Butterflies of the Dark Star

15 (REVISED)

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.