Nyx (Complete✅)

Chapter 26

       

   Captain West sighed. He didn't want to release the two prisoners onto the ship, but it was no use keeping them in the brig. There was really nothing they could do on the ship, especially if they were closely monitored, so, with the consent of Officer Carter, Aaron Smith and Jacob Bridger were released.

   He'd been hoping to keep the affair quiet, and so far, no one had heard of the release, but that didn't mean things couldn't go sour.

   Caleb sifted through his inbox. As captain of the ship, he was constantly getting mail, ranging from complaints to invitations to birthday parties. As a result, he had to sort the messages. Most of them went into the junk section, and only a chosen few were actually important.

   When he was done sorting the mail, only one message was left in the "important" section. It was a message stating that the two prisoners had been successfully released and that the security implants were installed. He was glad that something was finally going as planned.

   The past few weeks, he'd been constantly improvising for situations that were supposed to be easy, but had turned out stressful and tedious.

   He logged off. It was late, and he had nothing urgent to attend to, so he decided to finally get some sleep.

   He brushed his teeth, but he didn't change into pajamas, because he had no idea if he would be needed in the middle of the night. But of course, he took off his heavy boots.

   Almost as soon as his head hit the pillow, he was asleep.

   ___________

   Beth stayed in her bed for a few minutes, still part-way in her dream. The alarm hadn't gone off, so there was no use in spoiling the last few minutes of sleep she could get.

   She shot into a sitting position when she remembered that there was an alien sleeping in her room. She looked around, but she couldn't find Kelbar anywhere.

   She leaned her top half off of the bed, and she glanced underneath, but he wasn't there either. Her heart beat faster at the thought that he could be loose on the ship. It would be hard to explain, and there was a chance that he could get hurt.

   She checked her messages to see if Liam had seen or replied to her message, but it still read "Unopened." She groaned. She didn't know where to begin looking, and she had to get to work.

   As if responding to her thoughts of work, the alarm rang, reminded her that she didn't have much time left to get to the PPW. She changed into work clothes, and then rushed into the bathroom to brush her hair, making plans to check for Kelbar on the way to work.

   She nearly screamed when she saw Kelbar standing in front of the mirror, touching it lightly with one finger.

   He turned around. "Good morning, Beth." He said, turning his gaze back to the mirror.

   "You scared me," Beth said, touching a hand to her racing heart. "I thought you had gone out of the room."

   "What is this?" Kelbar asked, once again touching the mirror.

   "It's called a mirror. It makes it so that you're able to see yourself." Beth replied.

   "Does that mean that water is a mirror as well?" Kelbar asked. "Because I can see myself in the lake back on Viscordia."

   "No. you can see your reflection in the water, but that doesn't mean it's a mirror," Beth stated, running her hands through her hair to get the tangles out.

   Kelbar nodded. "Where are you going?" he asked when he saw what she was doing.

   "I need to go to work." She said, giving up on brushing with her hands and grabbing a brush.

   "What do you do at work? Can I accompany you?" Kelbar asked, stepping away from the mirror.

   "I study for when we finally get to Ny- um... Viscordia." Beth replied. "And, no. I don't think you can come with me, because the other people who live on the ship don't know you're here, and they might freak out if they see an alien." She added.

   "Okay. What shall I do in your absence?" he asked. He sure had a lot of questions.

   "I don't know. Just try not to get into trouble." She said as she left the bathroom. Kelbar followed.

   "Okay. I will wait for you here." He stated, sitting on the floor under the window.

   Beth nodded. "See you later." She said as she palmed the door open. She jogged to make up lost time, and pretty soon, she reached the place where she and Liam usually met, and she was glad to see that he'd waited for her.

   "Hey, Beth," Liam said, jogging to meet her half-way.

   "Hey, Liam," Beth replied, still walking. Liam fell into step beside her.

   "Is you-know-who still in your room?" Liam asked, lowering his voice. His eyes were shining with excitement.

   Beth nodded. "We can see him on the way to lunch." She replied, realizing that Liam was very fascinated with Kelbar.

   "Does he have a name?" Liam asked. "Is it even a he?" he was oozing excitement.

   "Yes, he is a he, and his name is Kelbar," Beth told him, holding back a giggle. She waved at Liam as their paths diverged to the separate workstations.

   No one questioned her absence. She was glad of that, but just in case, she started fabricating a cover story, just in case someone asked. It was one of the first times she was grateful for the newly-crowded workstation. The more people there were, the less likely anyone was to notice if she was gone for a day or two.

   She quickly finished a test and was surprised to find that she was already at the part of her training that dealt with living creatures. She hadn't been expecting that for a while at least.

   She read the introduction and was once again surprised. The section didn't mention anything like Kelbar, or the strange whistling beast that had attacked them. It only talked about subterranean amphibians, a few small reptiles, and one or two species of aquatic animals. It was made even more confusing when there wasn't even any mention of abandoned villages like the one she had discovered. Plus the fact that she hadn't seen any wildlife except for Kelbar and the monster.

   She shrugged. It must have been a malfunction with the probe, or maybe the probe wasn't able to detect the monster and Kelbar.

   Whatever the reason, it wasn't that big of a deal. So what if the probe was missing a few details. She shrugged again as she started the section.
  _________

Ruth awoke to the stirring of someone beside her in bed, and it took her a couple minutes to remember that her husband was back.

   Trying not to wake Jacob, she got dressed. There was still work to do, but she wanted him to get some rest. She had no idea how little sleep he got whilst in his cell, so she didn't want to chance waking him.

   Succesful in not waking him, Ruth slipped out the door. She was glad that they'd gotten a room fairly close to the entrance to the secret lab. That way there was less of a walk, and therefore, less of a delay if they needed to get there quickly.

   She felt a slight blush creeping up her cheeks when she saw that she was the last one to the lab, other than her husband of course.

   "It's good to have you back Aaron." She said, nodding in his direction.

   "It's good to be back. Getting caught was such a waste of time." He replied, typing a string of code into the computer system.

   She was genuinely glad to have him back, even though he could be a pain sometimes, he knew what he was doing better than anyone else. He was probably the smartest in the group.

   She settled down in front of the monitor. Beth had left the room, but the person that had stayed the night was still there.

   Ruth wondered who it was.