Love is Weak

Chapter 36 - Razor's Edge

Lillian

"How?" Keith asked.

And then he seemed to realise that I knew something.

"And you knew?" He asked angrily, "How could you not tell me?"

"I only knew she had a son, and she wanted us to meet," I said. "I didn't know it was you!"

And then he went on his rant of questions.

"How did you get to earth? H-how did you meet my dad? How are you so sure?"

"I'm sure," Krolia said calmly. "This isn't how I hoped to meet you again, and this isn't how I wanted to tell you, but it's the truth. We can talk about this later."

"What?" Keith and I both shouted.

"You drop a bomb like this and tell me you'll explain later?" Keith protested.

"We've got more important things to deal with right now," she said.

She was right. Protocol forbade us from having any emotional interaction. And we were still in the middle of a mission.

"Fine," Keith said quietly after a moment's hesitation.

"We are going after the enriched quintessence that created Ranveig's super weapon," Krolia said.

"What?" I asked. "We've been searching for that same quintessence for a long time."

Krolia proceeded to tell us about the special substance. "I was with Ranveig when an unmarked cargo ship passed into his region. When we checked it out, there was no crew aboard. The ship had been nearly torn to pieces, and inside, only a single vat of quintessence remained. It was unlike any other quintessence we'd seen."

"We're there navigation records aboard?" Keith asked, the soldier in him coming out more as he let his emotions be buried for the moment.

"No, but I analysed the ship personally," Krolia said.

Of course, she did.

"The radiation signature indicated it had passed through the quantum abyss," she said.

I gasped. "You can't be serious."

Keith glanced at me. "Quantum abyss? What's that?"

"It's a part of the galaxy where dense neutron stars orbit even larger, dark stars. In the quantum abyss, planets and other celestial bodies are being pulled and torn in different directions. It's a chaotic, ever-changing environment," I explained. I pulled up a diagram of it to show Keith.

"And the presence of such massive objects has unusual effects on gravitational waves and space-time itself," Krolia added.

"And that's where we're heading?" Keith asked with a tone of impending doom.

"Yes," Krolia said.

Keith took the pilot's seat, and Korlia and I stood behind him, watching and waiting as he flew.

"I think we're here," Keith said almost an hour later.

"Bring us in," I said.

"Stay alert," Krolia added, a bit of maternal instinct taking over.

Keith flew in a bit before he questioned the order. The stretching of celestial bodies made it look dangerous and intimidating.

"Are you sure we should go in there?" Keith asked.

"Ranveig sent probes in here trying to track the quintessence," Krolia said. "The probes picked up a path that was relatively unaffected by space-time."