layer. Forget it, madam."
1947"But Cora! I have to try to get my friend back!"
1948"No! I won't let you rip through the fabric of the universe just because a loved one died!"
1949"You have to understand me, she was my best friend!", Sina yelled. Cora turned her back. "You have to let me do this! Everything is going to okay, I promise! Just give me a chance!" Sina stopped for a second. "She was everything to me!"
1950"So was Lydia!", Cora suddenly shouted. She was crying. "We can't do anything! It's over!" She threw her screwdriver around and hit the window to the deck 14 corridor. It bounced back and left a small crack in the window.
1951"I'm a jerk. I didn't want you-"
1952"Yeah, you are! Now go away!", Cora yelled. Sina did as she was told and stepped outside, to the corridor. She didn't want to hurt Cora. Deep down, she knew Cora was right. You shouldn't go around messing with time travel. Sina had read enough books to know what could happen. But if Cora wouldn't tell her how to save Sina, maybe someone else would.
1953
1954The PlaNet was a massive network of all modern computers and devices in the NVA and the United Federation of Beta quadrant planets, including other star systems, star ships and space stations. Sina figured that if someone knew how to get there, it had to be on the PlaNet.
1955"Computer, access the PlaNet."
1956"PlaNet accessed. Your public TP address is 35.222.F38.DEC.", the computer replied. A window had opened up on Sina's computer. She hadn't used it before. She had a feeling like she should search for something, so she opened up the Enamax Search System. One of the bits she learned from Cora's neural mod.
1957
1958Enamax Search System - Please state query
1959
1960Sina typed away.
1961
1962"How to travel to other layers"
1963Enamax Knowledge Graph - Interlayer Travel
1964Interlayer travel is one of the biggest mysteries in science. Not much is known about the layers of reality, and even less is known about interlayer travel. Currently, it is not known how to open a portal to different layers. However, a window to another layer is not a thing of impossibility. Read more on pn://enamax.nva/knowledge/science/interlayer.
1965
1966That wasn't enough for Sina. She would accept No for an answer, so she clicked on the link to read more.
1967
1968To create a window into another layer, a few things are required. A window will only manifest on a planet with an incredibly strong magnetosphere. Even then, window creation is nearly impossible without the exact attunement. A regular after market field stabilizer should suffice in creating the correct field. The field irregularity frequency (FIF) is calculated using the formula of FTL field dynamics.
1969Download on pn://enamax.sc/ftl/formula_calulator.pgm
1970
1971Okay. That was actually usable for once. A planet with a strong magnetosphere, whatever a magnetosphere was.
1972
1973"Planet with the strongest magnetosphere"
1974Planets sorted by strength of magnetosphere:
1975Ke'Tana (Orvos System) - 48 000 000 km
1976Jupiter (Sol System) - 7 000 000 km
1977Bristol (Radeon Delta System) - 6 800 000 km
1978Iv (Pecon System) - 5 800 000 km
1979Read more >>
1980
1981Good. Ke'Tana in the Orvos system.
1982"Computer, tell me about the planet Ke'Tana."
1983"Ke'Tana is a class M planet and home to over five billion Ke'Tan. The planet is characterized by its exceptionally strong magnetosphere and as a result of this, is visited for its beautiful natural aurorae."
1984"Computer, prepare a shuttle."
1985"Specify class."
1986"Class V. Alcubierre drive."
1987"Configured. Please allow up to one hour for engine calibration."
1988"Add cargo."
1989"Specify cargo."
1990"Enough replicator material for two weeks."
1991"Cargo added."
1992"Good." Sina grabbed her bag and headed out to the shuttle bay. Thankfully, no one was in the corridor. She walked to the lift and touched the panel next to it. The door slid open. "Shuttle bay." The lift started moving.
1993
1994"Warning. Engines have not been completely calibrated. Risk of overheating-"
1995"Computer, stop. I know.", Sina said and sat down at the helm. She typed in her auth codes and set coordinates to Ke'Tana. Someone knocked at the shuttle door.
1996"Who is it?", Sina yelled.
1997"You're not going to Ke'Tana without me! It's dangerous out there!"
1998"Leave me alone!"
1999"Look, I can't make you stay, so at least let me help you." Sina thought about it for a second. An extra pair of eyes was never a bad idea.
2000"Fine. But to make it clear: I am the leader here."
2001"Okey dokey, Captain.", Cora said and opened the door. She sat down at the engineering console and made herself comfortable.
2002"And no okey dokey, you got that?"
2003"Uh huh."
2004
2005"Approaching planet Ke'Tana, Orvos System. Initiating landing sequence." The shuttle Sina picked out landed on an empty docking space.
2006"Finally! Three days. Oh boy.", Cora said. "I haven't slept well last night, you know?"
2007"Me neither. I'm nervous.", Sina said and put on her messenger bag.
2008"The sooner we get this done-"
2009"I know. The earlier this will be over.", Sina completed the sentence and stepped out the door. She hadn't even taken ten steps as she was stopped by a police officer with pale pink skin.
2010"Submit to a security scan.", the officer said. She was wearing thick armor and held an assault rifle.
2011"Just go with it.", Sina whispered. She turned to the officer. "Sure thing." A quadcopter drone flew down from the sky and pointed a blue light at Sina.
2012"Clean. You can go." The officer made a gesture with her hand and Sina went on. Cora stepped up and was scanned, too. The blue line went up to Cora's neck and suddenly turned red.
2013"What's that for?", Cora asked annoyed.
2014"Behave, tin can."
2015"Excuse me?"
2016"You're outfitted with a neural implant. Let me see your permit."
2017"What permit? It isn't even activated!"
2018"Go over there. And shut it.", the officer grunted.
2019"What- hey! You can't just stop her!"
2020"I can. All cybernetically enhanced people need to show a permit for their augmentations."
2021"That's bull! What-", Cora said.
2022"I said shut it!" The officer gave Sina a red plastic card. "Your visitor card. Enjoy your stay."
2023"I'm sorry, but you can't just hold up my friend like this! She hasn't done anything!"
2024"She's cybernetic. That's enough for me to warrant an arrest. She'll be at the police station for the next few days, until her permit comes in."
2025"Don't worry, Sina. I'll be fine, I'm sure it's just-"
2026"Shut it!", she officer shouted and readied a stun baton.
2027"I'll call you!", Sina said and followed green arrows on the floor. They lead to a metro station. She walked the few steps downstairs and took a train to town. She had to find a place to stay, a hotel maybe. Until Cora was done with the cops at least.
2028
2029She got down to the platform and was greeted by a giant neon sign - a red arrow was pointing to the right, below it the word "Enhanced". An equally big green arrow was pointing to the left, the word below it was "Clean". Sina went to the left, waiting for a train down town. This planet... it creeped her out. But she was gonna follow through. She looked around. She was the outsider here. Most of the other people waiting for a train were Ke'Tan. Their skin was a pale shade of pink, their eyes were completely black, their ears were pointy, like elves... but other than that, they looked human.
2030
2031Chapter 25 - The Hotel
2032
2033"Welcome. How may I help you, Ma'am?", the receptionist asked. Sina was standing in the very sleek lobby of an up-scale hotel in down town Celdera.
2034"I... I'd like to rent a room."
2035"Certainly. For how long will you be staying with us?"
2036"I dunno. A week, at least."
2037"As you wish. For how many people should we prepare the room?"
2038"Two. Two twin sized beds, please."
2039"Sure. That will be 1200 credits.", the receptionist said. That had to be lot of money, Sina thought. She reached into her pocket and pulled out a chip card with small window. A number was displayed in the window. 42511. That was her account balance. She gave the credit chip to the receptionist. He swiped the chip across his keyboard and gave it back. He also handed her a white card.
2040"Here's your key card. Your room is on the fourteenth floor, room F-2. Breakfast is tomorrow at 7 o'clock. If you want to connect to the PlaNet, there's an access node in your room as well as a wireless access code."
2041"Thanks."
2042"You're very welcome. Enjoy your stay. If you have any questions, feel free to call the reception or come down."
2043"Yeah, I actually have a question.", Sina said.
2044"Ask away", the receptionist answered.
2045"In the subway, there were sections for the 'Clean' and the 'Enhanced'. What's that about?"
2046"You see, in our society, it was once perfectly common and accepted to have cybernetic implants, but only the wealthy could afford them. Terrorists got hold of confidential cybernetic implants. New technology. A series of attacks on big cities on the planet. Ever since, we live in fear of more attacks. That's why we divide the Enhanced and the Clean."
2047"I'm... I'm sorry for that. It must've been terrible."
2048"It was a dark period in our history. Now, we can't be too careful."
2049"One more thing, in a few days, my friend is coming in to stay with me. But she has a neural implant. She has been picked up by the police, so it'll probably-"
2050"Sure. She can stay with you, but I don't expect her to have a neural implant after the police is done with her."
2051"You mean-"
2052"I'm afraid so. Now if you excuse me, I have some other obligations to attend to."
2053"Yeah... okay. I'll be in my room.", Sina said and went over to the elevator. She just paid 1200 credits for a week long hotel stay. Even Sina knew that it had to be good.
2054
2055It was the dead of night. Sina was sleeping. The lights were out, her room was quiet. A phone rang. Sina's phone. She woke up and grabbed the phone. Mika.
2056"Yeah?"
2057"Sina! Thank the stars, where in the world are you?"
2058"I'm fine. Don't worry about me."
2059"I don't care! Where are you?"
2060"Somewhere. Far away."
2061"Is Cora with you?"
2062"Not... not at the moment. No. But she can take care of herself. You know that. There's no reason you should be worried."
2063"You just disappeared! I think that's reason enough to be worried! What the heck is happening?"
2064"Mika... it's best we do things on our own terms for now. I need time."
2065"Are you in trouble? Sina, we're concerned!"
2066"I'm not in trouble. Listen, where are you now?"
2067"We're at Pathos station, like we planned! The question is, where are you?"
2068"I'm... on a planet with a really strong magnetosphere."
2069"Oh my stars... please, just be careful."
2070"Don't worry. I'll stay in touch."
2071"Sina, don't do anything stupid! You hear me? Don't-" Sina hung up. Now wasn't the time.
2072
2073It was the dead of night. The only light was coming from the street lanterns, and even those were not nearly enough to illuminate the road Cora was stumbling across. She was blind, she couldn't see. She could percieve. Her eyes worked, but there was no way Cora's brain could understand what it was exposed to. Through an alley. Across a bridge. Over the plaza. Into the giant tower.
2074"Welcome. How can I help you with?" Cora couldn't even think. It was all... chaos. Nothing was right.
2075"My... friend.", Cora managed to say. "Terran. Where?"
2076"Floor 14, room F-2. Here." A keycard. Cora wanted to read it, to learn about it. She couldn't. This was all she had.
2077
2078"Sina...", someone said in the darkness. The door was opened just a crack, but enough for someone to fit through. "Help me..." Sina jumped out of her bed, shocked and a bit scared.
2079"Lights!", she said. The room's lights jumped on and Sina could see who was lying on the floor. It was Cora, but nowhere near the Cora she knew. She was lying on the floor. Sina could see a long red line across her neck. "My god! What happened?! Cora!"
2080"Implant... it's gone"
2081"There, there. Lie down. I promise you'll feel better.", Sina said and brought Cora over to the empty bed. Cora was grunting and moaning. She was in great pain. "Hang on. Let me get you some water.", Sina said and went to the bathroom. She took an empty cup from the shelf, filled it with tap water and brought it over to Cora. Cora accepted it and drank from the water.
2082"Thanks. I... I'm feeling better."
2083"Do you know what happened?"
2084"They... They removed my implant. I can't... It hurts. It hurts so much."
2085"Can I do anything?"
2086"No... yes. I don't know. Everything is a blur."
2087"What can I do?"
2088"Yes. Get it back.", she said and cried out in pain.
2089"Take your time, Cora. Order your thoughts.", Sina said. "You want me to get your implant back."
2090"Yes. Get it back."
2091"How am I gonna do that?", Sina asked.
2092"You gotta... break in. Break into the clinic."
2093"Cora, I don't think that's a good idea."
2094"The only option."
2095"Tomorrow, okay? We'll talk tomorrow. Get some sleep-"
2096"No. We need-"
2097"Some sleep, Cora. We need sleep. We need to focus. So don't worry and clear your mind."
2098"No, we need-"
2099"Lights!", Sina said and got under her blanket. "Good night, Cora."
2100
2101The alarm rang. Four consecutive beeps, interrupted by a one second pause. Ellie looked at the alarm clock, as if she didn't already knew what time it was. 07:00. Time to get up. She stumbled out of bed over to her closet and opened it. She chose a white sweater to wear over her shirt and put on thick blue pants. Olivia was still fast asleep. She looked outside the window. It was raining again. It had been a rainy november. Ellie went outside to the corridor. It was illuminated by bright flourescent light tubes and the numbers above the different rooms. Her feet were tapping over the carpet flooring, over to the stairwell door. Next to it was the elevator. She rarely used the elevator before Olivia moved in with her. Olivia used the elevator all the time, so Ellie joined her. This went so far that Ellie now used the lift regularly, too. Her fingers pushed down the silver metal plate that was embossed with a triangle pointing downward. The white circle around it turned green and the elevator moved upward to the residential floor. After a good minute, the sliding doors opened. Ellie stepped inside and pressed the button for the ground floor. In the elevator, there was a full width mirror reflecting the other side of the elevator. Ellie looked herself in the eyes. She turned her head and saw the reflection of a sticker on the other side, on the magnetic rail where sometimes things would be pinned for everyone to see. Meal plans, activity postings and things like that. Sarah had put a sticker on it a long time ago, about two years. It reminded Ellie of Sina.
2102"Ground floor.", the pre-recorded voice of the elevator announced. Ellie got out and walked over to the entrance, across the lobby. She opened the door and grabbed the paper. Funnily enough, even for a big building, for an orphanage, it would still only get one paper. Without reading it, she took it and went back inside. That's what she did every morning. She'd go outside, get the paper, go back and read it out loud in her room to wake Olivia up.
2103Olivia hated that.
2104
2105Cora had never felt worse in her life. There were times when she had been wounded, on death's doorstep, she had even been clinically dead for a few hours. But this was different. Her thoughts had been what set her apart from anyone else. When the was 10, she figured it out. Her thoughts were unordered and chaotic back then, they kept her from unleashing her true potential. Her true genius. Her friends at the time, the homeless punks she was living under the bridge with helped her.
2106"I can't think! It's terrible!", Constance yelled.
2107"What's the matter over there?!", Meatloaf shouted from across the hall.
2108"I can't concentrate! It's like... something is holding me! Holding me back!"
2109"Is that common for you? Does that happen often?", The Syringe asked.
2110"Yeah! Always! It's like, you're almost done! And then, forget it!"
2111"Then forget it. It's what I do.", Meatloaf said.
2112"Yeah, no shit. You're a fat goon.", Hyperion commented.
2113"We can fix that, if you want.", The Syringe said. Constance looked at him.
2114"How are you gonna do that?"
2115"Hyperion? You wanna do the honours?"
2116"Sure." Hyperion jumped almost the entire twenty metres from her spot next to the server cabinet to Constance's workstation. "The key word is cybernetic augmentation."
2117
2118Her mind was not used to those low speeds. Everything Cora did, she felt slow. She felt like everything was happening in timelapse. She couldn't bring herself to relax, she couldn't sleep. The water Sina had brought her helped, somehow. Made things more manageable. But it was still painful. Her thoughts were moving like snails on a treadmill, not going anywhere. So slow. So restricted. This was it. She needed sleep, desperately. Very slowly, she opened her backpack and got sleeping pills. She didn't suffer from insomnia, usually. Cora had found it to be sensible to keep some around, just in case. She took one out of the packaging, like the slip that came with it suggested. And two more, just to be sure.
2119
2120"You feeling better?", Sina asked.
2121"Wha- Why are you sitting on... on my... my bed?", Cora asked and tried to gather her thoughts.
2122"Just wanted to see how you are. You talked in your sleep."
2123"What... did I say?"
2124"You said a name. Over and over. Hyperion."
2125"Hyperion... she was one of the breach team. The first people I met when I ran away. She was... one of the most augmented people I've ever even heard of."
2126"What kind of implants did she have?"
2127"Everything. She was the leader of our team. Cybernetic... leg replacements, an ansor- anor- asso-"
2128"Assortment."
2129"Right. An assortment of neural implants, artificial hearts, a custom made artifical hand... it was what made her special. Everyone was special in the breach team. We were four."
2130"You sound a lot better.", Sina said and went to the replicator to get Cora a cup of tea.
2131"Yeah, I am. I still need my implant back. I can't... I can't work like this."
2132"Any idea how?", Sina said and gave Cora the red cup.
2133"Dunno yet. I could contact Hyperion. I bet she could help us."
2134"You're still in touch?"
2135"Sometimes." Cora smelled the tea. "What's that?"
2136"Assam. Tea from Earth. I bet you'll like it." Cora sipped and looked out the window.
2137"She still owes me a favor."
2138
2139"Incoming NeuroLink call from Constance."
2140"Accept.", Hyperion said. "Hyperion speaking."
2141"Hyperion? It's Constance."
2142"About time. How you been?"
2143"Bad. I need that favor you owe me."
2144"Straight to the point. Glad to see you didn't change all those years. What can I do for you?"
2145"You know the planet Ke'Tana? Orvos System?"
2146"You could say I'm familiar with it.", Hyperion answered.
2147"Come to Celdera. Hotel Siska, 14th floor, room F-2. Someone removed my neural implant, I need a new one."
2148"They seriously removed your chip? Holy Johnson, they're getting more aggressive these days."
2149"Hyperion. Stay on track. Can you help me?"
2150"Yeah. Sure. What kind of chip did you use?"
2151"A Neuronexus 5 2800X. If you have-"
2152"Oh, good. I got a Neunex 7 7400X laying around, I can use that. I'll come over."
2153"How long will it take for you to get here?"
2154"About half an hour if the public transport cooperates."
2155"Wha-"
2156"Yeah. I moved here a few years ago."
2157"Just... be here."
2158"I'll be there."
2159
2160Chapter 26 - POST
2161
2162Sina heard a knock at the door, so she walked up to it and opened it. No one was standing outside. Sina looked left, then right, then left again. No one was there.
2163"Did you hear someone knock?", Sina asked.
2164"No...", Cora moaned.
2165"Could've sworn I heard something", Sina mumbled, closed the door and turned around. Someone pointed a laser gun directly at her forehead.
2166"Name."
2167"Sina?", Sina stammered and looked at a Nefarian with black hair. The Nefarian's hands were black and looked like they were made of carbon fiber, her irises were green and had bright white lines in them.
2168"Hyperion, that's my friend. Put... put down that gun.", Cora said. The Nefarian lowered the pistol and turned around.
2169"Constance! Man, you look terrible."
2170"Thanks, you too.", Cora remarked smugly. Sina had to sit down, her heart was racing. She never had someone point a gun at her, and especially not someone who was supposed to help her.
2171"Who's that, anyways?", Hyperion asked and nodded towards Sina.
2172"She's a friend. Don't worry about her. She's on my side."
2173"Huh. What planet is she from? Delta Vega IV? Or is she a mod?"
2174"No... she's from Terra. Sol system. A long story, I don't have the... brain power to tell it right now."
2175"Speaking of brain power. I got your chip. A Neuronexus 7."
2176"X-Series?"
2177"Yes. If you want to, we can install it right now."
2178"Please do. I... I need that chip."
2179"If you want, Constance. Lay down.", Hyperion said. "Let's get into your head."
2180
2181// Nefarian Megatrends
2182NEUBIOS (C) 65 K Nefarian Megatrends, Inc.
2183NEURONEXUS 7 7400X BIOS Revision 047
2184NCPU: NNX7-7400X Octa NCPU @ 18.22 GHz
2185Speed : 18.22 GHz | Count : 8
2186Press DEL to run Setup
2187Press F12 to select Boot Menu
2188NVM6-4388 in Quad-Channel Interleaved Mode
2189Initializing Neural Networks .. Done.
2190512GB OK
2191New Neural Coprocessor Unit installed! Press F1 to enter config utility...
2192
2193"Okay, Constance. Try to sit up. Take it easy.", Hyperion said. "You're still hooked up to my debug computer, so don't move to quickly."
2194"Man... my head", Cora said. "Wow- I feel better. My brain... it works fine again."
2195"It looks pretty good so far.", Hyperion said and typed something into her computer. "I'll reboot you now.", she said and pressed a button on her keyboard. Cora fainted and dropped on her bed. Hyperion removed the cables from the back of Cora's head and packed everything into her backpack. Cora came back to consciousness.
2196"Thanks, Hyperion. I owe you one."
2197"We're even.", Hyperion replied. "I'd recommend updating your chip if you augment yourself further."
2198"But... the security checks, how are we gonna make it through?", Sina asked.
2199"I implanted it inside a neodymium shell. It's ghostware. Undetectable, unless you know exactly where to look."
2200"You're brilliant, you know that?", Cora said. "Thanks again."
2201"No big deal.", Hyperion said. "I'll be off, Constance. Take care." She walked over to one of the giant windows, opened it and climbed up on the windowsill. She pressed a few buttons on her cybernetic arm prosthesis and suddenly disappeared.
2202"Where is she-"
2203"Mirror coating. One of her enhancements, it was a really useful thing to have back when I was with the breach team. It's a thin transparent foil of sorts beneath the skin layer that makes you kind of invisible. We did a bank heist once, it was beautiful. She just walked in, turned on her augments, walked right though the security systems and hacked the vault door. She filled up her credit chip with about five billion Nov in cryptocurrencies. Walked back out, that was it. The heist of the century."
2204"But... if that's possible, why didn't anyone do it before?"
2205"Because you usually can only have up to three or four augments installed."
2206"And how many does Hyperion have?"
2207"Good question. Thirty, maybe. Fourty, tops."
2208"How-"
2209"When you install an augmentation, it's a foreign body. It's new and unknown to the body. It starts to reject the systems you put in. That's what makes cybernetic enhancements so expensive and difficult. You usually use a drug to control the immune response. But there are a few people who have a rare genetic defect that stops this immune response. Makes you able to have more implants than is usually possible. Hyperion is one of those people."
2210"Tell me more about Hyperion. How did you meet?"
2211"Usually, I wouldn't talk about it. But I need to go through my memories anyways to calibrate the chip properly. It was years ago. Seven years, to be exact. When I first met the breach team. I was young, and they were the first people I met. They recognized my potential. Actually, the bank heist was the first mission I planned completely by myself. We were a team, we held together. It was... two years, I think. I was with the breach team for two years. We made a lot of money and I learned a lot. We were four people, all Nefarians. Hyperion, Meatloaf, The Syringe and me. You just met Hyperion. She was our team leader. Meatloaf was our bodyguard. You should've seen him. Like a wrestler, but even more fat. No one got past Meatloaf. The Syringe... he was a junkie. But we needed him, because he was a doctor. He helped us when we got hurt and installed most of Hyperion's augments. Even installed my old neural chip. And... me. I was there, too. I was our techie, our hacker. We did some crazy stuff back in the day."
2212"Not bad. All I did when I was a child was go to school and occasionally have pancakes for breakfast.", Sina said. "What should we do? What's the next course of action?"
2213"I think we're pretty well off where we are. We're high up and about at the planet's equator. The magnetosphere is almost at peak strength here. Should be reasonable to build the window here."
2214"Is there any way we could go through that window?"
2215"Not that I know of. You would transfer matter through a... a rift, if that makes sense. There's something between the layers, and you can't go through there. It would rip you apart."
2216"And... what's between them?"
2217"We don't know. The one time someone tried to cross the threshold... well, it didn't end well."
2218"What do you mean, didn't end well?"
2219"I mean 'people turning to dust' not ending well."
2220"So, why are we doing this? If we can't go there, I..."
2221"Hey, you wanted to do this. I'm only here to ensure you don't get hurt."
2222"Fair enough. What's the first order of business?"
2223"Get a polarized glass pane.", Cora said and pulled out her phone and typed something into the web browser.
2224"So you... actually build a window? Like... a glass window?"
2225"Yeah. That's why it's called a window." Cora unpacked her bag and cursed.
2226"Something wrong?"
2227"Those asshats got most of my tech. Crap!"
2228"Anything that's particularly... important?"
2229"Most of it. My laptop and a few of my external drives. All my research." She pulled out a black box with buttons and a screen. "But at least my blink amp survived. That's good." Cora ruffled through her bag and took out a wired keyboard. It was black with chrome accents; the keys on the keyboard were in Nefarian script. It looked a lot more like circles with lines through them than actual discernible letters. Cora lifted her hair and plugged the flat ribbon cable into the back of her head.
2230"What're you doing there?", Sina asked.
2231"Well, they took away my laptop. So I gotta improvise."
2232"And how?"
2233"Look, Sina. I really don't have the time or the crayons to explain everything I do. This keyboard is connected to my neural implant so I can work on it like a normal computer. You want to see another layer, so I'll have to work on that. It's a stupid idea, but you'd make a mess if you tried it yourself. I'll help you do this, but let me work. I dunno. Go outside. Get pizza. I don't care. Be a tourist." She put on headphones and plugged them into her phone. "Leave me alone."
2234Fair enough, Sina thought. Going outside and exploring the city wasn't such a bad idea. And after all, she was pretty hungry.
2235
2236It wasn't cold outside, not at all. It was about 18 degrees and just the right weather to wear a hoodie. The sky was overcast with clouds - the streets were grey and uninteresting. Almost depressing, Sina thought. Might be a good idea to get a newspaper. She walked over to one of the news stands and selected the Inter Planet Indicator, the same news publication she had read on JD-55, Gemini's planet.
2237"Five credits.", the guy behind the counter said. He had a black implant above his right eye. Sina handed over her credit chip and got a thick slab of glass in return.
2238"Um... how do I... read it?"
2239"You tap the screen twice. Have you been living on a station without PlaNet access for the last ten years?"
2240"Yeah... something like that.", Sina quickly said and put her credit chip back in her pocket. She put the glass slab in her bag and looked for a bench to sit down and read. She found one and got her fancy new futuristic newspaper. She tapped the screen and it sprung to life, surprisingly in a script she could read.
2241
2242INTER PLANET INDICATOR - DATE 66 K 2585
2243Nefario III investigation draws to a close - "An act by higher power", states Nefarian institute of terraforming technology
2244The horrifying event that shook life forms all over the known galaxy known as the Nefario III implosion has been investigated since day one - first findings show an irregularity in the used terraforming matrix to be the cause. The Nefarian institute of terraforming technology TERFM states that the used technology was not at fault - read more >>
2245
2246"You read English?", an older man next to Sina on the bench asked.
2247"Huh? Oh, yeah. I... I can't read the Nefarian script. I haven't learned it yet."
2248"It's nice to see someone like you.", he said. His voice was raspy and dark, but not menacing. It actually sounded quite friendly.
2249"What do you mean?"
2250"The world has gone to shit. Technology takes over our lives."
2251"Are you talking about the augments?"
2252"Not only that." The man coughed. "It's everything. The augs, the drones, the starships."
2253"I don't like augmentations either, but they are necessary sometimes. My friend couldn't work without them, she had no choice."
2254"Oh, but she did. The world would be a better place if more people realized that."
2255"I guess you're right.", Sina said and put down her newspaper.
2256"Where are you from?"
2257"A planet far away. Alpha quadrant."
2258"You don't see someone like you often around those parts. No augs, not Nefarian, young... just the kind of person who would avoid Ke'Tana."
2259"Why's that?"
2260The man chuckled. "Look around, kid. This is place is nowhere you wanna be. Augmented get treated like they're worth less than dirt. The few people who are here and choose to be here are CEOs. People making their living off of other's misery. The few people who are rich and don't live here are here for business trips. And us, well. People like me are too old to go out and live somewhere else."
2261"Has it always been like this?"
2262"Hell if I know. It's been like this for as long as I can remember. It's always been a hellhole, this place. With the enhanced attacks ten years ago, it's only gotten worse."
2263"It must be hard, living like this."
2264"It's not living." He looked off into the distance. "It's just surviving."
2265
2266Chapter 27 - Unrest
2267
2268"So, you're worried about Tina and... the other girl. Your sister."
2269"Yes.", Mika replied. "I thought you could help me. And her name is Sina."
2270"Well, Mikhaila, I'd love to. I just dunno how."
2271"You gotta do something. Put together a search party."
2272"That's ridiculous. Tina said she was on a planet with a strong magnetosphere. There's millions and billions of planets out there, and searching every simgle planet is crazy. Would never work."
2273"So you're not gonna-"
2274"Help you? Not with that, no. I'm gonna do everything in my power, though.", Honey said. "Searching planets is not in my power."
2275"Can we stay here?"
2276"On Pathos? Sure. Stay as long as you like. While you're at it, you should check out the remodelled labs. We turned them into a leisure area. Turned out pretty great." Honey got up from her chair and walked over to the window to the Pathos Lobby. It was teeming with people, people that were living on Pathos. People that were working on Pathos. The project of the Pathos refuge really turned out great.
2277"I'm sorry, Honey. I'm just... worried. Sina doesn't know anything about our world. She's from a pre-FTL civilisation, for crying out loud."
2278"But your sister is with her, isn't she?", Honey replied and checked her phone.
2279"That's even more of a recipe for disaster."
2280"But with... what was her name again?"
2281"Cora."
2282"Right. With Cora, she'd be perfectly fine. She can take care of herself."
2283"But what if they don't come back?"
2284"Stop what-if-ing. They're gonna be fine." Honey walked over to her desk and opened one of the drawers. "You should take your mind off of it. We just installed three holo grids in the ex-hardware labs." She tossed Mika a storage card.
2285"What's this?"
2286"A new holo novel. Bought it the other day on the Vi station."
2287"I don't need a holo novel! I need to know that my sister and my friend are safe!", Mika yelled.
2288"Well I can't help you with that. This is as good as it's gonna get."
2289"Fair enough." Mika sighed and looked at the card in her hands. There was a printed sticker on it; a park bench in a public park in autumn on a planet that looked like Nefario. The words 'Ellesmere Art Exhibition' were placed on top of it.
2290"Are you serious? An art exhibit?"
2291"I liked it. Just try it."
2292"Where even is Ellesmere?"
2293"On that planet, you know." Honey snapped her fingers. "That blue one. Alpha quadrant."
2294"Delta Vega IV?"
2295"No, the other one, where your friends come from."
2296"Terra?"
2297"Yeah. That's the one. Writers are obsessed with that planet. Apparently word has gotten around that there are some Terrans who left their little habitat."
2298"You know, I'd much rather read one of those travel guides from Betelgeuse than play an art exhibit.", Mika said with a sarcastic tone. "But thanks." Honey's phone rang.
2299"Yeah? No-", she sighed. "Again? Come on, Jeremy. This is the third time this week. Yeah, I'll be right down." Honey put her phone on silent and walked out the door, Mika was following her.
2300"Everything okay?"
2301"The life support controls are going haywire again. The third time this week. The guys in engineering want me to take a look at it."
2302"Is anyone in danger? I mean, the life support system-"
2303"Is an old piece of scrap metal. We're waiting on replacement parts at the moment."
2304"D'you have a lot of problems like that around here?"
2305"Yeah. Way more than I'd like to admit. The wiring is old and not properly done. I mean, it's okay for most things but if you want to... I dunno, build a new holo grid, that's a pain in the butt."
2306"Anything else we should know about?"
2307"Well, you didn't hear it from me, but there's apparently a resistance group on the station."
2308"A resistance group?"
2309"Yeah. Call themselves just 'the resistance'. Bit uncreative, if you ask me." They went down the staircase from the upper level executive offices to the lobby and up to the main elevator. Honey tapped the big button with the words 'Now Serving: Crew Quarters' on it and the text changed to 'Calling Elevator 1 to Lobby'. "Why are you following me again?"
2310"I, um... I dunno. Tell me more about this resistance."
2311"Look, Mikhaila. I got work to do. Well, it's not that much, but it's a good excuse to stop talking to you. If you wanna find out more about the resistance, go talk to Willow. She's chief of security. The security station is right over there, by the door to the shuttle bay. Talk to her. I gotta go.", Honey said and stepped inside the elevator, pressed a button and sat down on one of the seats in the elevator. The doors closed and the elevator moved downwards to the engineering and life support section. The resistance. Now that sounded exciting. But most importantly, it sounded better than the Ellesmere Art Exhibition.
2312
2313"And there's supposed to be a resistance on the station."
2314"First the life support systems, then the gravity generators, then the life support systems again. And now there's supposed to a resistance group? What's next?"
2315"Well, anyways, I intend to find out more about it."
2316"Probably a good plan.", Yumeko said and continued his lunch.
2317"Aren't you excited?"
2318"Well, of course I am.", Yumeko replied nonchalantly. "It's just... we're in the cafeteria. Maybe you should keep it down. There's a lot of people here and... this is a refuge. Maybe you shouldn't go around talking about resistance groups, I dunno."
2319"Yeah. Sorry."
2320"So, what are they resisting against?", Yumeko asked and took a bite out of his sandwich.
2321"Good question. Probably my first task, find out what the resistance is resisting against."
2322"This tastes rubbish.", Yumeko said and chewed. "I think something's wrong with the replicators."
2323"I think it's okay.", Mika replied. "So anyways, I think I should see the chief of security Willow."
2324"Who told you that?"
2325"Believe it or not, Honey did." Yumeko looked at her in disbelief.
2326"Seriously? The commander of the station?"
2327"Yeah, just what I was thinking. The commander of all people. Usually the last one to know what actually happens on the station, but no. Willow is chief of security."
2328"She's gotta be tough for being chief of security."
2329"Yeah. By the way, heard anything from Tony?"
2330"Not much, but I just met him the other day in the elevator. Said he met a Nefarian girl."
2331"Huh.", Mika said and checked her phone.
2332"That's all you gotta say about it?"
2333"I mean, yeah. I don't care. Whatever makes Tony happy I guess."
2334"Like, you don't even ask how she looks? If she likes him too? Not even her name?"
2335"Fine. You got my interest." Mika put her phone down. "Tell me her name."
2336"Her name's Elia."
2337"Haven't heard that name in a while. Bet that was a first try. So, have they been on a date yet?"
2338"I dunno. How about you ask him?", Yumeko said."I'll go check out Willow's security station now."
2339"Yeah. I'll see you around." Mika got up and brought her empty plate over to the replicator.
2340
2341"Hi, I'd like to speak to Willow."
2342"Chief Willow is training right now. What's this about?"
2343"I'm here for the resistance.", Mika said. The woman at the security computer typed something in and then opened the door.
2344"Come in." Mika walked through the metal scanner and stepped inside the office. She had been in the office for about two seconds and the door had already been shut, the blinds were closed and someone punched Mika in the chest. Next thing she knew she was tied to a chair in what seemed like an interrogation room. A woman in her late twenties was towering above Mika. She had dark blue hair and wore a black and green uniform. The name "Willow" was stenciled onto her name tag.
2345"So you know about the resistance.", she said. Mika's stomach hurt; she felt like she was about to be sick. "I don't recognize you. You're not in any of my databases. Someone who's not in my databases shouldn't know about the resistance!", she yelled.
2346"Do you greet every guest like that?", Mika tried to lighten the mood.
2347"Who are you? Identify yourself!"
2348"Calm down! My name is Mika, I'm-"
2349"Honey's aunt."
2350"No... the name is Mikhaila. I am a guest aboard the station."
2351"That explains how you got here. How do you know about the resistance?"
2352"Honey told me you could tell me more. What are you resisting against?" Willow looked confused.
2353"You are Nefarian, right?" 
2354"Yeah."
2355"So tell me. What's there worth rebelling against?"
2356"I've heard stories about revolutions on the moons-"
2357"We're gonna take it system-wide. We're gonna bring down the socialists. They're no longer leading the NVA. We leave the people to that."
2358"And how are you-", Mika struggled in her chair. "Hey, could you tie me loose?" Without saying a word, Willow untied Mika. "Thanks. How are you planning to take them down?"
2359"We're about to have a strike team- why am I telling you this?", Willow suddenly asked.
2360"I dunno.", Mika replied.
2361"Because I shouldn't tell you that."
2362"Probably not."
2363"Someone like me shouldn't be chief of security."
2364"Exactly."
2365"Right, I'm sorry I bothered you."
2366"Apology accepted."
2367"And for tying you up."
2368"It's okay.""And for punching you in the chest."
2369"Don't worry about it."
2370"And for lying to you about the training."
2371"I should really get going."
2372"Yes, you should."
2373
2374"The Persistence of Memory is a 1931 painting by Terran surrealist artist Salvador Dalí, and is one of his most recognizable works. First shown at the Julien Levy Gallery in 1932, since 1934 the painting has been in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, Terra, which received it from an anonymous donor. It is widely recognized and frequently referenced in popular culture, and is canonically continued by Dali's The Disintegration of the Persistence of Memory."
2375"You were right.", Yumeko said and opened up his holographic system screen to get a bag of peanut M&Ms. "This holo novel is even more boring than tenth grade intensive reading."
2376"I told you.", Mika said. "But did we have to bring those two along?", Mika whispered and nodded towards Tony and his new Nefarian girlfriend. They were sitting on one of the benches in front of the surreal paintings and made out.
2377"Making out in front of Salvador Dali.", Mika said.
2378"Were we like that once?", Yumeko asked.
2379"Never.", Mika answered quickly and shook her head. Yumeko shook his head in agreement. Elia was about six inches shorter than Tony and had about knee-long hair the colour of a ripe lime. Tony held her in a tight embrace.
2380"You're so cute, you know that?", Tony said and kissed Elia on the cheek. Elia giggled and kissed Tony back.
2381"Oh, Anthony! You're such a dork!", she laughed. Mika and Yumeko sighed simultaneously.
2382"This is bloody ridiculous.", Yumeko said.
2383"Yeah. I can't believe they enjoy this.", Mika replied.
2384"They should make a PSA about this.", Yumeko put up his hand and drew words in the air. "Please don't publicly smooch. Or something like that." Mika laughed. "What do you say, Mika? How about we leave those two alone and... I dunno, go to our quarters?"
2385"That sounds... nice. I'd like that."
2386
2387Chapter 28 - Scientific Breakthroughs
2388
2389"There we are!", Cora said and took her hand off the dial. She was standing with her hands on her hips in front of a very high glass window encased in an aluminum frame. The glass pane was about ten feet high and two and a half feet wide. A small rolling cart with two devices that looked like sound amplifiers on it stood next to the window, two thick cables were coming out the back of the devices and went into the window frame. The window was made of solid polarized glass; it could respond to electromagnetic changes in its atomic structure and distorted the picture accordingly. Cora was looking through the window and saw a faint reflection of her standing on a desolate wasteland, a red desert that did not seem to end. The sky in the window was bright and yellow, Cora couldn't make out a sun or a light source of any kind. Someone knocked at the door.
2390"Who is it?", Cora yelled.
2391"Housekeeping", a voice answered.
2392"No thanks, I'm good", Cora responded quickly and turned her attention to the devices on the garage cart. Her keyboard was laying on top of it, the cable was strewn all over the keys. Layer 2 was working fine; and now that she got the right frequency figured out, finding the other six layers wouldn't be too hard, Cora thought. Cora was right, as she was most of the time - just a few of her favourite songs later she found all the frequencies she needed. Nonchalantly and slightly proud of her work, she took her phone from the garage cart, stopped the music and typed Sina's new phone number into the tiny number pad on her phone's screen and touched the messaging icon. She wrote a quick message telling Sina to come back to the hotel and then chucked the phone on her bed. Now she had to wait until Sina came back. It'd been ten seconds without her doing anything productive and she was already bored to death and back. She looked at her hands, then at her Nefarian mark. The mark was as cyan as her hair. The pattern was geometric, it was four diamonds stacked on top of each other. It would be about thirty minutes until Sina came back. So, thirty minutes downtime.
2393Thirty... minutes.
2394Cora counted her fingers. Ten.
2395Again. Ten.
2396Again. Eleven.
2397What? No. Ten.
2398She was ludicrously bored. She didn't have a job, an objective. Nothing to do. Well, it wouldn't be so bad, surely. No way she wouldn't be able to deal with now twenty-nine minutes of doing absolutely nothing. She started to think - would it be possible to pass through the window? It shouldn't be, her scientific knowledge told her. But there had to be a way, her instincts told her.
2399Let's find out, her curiosity told her.
2400
2401"Cora? Are you there?", Sina said as she opened the hotel room door and peeked inside. She didn't see Cora anywhere, however she did see the giant glass window in the middle of the room and the devices on the garage cart next to it. "Cora? You there?", she yelled again. She walked over to the bathroom door and knocked. "Are you in there?" No one responded. Cora was nowhere to be found, but at least she left Sina with the window. It was turned off, apparently - it was just a window now. Nothing special, except the fact that it was about twelve feet high and wired to some strange looking devices. She looked for a power switch on Cora's contraption. She found one, a clear rubber dome switch with an orange light beneath it. Without thinking, she just pressed it - but nothing happened. Typical. She checked the power cables and saw that the wall socket was burnt out - she quickly pulled the plug and plugged it into another wall outlet. The window started to glow and displayed a static picture noise, like an old TV would. Sina began turning the main knob labelled 'Frequency' to the left and the picture became clearer until Sina could make out what it was. A vast red desert lay before her eyes, a world without a sun. Sina looked through the window an the stongest angle she possibly could and saw Cora standing on a sand dune. "Hey! Cora! Over here!", she yelled. Cora didn't seem to notice her, so Sina started pounding against the glass. Cora didn't react. Sina looked at the control knobs and turned a few more - the screen's brightness changed, followed by the contrast; Cora still didn't seem to see Sina. How did Cora even get there? According to the PlaNet, inter layer travel was impossible. The only thing that made sense to Sina was to go through the notes and papers Cora had left her to find a way to get to her. Or bring her back. "layers in superposition", one note said. "certain frequencies go through", read another, with some Nefarian script scribbled next to it. Below that was a list of numbers with symbols next to them, probably different wavelengths. She recognized one of the symbols and pulled out her omnitool. She opened up the radio and selected the symbol in Cora's notes. She then held up the device up to her ear.
2402"Cora?", Sina asked. Cora flinched and turned around, but saw nothing than the red desert. She looked at her phone and slowly put it up to her left ear.
2403"Um... Sina?"
2404"Yeah. I found your notes."
2405"You're calling me through a parallel dimension."
2406"Cool."
2407"So, um, yeah."
2408"You're in the other layer."
2409"Yeah."
2410"How did you get there?"
2411"I... I used my blink amp."
2412"Didn't you say that it was totally impossible?"
2413"Well... it is."
2414"But you're there."
2415"I've noticed."
2416"Can you come back here?"
2417"Not without the window being open. You need to-"
2418"I already opened it again. The fuse was blown out."
2419"So you can see me?"
2420"Yeah. You're standing right in front of me."
2421"Okay. Step aside, I'll try to come over.", Cora said and put away her phone. She then took her blink amp, the bulky black box, out of her messenger bag, turned the big dial and disappeared in a blue pillar of light. A second later, she rematerialized next to Sina.
2422"I still can't get over the fact that you can teleport.", Sina said.
2423"When I first developed the tech, I couldn't believe it either. Actually, I still preferred physically going somewhere as opposed to teleporting." She placed the box on the garage cart next to the window.
2424"So, does it really work? Can I go back?"
2425"I don't know. And I'm not going to try. If you wanna slice up the fabric of space-time itself, that's your decision." She turned a few knobs on the devices on the cart and the window changed to completely black. "I'm not going in there. You are."
2426"And how? I mean, you can teleport because of your superpower. I don't have that."
2427"I can make a gate, a portal if you will. It takes a lot of energy, so I'll first get something to eat. But I could open one now, to see if it actually works like we believe it to work."
2428"Yeah. Let's do that.", Sina said. Cora walked over to the garage cart, opened a drawer and pulled out a cable with a needle on the end of it. She plugged the round cable into the blink amp and stuck the needle in her left arm, right in one of the cyan lines of her mark. Then, she got a long and expensive looking ribbon cable from the drawer below and connected up the blink amp and the window. She turned the blink amp on and cried out in pain as a jolt of energy went coursing through her. She became lightheaded, her knees were suddenly weak and couldn't support her anymore. She gestured at a chair standing in front of the cupboard and made a pained sound. Sina quickly put the chair under her so that Cora could sit.
2429"Are you... are you okay?", Sina asked anxiously.
2430"Yeah. Just... make it quick."
2431"What... am I supposed to do? Walk through-"
2432"No!", Cora said. "I can't do that- throw something! Throw my pencil!" Cora yelled. The pain she was experiencing was sharp and stinging; it felt as if someone was drilling through her bones, every single one of them. She was breathing through her mouth, her heartbeats were arrhythmic and erratic. Even for someone with Cora's pain tolerance, this was far too gruelling and unbearable. Sina looked at the garage cart and took the yellow number two pencil. She stood in front of the window that was now fluttering at the sides and gently tossed the pencil through. As it passed through the surface of the portal, Cora let out an ear-piercing cry and fell from her chair, ripping the needle out of her arm. A tiny drop of purple blood went down her arm. Sina quickly knelt down and supported Cora's head. She was sweating, her hearts were beating alarmingly fast. Tears of pain were in her eyes.
2433"Cora! You- are you okay?" Cora didn't answer. She gasped for air, coughed and choked.
2434"Did-", she coughed up a few drops of blood. "Did it work?"
2435"Cora! This- you should have told me that this would happen! I can't let you do this!"
2436"Doesn't matter", she claimed. "Did it work?" Sina stood up and looked over to the window - there was a broad line of light at the point where the pencil flew through. It continued on a parabola and hit the ground, where it drew an almost straight line across the floor to end where the pencil was lying.
2437"Wow.", Sina whispered in awe.
2438"Wow indeed", Cora agreed. She had gotten back on her feet and rest her left arm on Sina's shoulder.
2439"Why... why did the pencil do that? Leave that trail, I mean."
2440"Time stands still in the layer of light. So when something moves through it, it rubs against the static atoms that are frozen. That generates light."
2441"It's like footsteps." She put her fingers on the glass. "Footsteps that last forever."
2442"Beautiful, isn't it?", Cora said, looked over to the garage cart and switched the window off. "So, how about that lunch now?"
2443"I dunno, Cora. You almost died-"
2444"I didn't! I didn't even scrape the bottom. That was nothing."
2445"Well, it didn't look like that."
2446"It's just painful. It's not actually damaging me.", Cora explained and picked up Sina's credit chip. Sina put on her shoes and her coat and opened the door.
2447"How does that actually work? Your powers, I mean."
2448"That's a good question. On Nefario, it's just something that's accepted. Not questioned."
2449"But where did that come from? Someone had to wake up one day and figure out, hey, I have supernatural powers now, where did they come from?", Sina asked and pressed the button on the elevator. Cora laughed.
2450"Science currently believes it had to do with a stellar flare. That cosmic radiation fragmented our DNA so much it split into three."
2451"Three?"
2452"Yeah. Your DNA has a double helix structure. Like a rope ladder. Nefarian DNA has a triple helix structure. That makes us more adaptable. More resilient. In fact, we can build up an immunity to pretty much anything if given enough time."
2453"And that gave you superpowers?"
2454"Well, of course not. At first it just changed the children. They were being born with all kinds of funky hair colours instead of just black like it used to be."
2455"How long ago was that?"
2456"That was even before the NVA. Maybe... 2000 years ago. Around that. Anyways, those colours also made for some pretty interesting skin patterns on some people that were apparently determined by what planet you lived on. The distance from the star Nefario, and how far the radiation would need to travel. That radiation also gave us the power to reflect and... sort of bend it in a way. That could take many forms, and it still does. Moving things with a strong electromagnetic field, self-levitation, and short distance teleport. Things like that."
2457"Like shooting lightning out of your hands?"
2458"I guess there were folks who could do that, yes."
2459"It's like the force.", Sina said and put on the hood from her coat.
2460"What?"
2461"It's from a Terran work of fiction. The force is supposed to be this unknown and unexplored power some people have."
2462"Yeah, you could say a bit like the force, then."
2463
2464Chapter 29 - Out There
2465
2466"And you really think this is going to work?", Sina asked, carrying a paper bag with fast food in it across the plaza and to the hotel.
2467"Nope", Cora said and nicked a French fry from the bag. "But it's the best we got."
2468"So, when I'm going in, what am I looking for? What am I supposed to do?"
2469"I dunno.", Cora said. "We know next to nothing about the layer of light. I guess it would be self-explanatory."
2470"And if it's not?"
2471"Then you're gonna be stuck there forever. Either way, I can't tell. I can't tell the difference between you being stuck there or you succeeding and travelling back."
2472"But what if I get stuck? What happens then?"
2473"You either die after a few days, of dehydration, or you are stuck there for literally an eternity."
2474"Both of those ways don't sound too fun."
2475"Well, no one said that breaking every known rule of practical physics would be fun.", Cora answered and held up her hotel key card to the door and walked up to the elevator. "You know, it's a shame. That you're going."
2476"What do you mean?"
2477"Well, you'll probably never come back. Once you go through that portal, you're abandoning my timeline.", Cora sighed. "We'll never see you again. Us all. Me, Mika, Tony... they're gonna miss you."
2478"I... I haven't thought of it like that."
2479"Because I quite like you. You're real. You share your emotions. You don't judge."
2480"Wait, how do you mean, like?"
2481"You're a good friend. Kinda like a friend I never had, I suppose."
2482"Like Lydia was?"
2483"No, not like that. You're a friend. I'd be there for you, and you'd be there for me. You leaving... it's strange. I don't wanna do it, but I also can't let you stay here against your will."
2484"I'm sorry. I don't wanna leave you like this."
2485"It's fine. I'll pull through." Cora smirked. "I always have." She looked outside the glass front of the elevator. The clouds were pulling in, obscuring the star that lit the planet and pouring down heavy raindrops on the ground and against the windows. "I just want you to know that you did good. That you were a great friend." The elevator stopped, the aluminum doors opened. Cora walked down the corridor to their hotel room and Sina followed her. "Remember that."
2486
2487Cora pulled up the comfortable sofa chair next to the garage cart and put the ottoman in front of it. Then, she sat down, put up her feet on the ottoman and put the needle in her arm. She turned on the window and tuned it to the layer of light, her hands sweaty in anticipation and a slight sense of fear. It wasn't the pain that she feared. It wasn't the fact that it could very much end in someone's death. It wasn't the fact that Sina would be tearing through time itself. It was the thought of being alone again. Cora wouldn't go back to the others. She knew she didn't belong there. Mika didn't want her, Tony didn't know her. She would go back to the Centauri, doing what she did best. Getting by and occasionally starting wars to test her new weapon technology or whatever it was she had just invented.
2488"We can start, if you want.", she said, adjusting her position in the seat. From her chair, she could look out the window on to the city. The rain was pounding against the glass.
2489"Yeah. Let's get this over with.", Sina said and took off her coat. Cora flicked the switch on her blink amplifier and struggled not to curl up in pain from the energy surge that was hitting her like a shotgun blast to the stomach. She nodded towards Sina. Sina nodded back. "Goodbye, Cora." She stepped back and ran towards the open portal. The second she touched the portal's surface, Cora was blinded by the sheer amount of pain and agony she was feeling. Everything was blurry, everything faded away. She faded away.
2490
2491"I- wow. I didn't expect it to be like this."
2492"What do you mean?"
2493"I've always thought meeting myself would be... exciting. But there's nothing. I know what I'm getting myself into."
2494"Who... who even are you?"
2495"I'm Sina. Or better, one of the Sinas you left behind. You left us for Sarah."
2496"You don't say that. We both know that we had to at least try."
2497"Yeah. Right. Hey, why don't you wait here with me?"
2498"What... what even is this place?"
2499"It's a coffee shop. I always thought it would be a great place to hang out forever."
2500"Yeah, I see that - but where exactly am I?"
2501"Come on, Sina. Think about it. What's the last thing you remember?"
2502"I... I remember getting lunch... with Cora. And then we-", Sina stopped mid-sentence.
2503"You've figured it out."
2504"But... this can't be. It's not like I thought it would be."
2505"Things never are.", Sina said and took a sip from her green tea. "You still wanna talk to Sarah?"
2506"I mean, yeah. That's why I came here."
2507"Well, feel free.", Sina said and pointed at the glass door to the outside. It was an unending black void outside. Sina walked over to the door and opened it. She carefully tried stepping outside and to her surprise, she could walk and stand in the black emptiness.
2508"Do I just-", Sina asked and turned around. The coffee shop was completely empty. None of the about fourty chairs were taken. Only one way to go, she thought.
2509
2510"Sarah!", Sina said and ran. She saw someone in the distance, someone standing with their back turned wearing a long white cardigan. They turned around - it was really Sarah, but she looked scared and confused.
2511"Sina? Is... what is this? Where am I?"
2512"Oh, Sarah!" Sina cried and wrapped her arms around Sarah. "You're here, you're real! I... I've never been so happy to see you!"
2513"Sina, what is this place? Last thing I remember is..." Her expression changed to a blank stare. "The fire."
2514"I'm sorry, Sarah", Sina sobbed. It was too late; the fire had already happened. This was Sarah seconds, maybe even moments before her death. "I just wanted to see you again one more time."
2515"Hey, hey. Sina. It's okay."
2516"No, Sarah! You're going to die and there's nothing I can do about it!"
2517"Sina, you don't need to do anything. If I'm going to die, that's how it is. You've already done the best thing anyone could ever do for me." She patted Sina on the head.
2518"I just... I don't wanna be alone."
2519"Sina, you're never alone. I'll always be there."
2520"Thanks", Sina tried to say, but it ended in a pathetic mess of sobbing.
2521"Now go out there. Live your life. Live the life that I can't live." She let go and wiped a tear from her eye. "For me."
2522Sina opened her eyes to look at Sarah one last time, but she was already gone. No sign of Sarah was anywhere to be found. Sina stayed out there for a while and pulled herself back together. She got to see Sarah again one more time, that was what counted. Nothing else.
2523And now? There was nothing. Would she now be stuck here? Like Cora had predicted? No use thinking or worrying about it, surely. Either she would be stuck here or she wouldn't. Something came to mind - where was the pencil?
2524
2525Cora woke up - she was still sitting in the chair and the needle was still in her arm - but she wasn't feeling any pain. She looked over to the blink amp and saw that it was burnt out. The dot matrix screen was green and some of the black liquid crystal was leaking out the edge of the display. She looked at the window, it was transparent and apparently had blown another fuse. She sighed. "Well, time to pack up."
2526She walked around the room and picked up everything that belonged to her - her tech, her note books and her clothes - and put it all in a big duffel bag. She saw Sina's phone on the countertop and decided to leave it there. Sina was gone now. Cora would have to move on, just like she did when Lydia died. Or more accurately, like she tried to. A single tear rolled down her cheek.
2527
2528She sat down in the shuttle Sina had stolen to come to Ke'Tana and switched the power supply on. Slowly, all systems of the ship came to life, eventually including the FTL drive. Sighing, Cora turned off the location tracking device and laid in a course for an asteroid about fourty light years from the planet Cassan. She just needed a time out from all this. Her hands hopped over the computer screen like they had already done hundreds of thousands of times - it was just muscle memory to her. Why did she do this? Why did she help Sina go back? She could easily have lied. Said that the window wouldn't work. Said that it would kill Sina, said something.
2529But Cora didn't. She did what she did all the time - she let her own curiosity get the better of her and overpower her foresight - she knew that she would be alone if this worked, and it did. Sina was gone, Cora was alone again. No use in coming back to the Terra-1 now. That adventure was over.
2530Cora looked out the window and into the star-spangled black velvet of outer space. She had never realized it, but she needed Sina. She needed someone to ground her. Sina was that someone, Sina was someone that admired her. Sina was someone that kept her at bay, Sina was someone who would always help her. Sina trusted her, and she trusted Sina. But this was all gone now.
2531
2532The shuttle touched down outside a small diner. The diner was cozy and quaint, Cora liked it because of that. Almost no one ever went there, but Cora liked it. It was great to just have a think about everything. Cora knew the hostess pretty well and was a regular patron, but she never told anyone, not even her closest friends, that she came there to be alone with her thoughts every once in a while. She opened the door to the diner and was greeted by the same picture - an entirely empty restaurant, with no one there but the Pac'Ton hostess standing behind the counter. The Pac'Ton were a peaceful race, and were known as the listeners of the galaxy. They were small to medium in height and had sark blue skin, as well as long pointy ears, a lack of facial hair as well as very sharp and pronounced shoulder blades.
2533"Evening.", Cora said as she walked in. The hostess nodded and continued polishing a white mug. Cora shuffled over to the counter and sat down on one of the bar stools.
2534"What's it gonna be?"
2535"A green tea."
2536"We don't have green tea."
2537"Then... psh.", Cora said. She put her face on the counter. The hostess put down the coffee mug and rested her hands on the counter.
2538"Something's bothering ya."
2539"Yeah.", Cora said. The diner was where she could be open about her feelings. Even if she wanted to, she couldn't make a sarcastic or witty remark.
2540"So, care to share?"
2541"I dunno."
2542"Did your pet die?", the Pac'Ton hostess asked and put the mug under the espresso machine.
2543"I just helped a friend run away and never come back."
2544"Heavy stuff."
2545"And I realized that she was the best friend I could wish for."
2546"She's not coming back?"
2547"Never.", Cora answered.
2548"Well, if it makes you feel better, there's no use in crying over spilled milk."
2549"I know", Cora replied and looked up. The hostess put a cup of coffee in front of Cora's face. "Thanks."
2550"So, tell me about this friend. Who was she?"
2551"She was... she was perfect. She trusted me. I trusted her. She kept me sane. Now... now she's gone."
2552"We all have someone like that in our life, don't we?"
2553"I believe so. But my someone... she's gone."
2554"And what are ya going to do 'bout that?" Cora folded her hands and looked at the coffee.
2555"I don't know. I mean, I'm done. Nothing left to do now." She took a sip from her coffee and didn't seem to mind that it was boiling hot.
2556"You don't have anyone?"
2557"I'm not even sure that I have myself. I'll always second-guess myself now."
2558"You gotta have confidence, young lady."
2559"I don't think I can ever have that."
2560"But... she was there. She was someone real. I... I need her."
2561"Only thing you need is to move on. You helped her, that was the ultimate display of friendship. You helped her even though it hurt you."
2562"Guess you're right.", Cora said and finished her coffee. "How much do I owe you?"
2563"Two credits.", the hostess asked. Cora pulled Sina's credit chip out of her pocket and tossed it on the counter.
2564"Keep the change."