The stars in the sky were barely visible amidst a true constellation of warships. Sava swallowed.

For her part, Xini was happily tapping away at her control station, finally enjoying unrestricted access.

“Escape routes set!” she announced. “Ready to launch programs, Captain.”

Suddenly, a communications screen opened. Waving his long, hairy black ears in annoyance, Azxaron of the Xerbat clan looked at them furiously, waiting for the image to truly see them.

Grinding, Libre made an effort to regain an impassive demeanor and activated the communication, greeting the adversary:

“Agent Azxaron! It’s a pleasure to see you. Imagine that we managed to get rid of the Hogloo who was taking us hostage and forcing us to…”

“Keep your arguments for your lawyer software!” the Xerinean interrupted sharply. “You are all under arrest…”

“I demand negotiations: you must suspect that I am innocent! If I am ever put on trial, I risk being convicted due to lack of means to prove my innocence: the supposed evidence is overwhelming and…”

“That is none of my business. You are currently transporting a universal category prisoner: I could even kill you on the spot after you have surrendered, it would have no legal consequences.”

Irritated, Xini burst into the camera's field of view and began to speak with her counterpart. Despite their indecipherable language, the tone visibly rose very quickly. Lhom tried to understand:

“What is he saying?”

“I am not irresponsible! And he is a stubborn idiot!”

Xini had shouted at him in administered, without really answering him but expressing the content of the conversation. Rushing to her command console, she ordered the escape program to start.

There were several jolts from the ship as it deployed its jammers beyond the security parameters, then the ship appeared successively in several different systems. Each time it passed, warships also appeared, in pursuit of the fugitives. The first was systematically a small silver ship similar to a disc stretched on the sides: probably Azxaron's personal ship.

“It's no use,” Sava said. “They always follow us even when we pass through nebulae or pulsar stars. Those who lose our trail only have to follow that of their colleagues to find us...”

“Yes,” Libre agreed, “we need a solution. Xini, do you have an idea to free us from our pursuers?”

He stepped back, shocked by the enraged look she gave him. The Xerinean was furious:

“I'm not going to lose to him!”

The Homs scowled. Losing or not was not their problem, but rather getting out of it or not. At least their ally was motivated.

She murmured, remaining mostly in the administered language to allow the others to follow her reasoning. The Zcarbb territory? That would be worse. A neutral zone? No, he would pursue her even there. To the Hogloos? They risked being destroyed before they could explain themselves. Zone A? The Homtests would try to have them assassinated: they didn't need additional enemies. The zones between galaxies? Without a good head start, he would track them down... Besides, how had he found them?

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“I think... I think he must find me with my DNA... He must have detected us like that!”

“Impossible,” Lhom retorted, “we can't detect a particular DNA throughout the universe. There is still a limit to... Okay... your people of technology freaks are really the scariest thing in the universe... or maybe on par with the Hogloos. There must be somewhere they can't follow us...”

A tight smile and a slightly crazy look from Xini made the Homs shudder. The little creature was a little scary at the moment.

“Yes! There is somewhere he won't be able to follow us.”

She typed the coordinates on her screen, but Lhom stopped the launch from his when he saw the destination. Furious, he straightened up from his seat, his screens following him, to get closer to the navigator. Xini stared back at him.

The ship continued its dodge jumps, going from system to system, resisting for the moment the enemy shots and jammers that were unleashed at each step. However, this would not last long: it was advisable to find a solution quickly rather than argue. Sava tried to intervene.

“What's the problem?”

Libre had a frown and looked shocked.

“The problem is that this crazy woman wants to send us right into the ‘I’ zone!”

“Oh!”

It was madness. The “I” zone, the “frozen” zone, a place where all movement, all heat, was almost instantly pumped by an environment that exceeded even the notion of absolute zero, or perhaps corresponded to the true absolute zero rather than a temperature approaching it. A hell where specially equipped ships could only stay for a few minutes without risking staying there forever.

“But, even using our synthesizer to create a suitable shield, we wouldn't last more than a few Tiks! Even with a three-grained heart!”

“Exactly! I suppose we could teleport elsewhere using the fact that no one could follow us or obtain information from this area... But, even if your species surpasses all those in the universe in science, it is not possible... In fact, the ‘Walker’ engine itself would be the first to die, which would limit our outings to the areas near the one where we would be. Not only would we risk our lives, but they would only have to blockade all the systems on the edge of the sector, near the point we would have targeted, to capture us, taking advantage of our ship depleted of energy... There is nothing to be gained by trying that!”

Sava hadn’t understood half of the explanation, but it was obvious that Libre was right. At least, that’s what she felt, and her head hurt too much to try to understand the details. When would this crazy adventure finally end?

“Idiot!” Xini shouted. “Of course, such a strategy would be doomed to failure: Azxaron would react exactly as you said: him, he’s not stupid!”

“Then why do you want to head there?”

“We’re wasting time here! Oh, there’s a secret area. Officially, it’s part of the ‘I’ area, so no one goes there, but in reality, it’s a completely normal space.”

The Hom froze, thinking about this strange statement.

“It’s impossible,” he finally said, “the ‘I’ area doesn’t have a ‘hollow’. It would be physically impossible for there to be…”

“I didn’t say that this secret area was ‘in’ the ’I’ area, but that it was considered part of it! It is next to it. It’s surrounded by military training grounds, theoretically considered to be on the border of the ‘I’ area. A very powerful shield projects a frozen illusion for an outside view, making it appear that it is indeed the ‘I’ area. This illusion is generated by a powerful stasis field.”

A secret area? Systems, perhaps entire galaxies, removed from the rest of the universe by the most successful of lies? Rational explanation and curiosity removed the Homs’ inhibition.

“Okay. You should have said it before. There you go, you can launch the program.”

Xini nodded with the arrogant satisfaction of the one who has won.

“Finally. This is going to be a normal jump, since the ‘Walker’ engines don't work inside this secret zone. In any case, from what I know about their shield... I should be able to tamper with that... We'll see. Here, we are in a system close to the zone. I'm initiating the jump. According to the distortions caused by the stasis field of their shield, we should arrive in about a hundred years.”

The Homs simultaneously turned their heads:

“WHAT?”

But it was too late.