Butterflies of the Dark Star

25 (REVISED)

It was focused on Neo, I'm sure of it — but why was it not before? It also... It looked different — no, it was separate. Ugh... Nova scratched her temples as she rushed through the maintenance tunnel underneath the transits. Her steel-toed boots echoed along the route and the atmospheric pressure lifted off her brow. It took too long for her to reach the ladder, lifting the hatch open to sit herself on the ground, closing it behind her before stumbling out of the door into the transit station.

Thuni and Ulin stood by the holomap, and Neo paced a giant circuit with a wild look in his eye as he tapped his fingers together in one drumming motion, rubbing them in between his shaky breaths. Ulin reached over to poke him, then pointed at her. Nova moved for them, but jolted when Neo sped to her first.

"What was that?" he demanded.

"I don't know what that was, but I think—"

"No, not that." Neo waved his hands at her before throwing them to the side to indicate the transit. "Why didn't you get on the transit? Why did you send us ahead? My readings indicated that the thing had some sort of relation to the anomaly — and was clearly in an agitated state. What if something happened?" Neo vibrated on his heels with a furrowed brow. Nova frowned when he returned to his pacing and fumbled for his datascroll. "I'm going to need to compare the readings I managed to get. This proves it is a life form... I'm going to need to get this to the central lab and describe its behaviour and see if the main anomaly responded around the same timeframe as what happened in the Droid Bay Facility." He walked in an automotive state around the holomap, in constant circles. He gave a small twisting shake of his wrists before glaring at her.

"Neo, I—"

"I just need to figure this out," he chattered at nothing, and Thuni stepped out of his way when he made another circuit. "If we're dealing with this level of breach with an agitated anomaly there might be trouble."

"Neo."

"What were you thinking?" He investigated her. "What overtook you? You've told me time and time again to be cautious when it comes to anomalies, but then you just throw me on the transit and the last thing I see is... well, nothing. I saw nothing." He bounced on his knees. "But can I quantify a formless thing as a lifeform — is it some sort of hivemind? It would explain the gaseous clouds."

"Oh, stars he can't stop," Thuni said and rubbed his nose. "I don't think you have room to pry at her, Teimea. You're the one who stood there when it appeared to want to take a real big chomp out of you just like it had done to my droid — if that was the thing that did it." He leaned forward. "Is that what happened to it? Since when do black holes have teeth?"

"I was standing still for a very good reason," Neo pointed out.

Nova held his shaking forearm. "I'm sorry, okay? I just thought I could... figure something out."

"What was it were you hoping to figure out? What were you hypothesising?"

Nova tried to find the words, but each one failed her. "I just... it just left."

"It just left after you sent us ahead," Neo repeated with a flat voice.

"Yeah."

He inhaled a deep breath and brought his fingers closer to the tip of his nose. "Okay. Fine. Acceptable," he said several synonyms at once. "Also, you avoided my question." He closed his datascroll with a click and shoved it back into his labcoat. "Interesting..." He returned to his automotive circuit around the holoboard. "If its focus is solely on reuniting with the anomaly, it wouldn't be too much of a reach to assume..." He mumbled under his breath and tapped his fingers together.