Butterflies of the Dark Star

16 (REVISED)

It took several attempts and a change in thermotorches to get the droid core out of the congealed mass of metal and anomalous liquid — to then upload copies of Thuni's modules onto her datascroll for added safekeeping. Ulin bowed their gratitude in her direction, but Thuni stuck to the terminal, quiet. Vent in view with the abyss to stare at, she waved off the programmer's thanks. Maybe... Maybe I was seeing things, like last time... in the morgue. Neo, cold and pale, in the throes of death, nothing more than a meat sack to those who wanted to figure out his demise. Her nails dug into her palm, and she tasted blood on her tongue. "I'll talk to you two later," she whispered. "Be careful."

In her rush to the tram terminal, she nearly tripped on her imagination. It came closer and the doors into the tram itself opened. Izerva stood in the middle, arms crossed with their tail twitching at the end.

"Izerva?" Nova questioned, trying to sign in Xelnod. "What's the matter?"

Izerva pointed at the terminal for her to click it before responding back with a shaky curl to their clawed fingers, "Is Scientist Neo not with you, Engineer Nova?"

"No, he told me he had something to pick up in the eastern medtower..." Nova held onto the upper rack when the tram rumbled beneath her feet. "Why?"

"I wanted to let him know that they would not allow me to take a look at the scripture he made mention of." Their ears pressed flat against their head, and their hair stood on end.

"Oh, he's going to love that." Nova scoffed into her arm. "Well, what was their reasoning?"

"They weren't letting anybody in the central labs," Izerva emphasised with a circle of their finger.

Nova nodded. "I'll tell him when I see him."

Lights outside of the window flickered down the tracks.

In one pulse, each one cracked and burst into electric embers.

Nova gasped when the tram lurched to a sudden stop, and the momentum sent her face first into the metal flooring when her grip failed on the standing railing. Cheeks burning from pain and embarrassment both, she hauled herself to her knees as red lights peeked out of their holders to send crimson through the darkness. An alarm blared through her hears, and the PA system spoke in a monotone voice:

"Warning. Anomalous breach detected. Lockdown A initialised. Please return to your sectors and await further instructions."

Izerva raised their nose to the curve of the ceiling, straight to the emergency hatch.

"Ow..." Her pain went straight to her temple, but she stopped when Izerva tossed their tail into her lips. "What—?"

Izerva tapped their own muzzle for silence.

Nova leaned close to the floor when Izerva tugged out a blaster with one graceful motion. Metal scraped against rust above her head to send a shiver of cold down her spine. It went silent into the vacuum of space, though Izerva's ears and tail continued to twitch. Awaiting for the signal of safety, Nova released her breath when Izerva nodded down at her, holding a hand out to assist her back to her feet. Nova hung back while Izerva opened the emergency hatch.

Nova followed suit, and their boots hit the tracks to walk the rest of the way to the eastern platform through maintenance. It took several swipes of both their access cards to allow them passage through the station's doors. Level A, though... which means they haven't closed the bulkheads. Back into the activity of the eastern sector, people bustled around in their haphazard confusion, fighting to follow protocol in the sudden panic.

Izerva nudged her in the direction of the living quarters, but when she turned around to ask a question, the lights flickered once more with an eerie moan echoing in the space station.