Volume 6: Gamma-11, Chapter 6.2

No one could believe it, honestly it didn’t make any sense—seemed downright impossible. But nobody was about to question our good fortune now.

While everyone was celebrating and hugging each other, Zyno and Gadow quickly created the distress beacon, and while we sent one out over the general communication waves for emergency and rescue traffic, Zyno sent one specifically towards the Vyrane system, knowing that’s where

The Radiance

and

The Judicator

were last—hoping they hadn’t moved in order to expedite our rescue.

Even if they had moved, there was no way high-command wouldn’t intercept our signal, trying to contain all information about the Predazoans, wanting to get to us before a rescue vessel could.

Gadow and Fierra told me before not every vessel would be rescued in deep space for various reason since it was hard to send out distress beacons, hard to locate stranded vessels, deep space and long-range comms could fail, etcetera. But for all those reasons to cause doubt and fear, they simply didn’t apply to us when the Lord Generals had our mission on the highest priority.

For the others, this still didn’t mean we were

guaranteed

to be rescued, but for those of us from the Predazoan containment mission, we knew it would only be a matter of time before we were picked up.

Of course we tried to tell everyone that, insisting our commanders would definitely come find us, and while the

Jessipie-90

crew didn’t know exactly how important our mission was (considering we lied a bit to cover up the Empire’s involvement in creating the Predazoans), they were more than just cautiously optimistic when we told them we might as well start celebrating now.

We tossed out the nasty gruel and decided to make a fancy dinner of synthesized food—some alien roast feast. We were also happy to see Gadow had hidden away one more bottle of generic alien liquor so we could celebrate our rescue—or have one last toast in death.

“Just so you all know, if this turns out to be bullshit and your commanders aren’t coming to save us, opening this bottle prematurely basically curses us so we’ll never get rescued.” Gadow warned as he poured everyone a glass, a big smile on his face.

I laughed at that, “We’ll take our chances at this point.” I confirmed.

Once everyone had a glass, Gadow lifted his in the air and looked over at Zyno, “To Zyno for fixing the comms.”

Everyone cheered out to Zyno, and he lifted his glass too, “To Eve for directing us towards the relay.”

Everyone cheered for Eve then, but same as before, she was just in the corner, a vacant look on her face, smiling at me all the while.

As all the tension dissolved from the room, Fierra turned on some music so people could celebrate or dance or do whatever to finally unwind. A few people filtered over towards Eve to offer a more sincere thanks than a toast, but I saw she barely responded to them—a nod of her head at most.

I was sure most people still distrusted her, but if she led us to getting rescued, I was also sure they’d forgive just about anything at that point. Honestly, I couldn’t even begin to imagine what they thought was going on with her now—maybe they thought we’d orchestrated this whole thing, or at least Eve had, knowing where the relay station was, knowing when the system would collapse, knowing when

Jessipie-90’s

contract would fail.

Even for me knowing Eve was a Predazoan, I had to say I wasn’t sure how she knew there was a relay station in that exact spot in the middle of empty space. Of course, even Gamma-20 told me I needed to stop underestimating the Predazoans, so I really needed to stop being surprised with all the miracles Eve could perform.

Gadow had only saved the one bottle, so I was already finished with my drink after just a few celebratory toasts. I sat down at the table, looking at the navigation hologram, watching the little relay station blip rhythmically.

Zyno sat down beside me, clasping a hand on my shoulder, “What do you think, just a few hours until

The Radiance

picks us up?”

I shrugged, “Relative to us, sure. They might need to get organized for a jump, then spend a few days in warp space, but we should be seeing them in no time at all now.”

Zyno smiled widely, “Just a few hours until I see my Yun again.”

I smiled too, “You gonna tell her how dangerous the mission was—how close we came to dying like a dozen times over?”

Zyno sighed, “I probably shouldn’t, it would just make her worry, and she’d fret beyond belief if I ever get deployed again, but I don’t see how I could keep it from her.”

I shrugged, “Maybe downplay it a little—don’t give her all the ghastly details.”

Zyno smiled again, “Sounds like a plan.” His smile fell a little, and he looked towards Eve in her corner, then back to me, “Any idea how Eve knew the relay was out there?”

I shrugged again, “No clue.”

He quirked up an eyebrow, “You curious?”

I nodded along, “Like you wouldn’t believe.”

Zyno’s smile fell away completely then, and he looked back towards Eve once more, and his expression looked more than a little unsure, “Any, uh, any idea what’s been…going on with her?”

I looked around at the cramped room filled with the celebratory survivors who had no idea Eve was a Predazoan, then back to Zyno, “Not even a little.” I admitted.

Zyno looked around and took the hint now wasn’t the time to have a discussion about it, but instead of dropping it, he pulled out his tablet and opened some black text document that seemed to automatically shade itself if you looked at the screen from an angle—like those privacy screens on smartphones back on Earth.

Zyno typed a quick message asking what all Eve said when she returned from the void and what explanation she gave when I found her on

Jessipie-90

.

I let out a long weary sigh, not really in the mood to get all into this now. We’d been traveling through space for over two cycles and I always avoided the questions when Zyno got inquisitive, but I felt like he thought he had me trapped now so I’d have to answer.

I decided to be very brief in my response, telling Zyno Eve confirmed she reconnected with her void soul and was now filled with void energy, said she was a conduit or something—no idea if he would know what that meant.

Judging by his expression, I didn’t think he did.

“What the fuck?” Zyno said to himself as he looked at the screen. He turned once more to look at Eve, then back to me, “And you think that’s why she’s been all—”

Before he could finish his question, I pushed the tablet back on the table and stood up, then made my way over towards Eve.

“Hey sweet-thing.” I said in a friendly voice.

Eve looked like she’d been a non-living statue until I engaged her, and suddenly her face lit up as she looked at me and smiled brightly.

“Hello darling.” She said in her normal, musical and alluring voice.

I gestured vaguely towards the navigation hologram, “Pretty crazy you knew that relay station was out there.” I said, then grabbed a chair and sat down next to her—and I noticed she moved a little away from me so our knees wouldn’t touch.

I was annoyed she moved, but decided to ignore it, instead focusing on the questions I had, “So how did you know it was there? Was that your extra sense or something?”

Eve looked into my eyes for a few silent moments, and I wondered briefly if she was going to ignore my question. But then she just kept staring, and the way she stared into my eyes—into my

soul,

it was so predatory I had to look away when I felt a shiver of fear run down my spine.

Eve chuckled quietly, “I didn’t just

find

the relay station, Adam. I put it there.” She answered simply.

I looked back at Eve, “You…what?”

Eve gestured towards the holo-map, “It wouldn’t matter what direction we traveled in, we wouldn’t have enough supplies for you all to survive out here in deep space. Instead, I needed to bring a relay station towards us.”

I looked back towards the holo-map too, and I remembered how empty it looked when Gadow had it all zoomed out to display the closest systems that were still several cycles away from us.

I turned back to Eve, “How the fuck did you put it there? Did you, like, plan this all out in void space or something and made sure we’d head in the right direction?” I asked, knowing time dilated weirdly in the extra dimension and maybe Eve saw in the future where the relay station was.

Eve’s smile shifted from bright to mischievous then, “No Adam, I didn’t plan anything out with the relay station; I simply moved it to where we needed it—to where we could access it.”

I knew I needed to stop underestimating Predazoans, but I honestly couldn’t wrap my head around what Eve was saying.

“Are you saying you…

warped

the relay closer to us? Where the fuck did you grab it from?” I pressed.

Eve shrugged one shoulder, “Frontier space, somewhere on the outskirts of the Empire—the border of deep space really. Don’t worry, it won’t be missed.”

My jaw dropped then, and even though I couldn’t understand over half the technology in the Empire, this

magic

was beyond anything I’d ever be able to comprehend.

“How the fu—

how

?”

Eve smiled brightly then, looking like a kid who just told a silly secret, and then she put a finger up to her lips in the shushing gesture.

And that was that.

***

The survivor’s celebration lasted for several hours, and a few people lost steam and decided to head back to bed, while the others resumed their normal lives on the shuttle, hanging out in the central room.

Our group returned to watching Zyno’s nature documentary, obviously once again too distracted to really pay attention.

Zyno was a little annoyed I shut down the discussion over Eve, but even though he was giving me space now, I wasn’t able to totally get out of talking about it all.

Reim sitting beside me leaned over towards me, “That was pretty miraculous Eve was able to pinpoint the relay station for us.”

I just sighed, “Yeah, I know.”

Reim was silent for a few beats, but clearly she was resolved to see her questions through, “Any idea how she—”

I quickly turned to face her, “No, okay? I have no fucking idea how she knew the relay was out there, no idea how she got onto

Jessipie-90

, I have no idea what’s going on with her at all now.” I whispered in a hiss, then turned to look back at Eve in her corner—a smiling statue looking my way same as always.

Reim looked like she felt bad then—maybe guilty over stressing me out. She let out a long sigh, “Adam, you know I care about you, and I’m just concerned.” She chanced a brief glace towards Eve, “She’s never been like this before, right?”

I sighed again, “No, never.”

Reim shook her head slowly, “Is it possible she’s sick or injured? Maybe that experimental teleportation technology poisoned her or something.” She gestured towards herself, “You know I’m a doctor, and if she’d be willing, maybe I could run a few tests on her, see if we could diagnose the problem.”

I couldn’t help but smile then; Reim really was just being kind, she just had no idea what she was dealing with—way,

waaayyy

out of her depth with this one.

“Thanks Reim, but once we get picked up by our commanders, we can have those military doctors look at her.” I shrugged, “Who knows, maybe they know what’s going on since it was their teleporters or whatever.”

“And you’re sure they’ll be coming—your commanders I mean?” She asked.

My smile shifted into a smirk, “Trust me, knowing the high value assets we have on board, there’s no way they’ll leave us stranded out here on our own for long.”

Reim smiled at my confidence, and I could see she more than trusted me then—she really

believed

we’d be rescued exactly as I said we would.

As though to perfectly prove my point, a little trilling alarm rang out from the cockpit, and a few moments later Willa’s voice projected through the overhead speakers.

“That was our commanders, they said they’re in the system and they’ll be picking us up in just a few moments.” She declared.

Once again everyone cheered, and Reim couldn’t stop herself from jumping up and hugging me. I hugged her back out of reflex, but couldn’t help but look over at Eve as I did, seeing her watch me with that predatory stare. She didn’t move, didn’t even blink, and I think that unsettled me more than anything, so I quickly pushed Reim away from me.

“I’m going to head into the cockpit, I wanna watch their approach from the viewports.” I told her, then made my escape before she could respond.

I sat down in the copilot seat beside Willa, “Everything good?” I asked her.

Willa nodded, “More than good, look out there now.” She said, then gestured forward.

I had to squint to see, but slowly I saw a weird looking shimmer out in the distant blackness take shape—a giant, stealthy sphere surrounded by four massive diamond shaped shields in a wide shell connected by a central ring, reflective and almost invisible out in space.

“Wait a second, is that

The Judicator

?” I asked.

Willa pressed a button on her console so the viewport screens zoomed on the approaching station, “Looks like it.”

I shook my head slowly, “Wonder why they didn’t just send

The Radiance…

”

Willa and I continued looking at the screens, and as the massive space station grew closer, it looked like nothing was docked on it at all now, unlike all the other times I’d seen it.

“Is it seriously just

The Judicator

by itself?” I asked, and I couldn’t help as a little anxiety started bubbling up in my stomach.

Willa nodded again, and I could see even she looked nervous over that discovery.

“Yeah, I think so too.” She said, sounding contemplative.

The massive stealth station righted itself in space before us and stopped, and then a little alarm rang out on the console, and I could see a light bay door opened on the bottom of the station.

“They’re directing us forward—gave us clearance to dock.” Willa confirmed and started flying the shuttle towards the open docking bay.

I left the copilot’s seat and returned to the main room to find Zyno.

“Hey, any reason

The Judicator

would pick us up instead of

The Radiance

?” I asked.

Zyno cocked his head to the side, “What do you mean? Isn’t

The Radiance

docked on

The Judicator

like normal?” He asked.

I shook my head quickly, “No dude, it’s just

The Judicator

by itself.”

Zyno’s eyes grew wide as his green skin seemed to pale a few shades, “Oh fuck.”

“Yeah, seriously, what does that mean?” I pressed.

Zyno ran a hand through his tentacles in a clearly nervous gesture, “Nothing good.”

Reim walked over towards us, “Is there a problem?”

Before anyone could answer her, we felt the dull thud as the emergency shuttle landed in the docking back, and we heard a mechanical voice announce over the loudspeakers we’d been secured inside the space station

The Judicator

.

Willa came out of the cockpit to join us, looking as nervous as we did over what all that meant. Eve got up from her corner and glided over towards us, standing behind me and looking like she was lost in a dream still.

We heard the airlocks hiss as the ramp lowered, and from the center room we could just barely see outside—but our view was quickly obscured as that same, red alien lieutenant who answered directly to the Lord Generals came marching up towards us, escorted by a dozen power armor soldiers.

“Surviving crewmembers of

Jessipie-90

, I ask that you all stand back and await further instructions while we handle an internal matter first.” The lieutenant announced.

My stomach fell away into an anxiety created abyss as four soldiers stepped forward, each one pushing an open containment cell.

“Doctor Zyno, Private Willa, Agent Adam, and Specialty Asset Alpha-03, you are hereby placed under arrest for the destruction of

Jessipie-90

and the Derrion System.”