Ramirez and the other marines raced through the door, their botos pounding against steel. They had a single moment to register the surprise and terror on the faces of the would-be scientists before the entire room erupted with light. It was so powerful that a few of the aliens fell to the floor clutching at their eyes. Ramirez had thrown a hand up over his face just fast enough though there were still dark spots on his vision as he pulled back away from the light.

"Maverick!"

"Maverick!"

His voice was drowned out by the whirring sound of the machine.

Overhead lights began to burst and shatter raining sparks and debris down upon their heads.

He dove to the side, rolling under a table.

There was a sharp whump, and the power on the entire station went out.

Surrounded by darkness, his eyes were still filled with glowing spots from the blinding light, and it took him a moment before he was slowly able to crawl out from under his table.

It was pitch black, or was it?
He squinted into the darkness just able to make out a sort of half glow in comparison to the bright lights. As his eyes slowly began to adjust from the two extremes he saw the glow pulsing from the inside of the machine where Maverick had been.

He crawled across the ground, feeling his knees and hands crunch over broken glass.

There were many moments of silence before there was a slow whirring sound, and the backup generator kicked on there for the soul purpose of keeping the life support on the station operational.

The room was filled with a dim red glow.

A cool female voice echoed from speakers over their heads.

"Core overload, initiating system reboot. Station power at 1,000%

He shook himself. Ramirez wasn't a science kid of guy. In fact, when he wasn't busy being a jar head, he was too busy worrying about being pretty, both of which he was quite good at if he did say so himself. But it didn't take a genius like Krill to know that 10,000 percent was a lot, especially when it was a fusion core they were talking about.

Which is why he assumed the machine fried itself when the power surged.

He looked up towards the machine blinking in the dim red light, and inside he could still see that bright white pulsing glow.

It was strange.

He crawled to his feet and stumbled over.

"Maverick!"

His heart was hammering in his chest as he pressed his hands against the glass. Oh no! What if she had been vaporized or eradiated. Maybe that's what the power surge was, maybe the machine had fused her atoms together or something.

More feet raced over the glass after him, and he turned to see Adam at his other side trying to help him pry open the doors.

"Do you see anything?"

Ramirez shook his head, "No! No I can't see her."

Inside, the tube was getting brighter.

All around the room there were sounds of moaning as humans and aliens alike slowly got to their feet.

"Detain them!" Adam ordered, and the waiting Drev and humans leaped into action, pinning the scientists to the ground as the two of them tried, to no avail, to pry open the doors.

They were still trying when there was a sudden sharp click, and the doors slid open.

The two of then had been pulling hard at extreme angels, and the sudden opening of the door caused the two of them to spill backwards onto the ground their feet kicked up in the air. Glass shattered and crunched underneath them.

Adam cursed.

Ramirez looked up wide eyed as a foot stepped from inside the container.

The room gasped and took one collective step back.

Adam and Ramirez slid backwards across the floor as the glowing figure stepped from the tube.

"Maverick." Ramirez whispered in shock as she stepped down from the pedestal and onto the floor, glass crushed under her feet. As she walked she left a trail of footprints where the glass had been fused together.

She didn't appear harmed.

Accept for the fact that she was glowing.

And the fact that her eyes were no longer her eyes.

They glowed bright white in the darkness, no pupil, no iris, just glowing white. And her short blond hair undulated and waved around above her head as if she was under water. Even her clothes seemed to ripple as she walked, which was a strange look on a marine. She took a step next to him, and he heard the glass sizzle.

When she pulled away she left a steaming imprint in the broken glass where her foot had been.

"Maverick." He repeated.

But she didn't' look at him, walking over the floor and towards the other side of the room where the scientists were being detained. The other marines and Drev pulled back as she approached, grabbing one of them from the ground and hoisting him straight into the air with one of her hands.

It was a move that should have been impossible.

Maverick was strong, but she wasn't THAT strong. Not to mention that he was pretty sure that particular move was physically impossible, something to do with leverage. She would have to way WAY more than she did in order to do that to someone, but there she was, holding the Tesraki aloft in one hand like he weighed nothing.

He kicked and squealed in her grasp, trying to pull away but finding himself unsuccessful as she held him there with one glowing hand, her hair waving around her like a storm.

Looking at her like this.

Ramirez had never seen anything so.

Horrible, but at the same time so awe inspiring. Like a hurricane or an oncoming tornado, beautiful at the same time it made him want to piss himself and run.

She opened her mouth, and when she spoke, she did so like a chorus of echoing voices.

"This is not for you, you are not ready.... You.... Are... not.... Worthy."

He was dropped to the ground

At his side, admiral Vir had taken to his feet wobbling o the broken glass as he stepped forward, one of his feet crunching down on one of maverick's glass footprints.

"Maverick!"

She turned slowly her glowing white eyes catching upon the two of them, burning and scalding as she stared daggers towards them.

Admiral Vir took a nervous step back.

They stared at each other for a very long moment.

Ramirez looked between the two of them unsure what to do.

He watched the Admiral's eyes narrow slightly as he stood straighter.

"Deus." He said quietly

Ramirez froze staring between the two of them.

Yes of course.

That made sense.

Deus watched him with an expression almost akin to amusement.

"You still don't understand what that means do you.'

"Well it's not like someone has sat down to explain it to me." He stepped forward over the floor the glass crunching. Off in the distance they could hear the sound of raised voices as the station began to panic.

"If you aren't deus, than who are you/'

She shook her head, "I AM deus, but I am also plenty of other things."

"Where's maverick."

She looked almost annoyed as if she was having to explain the same concept to the same child for the fifteenth time, "I AM maverick, and I am more. I came eons before and I will go eons after. I am what lies deep within."

Adam shook his head, "These are riddles, give me a straight answer for once."

She stepped forward now toe to toe with the other man. At 6,2, Adam was well over half a foot taller than her 5,5 but that didn't matter. Either way it seemed as if she towered over him, looking down on him from a great height as he shrunk back from her presence power seeming to pulse off her skin, "You are NOT ready for those answers, and you will NOT be for some time. Stop asking these questions, stop getting into situations you don't understand."

The line of his mouth pulled into a tight frown.

"I am not trying to hurt you." She said softly, "I am trying to warn you. Please head those warnings, otherwise we will be forced to take more drastic measures."

"We?" He said stepping forward, "So there are more o you."

She didn't answer, turning away from him and stepping over the glass.

The voices outside were getting even louder and more panicked. They had life support of course and communications just in case, but if the station stayed down for any period of time they would have other problems to worry about.

The Maverick who was not maverick, reached up her hands and pressed them against the side of the machine from where she came. She closed her eyes and concentrated. Adam stepped up behind her as if to ask another question but paused as a bright burst of power throbbed from the palms of her hands.

The entire room around them rumbled, and they had to steady themselves on the nearest surface.

There was a whirr and then a rumble as the distant fusion core choked back to life. Those lights that hadn't shattered flickered back on, and the entire station gasped to life. They held up their hands to the blinding light, which somehow, seemed more intense than it had before.

Machines began to reboot all around them.

"Reconfiguring systems."

"Fusion core online"

"power grid online"

"Main life support online."

"Water online.'

"Opening power reserves, estimated power output at 1,500 %. Reconfiguring power output."

The lights over their heads dimmed slightly as the computer struggled to work with the glut of power it was now experiencing.

Maverick dropped her hands turned to them slowly.

They watched as the light began to slowly fade from here eyes. Her green blue irises became visible first, and then her pupils wide and dilated despite the light over her head. Her face had gone incredibly pale compared to the already incredible paleness of her skin. She lurched forward staggering on one leg, and Ramirez jumped forward to catch her as she sagged downward.

Her face had drained of all color, and she was fighting to keep her head up even as it rolled back and forth on her neck.

Her face when through a strange assortment of colors. First white, then red, then purple and finishing off on green before going pale again.

He sat her down on the step slapping her face gently, "Maverick, MAV! Look at me."

She tried to wave him off muttering something under her breath about needing to lie down. He tried to get her to talk to him, but she was somewhere in between consciousness and unconsciousness, and her brain was not responding. Or, it was responding, just not to him. He sat down next t her, and let her lean against his shoulder.

It might have been better had she just passed out, but instead she remained in that space in the middle.

Ramirez ordered her to keep her head low, hoping that maybe some blood back into her brain might help.

Adam turned to them to make sure they were doing ok before spinning, his wrath turned on the cowering scientist who had been dropped to the floor.

He walked over, and despite not being nearly as intimidating as Maverick had been, the doctor still pulled away when he bothered to crouch down and look at him.

"Don't hurt me." He held up his hands to cover his face.

"What did you do/" Adam demanded.

"I.... I don't know!"

"Tell me what you were working on!" His voice had gotten deeper with the command. Admiral Vir coming out instead of just regular old Adam.

The Tesraki cowered back, "It was just an experiment. It wasn't supposed to hurt anyone, we had done it before>"

"Done what before."

"I.... It was.... We found that with certain species, surrounding them in a high frequency energy field tapped into some sort of.... Unknown resonant frequency inside the body, we have no idea what it is, and I am probably explaining it poorly. You know how a crystal glass will vibrate if you flick it, and by matching that frequency but louder you can break the glass? Well it is a similar property but with some sort of energy, though it is difficult to explain. If you reach this sort of energy while the subject is inside a power converter, you can see a small boost in power. It goes by species. Tvek barely create any power at all, then come the burg and going up so on to Rundi and Tesraki. We haven't tried it on a Drev, but a Rundi or a Tesraki can power and entire station, which is about the output of a fusion core." He slid back over the glass some more, "I.... we hadn't tried a human before and thought we might get a similar reaction as we got from the others. We didn't expect the output to be greater than that of a fusion reactor."

"Plain English for me." He growled leaning over the cowering Tesraki.

He shuttered and pulled back, arms still held over his head, "I w.... whatever that was, whatever we tapped into had the energy output of a small star."

Adam frowned, "how is that possible. The human body can barely power a toaster. You can't just create energy like that from nothing."

The Tesraki shook it's head, "That's what we don't know. The energy seems to come from..... somewhere, but I have no idea where. It has no biproducts, and doesn't give off any sort of radioactive decay. The body itself, which should be destroyed when exposed to such power, is always fine. We've done scans, and there is no damage to internal tissue at all. The only thing we notice is a spike in certain chemical hormones inside the brain itself, but other than that there is nothing, no explanation."

"And why haven't we heard about this. Why are you resorting to doing this sort of research in the basement of a space station."

The Tesraki held up his hands, "Because its illegal ok..... we don't have permits for this. No one will give us a permit. We tried, we really did honest, but the GA won't allow anyone to do experiments regarding the information we are trying to work with. We made the mistake of mentioning Dr. Kedd's work and it all went downhill from there."

Adam frowned and Ramirez looked back and forth between the two of them.

"Dr Kedd.... Dr.... Kedd. Wait..... Isn't he-"

"That Gibb scientist who swore he could see souls!" Ramirez blurted wide eyed.

The Tesraki looked down and nodded, "Yes, I had originally been taked with looking over his research. I was given all of his notes. I promise I never meant to hurt anyone, but there was some interesting experiments that he did towards the beginning. Before he went mad his tests were ethical, even genius some might say, but no one on the council can see that anymore. The GA is afraid of his work, and those that aren't afraid think its just a load of waffle, so they won't allow testing if it has anything to do with his theories."

Adam shook his head, "Regardless of weather I agree or disagree with their actions, what you did was still wrong. You are under arrest by authority of the Galactic Assembly. Your notes and research will likely be confiscated, and you will be charged.

Other marines had run into the room during this intervening time, bringing with them energy cuffs which were placed around the wrists of the accused.

Maverick shifted, and he turned his head to look at her.

"Someone grab Krill!" He barked ordering one of his men out of the room at a run.

"Maverick, maverick are you ok." He grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her slightly. He was clearly no doctor.

She lifted her head to look at him, face still unusually pale, her eyes still glassy.

"Maverick can you hear me."

She grumbled, "Unfortunately."

That made him relax slightly.

If she was being sarcastic, that likely meant she was going to be ok.

Then again, he had no doubt that she would be sarcastic on her death bed given the chance. "Come on, lets git you to the doctor."

He stood and pulled her upright intending to carry her. As small as she was it wouldn't have been hard., but she locked her legs making it impossible for him to do so.

"Mav." He scolded.

"Not a damsel in distress. I can walk."

"Yeah, but why walk when you could make me carry you." He grumbled in frustration

She wobbled forward.

At this rate they would get there.... Eventually.

"Quit walking like an old granny."

"Ill call you're abuela and let her know you said that."

"You wouldn't."

"I would."

He grumbled, ducking under one of her arms hoping that she would at least find that acceptable. Everyone had a problem, and Maverick's problem was not letting anyone help her. If she did stuff, she did it alone. Too bad though, they were friends and he was going to give her help weather she liked it or not.

They passed by Adam standing by the doorway with his arms crossed glowering at the machine behind them.

"Everything ok boss.

"Not especially." He muttered, but turned to walk with them down the hall.

Ramirez knew what he was thinking.

Deus was back.

He or it or..... they as it had claimed.

Had made another appearance, and it was no less confusing now than it had been the first few times it had happened.

The issue now was getting Adam to leave it alone.