Reach the other side of the nebula. Find the D.S Butterfly. Listen to the song. Hear the song. Feel the song. The song. The song. Listen to the song.

Nova winced at the repetition of the mission directive replaying over and over in her head. It rang in her ears with the metallic screech of the distress beacon the D.S Butterfly sent out. The sound; the song Neo tried to listen to to discern the truth behind anomalous wavelengths.

Reach the other side.

Nova tore herself from the gaseous darkness. Confusion spread stars along her flaming brow when she found herself in the briefing room, surrounded by Interns and those they were meant to shadow such as Thuni — along with some of the senior research staff. Admiral Mythrai stood at the podium, but with his attention on the datascroll in front of him. Huh? Back against the chair, she tried to shake out the sleep in her eyes as the world blurred. When did I get up? Last thing I remember is... Delayed fear struck her heart as she looked around, but Neo sat inside a different desk, though from the way his gaze went unfocused, no more listened to what was around him than she knew how she got there. Her relief escaped in a cold bubble through her lips. I'm losing it...

Neo wrote something down on his datascroll, but with his eyes half-closed and his cheek resting in his palm, she doubted he read what he wrote. His hand trembled with each line he switched to. Not even Admiral Mythrai clearing his throat with a growl caught his attention back to the matter at hand.

"This briefing is to explain the situation currently happening on the space station, as well as reiterating standard protocol in the event of a station-wide emergency." Admiral Mythrai tapped a sharp claw against a button. A working blueprint of the space station was projected onto the backboard, with listed issues along the tram lines and towers. On the other hand, Neo lowered his head deeper into his palm, and continued his endless doodling. His behaviour kickstarted her old wave of concern as the briefing continued into every moment.

"As you can see, several of our facilities are in an emergency mode. We are working tirelessly to get up and running to leave the ridge of the Ushavex nebula. Until then, we must stay to the standard protocol." His beaded pupils swept to Neo, who neared his desk more. "Teimea, you can have the stage to explain central command's direction moving forward." He pointed with his snout, who barely acknowledged the call of his name — if he even processed it. Everyone fell silent and stared at him, and Neo snapped his head up to drop his pen against the datascroll.

"Oh! Apologies!" Unfazed by what she'd find a mortifying moment, he drew himself out of his chair to adjust his lab coat with a small, excited hop on his knees. Admiral Mythrai stepped off the podium to allow Neo his time on the stage. "As Admiral Mythrai said, we need to acknowledge the situation we have on our hands," he said, methodical and in a cascade of words. "We've been dragged into the nebula around the time the droids picked up a couple of anomalies during the collection sweep — to note, the fact that the nebula had some sort of gravitational force to pull us in has raised a couple of questions for central command." He tapped on the datascroll, and a slide of the main anomaly overtook the projection. "You'll note the hieroglyphs. I believe these are some sort of ancient Xelnod." His attention drew to Izerva, who tipped their head.

Neo hesitated, then went on, "We are... unsure if this is what caused the failure of the one droid—"

"What did then?" Thuni pressed her own question.

Neo nodded and shuffled through his lab coat, but her heart pounded against her chest when he glanced at her. He tugged out a sealed beaker out of his lab coat, full of the crimson liquid splattered across Thuni's droids and deep in his exhaust ports. It never shook with the movement, still and dead. He placed it on the holder in the podium, and it reflected onto all their screens.

I never got a good, close look at it, but now that I see it in the light...

"Teimea, this looks like blood," Thuni murmured.

"Ah, yes, I know the similarity, but you'll note it hasn't coagulated," Neo said with a smile. "It... It isn't blood. At least, not quite."

Thuni's brow escaped into his hairline. "Not quite, he says." He pressed his thumbs into his forehead. "What do you mean, not quite that? Did you lick it or something?"

Neo jolted. "What? No! It's basic safety to not put strange liquids in your mouth until you know what they are, and what they're capable of."

Nova tapped her cheek, catching his attention on her in a quick instant. His smile switched into sheepish guilt. He cleared his throat and broke back into the scientist. "No. We conducted some preliminary tests. It rusts metal at fast speeds and has no discernable smell." His fingers tangled in the air of thought, and he nodded to press back to the anomaly slide. "This anomaly broke all known records for Class Z averages. Due to this, we've placed it under our heaviest containment. It appeared to draw power from this liquid." He breathed in deep, and released it with a soft exhale she swore echoed across space and time. "Central command has three solid theories as to what this could be."

"And what are those?" Thuni grunted.

"A chrysalis, an egg..." He fiddled with the pointer to roll it between his fingers to snap it between long mode and short mode and shuffled on the heel of his feet — the same behaviour he took when he found himself caught with his hands where they didn't belong; like cookie jars or on spheres of no discernable origin. "Or, a slightly more escalating theory but for any lack of proof on the contrary." Stars filled the grey nebula when he lifted his head with a widening smile. "A heart."

"Okay..." Thuni rolled his wrist. "Heart to what?"

"Ah, that we don't know."

Thuni lounged into the back of his chair until it tipped to follow the weight he put on it.

"What we do understand," Neo went on, ignoring Thuni's disbelief. "It doesn't match the data of your usual lifeform anomalies. It pulsates too much. If we go off the basis that the primary containment acts as a chrysalis... something's in there, with a heartbeat."

It sounded like music...

"So..." Neo drew out and clicked the pointer closed. "It is alive, for certain. We have lockdown procedures in place on the off chance it releases pulses of energy further than its containment."

Thuni considered Neo, then eyed Admiral Mythrai. "May I take a look at what remains of my droid, Admiral?"

"You'll be cleared and good to go after the briefing," Admiral Mythrai replied. "As Researcher Teimea said, we have yet to figure out the full extent of the anomalies' liquid properties or the effect it may have on lifeforms."

"I understand."

Neo pocketed the sealed beaker. "We've estimated to be several star units inside the nebula's boundary. Once our facilities are up and running at full power, we shall jump to the nearest exo-planet on our sensors."

Another distant alarm signalled the change in shifts. Nova gathered her datascroll and infodrives, but frowned at the nagging sensation in her temple. As she waited at the door for Neo, she allowed Thuni to pass with Ulin, but she frowned when Neo raced for her, leaving his Codex behind once more on his desk. Her point drove him back to it with a layered scoff of frustration. Codex tucked in his arms, she pressed, "Was a heart your theory, Neo?"

"Yes, what you told me raised some questions for me, so... I put it forward."

Nova frowned, but the nagging feeling never left her brain. "I'm surprised they considered it — and also surprised you brought it up at all." She frowned when Neo tugged her into a quieter corner. "What?"

"I think it has something to do with the D.S Butterfly," he whispered.

Nova tipped to make sure no one listened in on what Neo decided to be a private conversation. "What, do they think it's a coincidence?"

Neo lowered his head. "Hard to say. They're dead focused on finding more and following the last transmission — not that we can get ourselves out of its unknown gravitational pull. So, we're going to keep moving through it to follow the Butterfly's trail." His fingers tangled together with an uncomfortable shift. "I hope they go with my suggestion to allow Izerva to take a peek at the writing on the chrysalis."

Nova frowned at his doubt writ plain on his crinkled brow. "Maybe this is where our galaxy ends? Have you considered that?"

"Yes."

"And?"

"Our galaxy can't—isn't the only one in the universe." Neo jolted when his datascroll shone and beeped on his hip, and he clicked it open. "I have to head to the medbay and confirm some readings after I get something to eat. Are you going to go with Thuni and Ulin to take a closer look at their droid?"

"I might as well..." It nagged and drove the teeth of lost memory onto her temple. "Neo... what did we do this morning?"

"Uh..." Neo frowned at her. "I talked to you about what I found in the Annex, did you forget already?"

Nova rubbed her temple. "I..." It drew along her tongue with a taste of rust and the bleeping alert of failing life. "I don't even remember going to bed, honestly... after what I saw in the morgue..." Her fingers dug into her own chest. "I guess I didn't get enough sleep."

Neo opened his mouth, but she jumped when Thuni called to her from the other end of the briefing corridor. "Nova, I'd like your help on this! I have the security feed focused on the droid hanger."

Nova sent her hand into Neo's chest when he raised his. "Remind me later what you found," she insisted before running out to catch up with Thuni and Ulin before they boarded the tram station without her. "Let's go take a look at this thing and figure out what the stars happened."

Thuni remained quiet on the journey to the flight terminals in the southern sector. The AI chirped out directions off the tram station, where a few soldiers stood in the corner to talk to their partners on duty. Into the bay where the droids sat for further maintenance. Her droid was unaffected by what happened around it. Thuni's droid given no mercy to whatever occurred in the sweep, left in a slobbered mess on its launch pad, but no more liquid dripped through the vent ports.

"You know, I'm really starting to consider it flew into the belly of a space whale," Thuni said after a minute of silence, then passed through the caution projections to head to his terminal. "I want to take a look at this feed... considering I couldn't get a close look at anything when it actually happened." A breath escaped his lips, and he slipped it into the terminal.

Nova turned to Ulin. "If you open up the lower core panels I can help salvage your modules."

"Ah, most of the modules I can remake, but there is one I want saved." Ulin headed to a toolbox beside the droid to tug out a thermotorch, sliding on a protective mask. "I was able to get a response from the droid core itself, so I don't think that stuff reached it or damaged it."

Nova went to join Ulin on the lower level underneath the droid, but stopped with one foot on the tiny lift when Thuni rasped, afraid, "Nova, Ulin? Can you come here for a moment?"

Caution filled her feet when she rejoined Thuni, who pointed a shaking hand at the security feed. It replayed in slow motion as their two droids crashed into the bay. It glitched the camera feed, but Thuni continued to give it an intense staredown. Her heart pounded at the spray of damage, catching an unfortunate engineer and pinning them against the wall in a splatter of blood. It burned into her mind with Neo's too pale lips. A horrid confirmation of what she feared.

Until Thuni rolled back the feed.

Both the droids slid into the bay and sent a spark of energy through the feed. Congealed liquid launched out of Thuni's vent port with a serrated edge, leaving a splattered mark on the ground when it smacked against it. In the moment of time when the engineer found themselves caught in fatal dissonance.

Again.

Nova leaned closer through the glitch in space.

Again.

No. No, that wasn't a spray of liquid.

Her throat closed in terror.

Something was in the port and the landing launched it into...

Another playback.

Into the engineer. It— Rust tangled across her tongue when it crashed into the engineer and tore through their chest. It skittered into the vents of the space station and disappeared, leaving only the commotion and alarm of all others who avoided near death.

"Thuni, are we the only ones with access right now?" Nova questioned.

"Yeah."

Nova studied the repetition of time before unhooking her sensor. "Turn the lights off in this part of the bay."

Ulin headed to the control panel and tapped in a command prompt.

Lights flickered, and doused them in red darkness.

Illuminated by the droid terminal, she raised her sensor.

Crimson splattered the air and thickened against the droid, painting it blood-red. On the trail of desolation, she followed the path of the spray where it reached the fatal spot Neo tried to tell her was not her doing. It sucked into the vents, twisting and curling in bright blue spots. Higher, and her heart stopped when it pulsed inside the vent itself, refusing to shed a light on the metallic panel. Into the abyss, her heart pounded when a tiny jaw grew into a black hole to reveal a gaping void of red teeth.

The lights flickered back to life with her blink.

Ooze dripped out of the vent, but her light struck the metal.

She swore someone grabbed her hand.

Nova twisted around, but Thuni and Ulin remained at the terminal.

Her hands shook with the pressure, but she hooked her sensor back on her belt with a soft breath. "I'll help you unhook the modules," she forced out. "And tell the center command what we saw on the feed."

It echoed with a dissonant heartbeat when the crimson layer disappeared with the light. The ghostly pressure released her, but the jaw revealed a black hole.

I have to tell Neo the droids brought back more than his 'heart'.

The station is compromised. We're not alone.