Butterflies of the Dark Star

34 (REVISED)

Lockdown Z. On the hour. If only I had more time. Nova holstered an extra blaster while Neo unhooked infodrives from his computer. "Where do they want us to go?"

"Central command." Neo shoved the infodrives in his coat pockets. "There's some irregularities in the western branch." He stopped, then glanced at her. "You don't have to come if you want to sleep for a little longer."

Nova listened to the capacitor hiss and turned on the safety. "I know." Her breath stopped at the edge of her throat at another distant alarm, a reminder of the unbending truth to the loop. "I need to make sure you won't get into trouble." The word again almost slipped past her lips, but she held it deep in her soul, to never burden him anymore than necessary, to never cause him the pain of his death. She expected him to quip with his usual 'how much trouble could I get into,' but he remained silent. Nova searched for his memory, to open the floodgates in the greys full of nebulous shadows.

He stopped, then tipped his head at her with a curious smile.

It didn't touch his eyes.

"Is something still on your mind?" he questioned.

But sometimes... I wonder... Nova folded her arms and huffed. "No, I think I got everything out. We should head out before something else comes up."

Neo nodded with a burst of energy. "Right." He gesticulated at his terminal, grasping air. "Um, is there anything else you need to take or talk about before we go?"

Nova eyed his desk. "Actually, yes. You wouldn't happen to still have the sample?"

"The sample? Oh!" Neo rifled through his pockets to overturn them. "I just put it somewhere, where is it?" He rifled through his belt and unclipped one of the phial capsules. "Gotcha. Here it is." Crimson liquid frothed inside and he held the sealed container to her. "Why do you want it?"

Nova rubbed her knuckle. "Thuni's got a certain alloy around his core which prevented it from being destroyed," she explained while Neo glanced at the phial with an insatiable, curious expression when he rolled it on his palm. "I think whatever the alloy was made of has some sort of... reflective property against the anomalous substance." Hope flew into her heart. "It might be the answer as to why the exoskeleton was wrecked, but their core wasn't."

Neo blinked in rapid fire. "Fractal reaction..." He wrapped his fingers around the phial. "Your droid wasn't made of the same material?"

Nova frowned at his quiet observation. "Maybe it wasn't destroyed because it carried the anomaly itself."

He put the sample back into the safety capsule. "That would make sense," he said and his cheerful grin returned. "I need to take a look at their core once we figure out what's happening in the western branch." Shuddered excitement lit up his face. "Do you think they'll let me poke it?"

Unable to keep up her own smile, she gave him a nod instead. "I'm sure if you explained yourself to Thuni he'd be more willing to cooperate with you." Nova pushed her hand into his shoulder and left the dorm. She tried to ignore the creeping tendrils outside the shuttered windows; the serrated, colourful jaws of the black hole before it swallowed the stars.

As she walked side by side with Neo, she hesitated at a new alarm. It whispered in her ear, an empty breath to rumble out of the event horizon. Goosebumps lifted her skin when she listened to the shift, the variable. Neo stopped at the edge of the transit station. "Nova?"

Voices whispered, a familiar inflection. Nova turned to discern the words. I... can't hear it. Nova caught up to Neo when the soft alarm continued to play in the back of her head. Am I hearing things? Is it the space station settling... or something else?