Volume 5: Gamma-20, Chapter 5.33

My run-in with Durgo certainly soured my mood, and I spent my entire shower festering in violent thoughts about what I’d love to unleash upon my mission commanders and the Lord Generals.

I finished getting ready and donned a new jumpsuit, then met up with Zyno who waited for me as we made our way down to the subbasement.

“What was the delay?” Zyno asked me.

I sighed, “Durgo, told me to knock it off with trying to get the crew to abandon the cargo and work on getting the emergency shuttle fixed.” I told him.

“Profits over people?” Zyno reasoned.

“Yeah exactly, total bullshit.” I said.

Zyno sighed then, “Adam, I know where your heart is with this, but you’ve gotta understand all the responsibilities—”

“Yeah yeah, I get it, the stupid fucking human doesn’t have the proper training to even be on these missions and has no idea what’s really at stake with the Empire and their demand for khrona crystals and warp travel and all that shit. Whatever.” I snapped.

Zyno’s mouth quirked up in a frown as he looked at me levelly, “Come on man, you know that’s not what I’m thinking.”

I shrugged, “Feels like I’m the only one thinking about crew safety at this point.”

Zyno stopped in the hallway and turned to me, “Do you really think Gadow and Fierra aren’t considering all the possibilities before they make their operational decisions? Forget Durgo for now, the

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crew is trained for deep space operations and know the risks and what all they need to do to complete the mission—even I wouldn’t dare step outside my role and start telling the captain what he should be doing.” He argued.

I crossed my arms and looked down at him, “So you’re fine with Gadow and them risking your life too? I mean let’s face it, we have no stake in their contract—supposed to protect the cargo for our own mission, sure, but our livelihoods don’t depend on the successful transport of the crystals.”

Zyno shrugged, “Right, they have more to lose over all this, so why push my opinion on them when our orders and motivations are somewhat different?”

“Didn’t answer my question about Gadow risking our lives though.”

Zyno sighed, then continued down the hallway, and I followed along after him, “Like I said, they have more training on these deep space operations, know all the risks and what their crew can handle.” He turned to me, “Yeah, I trust them.”

I decided to just drop it, still fundamentally disagreeing with all of them, but there was clearly no point in arguing further.

“You think you’ll be able to help the engineers at all?” I asked.

Zyno shook his head, “Doubt it, but if I can do anything to assist them—even just to offer another set of eyes or a different perspective on things, it can’t really hurt.”

We got into the lift and headed to the subbasement level, and even though the ship was finally safe again, it was still creepy down there since it was all so dark and dreary—reminded me a little of being back in the storage tank too, and I couldn’t help as an involuntary shiver ran down my spine when I made the connection.

We walked down the long, twisting hallways until we got to the warp reactor chamber and found everyone on the ship was already there, the engineers working on organizing parts from the dismantled reactor.

“Hey Zyno, we’re getting to work on putting the reactor back together now, why don’t you come here and tell us what you think.” Zemman called out.

“Sure, you guys have the schematics?” He asked, then rushed off to join the engineers.

I was left without anything to do at that point; Gadow and Fierra were in the middle of things, helping in what little ways they could, and Durgo was off on the far side of the room working on his tablet, and then I saw Reim and Willa standing around uselessly as well, so I decided to go join them.

“Hey Adam.” Reim said brightly.

I gestured towards our little group, “Anything we can do to help, or are we just totally useless now?”

Reim smiled sheepishly, “Quite useless I’m afraid, but I’m here in case anyone gets injured while working.”

Willa beside her shrugged, “I had to lift some heavy metal housing for them before you got here, that’s about the extent of our usefulness I imagine.”

“Damn.” I looked over at Reim, “You wouldn’t happen to have—”

Reim rolled her eyes and pulled out her tablet and handed it to me, “Here, have fun.”

I smiled and grabbed up the tablet, then loaded up the last game I was playing, “Awesome, thanks.”

Reim laughed at that, “You’re such a kid, it’s hilarious really.”

Willa nodded, “Quite adorable.”

I shrugged as I sat down and got into the game, “Humans are known for needing constant stimulation, also known for all the various kinds of stimulation we’ve created—games, music, media, all manner of toys and shit.” I waved around vaguely, “Besides, why should we torture ourselves with boredom if there’s nothing else to do.”

Reim nodded along, “You’ve got a point.” She said, then sat down beside me to watch me play the fun holographic Missile Defense game.

Willa shook her head, “I just don’t like feeling useless.” She gestured towards the engineers at work, “I’m going to see if they need me to move more heavy things.” She said, then trotted off.

I continued playing the unique alien game while Reim watched me, and I couldn’t tell which she was more interested in, my progress in the game or my reactions.

But after a while she seemed to grow bored of just watching me play as she looked up to me with a curious expression on her face, “Hey, I wanted to ask you something.”

I was in the zone now and couldn’t look away from the game while I talked, “Yeah, what’s up?”

Reim paused then, looking back towards the rest of her crew before looking back at me, “You really think it’s a mistake to still focus on the warp reactor instead of fixing the emergency shuttle?”

I took in a deep breath and let it out twice as slowly, not wanting to get all into it again, “Look, my concerns are for everyone’s safety, so when I’m thinking about what we should do next, that’s my sole focus. However, I talked to Zyno and even Durgo, and I understand you guys have different priorities, and I know it would be a waste of 20 years of your work—your

lives

if you didn’t do everything in your power to save the cargo.” I shrugged, “Really, I get it.”

I told Reim that, but honestly, I still disagreed with their reasoning; I just wanted to keep the peace more than anything at this point.

“I know, and I can see where you’re coming from too, it’s just…” She took in a deep breath, as though nervous about what she was going to ask next, “You think we’re really safe from the Predazoan monster? It’s still alive out there in the vacuum, so are you only concerned with the potential singularity, or are you still worried about that thing too?”

I had to pause my game then as I just realized something; we were totally safe inside

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thanks to the repulser shielding, but the emergency shuttle wouldn’t have that strong of a barrier to protect us; if the warp gate collapsed and turned into a singularity and we had to abandon the ship, that would mean we’d have to abandon the security of its shielding.

We would be out in empty space in a small shuttle, completely vulnerable if Gamma-20 decided to come after us then.

I was suddenly feeling a lot less secure about our options now.

“Holy shit, I hadn’t even thought about that.”

Reim looked concerned, “About what?”

I looked over to the engineers and the slow progress they were making on the warp reactor, then turned back to Reim, “About what happens when we leave the safety of the repulser shielding.”

Reim’s eyes grew wide when she realized what I was saying, “You mean—”

I held up a finger to cut her off, “Don’t say anything to the rest of the crew, we don’t want them to stress or panic—we need them to focus all their attention on the warp reactor now.”

Reim shook her head slowly, “But what happens if they

don’t

fix it in time—if we end up in the shuttle with that monster hunting us down?”

I shook my head too, “It just means now, for our survival—forgetting the cargo and the profits and all that, our best hope is for the engineers to get that warp reactor back up and running. Otherwise, we’re fucked.”

***

It was funny how quickly my priorities shifted once I realized how dangerous it would be if we had to escape in the emergency shuttle with a Predazoan out in space. I immediately dropped all my arguments in trying to get people to shift their focus away from the warp reactor—in fact I even put down my game and started asking if there was anything I could do to help.

Although after a few hours of getting in the way, Lummy shooed me away and said they would call me if they needed anything.

We were in a terrible race against time that seemed even more precarious than before, and there was nothing I could do but wait for the results.

A few people noticed my obvious shift, but no one suspected anything unusual; they just thought I must’ve been convinced of the popular opinion on trying to complete the mission above all else.

Little did they know I was still concerned over everyone’s safety.

There wasn’t much progress on the warp reactor on the first day, mostly just going over schematics and seeing how it would all fit together. The engineers had taken the reactor completely apart and believed they would be able to piece it back together, but they had no idea if that would fix whatever was broken.

They basically hoped the great reset would do the job of getting it to work again.

Once we were done for the day we retired as a group, having dinner and then hanging out at the bar and nox-lounge again—Durgo, Gadow and Fierra didn’t join in the party, as usual.

I definitely needed the nox now to help calm me down as I felt my nerves getting pretty fried over the fact my fate was completely up in the air and out of my hands. Reim seemed more on edge too, but as usual she listened to me and didn’t tell anyone else our concerns.

Honestly, I was a little surprised no one else thought about it; we knew we were only safe from Gamma-20 thanks to the repulser shielding on

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, and they also knew the emergency shuttle didn’t have that repulser shielding. Perhaps they just forgot about the Predazoan threat for now since we were safely inside the ship, or maybe they really believed they’d be able to fix the warp reactor. Or maybe still they thought Gamma-20 would leave us alone after we booted her out into space.

Yeah right.

Once we were done chilling for the night, we decided to all head to bed, and exactly as Zemman said before, even though we were safe to be alone, he thought it was more uncomfortable to sleep alone now, and pretty much everyone agreed, so we gathered all our mattresses and headed back to Lummy’s room like we were having a weird slumber party.

I had to agree though, with how big the ship was and how creepy things could seem in those dark hallways—plus all the recent memories of those monster attacks, I found it was much more comfortable to stay with the group.

We continued that pattern over the next several days, and I found the routine was rather soothing—though every new power surge that rumbled through the vessel and caused the lights to flicker redoubled my anxiety. We all had breakfast together, went to the warp reactor and worked on it together, had dinner together, relaxed at night together, and then all went to bed together.

The crew grew closer after every day that passed, and I almost felt like I’d been working alongside the

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crew for years then—I just wished there was more I could do to actually help.

But at least everyone seemed to appreciate my company.

After six full days working on the warp reactor, it was finally all reassembled, so it was time to test it.

“Okay, do we just open a warp gate and see how it goes?” I asked.

Gadow shook his head, “There’s a protocol for testing a warp reactor; since warp travel takes calculations and coordinates, we don’t want to open an active warp gate. Instead, we can do something called a warp pulse.”

Having no idea what that was, I looked over at Zyno for clarification.

He just rolled his eyes, “Basically it opens a quick window into void space that closes in on itself.” He made a gesture of his hands expanding and then contracting, “It’s the safest way to test reactors.”

I quirked up an eyebrow, “And it won’t fuck with the collapsing warp gate?”

Fierra shook her head, “It’s much safer than an active warp gate since it doesn’t need to be sustained or stabilized.”

Everyone gathered around the massive warp reactor, looking nervous as Gadow started working on the control console to set up the test.

Reim beside me grabbed my hand, looking like she could barely handle the stress.

I looked at her, then looked down at our hands, causing her to blush and turn away.

“I’m quite nervous now, alright? Just give me this one comfort and I’ll leave you alone afterwards—I promise.” She insisted.

I rolled my eyes and let her have her way, then turned back to Gadow as he finished with the preparations.

“Alright everyone, this is it.” He said, then carefully pulled a lever to activate the test.

The massive chrome sphere started humming, looking like a wavy heat mirage was surrounding it. Then the strange black bulbs on the reactor all lit up with an array of iridescent colors—shining brilliantly as they pulsed in unison. The pulses increased in speed as the humming grew louder until everything seemed to reach a crescendo where it was all synced together.

“I think it’s working!” Gadow declared, and everyone cheered.

For the first time in quite a while it felt like the stress and fear were finally melting away from me, and my heart felt lighter at the hope we were going to get out of this nightmare. Reim turned to me and almost pounced me in a fierce hug, and at that moment I was so relieved I couldn’t even protest and just hugged her back.

Then suddenly, the warp reactor started growing louder—whining rather than humming. A few moments later it sounded like there was a terrible grinding noise coming from inside, sounding like something was breaking down. Then the iridescent glowing bulbs started shining so brightly we had to look away, and then they started popping one by one—shards of future-tech glass flying all over the room.

“Shit, get away from it!” Zyno called out, and everyone screamed as they ran away from the dying machine.

We just barely made it to the maintenance hallway when we heard a cluster of heavy thuds and then a single muffled explosion, and then everything went dark and was silent once again.

“Dammit, is everyone okay?” Gadow called out.

“Fine, but what happened with the reactor?” Zemman asked.

As though to answer his question, the lights flickered back on so we could see the warp reactor had blown out, a person-sized hole in the chrome sphere looked like something had exploded out of it, with scraps of metal scattered all the way to the next wall.

“No, no! I don’t believe it—it can’t end like this!” Gadow insisted, rushing over to the destroyed reactor.

“Gadow!” Fierra ran after the captain.

The others meandered around the room, clearly lost in what to do next—obvious there’d be no fixing it this time.

Reim looked up at me, anxiety turned to fear as she realized the only option we were left with.

“Adam, what are we going to do?” She pressed.

Before I could properly respond and assure her we’d figure something out, there was another power surge that swept through

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—and then another one, and another.

The lights continued to flicker as the entire vessel quaked, and then the ship seemed to pivot so hard I had to catch Reim from falling to the ground.

The power surges finally settled down then, but immediately after the warning alarm started blaring as red lights in the corner of the room started flashing.

“Warning! Warning! Gravitational anomaly detected. Warning! Warning!” The mechanical voice announced—sounding far too horribly calm for what was going on.

I looked over to Zyno, “Zyno, is it—”

I could see Zyno already had his tablet out with the hologram of the system being displayed, and in the center was a strange dark vortex that was surrounded by what looked like hundreds of warped, broken mirror fragments.

He nodded at me once, and I could see in his eyes the horrifying reality of what we were now facing.

“The warp gate collapsed into a void singularity.” Zyno confirmed.