"Central transit to Habitation. Possible bioleak detected."

Layers of blast doors closed off the transit tunnel between the facilities, and Nova dared to let out her relief through a sigh out her nose. Flashlight clipped onto her belt, she allowed Izerva to take the lead, their rifle energised. Grime oozed out of the ventilation, but compared to the mess she suspected was in the north part of the space station, the mess waiting for them was minimal. Overhead, the lights flickered with wasted power and illuminated broken moments. Nova tapped her communicator. "Neo, can you hear me?"

"Enough," his voice fritzed. "We're all shut down over here. Admiral Mythrai is currently in the east. You're in the clear, but there are anomalous readings in your sector."

Nova grinned. "Let me guess."

"Stay safe," he threw her off.

Nova stopped when Izerva hugged one corner, a reflective mirror in their hands to peek around it without revealing their head. "I... I thought you'd want me to collect some data or something,"

He went silent.

"Neo?"

"You know, my job is to poke things and see what happens," he went on. "You're near Habitation, right? The communications array should be within the reception area. We have to regain control of the area and close the ventilation." Worry dripped underneath the collected scientist's tone.

"I'll let you know." Nova followed Izerva when their teeth clicked and they rushed through the corridors. "Apparently they're getting some readings over here."

Ears flicked, Izerva raced for another part of the corridor, and she followed behind them and listened to the shudder and purr of the facility. Greens and whites pulsed at the main bulkhead into the Habitation reception area, illuminated with deeper purples and reds from the nebula tangling through the metal shutters.

Her communicator let out a gasp of death. "Neo?"

"I'm here, but we're getting heavy interference—"

Talk to me.

"Where are you, Nova?"

"We're at the entrance." Nova waited for a nod from Izerva to approach the door with her keycard.

White noise rippled where his voice should've called out to her.

But... as long as it's not the music.

It slid open.

Nova choked on the sticky smell of mold and decay, and Izerva released a chittered gasp.

Plants withered in the protective casings, dripping crimson ash. Its own soil was nothing more than blood-tainted pieces of rock. Nova vaulted over the desk and winced at the corruption on the terminals, glitched and refused to give an answer to the problem. Ooze burst out of the stalks of the smaller plants along the desks. Nova examined the marked biosynth plants, but they succumbed to the withering of time and curled at its pressure like slugs underneath salt.

"Neo?" she asked, but the white noise fought on. She slapped the side of the reception terminal. "Too much interference in here."

Izerva frowned, and ice filled her heart when their ears swivelled back in one smooth motion. It fell quiet inside the reception area of Habitation, where their reminder of home died and fell to ash in her hands. Their clawed hands drew closer to their chest, and signed. "Engineer Nova... We must press on, we are not alone."

"What?" Nova hauled herself over the desk to head to the Xelnodian warrior. "What do you mean? What are you hearing?"

Izerva's ear flicked and pressed deeper against their head. "A wingbeat... through space... and the pressure of its presence. I do not like it. We must move." Their tail whipped against her pants and urged her into the marked communication and maintenance corridor. Inside, Izerva kept the door open, but with their back to the wall and rifle in a resting position against their chest.

"Neo?" she asked as she fiddled with the source terminal. "Neo? Are you reading me?"

"You're cutting out—" He cut out himself. "—Status?"

"Habitation is lost," she reported. "We're currently in the comms array... but Izerva's saying we're not alone." Nova tapped the holomap panel to bring it to life. Her temples throbbed with atmospheric tightness to pop her eardrums and the reflection dragged from her memory. "Neo, can you talk to me?"

"Sorry—Can't—" White noise cut him off.

Monitors glitched. Goo spread itself through the keyboards. Gloves on, she wiped strands off the terminals to open the back panel. Wires sparked when she tried to unbundle them. Breath held when Izerva took in their own and their tail fell into frozen stillness. Our connection problems are definitely stemming from here. I need to reroute some of the power through maintenance... Nova tried to ignore the ticking in the air. Last time... it felt so slow. Nova cut the wires she couldn't save and threw them to the side before looking through the emergency panels for usable ones. Hasty replacements in hand, she slipped them in the dockets. A sense of victory swelled against the pressure in her ears when the terminal chirped to life, and she fell back into the chair to access it.

"TERMIN-A-A-AL ONLINE."

"Shut up." Nova smacked the side of it and inserted override commands.

"User: Engineer Spacyn of the—"

It glitched.

"Come on, you stupid thing..." Nova sent several confirmations through the field of static, and she drowned in her relief when the array purred to life, and the holomap reformed with a full report on the western branch and its corresponding status. Habitation returned crimson beeps and went offline. "Neo, you hear me now?"

"Yeah, better."

"Everything's running," Nova said and hauled herself out of the chair. "What about on your end of things?"

"Give me a mo'." He shuffled on the other end, a mirror of dragging time, and she swallowed and prepared to hear a scream. "Okay," he broke the false reality. "Admiral Mythrai is making his way through the eastern sector. His last report was several minutes ago."

"Neo, are you alone?" Nova asked at the silence on the other end.

"For now. There was a reaction in the anomaly lab. I stayed over here to keep an eye on things for you."

Her heart swelled. "Wow, Neo."

"You're about to say how unlike me it is to give up data," he said. "I don't want to leave you two in the dark, so I don't plan on doing that. Anyway, where were we? The node in Habitation came up in the red. How bad is it there?"

"Uh, pretty bad." Nova nodded at Izerva, who bustled out of the array. "Neo, the plants were wilting..." It caught in her throat at the absurdity. "And bleeding."

Neo went silent enough for her to hear the beeps of the monitors on the other end. "Plants... bleeding?"

"Stars, I think I heard your heart leap at something so clearly anomalous."

"Well, I am definitely going to want to take a look once we have this breach contained," Neo said. "All of that aside, we're going to need to get Habitation back up somehow—"

Nova jumped when the PA system rang out, "Warning! Station destabilization in progress! Anomalous Threat Level: REDACTED."

"—and that'll be why," he said with a heavy sigh. "You should start making your way to the north section. Admiral Mythrai will meet up with you there, and you can get control of the bridge." Nova opened her mouth to ask another question, but he interrupted her, "And yes, Nova, central command is locked tighter than a drum. I couldn't leave even if I wanted to."

"What's going on in the labs?"

"I don't know. They haven't called for further assistance."

Her heartbeat threatened to open her rib-cage and leave her vulnerabilities to the claws of space. Stars... what if they can't call for assistance? "Take care of yourself, Neo. We don't know what this thing is or what it's capable of." And I'm running out of time. Maybe if we can initiate a station-wide decontamination purge then... "Is someone going to check on you?"

"Guards are posted outside. I'm fine, Nova. I'll call Researcher Zynaia after I'm done here and ask her what's happening." He shuffled. "I'll get the north transit station running. There's no more anomalous readings coming from north sector, so you should be safe."

"Then I'll talk to you when I get there." Nova hung up on the white noise and escaped from the comm array and reception of Habitation. It was a mad dash to the north transit tunnel where the blast doors opened wide to allow her and Izerva through.

One hint of Neo's consistent well-being.

Onto the tram, Nova held on tight as they raced into the void. Utter silence; a black hole. Off onto the platform, the blast doors closed behind them. Lights flickered in the damp, murky, winding corridors — drenched in blood. Metal clanged with the destabilization of the space station. Clots piled underneath vents and stuck to corners. Izerva covered their muzzle with their hand, their pupils forming into slits while their tail thrashed.

Nova dragged herself forward and avoided the unknown substance. An alarm beeped in red helplessness. Her heart stuttered at the sutured, crimson tendrils wrapped against the sterile walls leading to the bridge. It pulsed and revealed deeper veins within. "Neo?" she asked and tapped her compearl.

"I hear you—cutting out though—"

"Where's Admiral Mythrai? We're blocked from the bridge by... I don't know." Nova sat back while Izerva examined the crimson veins, though never touched it. Neo would pluck it like strings... "Neo?"

"East sect—" His voice swelled with static. "Contact, Admiral? Transit enroute—" It sent a tsunami of ripples through her ears. "They're having trouble getting into the bridge—"

Nova dropped her hand to the side and left the blockage behind with Izerva. "We need to find a way through it," she pointed out and ducked behind the fleshy overhangs along the rest of the corridor. Nova sped her pace to meet up with Admiral Mythrai at the transit station. Bulkheads opened, but she hesitated at the blasting echoes down the empty tracks. Izerva stood beside her as they waited for the approaching tram.

Shadow curtains fell.

"Admiral Mythrai?" she called.

Her voice echoed in the silence.

Nova stepped for the maintenance stairwell.

"Nova!" Neo screeched, and she jumped at his clarity. "Don't!"

The tram sped out of the curtain. Several armored shapes shot at a boiling mass of sluggish void. Tendrils slicked along the walls and slammed into the tram. It rattled to a stop and sparked along the wheels. Teeth scissored outwards to latch onto one of the personnel.

It tore through with ease, and ripped them to spaghettified shreds.
Shots dug into its formless mandible, but it never faltered from its course through space.

Unable to look away from the event horizon.

It curled around the tram and crushed it with the pressure of its presence. Admiral Mythrai dragged a smaller, injured individual out of their flattened armour. He whipped his head around to them as the creature pushed through the tunnel, cracking lights as it went.

"Spacyn!" he called, but space smothered his voice.

A bunch of voices screamed.

Izerva raised their rifle to provide cover fire, and the creature never roared. The noise which left the hole of teeth shuddered her bones from underneath her skin. One clip exploded out of the barrel, but Izerva let out an alarmed chirp when it bounced off the creature and slammed at their feet to leave a scar against the metal.

It crawled closer to Admiral Mythrai and the injured soldier.

Red orbs trained on her.

A heartbeat pounded in her ears.

Is... is that Neo... saying my name?

Against time and space, it focused. On her. Shots rushed or skidded around the event horizon to hit other places against the tracks. It slid along the currents of time.

"Izerva, pull Spacyn back!" Admiral Mythrai ordered over the screams, unloading a massive capacitor rifle off his back before resting the injured soldier beside him. His bark fell muted on her ears as Izerva grabbed her around the shoulders and tugged her out of the butterfly's soft wings when it whispered throughout the inside of the station.

A gentle flutter.

It drowned out every scream of pain.

Every noise.

All the music.

Tendrils snapped forward.

It exploded into the center of the black hole as small as a butterfly to clash against titans. Nova screamed when the bulkhead slammed downwards, grabbed by the wings of time. Her bones rocked with the collision of dead stars.

On her ass, she stared, lost in the horizon.

Blood oozed to take the place of the tendrils.

It broke apart.

"WARNING! POWERSURGE DETECTED! EVACUATION INITIATED UNDER PROTOCOL NINE-THREE-SIX. ALL BULKHEADS OPENING."

Nova held her breath when the power surged to life, and their protective metal shield lifted.

There was nothing left of the other side but crimson splattering against the walls.

Admiral Mythrai and his soldiers, nothing more than insects.

Nova fumbled for her ear. "Neo?" His silence drove her to her feet. "Neo?"

It ticked on the other side.

No... Nova whipped around to Izerva. "We have to get back to central command!"