"They're leaving the planet."

"Why?" she asked.

"They want to live."

-

"I hope GG lets me run some tests on that boy," Ryker said, perched on his stool. He was hunched over some experiment or another, probably with something alive. Or was alive, at some point. At least, that's what Evi Muran liked to imagine, as the reality was much more boring: peering through a microscope to check her nanites for irregularities. "I've never seen anything like him. Is he a Mennesk? Or something more? Ahh, I'm just itching to work on him."

Evi glanced over the bright white, sterilized counter at Ryker's goggled face. "Gova'll kill you if you ever call her that to her face," she mumbled, brushing bright pink hair out of her eyes. "And didn't she tell you to quit with the human experiments?"

A smirk tugged at the corner of their resident mad scientist's mouth. "Yeah, but what if he's not human?" He looked up and met her stormy blue eyes with his own, about the only similarity between them. It wasn't like she hung out with Ryker by choice, after all. "Then it doesn't count! It's just...experimentation, yes?"

"Would it kill you to sound like less of a Nazi?"

"The Nazi ideology died off with the Shattering, my dear." He pulled his goggles up to his forehead, then flicked a switch and the microscope went dark. He didn't seem to notice Evi rolling her eyes at him. "All good here. No irregularities."

The red of the tube protruding from her arm caught the overhead light as Evi removed it from the scope. "No irregularities that you could see, you mean," she retorted, pulling her sweater sleeve down. The tube had been installed as a bypass for one of her veins. She didn't like looking at it, nor did she like leaving it exposed. Too many things to catch it on if she wasn't careful. But it was better than getting stabbed by a needle daily. "You can't have seen all of them."

Ryker ran his hand through his slicked-back black hair and yawned. "Obviously not," he grumbled, turning away to rummage through one of the various cabinets in the tiny lab. "It's a sample size. I'm good, but I'm not that good."

"Oh? The great Ryker Kavlaus admits he's not good enough?"

"Don't twist my words, you cherub," the scientist griped, slinging a bottle of medicine at Evi. She caught it deftly, the pills rattling around inside. "Nobody can do it better. I'm the best at this. It just so happens that my best - the best - is within the range of human ability, which isn't enough to analyze every single nanite swimming in your blood."

Evi popped open the bottle and poured an undetermined number of capsules onto her palm. She'd stopped bothering to count them. She was already taking too many to matter about missing one or two, anyway. Tossing them back, she swallowed them dry, grimacing as they stuck in her throat on the way down. "Aren't there machines for that?"

"Easy on that," Ryker said, pointing blindly at the goth girl.

"It's just fuel for them," she grumbled. "Nothing I wouldn't put in my body anyway."

"Yeah, but it's expensive."

"So that's what you're worried about."

His face was already stuck in some other project. Probably notes about the kid. He sniffed, then seemed to remember Evi had asked a question. He brushed his hair away from his shoulders, where it returned a moment later. "A machine? You think we have anything that sophisticated on this ship? We're lucky we got the bare minimum."

The girl had no argument, instead opting to rub her eyes with the palms of her hands. She was suddenly glad she hadn't put on makeup earlier. Not by choice, of course. Her supplies were running low after being stuck in a ship for months. A beep from Ryker's equipment pulled her focus away. "What are you working on now, anyway?"

"Notes and readings I took when I resuscitated the boy," Ryker answered, focused intently on the numbers on the screen. "Even the little I got is interesting."

Evi rolled her eyes. "Never mind, then," she said, pulling a spare monitor close. She tapped at a few buttons, pulling up the comms log, hoping to see something from the UF. Nothing, as usual. They weren't chatty. She poked at another button and opened up her past logs. "You have fun with your data."

"If you're not interested in the data," Ryker said, barely looking up from his work, "You should at least be interested in the boy. What's his name...Sen? He's close to your age. Make yourself a friend."

"He's, like...thirteen, Ryker."

"That's close, isn't it?"

"There's a big difference between thirteen and seventeen."

This time, Ryker looked up, except instead of saying anything, he just shrugged and turned back. Evi's eye twitched as she resisted the urge to chuck the microscope at his head. "Fine," she muttered, giving in a little. "What's interesting about the numbers?"

She immediately regretted asking, seeing Ryker's grin. "For starters, his circulatory system cycles in reverse," he said, the excitement slowly building in his voice. "I'm not sure if it's a direct result of the core infusion or congenital, but it's fascinating either way."

Evi blinked. "Uh, in English, please?"

"His blood runs backwards," Ryker sighed, feigning exasperation. "Honestly, Muran, keep up."

"I'm actually gonna hit you."

This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author's work.

The odds were high that Evi actually would've gone after Ryker if the door hadn't slid open at that moment. The two spun in their seats as Gova stepped into the room without a word. The scientist was the first to speak. "GG!" he exclaimed. "What brings you here?"

The commander shot him a withering glare and he shrank back, practically whimpering. "Call me that again and I'll drop you out the airlock," she rumbled. As Ryker gave her a nervous thumbs up, she closed her eyes to calm herself. When they reopened, they were cold once more. "We've had...developments."

"The kind where you came all the way down here instead of using a secure channel?"

"Why did I get stuck with you?"

"You requested me, commander. Remember?"

"What kind of developments?" Evi asked, attempting to defuse the two hotheads before sparks started flying. "Despite Ryker's...unfortunate wording, he wasn't wrong. What's so important you needed to come all the way down here to talk about it?"

Gova's eyes flickered to the girl, a debate swirling within them. Eventually, she sighed as her professionalism won out. "No easy way to say this," she said. "There's a high probability we have the Ruby core on board."

Ryker nearly fell off his stool. "The Ruby?!" he whisper-screamed, hands going to his head. "Wha- how? Where? What?"

The faux smirk on Gova's face seemed real for a moment. "The boy Denmark brought on board," she said. "I thought he was yanking my chain at first, but - get this: that's Professor Devartani's kid."

Evi frowned as the mad scientist shut down for a moment to collect his thoughts, his brow furrowed. "Er, what's the Ruby?" she asked, glancing at Gova. "And who's Professor Devartani?"

The Latina blinked, suddenly remembering Evi was new to most of this. "I'll get you briefings," she said. "You can read them over the next couple days, until we get to Earth. Long story short, the Ruby is one of the most powerful cores we know of, and the professor was hiding it. I needed to make you two aware of our cargo."

Ryker seemed to finally recover, his eyes refocusing. "That's both exciting and dangerous as hell," he said. "We have a superweapon on board. Does Culwell know?"

"He knows about Sen's existence. I don't think he knows we have it yet."

"We're gonna bring him on, right? Something that powerful...we can't leave it on the sidelines."

Gova unconsciously rubbed her scarred cheek. "I wanted to talk to him about it, but Denmark had me agree to wait until we touched down and gave him a chance to see what we do." She leaned back against the door frame, the machinery beeping once in protest as it registered the obstruction. "He's just woken up. All things considered, it makes sense. I can't just drop all this on him at once."

The tension in the room grew as silence built. There had always been an air of unease whenever Denmark was mentioned. Very few members of the UF were thrilled with Gova's decision regarding him, Ryker and Evi included. Getting friendly with someone largely considered to be one of most dangerous people in the solar system rarely ended without someone in tears.

Ryker was the first to cut through the haze. "I hate when he's right," he grumbled, leaning back in his stool. His elbow caught the monitor and knocked it askew, but he didn't seem to notice. "Gova, I get your thinking, but...why him? Why use so much time and so many resources to get him?"

Gova sighed, examining the floor tiles with great interest. "It's a gamble," she answered. The truth. She met the scientist's gaze as she found her confidence. "Best case, we tear Culwell's right hand off and take it for ourselves. But it seems we've exceeded that best case tenfold."

"What's the worst case?" Evi asked, suddenly feeling cold.

The commander's eyes flicked to hers, green meeting stormy blue. "We die," came the answer. Succinct, simple, to the point. Gova left nothing open to misinterpretation, nor was she one for sugarcoating. She was a soldier, and nothing more. Her job was to do whatever it took to win this war, even if it meant sacrificing herself and all the soldiers in her care to gain an advantage. "Probably painfully."

Grimacing, the scientist spun back around in his chair, straightening the crooked monitor as he went. "Depressing things aside, have you seen the numbers coming out of the kid?" he asked in a blatant attempt to change the subject. "I can't even say without a doubt he's still human after absorbing that core. Even with what little I have, his physiology is so different he may as well be an entirely different species."

Gova frowned, pushing off the frame. The door beeped and slid shut behind her as she marched over to Ryker and examined the screen, arms folded. "Different how?" she inquired, narrowing her eyes at the data. "Cores shouldn't affect fundamental physiology, no matter how powerful it is."

Great. Ryker was infecting Gova. Evi rubbed her brow with her thumb and spoke up. "He said something about his blood flowing backward," she butted in, keeping it simple in an attempt to remind the adults a layman was still in the room and would like to be included in important conversations. "I don't know what that means, but it doesn't sound normal."

Gova glanced up at Evi, then back to Ryker . "Blood flowing backward...," she muttered. "Muran's right. That doesn't sound normal. Wouldn't that kill him?"

"Not if his circulatory system is built differently," the scientist responded. "I don't have data on that, unfortunately. But if you let me run some tests-"

"No."

"But- "

"What did I tell you about human experimentation, Ryker? If I let you touch him, you'll go overboard, and our superweapon will end up in jars."

"I promise I won't!"

"Your promises mean absolutely nothing, Ryker Kavlaus. I've known you for nearly a decade, and not once have you upheld a promise regarding medical or scientific work."

"Yeah, I have!" the mad scientist protested. He opened his mouth to respond, then faltered.

Gova completed her smirk. "That's what I thought," she said, ruffling the older man's carefully tended hair. "We'll have the UF take a look at him. I'll let you supervise, but there's no way I'm allowing you to work on him alone. Got it?"

"Yes, ma'am..."

"Good boy." She looked up at Evi. "Have you finished your tests?"

The girl nodded.

"Good," Gova said. "Come with me."

Evi hopped off her stool and shuffled after the commander, leaving the mad scientist to pore over his data. The door hissed shut behind her as she entered a brief jog to catch up with her commander. The woman never did anything slowly, and that included walking. Evi struggled to keep up even after catching her. "What do you need from me?" she asked. No formal titles or address. Gova hated being referred to as ma'am.

"Get close to Sen," the commander said immediately. No beating around the bush, as usual. "No matter the agreement with Denmark, we can't afford to lose the opportunity to utilize someone as potentially powerful as him. Befriend him, sway him to us. I don't care how far you have to go, just make sure he doesn't go anywhere."

"But isn't he early teens?" Muran asked. "Wouldn't it be weird to talk to him?"

"I get the impression he'd be more comfortable talking to Ryker, if I'm completely honest."

"Ryker's in his forties."

"And Sen may look like a kid, but he's...not." Gova stopped abruptly, leaving Evi to stumble. "Just talk to him. You're the closest to his age. Who knows, you might actually like him."

"And if I don't?"

Gova shrugged. "That's not really a call you get to make," she said, staring up at the taller girl, yet Evi felt dwarfed. "We're at war, Muran. Every second we falter is another second Culwell can use. He's taken most of the system already. We can't afford to lose any more of it."

Evi shivered as her commander stepped past, making herself clear she wasn't taking no for an answer. Gova was right, after all. They'd lost so much already. Losing someone important to her wasn't something Evi was sure she could handle. Not again.

"Alright," she said to nobody in particular. Gova's footsteps had already faded away. "Let's do this."