Lunar Conspiracy

Two Steps Back

Tava slowly unwound the bandaging from around her head and took in a deep breath as she dropped it to one side, right eye still closed.  The skin around her eye was still so new it was pink, but Yggdrasil had done a fantastic job of avoiding giving her more scars.  In fact, he had reduced a couple of them.

She slowly opened her eye and winced at the strange sensation of having her full sight again.  Everything seemed brighter.  But, as she got used to it, she managed to get a good look in the mirror.

The new eye Kit had made was nothing short of perfect.  The color even matched her left eye well enough that one couldn't tell the difference unless they looked closely.  The pupil dilated and contracted to deal with light levels and it moved as it should.

She smiled as she settled her eyepatch over her eye, satisfied with her healing progress and unwilling to overwork herself by pushing things too fast.  Managing a smile at herself, she turned out of her bathroom and headed for the bridge.

Stepping onto the bridge, she took a look out the front shield in an effort to find the source of the uncomfortable silence.  She found the source and muttered in confusion as she took her seat.   "What the hell?"

In the pilot seat, Jornea slowly licked her lips, brows furrowed as she carefully steered Athena through the strange wisps and waves arching through empty space.

"They look like...strings? You ever seen anything like this before Jornea?"

Jornea glanced over her shoulder at Tava. Tava noted the slight jump of startled surprise before Jornea focused fully on her and then back out the front.  She wasn't sure what had caused the jump however.  The pilot shook her head as she dipped the nose under a pair of threads that connected.

"Seen? No. But a little birdy tells me..." She trailed off for a moment as she pulled up hard and banked sharply to avoid another intersection. The strands were growing thicker. Knotting here and there with growing frequency. "...that these are webs, and they were built by Phasers."

Kartk glanced at her, his fingers tightening around his guns and shoulders tense. "What are Phasers?"

Next to Kartk, Quorra answered.  "Phasers. They're creatures that live out of sync with our time and space. It's said that they look like great spiders, spinning webs that cross the dimensions. I always thought they were just stories."

Jornea shook her head. "Not a myth anymore are they?"

Kartk grit his teeth and his blue eyes started searching the strands, looking for anything to shoot. "Are they evil, good, indifferent, what?"

Tava's fingers tightened around her armrests when Quorra shook his head.  His tail curled a little tighter around the base of his seat and his wings folded tighter.  "I have no idea."

Jornea took in a deep breath and let it out slowly as she thread the ship through a tighter tangle of webs. "Well, let's not get caught and maybe we won't have to worry about it."

It soon became clear that it was easier said than done.  The longer they went, the more condensed the webs became.  Even Jornea's amazing piloting skills couldn't get Athena through spaces that were too small.

Tava bit her lip as Jornea came to a full stop, unable to move through without touching the webs. She craned her neck when motion caught her eye out of the top shield. But by the time she looked, nothing was there.

Jornea's squeak pulled her attention back forward and she stiffened. There, taking up most of the shield with it's eight foot girth, were the eight shining eyes of a hairy spider. It stared them down, great mandibles opening and closing. And just to drive home just how alien it was, they could hear the mandibles clicking through the vacuum of space.