Another Life (Oc x reader)

Chapter 31 - Sasha Wants Answers

Erik walk into the Artifact. The door closes behind him and he loses signal with the others. He shouts a greeting to the aliens, but can't see anything until Sasha suddenly appears before him. Sasha just turns around and starts walking. Erik follows, then he is suddenly wearing casual clothing and standing in a classroom. He then sees that there's a math problem on the board.

Hearing a voice, he turns and sees Niko. Erik stares up at his dead wife. She asks him how many nights he's spent working on the math problem on the board. Niko starts telling him things about them.

"Come, sit." She tells him and he walks over and takes a seat beside her.

"Wow, right down to her perfume." She inhales her scent. "How do you know what perfume she used to wear? It's almost perfect, except her skin doesn't warm the scent the way Niko's did. How are you doing this? No, why are you doing this? Why are you conjuring up my dead wife?"

"You have nothing to worry about." Niko tells him.

"I saw Sasha. Does that mean you have him? Ethan? Are they safe?"

"As safe as they can be."

Erik sighs in relief. "Alive?"

"Yes." She takes his hand. "Come on. I won't bite."

She brings him back to the board with the math problem.

"The Yang-Mills existence and mass gap problem. You never solved it."

"No one ever solved that one. No, human anyway.. What do you want?

She frowns at him. "To make sure that you are happy. You and Jana."

"I'm not asking my wife. I'm asking you. The 'you' creating this for all of my benefit. All I want is to talk to you, to understand what you want. To help."

"That's all you want?"

"Yes."

"All the answers you need are right in front of you." She pulls his hand in and puts them on her now pregnant belly.

He bends down and look at it with a loving expression. She picks up a chalk.

"You're gonna love this."

He looks at the board. "It's impossible."

"Nothings impossible."

He starts writing on the board. "What the.. How am I doing.. How are you doing it? I'm doing it. I'm solving quantum gauge theory in four-dimensional space time. Wow."

"Daddy?"

"Just a minute."

"Daddy?"

"Just a second. Honey, I am this close." He then turns and sees Jana's sad expression. "Hey, hey. You wanna help? You know me. Cause I could use that big brain of yours. How about I write some math problems for you right over here, okay?"

He turns but then sees the math problem on the board is erased. Then he hears running footsteps, and see Jana running out.

"Jana?" He runs after her.

Suddenly he is outside the artefact again, in his hazmat suit. He stumbles in dizziness and then falls unconscious.

...

You put down a cup to Ethan, and sit down beside him at the table in the mess hall.

"How long is he gonna be like this?" Ethan asks you.

"Ethan.. I know you're worried.. but you can't force this. Jason will work through it.. or not.. but grief takes its own path."

Sasha walks in. "A word?"

You look at Ethan and he nods, so you stand up and leave so they can speak.

"I need you to be open. I need you to tell me everything that happens when we reach Canis Majoris."

"You've been breached, Sasha."

"Everything, Ethan."

"You don't have security clearance-"

"Bullshit." He says and Ethan glares at him. "I'm supposed to go down to a planet and talk to those aliens how? How do I do that if I have no clue what happens if I fail?"

"Who.. do you think you are?" He grits out.

"Excuse me?"

"Do you think I care about what you do down there? I didn't want you on this mission, Sasha. You are a liability. The only reason you are here is because your daddy pulled so many strings that everybody said yes just to get him to shut up. You are arrogant, entitled, lazy. And let me tell you something. A far better crew member died the other day, and if I could go back and trade her for you, I would. We don't have a replacement for you.. because we don't need you. Stay in your lane. Don't you dare ask me again."

Sasha just looks at him.

"You're dismissed." He tells him and he walks away.

...

Erik wants to tell Jana he is okay and is told that she's waiting outside. Egan asks if Erik saw Sasha. He says that Sasha led him in, but not the real version of himself, that they used his memory to talk to him. He tells him the aliens are a lot more advanced than they are.

Erik says that the aliens are just as curious as they are, saying that they even offered to tell him everything he had ever wanted to know, but he had chosen his daughter instead.

Outside, Jana greets Erik, apologizing for getting mad. Erik tells her that the aliens told him that Ethan is okay.

...

Egan prepares to go inside the Artifact with a military team. Harper finds him and point out that the president hasn't agreed to this. She asks to be suited up, threatening to paint him cowardly in the story, getting her what she wants.

Singh approaches Erik and tells him what Egan is gonna do. He tells Jana to stay with her nanny and goes to talk him out of it. Jana tricks Mila into getting her a charger and sneaks away to follow him.

...

Sasha approaches Javier and tells him people are hiding stuff from them. Javier tells him that he investigated before leaving and tells him that there is something called Operation Brimstone.

It includes the bubble that form around the ship when it's gonna fly faster than light. They can aim that energy into a beam and blow up an entire planet if the aliens were hostile. Sasha asks if that came from the president and Javier tells him that the instruction also came from his father. Sasha asks if Javier can turn William off, but that makes Javier suspicious so he says he needs to get back to work.

Sasha pins Javier to the ground, ordering him to tell him how to turn William off. So that he can destroy the ship. His eyes turned white. Two needles comes out of Sasha's eyes and goes into Javier's.

...

Egan is about to go inside the Artifact, but as he approaches it, he sees Sasha inside, drilling into Javier's eyes. He calls for his son, and Sasha turns to him. The Artifact starts to turn black.

Erik approaches from behind, not knowing Jana is following him. Then a huge soundwave knocks everybody to the ground. Egan gets up looking at his son and is then blasted once again by Sasha.

Erik gets up and see Harper gets dragged into the Artifact, calling for him, then the door close behind her. Mila finds Jana on the ground and calls for Erik. When Erik turns around, he sees Jana. He runs to her and picks her up and starts calling for help.

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