Butterflies of the Dark Star

32 (REVISED)

Fuck...

Acidic slaver stifled her taste buds and filled it with nothing but the intense burn of failure. Out of the washing room, she tumbled to the opening out of the broken lies. "Hello?" she rasped, and space screamed in answer. Red alarms whisked across the walls to spread deeper into the dark ground floor of the medical tower, scarred with devastation.

I have to get out. I have to get out now. Its voice haunted her steps as she slipped into the shadows. It continued to taunt her and chased her to the end of the universe.

Flames hushed. Metal groaned. Nova ran through the corridors which led into the consultation offices. Her eyes refused to adjust to the dim lighting left. Crimson liquid splattered across the terminal screens and over the tables. Unable to do anything for the people caught in her wake, she scrambled around to find her box of belongings. Belt clasped around her waist, she grabbed what she could before hooking her compearl around her ear to open the menu. Every connection died.

Did... central comms go down?

The station called out a familiar warning, "LOCKDOWN Z INITIATED. ANOMALOUS THREAT ACTIVE AND DANGEROUS. DO NOT ENGAGE."

Do not engage? That's new.

Nova checked the tools on her belt, then nodded. Thuni mentioned Ulin thought the core wasn't affected by whatever the anomaly did to the droid. I wonder if I have time to go grab it myself... or... should I try and find Neo? I can use my terminal in the bay to see for myself, but I risk losing time I don't have. Blood soaked the facility of misguided concern. Death permeated the air, but the smell of bile filled her nose to push out any other sense.

Too many choices; small and big. Each one weighed on her spine, but she had to make a choice. Head straight for the hangar after grabbing a couple things from our room... or try and save Neo from whatever trouble followed him — constant in every loop, no matter what I do.

Nova ran out of the medical tower attached to the eastern section of the station. Shutters closed off the creeping nebula, who clouded the truth and paved their path to an unseen black hole. Music rang out through the corridors, off-key. Her breath steadied with the station's heartbeat, and she pushed herself to her destination.

In the dorm halls, she slipped into her and Neo's room, left in the dark except for the shine of their terminals. Nova swung a small capsule underneath the sink to swill water over her burning tongue as she double-checked the status of the communications.

Ulin and Thuni wavered.

Izerva held on.

Neo fluttered out of existence.

Nova opened her terminal and listened to the rumble in her bones, the signal to the creature's endless approach. She switched to Neo's, where several tabs sprung open from his previous reports on the anomaly. I just need a sample of the datastream in the substance. Agitation flattened her jaw as she attempted to rifle through Neo's brain on a hard drive. Fuck, Neo, do you need this many tabs open?

Humongous walls of text answered her when she opened each one, but she skimmed through the words to find the action. I just need a playback of the sequence. See if it matches their core.

Nova reached the end of the text wall and Neo's added research notes, but frowned at the final passage he left.

'Glitches with attempted playback. Live feed necessary for comparison and accurate results.' Nova frowned at his written, thoughtful words. Live? Does he mean an actual recent sample? Nova fiddled with his desk cabinets to find the phial from the presentation, but she growled when she found nothing of the sort among the scattered mess inside them of papers, infodrives, and pens. Just my shitty luck.