"You are not in trouble, Miss Spacyn."

The urge to throw up grew behind her hand and lips when she covered her mouth to stifle it. Her knees turned into jelly while she sat in east security with Admiral Mythrai standing across from her. Cameras kept eyes on both inside and outside their section of the facility, revealing the giant space station which carried them to a harder truth. Izerva stood at rapt attention at the door leading into what amounted to nothing more than an interrogation room, called to discuss the situation with the Admiral himself, her heart burned in acid. And without Neo's stalwart presence, the pressure drove into her temples and burst her brain into bits.

"Horizol told me my droid was undamaged?" she forced out the question, but avoided the black hole gathering in her view. Admiral Mythrai turned to Izerva, whose muzzle twitched. "I heard... there was an accident in the bay." Ignored no longer, she scooted onto the edge of her chair and prepared for the life-ending leap. "Can you please tell me what occurred? I know you say I'm not in trouble, but..." Hand against her beating heart, she tried to crush it between her fingers.

Admiral Mythrai's scaled tail curled around his legs. "I shall divulge what I can to you, Miss Spacyn, but first..." He turned when Izerva's ears perked, and they opened the door to reveal Ulin, with a wrapped, oily bundle in his hands. "Mx. Fayzir, was there any trouble within the bay?"

"No, and I got what you requested." Ulin headed to her, then unwrapped the bundle to reveal the anomalatic buffer Neo gave him for her droid. Bubbles lodged into her throat at the bubbling crimson ooze slipping out of the cracked surface.

"An alarm went off at the droid's arrival — one indicating a major anomalous force," Admiral Mythrai explained when Ulin took a step back into the shadows. "Yes, it is true your droid is fine. I cannot say the same for Mr. Horizol's, nor the scout which has yet to return." He breathed through his long nose. "And yes, I'm afraid the rumours are true, though I am not quite clear on the details as I have yet to study the feed myself, there was an accident during the emergency procedure." At his words, Ulin's brow furrowed and they sank deeper against the wall. "We've interred the unfortunate in the medical tower's morgue on the basis of watching out for anomalous readings."

"Can... you tell me what happened to them?" Nova begged.

"We're not sure, exactly." Admiral Mythrai twitched his tail. "Mx. Fayzir? Are you comfortable talking about it? I know Mr. Horizol was less than willing. Anything which can shed light on the events."

Ulin nodded. "Of course," they remarked. "It happened fast. I got an indication in the control room of the droid's arrival, minus the scout. Both of them carried extreme readings for anomalies. Before I could even send out the alert to prep for the landing sequence, both droids slammed into the bay. Luckily, it didn't affect the outer hull. There was no breach, but... one of the engineers couldn't clear the area in time and was... struck." They gazed at her with a weak, uncertain smile. "Your buffer did its job. Thuni's droid wasn't so lucky." Their lips folded and they turned to Admiral Mythrai. "I can only hope they didn't suffer long. It was straight to the heart, but I think Thuni is taking it rather hard, Admiral, being the closest to them at the time."

Nova choked. "They were hit? By what?"

Ulin frowned at her. "I don't know. It might've been a broken part of one of the droids — it could've been whatever they're carrying."

Admiral Mythrai broke in, "It won't matter until I've seen the footage for myself to determine the cause and what exactly happened. Has the hazard team moved the anomaly into the lab and out of the way?"

"Last I looked."

Elbows on the edge of the table, she groaned into her hands, only to be dragged out of her own pit when Admiral Mythrai nodded at Izerva, whose ears flicked to the side. "They've cleaned the mess. I think it best if Spacyn saw the state of the droids for herself." He nodded at her. "As I said, you are not in trouble. Once you've viewed and confirmed the state of your droid, I recommend you take your ease and stick to the eastern sector until central command figures this mess out." At his words, Izerva raised their tail and opened the door, motioning at Nova to leave her chair and follow.

But do I want to see?

No, I have to.

I have to.

"I have to ask these questions," Neo said, where the bright-eyed curiosity fell into something near timeless.

Who will if I do not?

Nova drove her teeth into her lip as Ulin trailed behind with Izerva at the head of the pack. You would be asking so much — but I don't think I have the strength. I don't think I even want to know. It stained her throat with the screech of the distress signal in her ears, where Neo's footsteps fell in line with hers. What do I ask? Should I even ask? She chewed on her thumb for some sort of clarity, but all it gave her was an extra concern at the whispers filling the sterile corridors. Between station workers who knew little and less of what she did — to guards who stood at attention when Izerva passed, but with a heaviness to their brow.

Onto the tram, all alone.

Her knees gave out and her back hit the chair, but she kept a hold of what remained of her focus on the task at hand. Her droid. Thuni's droid. That's what I'll concentrate on. Just what happened. I won't... I won't think about the worst. I won't imagine it. Her fingers dug into her temples when the tram slowed to a stop with the robotic chirp of the AI, which no longer sounded so chipper in cold space. Neo can't help me here. Every one of the interns were kept within their dorms until more came forth, with only her as the centerpiece of the chaos that erupted in the droid facility. It came down to her. Her actions.

Her choices.

Her wing-beat in the universe.

Out of her support, Izerva and Ulin both flanked her to the droid facility, marked off by tape and several guards. Izerva raised their keycard, and they were waved through without difficulty.

Empty.

No engineers ran about for their work and repair. No one adjusted personal projects within the workshops beneath the control room. No one was in sight. Nova dragged herself closer to the scene of chaos. Her droid, immaculate with only a scratch on the exoskeleton. It sat there, acting innocent, but she frowned at the cracked glass and wayward metal slammed into the wall of the space station, where someone had cleaned an indeterminate puddle into a patch of the past. Her heart collided into a supernova as she rounded her droid, and Thuni's died in the light. Vomit went up to her nose at the burnt smell coming out of his exhaust ports. Goo dripped onto the ground, rusting, eating at the droid he painstakingly created.

"I... I don't get it," she whispered when Ulin closed their eyes. "They were brought in at the same time, weren't they? Was my buffer really what protected mine? I thought..."

"It's just my theory," Ulin replied.

Nova eyed the terminal at the familiar garbled mess on its screen, communicating something beyond her understanding. Hand against her lips to stifle the tide of acid, she mumbled, "Stars, I'm so sorry..."

Izerva shook their head and signed, "No, Engineer Nova. We only want your opinion."

My answer... but what knowledge do I have that they don't? I'm just...

Nova lowered her hand to examine the droids. "I'd... have to take a look on the inside when we're given the all clear to try and figure out if anything out of this is salvageable at all. Just because the outside looks fine doesn't mean the inside isn't breached," she whispered and faced the soldier and programmer. "Especially if it carried the anomaly from the nebula. I'm sorry that's all I have."

Izerva's whiskers twitched with a softened expression and another slight shake of their head. "That is enough. We will need to find out more from the study of the anomaly."

Nova took a step back from the droids, trying not to stumble and trip on her way. "Ulin, did you see it?"

They shook their head.

Stars... Nova raised her hand to her brow to push down her tears, and jumped when Izerva tapped her on the shoulder.

"You may go back to the east sector and rest," Izerva signed. "We will call upon you if we need further assistance on this matter."

It was an accident.

It taunted her with each step she took back to the one person who never believed in such a thing as a ghost. Irritation dripped from the bile lodged in her chest as she wedged her keycard into the door panel, and slipped back into their room.

An accident that still cost someone their life — because I miscalculated something with its landing sequence in emergencies. That's the only explanation. I messed up. Her back hit the door when it closed to catch her in the wave of nausea arriving with the tsunami of a migraine. Her knees buckled, and her ass hit the floor the moment Neo left their wall unit to no doubt investigate the commotion.

"Nova?" he asked and rushed to her. "What happened? What did they say?"

Always questioning.

"There was some sort of... mistake with the emergency landing sequence," she mumbled and rested her head on her knees before rubbing her eyelids free of the pressure behind them. "Someone's dead." She hit the back of her head off the door as Neo began a stuttered circuit around the room, with an expression of thought instead of despair for lost life. "I don't know what I did wrong."

"But you didn't do anything wrong," Neo said, raising an eyebrow. "I don't understand what makes you think you have." He stepped closer to her. "They said it was an accident, right?"

"Neo." Nova got up with her burst of anger. "Someone's dead. They're dead and it might be my fault. Stars, it probably is my fault." Her nails dug into her brow as she let out a groan and turned her back on him. "Fuck."

"I-I'm sorry, that wasn't how I meant to make that sound," Neo said, alarmed. "Nova, this isn't your fault. It was an accident." He came closer, but she drew out of his reach to do her own circuit of the suffocating living quarters. "You couldn't have known. You couldn't have changed it." His hands shuddered, and he brushed them together with a more insistent twitch to his movements.

Nova stopped outside the window, the nebula inching closer to the space station. "Chaos theory?" It boiled in her throat, and she asked, "Tell me something, Neo. If I hadn't gotten the internship, would that accident have happened?" Another step, and she prodded him in the chest. "Isn't that the whole idea? Can one little action cause a ripple effect? If you want my opinion, Neo, I don't think it matters. It's all bullshit." Hands in the air, she slammed them against the counter. "Someone's still dead." She rested her brow against the flat surface. "One little action... and someone's gone."

His silence rocked her bones more than the distress signal.

His gaze lowered and his hands stopped shivering. It folded his brow into the same mask he wore around Jin, his baby brother who snapped and lashed out at his shadow. The veil of quiet contemplation shielded her best friend instead of his friendly confidence. Nova released herself from the support of the counter, so flimsy, and never as consistent as the person in front of her. He leaned into his own shoulders with a soft breath.

"One little action, and someone's gone," he repeated her words, and it tore through her heart to imagine the last moment of someone she hadn't known, hadn't made an effort to know. "But take away that one action, who's to say?" He considered her, then drew his slim shoulders into a deep shrug. "Would it have made a difference? Would there have been any?" His lips parted in one of confusion, of concerned curiosity. "I can debate this all day, Nova, but..." He pressed his hands underneath his arms, hugging himself. "I suppose I should wait until I get called to observe the anomaly the droids brought in." He shook his head with another small huff. "I'm sorry, I'll leave you to your thoughts instead of... fumbling this entire conversation."

Tell me it wouldn't have mattered.

He said nothing to assure her, heading to the bedroom.

Nova smacked her nose into her hand. Ugh, Nova... you're a mess. He was only trying to help the best way he knows how to. Her back against the counter, she sat on the small chair. He's right, I don't know. Stars, I don't even want to consider the other option. I'm here. Her fingertips dug into the bottom of the table. I can still fix this... or at least make it worth it.