"Respecting your Pm's wishes is a valid reason, but we'd have had a bigger chance of stopping the world if you'd told us sooner," Arlene reasoned. She showed no emotion in her voice, tone or features.

"No that wasn't a valid reason!" Smith cried. "I'm losing it. I haven't even said goodbye to my kids and I'm wondering if I will ever do so."

It seemed to Led his voice nearly broke towards the end of the sentence.

"You could've told him, perhaps. I understand not telling me," Led said cautiously. His fingers quietly drummed on one side of the table.

Meddles glanced up at him. His lips trembled in some kind of sad almost-smile, before his gaze reverted back to the others.

"Forgive me. Forgive me, Will. Forgive me too, Led and Arlene, but I just didn't want you to live with the knowledge you're going to die in 5 days."

"18 or 5? What's the difference?" Arlene sourly remarked. "We're still gonna die."

Led didn't say anything, his eyes simply lowered.

"Ask Will."

Arlene looked away.

"Anyway, we'll have to figure it out somehow," Smith said, trying to freshen the conversation, "We have two hours until the ocean walk. That's a long time," he smiled.

"The coordinates for the castle mystery are zz.yy.xx.," Led said. "We should bring by a radiolocator and a quantum meter. And measure the levels every half hundred meters."

"Then?" Mills asked.

"Then we harness the maximum energy source, and let it go."

"But how? Led, are you insane?" Smith asked in disbelief, but then abruptly paused, as if realizing something embarrassing.

"Mhm. We'll stop the supernova by projecting an energy beam into the air, and hit the star with it."

"We'll need a lot of energy to do that. How will we gather it?" Mills asked.

"We'll use a special creation of mine. Look," Led said, pulling out something from his pocket. It was a small, sleek device with a glowing core. "I've worked on it during the lunch break. This is a prototype of a device that can extract energy from the environment around us. It's not perfect yet, but it should be enough to power the beam."

Meddles looked amazed. "Dear Led...," he said, smiling, "that's incredible. But, withal, how do we aim it at the star?"

"We'll need a makeshift telescope." Led said not turning to him.

"We only have two hours. We don't have a large one." Arlene stated.

"We can use the parts from our escape pods to assemble a crude telescope," Led replied.

"Led, how did you come up with this?" Smith asked curiously. "Why didn't you tell us earlier?"

"I didn't know how it would apply to our issue until I read, uh... a treatise on time dilation in modern astrophysics. It proposed that a universe collision would create a distortion in heat-time."

"Heat-time?" Smith asked again.

"Yes. I mean the energy curvatures that are presumed to happen."

Mills raised a questioning eyebrow. But he didn't daresay that heat-time wasn't a thing in the scientific world. "Well, that might work," he said, nodding in agreement, "but we'll need to hurry." 

The four of them quickly made their way to the escape pods and began disassembling the parts they needed. Led worked on the energy converter day and night, or, rather, midday and noon, because they didn't have much time. In a few hours, they would be stopping the world. Or facing literal global destruction.

Near the end of their working process, the door to the library opened and in came one of the control officers of Mischievous Soul.

- I have come to inform you that a new person will be joining the oceanwalk. His name is Mithroan Clarx, and he is responsible for the navigatory part of the mission - the red-head announced.

- Mithroan Clarx? Who's that? - Arlene asked. 

- He's another physicist hailing from Zurich. Your PR said that he is compulsory for the success of the mission. Any questions ask Miss Chaisson.

The control officer left, leaving the team dumbfounded.

Well Led, not really. He had a couple guesses circulating in his mind based on his dialogue with Meddles.

"Why did Miss Chaisson do that?" Mills asked, only to dunk his head into a load of books the next moment.

"I don't know," said Meddles. But it seemed to Led he was more so unsure.

The rest of the work went by quite smoothly until they were stuttering over exhaustion. But, with a little help from a few other smart pairs of hands, the telescope was finally ready.

There was an hour to go.

"It's done," Smith said. "I think we won't have problems with this kind of machinery. Let's chill for a while and then go." And so they did.

The first thing Led just wanted to do was to visit the cold water cooler. His mind felt kind of groggy. He hated to drink, he found out on a recent morning.  After that, he started to almost worship water coolers. It clouded his mind. He wished to never drink again.

But the instant he entered the secluded room, he saw a tall man sitting in front of him, glaring as if furious.

For a moment Led thought he felt somewhat strange, but the feeling swiftly disappeared the second the man got up to shake Led's hand.

With his left hand.

Oops. It promptly returned. 

"Good evening. I'm Mithroan Clarx. Oh, sorry, I got too absent-minded," Mithroan switched hands, noticing his conversant's expression.

"Good evening. Pleased to meet you," Led said. Mithroan was unusually tall, pale... But the thing that piqued his curiosity most was the finely tailored suit the man was dressed in. That seemed quite unusual.

"You too, Led, you too," Mithroan said hastily, switching over to a more important-seeming tone. "You must be wondering why I'm here."

"Where?"

"In the mission, of course."

"Oh." Stupid of him.

"Haven't you guessed?" The man questioned, as if waiting for Led to say yes or "i don't know".

But Led surprised them both, saying:

- Perhaps due to being from the Golden Union, I suppose? 

That shouldn't have just come out of his mouth. Why was he so stupid?

- Good guess. It's right, in its kind of way. But you may say it goes deeper, more so than the prestigious Golden Union.

- The FBI, CIA - Led blankly guessed.

- Closer. But still no. You may never succeed. However, this is not what I've come to speak with you about. You've been a victim of an information feud, correct?

- If you may phrase it that way, that is...

- Would you be open to considering a world where all your theories would be recognized only and only if you wanted them to be?

Led didn't know what to reply.

- Uh, maybe...-

- -That, unfortunately, is not the world we live in. But what if I told you there's a program you could enroll in which could give you the chance to use your talents as they were truly intended to be used?

I understand this is a lot to take in. But surely you've felt extraordinary, more special than others like your friends, for example? Your team, who you currently work with?

Arlene went in. The men turned. 

"It seems she must have heard the ending of my phrase - very well, hope we can meet in a more secluded spot to talk about the matter in the near future, Led. Think about it. Bye," Mithroan said, leaving quickly without even baring a glance for Arlene.

The door shut behind them.