Butterfly wings fluttered on a starlit trail. Music, slow and gentle, followed the rhythm of the flight. Each wingbeat spread the nebulous rainbow cloud deeper into the void.

It shook the universe to its core.

Nova lifted herself out of her covers at a sharp beep from the small terminal station outside their room. It fell quiet with the dim red colour spreading underneath the door. Lead weighed down her legs when she kicked off the blankets to drag herself out of her sleep. Ugh... Nova swiped through the schedule on her wall — in the middle of a rest shift, she stood up. What is that noise...

In the other unit, Neo curled into his covers with his cheek pressed against the pillow. Starry clouds filled her view, and she shook them out with a groan and waddled out of the room to reach the terminals. On the edge of his desk, Neo's butterfly necklace, soaked in crimson from the terminal. Nova opened the offending tab to check on the status of her droid.

Anomaly detected within subspace perimeter... Nova typed her code to access the scanner, but flinched at the glitching graphs. What? Nova restarted the scanner, but it brought back the same garbled mess. What is this? It should be telling me about the class of anomaly. Nova left her desk to rush back inside their room, to get information from the one person with an education on anomalies.

"Neo," she hissed at the doorway.

He didn't stir.

Black Holes. Once he actually falls asleep nothing short of the universe ending will wake him back up. Nova pushed his shoulder. "Neo!"

Neo rolled over with bleary-eyed confusion. "Nova... what?"

"My droid's sending some sort of distress signal," she explained when Neo sat up. "It's picking up something. It's responding, but I don't know what's going on."

"Is it coming back?" Neo mused when she led him to her terminal.

"Uh..." Nova clicked through the tabs. "Yeah, but look at this." Back onto the anomaly scanner graphs, she waved at the screen and stuck an infodrive into the dock. "What do you make of that?"

"Interference, maybe?" Neo nuzzled into his sleeve and yawned. "Here, give me the infodrive and when my shift starts I'll get it to the research team." He held his hand out to her, and Nova placed it into his fingers, and he put it beside the necklace. "I'm going to try and get back to sleep now. You should do the same."

But what is happening to my droid, Neo? Her question never raised into a scream, but he wandered back into the room. He must be tired, though. I don't know why I thought he'd have more of an idea than I would... He's half-asleep. Extra infodrive in hand, she placed it into the docket to create her own copy of her droid's code in the event of an error before staring into the garbled mess her droid picked up. Long into the rest of the shift, it stared back at her. It crushed her bones, and she wrote down a note to leave Neo, to not forget the infodrive she gave him before sticking it over his necklace and trying to regain what little of her rest shift she had left to her.

Until it garbled the darkness behind her eyelids too.

It spat and twisted, and she drove her hands into her temples to flee the crimson underneath her door. It snaked across the floor and detached itself to grow into tendrils. It came closer and released puffs of nebulous clouds. Flattened against her bed, she wanted to scream, but something stole her voice into the vacuum of space. It loomed over her, and she shut her eyes and waited for the nightmare to end.

Someone's hand touched her shoulder. "Nova?"

It cracked.

Nova opened her eyes to see her schedule across from her. It released a little, happy chirp at the start of a new shift. Wake up. The time for everyone to get ready and go about their day. Anxious tension dug its claws into her heart, but she followed the urging of the voice. Neo loomed over her, fully dressed and ready for the day, while she laid in bed, fearful of the garble her droid gave her, but smiled. "Are you alright?"

"Neo?"

"I believe that is me."

Nova sat up and rubbed the side of her head. "Nightmare. Probably just... stress."

He nodded. "I got your note, by the way, I won't forget," he said then showed her said note, along with the infodrive. "I'm going to head out now. I'll let you know if they can decipher anything — and maybe the droids will come back and explain more while I'm gone. What are you doing for today?"

Nova tugged her schedule off the wall and swiped through it. "Just on call for this shift, I'm sure Thuni will contact me if he needs anything." Flat against her bed, she relaxed her body when Neo tucked the infodrive into the pocket of his coat. "Let me know, okay?"

"You'll be the first one I tell." He squeezed her shoulder. "I'll try to make sense of this." He went to let go, but her heart hammered at the dread stirring her stomach, and she grabbed his forearm.

"I stayed up to try and figure out that code," she whispered when Neo returned to her side. "There is something wrong with my droid, Neo. It wouldn't behave like that unless it was something major." Her fingers dug into his knuckles, but he gave no reaction to her grip. "I know I'm not an anomaly scientist, but something isn't right — it wouldn't even state the class."

Neo tipped his head. "Maybe it's possible my anomaly scanner needed a stronger buffer? I had to come up with something quick for Ulin. I could've made a mistake."

Human error. Often the problem.

Nova freed Neo from her vicegrip when her heartbeat stopped beating against her chest, closed behind a trapped door. "Yeah. Sorry, I'm just getting in my own head."

"I'll come back when I've figured some stuff out," he said, then left the room behind.

A door hissed closed, and she fell back into her pillow. What even is there to figure out? I'm just getting myself worked up because I can't decipher something my droid picked up. That's all. I'm just tired. Tired and stressed from the launch preparations. Hands against her stomach, she stretched out her legs and pressed her feet against the wall. Each tick brought her closer to a restless slumber. Tick. Tick. Tick. It echoed throughout the space station, through the metal carapace of their safety between them and the vacuum of unknown. It went back and forth between her temples.

Into a scream and a lurch of the eastern quadrant.

Nova lunged upwards at the bleeding red underneath the door and the alarms sending a warning through the facility. Out of bed, she scrambled outside, but when she tried to open her door, it flashed a lock signal.

"Warning! Lockdown Level B Initiated!" the PA system called out in a robotic flow. "Please remain in your rooms until the situation is assessed and subdued! Repeat: Lockdown Level B Initiated! Remain in your rooms!"

Nova slammed her fist against the door and opened up her communication window. Her fingers found Neo's name, but it rang only once before being cut off. Her hands trembled when she tried to call him, but the alarms spun into a quieter, dulcet tone. It chirped in her ear while she paced with the wave of sounds. Quicker footsteps stomped past their corridor, barking out orders which fled in the direction of the central tram station. What happened? Nova let go of her communicator to stand in front of her door, trapped on the other side.

Where is Neo? Why isn't he answering?

Nova sat down in her chair when the alarms continued, only lifting her head from her locked terminal when heavier footsteps walked through the corridor full of the interns living spaces, along with lighter, uncertain ones.

"Eastern Hall I clear," a voice said. "Returning to East Security once we've confirmed everything is usual here." A comm clicked, and the footsteps stopped to the right of her door.

"What the fuck happened?" the soldier's companion asked.

"How should I know?" the guard asked. "Everything's quiet over here. Admiral Mythrai didn't have much details for us. Apparently there was some sort of reaction within the central laboratories, what with those anomalies... Hold on, getting some chatter in the network." His voice died down when another chirp echoed through the corridor, and Nova crept closer to listen in, to find out the truth.

Something happened at central command? Her heart lifted into her throat and pushed her blood to her ears.

"Well?" the second guard pushed. "What's going on?"

Nova pressed her ear against the door, and an uncomfy shuffle sounded to her right.

"Someone's dead."

Her hand slipped off the door.

"What? Where? How?" Questions leaped out of their companions' throats and entered her mind.

Who? Who?

"I don't know. Let's hurry back to eastern security and send out a confirmation broadcast," the guard bit. "All I could get was that there was some... unforeseen 'accident'." She heard the air quotes on their fingers, but they scoffed. "You can never know with anomalies. Maybe one of the scientists prodded something they shouldn't have? Stars, it's not like it's that uncommon. Let's figure out what's going on so we can call off this lockdown. We need to wait for Admiral Mythrai's next directive... damn researchers..." He stomped along, with the other hesitating on the edge, before disappearing down the corridor as well.

Who was it?

Her finger slammed against Neo's contact line. Neo, come on. Her nightmare loomed on the edge of her view while she paced and fought through space when time gave her no quarter. Keys punched, she tried to open up into her droid's archives, but it glitched and spat white noise at her. Her chair clattered to the ground when she sped out of it, timing her steps to the beeps of the space station in the silence without words. Her heart slammed against her chest. Her knees locked up.

And all she could do was freeze.

Bile swirled in her chest when the ticking subsided and the alarms dissipated one by one with no further news. Fists connected, she tried to move, but found herself sucked into the black hole of her room, empty of another presence.

Don't freak out, Nova. Those guards didn't seem to have a clue on what was going on either... Her breath locked in her lungs, but she forced through the pain. That's it. Once again, getting too in my head over things.

A different pair of harried footsteps came closer to their door.

That's it.

Nova expected to turn and see a soldier when the door slid open with the insertion of someone's card, but she jolted when Neo stood in the light, with a heavy codex underneath his arms. Without another word, he scurried past her to place it on the desk.

"Neo?" she asked when he rifled through it. "Hello?" He jolted when Nova grabbed him and tugged him from his work before he went into his own black hole. "Hey! Where were you?"

"I was... at the central annex," he mumbled. "Like... I told you... at the start of the shift." He raised an eyebrow at her.

An urge to strangle him overcame her, but she bit on her tongue. "And... you didn't notice the fact that the entire space station is on lockdown?"

Neo blinked twice, then switched to the door when it closed. "So that's what Izerva was talking about when they came to check on me," he mumbled in thought, apparently unperturbed by the commotion. "Sorry, I didn't notice, they just told me to stay where I was until they came back. I was too engrossed in some old research of Mx. Orili, anyway. Temporal based anomalies, that sort of thing." He went to dive back into it, but Nova gave him a push away from it. "What? What's wrong?" He went quiet. "Why are you looking at me like that?"

"What happened in central command?" she demanded.

"I... I don't know?" He went wide-eyed.

"You didn't look?"

"No."

"Neo."

"I don't know what happened," Neo said, his voice firmer. "Nova, what are you going on about?" His gaze followed her when she returned to her anxious circuit. "I mean — okay, I might've heard the alarms but I thought those were the droids coming back. It sounded like the alert."

"I would know if it was the droids," Nova snapped, causing Neo to take a small step back. "Neo, apparently someone's dead! I heard them talking about it outside! They thought it was in central command." Her fingers trembled when she grabbed onto Neo's forearms, who frowned at her. "Stars, Neo, everyone knows the dangers of working with anomalies and I just—" The alarms in her own head fell quiet, and she brought her hands to her temples. "I'm a mess. I just haven't had enough sleep and I miss home already."

"Someone's dead?" he mused.

"That's what they were saying."

Neo's expression folded into one of thought. "Well... It wasn't in central command."

"Are you sure? This side of the space station lurched, Neo," Nova said.

He rubbed his fingers in front of his chin. "I know I have a tendency to forget what's around me, but if it was an anomaly overreaction in central command, I would at least lift my head." He tipped his head to the window, where the nebula weaved through the void of space. "I didn't feel any lurching."

"You didn't?"

"Nope."

Her tension eased out of her shoulders, but the question remained. "Someone's dead," she repeated. "Is that true?"

Neo opened his mouth, but heavier footsteps made a return. Tools clacked against each other, and she jumped when someone's fist knocked on their door. "Spacyn," Thuni said.

Nova glanced at Neo, then answered the door. "Thuni?" she asked, but frowned at the ashen pallor on his cheeks. "What's going on?"

He folded his lips then said, "I had to come alert you before they sent out the alert. The droids came back... with something." His shoulders shuddered, and he took a step back to allow her out of the hallway, and when her voice failed her, it was Neo who spoke.

"What was it? And what happened?" Neo questioned, always.

Thuni glazed at Neo, then frowned. "Well... uh, we don't know." He rubbed the back of his head, then flinched at her. "But, I came to tell you because something went wrong during the arrival sequence and..." He breathed out a huff. "Once they call off the lockdown in south command, the admiral wants to talk to you."

Her heart fell at his avoidance. "What happened in the south?"

Thuni paled further. "It'll get explained to you. Just—There was an accident in the Droid Facility Bay. Your droid is fine, but that's all I'm allowed to say for now." He threw his hand out. "Ulin or I will be back in contact with you soon."

The bile returned to the edge of her lips when Thuni shuffled off, avoiding both their eyes. Her hand found Neo's forearm to steady herself.

"Nova?" Neo asked.

"An accident," she rasped and tightened her grip.

Thuni said something went wrong with the arrival sequence, and they were talking about someone being dead... Nova crept back into the room to escape the red light, with Neo following her in slow motion when her back hit the desk.

Her terminal never gave her any truth.

"The data?" she asked when he gripped her shoulder, a steady, constant support.

"I gave it to them."

I just want the truth. Where did I go wrong? Was it me? Was it my droid?

Is someone really dead?