STELLARIUM(BOOK ONE)

Chapter 16: Power Surge

Aurora decided on returning to the Laboratory properly after the disappearance of the Astral Chimera. She decided it'll make more sense to dive deeper into the lives of the individuals formerly possessed by the strange creature. 

        She took their blood samples and scanned them, she noticed that all of them had a different blood cell count. It was higher than the usual human count. This means their thinking and mode of scientific reasoning had increased by at least forty per cent. That's insane! 

      She prints the results, she takes them to her monitor. She creates soft copies and she sends them to her phone. "Aurora?" she lifted her face towards the voice in front of her. It's her not so secret admirer Doctor Gabriel Stardust, "Aurora I bought you something."

       She grinned at his gift hiding her hands behind the desk, she replied, "thank you Gabriel, this looks beautiful from the outside…I mean the box, it's lovely." She stared at him silently. She said, "what about your wife? Did you get her anything?" 

      He replied, "Uh… no not really, she's independent. You know she can get her own stuff and do her own things the way she wants, I mean why would I bother myself about Maya. She never lets me do anything for her, she doesn't submit to me, she's just a perfect illustration of a man in a woman's body. I just can't, I don't get it at times." He paused and continued, "I know I shouldn't be telling you this but you always feel like a safe space for me. Aurora I just want us to be close friends, you could call us buddies."

         Aurora stared at him for a while, she stretched her hand out to the package in front of her. She took the box out and she opened it, her eyes stare at the set of jewelry in the suede case. It's sapphire. The necklace, the earrings and bracelet. "This is alluring Gabriel, thank you." She got out of her seat and gave him a warm hug. 

       "I'm glad you love it, well enjoy yourself with it." 

      "Wait Gabriel, what would you like to get from me? What's your preference?"

       "Preference? Your kiss, your love, your attention, your hugs, your eyes. I could go on and on about Aurora and it still wouldn't be enough, I want you."

           "You can't have me and Mara, but anyway I'm sure I could make up something to get your supposed attention. I'll surprise your buds."

        "Food? That's strange. I want quality time with you, let's go out for dinner sometime. Just as colleagues if you want, what do you think?"

          "I don't think that's a good idea. I feel like we are rushing things. You should take it slow."
 
         "I want you to understand my boundaries the right way, I'll get you a gift and maybe later I'll think about this date idea you just brought up. Thank you."

       He leaned closer to her and dropped a warm kiss on her forehead. She stared as he walked away to his desk. She sat still, she closed the box, and dropped it back into the package. Of course, she had to keep it on the low, so she hid the package underneath her table. 

        Zephyr walked straight to her with his phone on his left ear, he answered his phone as he dropped the files on the table. He sat by her and dropped the phone after the call. 

         "Hey, are you good? We have a problem. I ran through some test results and I noticed the samples are not making sense."

          "Zephyr? I'm good and I got the same results too. I felt like you were bluffing when you said the loopholes gave powers. But guess what, I found a similar peculiar pattern in them. All victims had an increase in reasoning, thinking, and some psychological aspects of their lives. It looked like the creature left something behind."

          "If it did that then, it's still having connections to them. If that's possible then it's not safe. Have you checked on Elysium?"

         "Not really, she seemed fine when I left the house earlier. But you know what, I should head back to the igloo just in case."

          "I've got something to show you, it's the loophole. It's forming up, there's a slime on it. I took some of it for tests but I couldn't trace it properly. I'll need your help."

          "Alright then, let's go."

     Both of them walk steadily through the halls till they get to the wall. She asked, "did your dad see this? Did he see his experimental failure? My God, this is terrible!"

         "No it's not! This is good! He left a trail of the other world behind for us to figure it out. This could be a source of power, maybe a new life force for us. You could ask Galen too. He should know, I guess."

         A light bulb lit over her head, "I just got an idea, I'll take it back to the igloo, I'll test it before I give it to Galen. Earth X should have it under watch first. Bye Zephyr!"

         She ran out through the halls with a sample of the good slime in her glass jar, of course she didn't forget her gift. She took the files on her table and drove straight to the igloo. On getting there she saw Elysium sick and pale.

         She asked Mara, "What's going on? What happened to her?"

         "She said she wasn't feeling well, she turned really pale after forty minutes. I already ran some tests on her but she didn't lick up after treatment. We reached out to Galen but he didn't have an idea."

         She already dropped her documents and the jar on the table. Luna asked, "what is that?"

       She responded, "a sample of a slime I got from the loophole mark on the wall at the lab."

         She sends the jar of slime to Galen first.